I consider myself well-informed politically. I've been a C-SPAN junkie for twenty years. I've been around the political internets since inauguration day 2001 when I saw the democraticunderground.com banner in the protestor crowds and signed on. I've been an activist since I was a young teenager. This afternoon,
our peace group will celebrate three years of standing in downtown Laramie, Wyoming, every Friday afternoon to protest the war in Iraq. Twenty-five years ago, I even did a stint in law school.
Yet, somehow, this week was the first time I ever heard the term "unitary executive." How did that happen? The Bush Administration and Federalist Society are well into their plan for a sure-would-be-easier-dictatorship and we are only just now learning about their supposed constitutional theory of entitlement to complete, unfettered power.
Well, now that they've had to put their theories on the table, we have to make sure that the whole country starts to debate the unitary executive. This theory must become the most talked about issue of 2006. Unitary Executive -- where do you stand????
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As disturbing as it has been this week to discover the history of the Bush administration with signing statements and the assertion of unitary executive power, I think we might finally have the tools we need to fight back.
I just sent the following email to my senators (Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi, both Rs):
I would appreciate a detailed reply from you concerning your understanding of the unitary executive and whether you support this interpretation of constitutional power.
I intend to send the same request every week until I get a detailed and responsive answer. We have to know exactly where every politician stands on this issue so that we can compile and distribute widely these responses. We must force them to take public positions now so that we can debate this issue thoroughly and publicly.
The dictators-in-residence had hoped to do this all under a cloak of darkness. They didn't want the unitary executive debated until it could be conducted in musty old courtrooms, packed with their followers and protectors, with arguments too arcane to disturb the little guy's world.
But it's out now. We know the tools they're hoping to use to transform our republic into a dictatorship. And so we must get all politicians on record: do they support the unitary executive or not? It's time to ask and demand and disseminate the answers.
Let the debate begin.