Yesterday I experienced a sense of vertigo. In direct contravention of their role as a pressure release for overreaching presidential power, the senate intelligence committee yesterday
voted against investigating and holding the President accountable for the first large-scale warrantless invasion of privacy in this country's history. My sense of civic pride wept, and my fear for the freedom in general piqued, as I watched the only
government-citizen contract in history to place the principles of liberty, freedom and civil rights
first slide further from modern relevance.
While the vast majority of the population sat virtually comatose yesterday, unaware of the unfolding offense to the principles of democracy, the Republicans executed a hostile yet silent move in their methodical Coup d' état of the United States of America. Rather than risk the political fallout of sticking to the principles of congressional oversight and standing for the right of privacy of every American citizen, the lap-dog Republican senators sat still as the President quite aptly broke the law.
With no attending sense of shame, the President told the American people and our political leaders that he is going to spy on Americans without a warrant, without the oversight of a neutral magistrate, violate the principles in decades of 4th Amendment jurisprudence, overtly break the FISA laws enacted particularly for this behavior, and tell us to like it.
With even less shame, the Republicans in the intelligence committee toed the party line. "Yes we will like it, sir," their ideological minds parroted in unison, "please ignore any law you want for we will pass legislation permitting the Dear Leader of our party to do anything his little mind wants." "We want power, and there is no more important principle than us having power, even if the principles of democracy are laid bare in black and white the document that we swore to protect."
Every member of the intelligence committee is honor bound to a vow given the moment we granted them the power to vote in the federal legislature. Each member said:
I, Loyal Citizen of the Republic, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Where is your word now, Senators? In the face of such a blatant and shameless slap to the principles of separation of powers, espoused in articles I,II, and III, are we not obliged to assume that you are executing your duties as representatives of American citizens with "mental reservation or purpose of evasion." Is self-eviscerating the legislative branch of our three branch government not a violation of your duty-bound oath to the citizens of this republic? Is it not a breach of your beg to God to aid you in your oath?
This is the type of governmental power-madness that calls for the most passionate and democratic revivals. Because once the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court flaunt the Rule of Law simply so their party can be the "winners," my friends, our constitution is on life support.
That there is no outrage is just another symptom. Kossacks and active progressives aside, that we do not run to the top of the hills, from Atlanta to New York, Seattle to Santa Fe, that we do not scream from injury in Saint Louis and Austin, that we do not collectively wince in Orlando and Chicago, that we do not march to the steps and halls of the Capitol demanding at the top of our lungs "YOU CANNOT HAVE OUR DEMOCRACY" is simply baffling to me. We are bred from revolutionary people, the principles of freedom are in our blood.
Hence my fury.
Allow me to repeat the words that are flying around about the way these power-hungry reprobates have decided to run their shop: Absolute power, monarchy, totalitarianism, and fascism.
The pillaging of our democracy yesterday was just too much. The Republican agenda is no longer deniable, the lines in the sand are drawn, it is now up to us to unflinchingly expose to the rest of America exactly what is happening barely beneath the radar.