Unprecedented: (adj)
Having no precedent or example; not preceded by a like case; not having the authority of prior example; novel; new; unexampled.
I work for a lawyer. Last fall, I took a class in Legal Research. The term,
stare decisis was thrown around a lot. The translation means, approximately, "stand by what is decided". In practical terms, this is the basis for America's entire system of law.
Precedent is fundamental to our country's way of life. It is a system which was brought over to the American colonies from Britain. The Common Law of England formed the foundation for our modern legal code. This system, while by no means perfect, has served us well these past two centuries.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned the early Americans against those who would undermine this system:
Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.
Amidst that statement, he does caution the people to not be too wary of innovation, but to judge such innovation with care. His latter statement, that one of the signs of an assault on the Constitution would be evident in attempts to "impair the energy of the system," helps provide a litmus test by which one can gage which innovations are positive and which are negative.
With this in mind, America should be examining the policies of the Bush Administration, especially in terms of how those policies have promoted or diminished the energy of our country.
America was, prior to the Iraq war, a force to be reckoned with. We were powerful, and are powerful, but part of our power came from our tendancy to think twice about making any display of that power. This brand of thinking earned America the respect of the world, and secured America a position of power in directing world events.
How has Bush's leadership affected America's standing on the world scene? Bush's unprecedented use of "preemptive" military might has caused other nations now view us as untrustworthy at best and a threat at worst. They see an America quick to throw its weight around, but slow to consider the consequences of its actions. The world now turns to the European Union or to other nations which will stand up to America's perceived attempt at out-and-out hegemony, severely hindring our ability to enegage the world in any kind of diplomatic dialogue.
Bush's responses to September 11 have been overwhelmingly in this vein, even on the domestic front. The Patriot Act, Total Information Awareness, Homeland Security, Terror Alerts, and other intiatives all have Americans more skittish and jumpy than ever. The net result of his policies has been to cast those critical of his Administration as un-Patriotic or un-American, a tactic which, while not un-precedented, history has certainly shown only leads to further dissent. One of the marks of a good leader, as George Washington suggests, is to recognize which bits of policy history has shown to be detrimental to our country.
On the economic front, Bush has also enacted policy which has hindered this country's energy. The spectre of massive debt and equally massive deficits hangs over this country like a heavy weight ready to fall. In a nation which was also founded on the principles of Protestant prudence and work-ethic, such crushing debt would surely be viewed by our Founding Fathers as an undesirable thing. Many of those who came to America did so to escape debtors' prisons. Bush' policies have locked America in a cycle of debt more sure than any jailhouse bars.
And those are but a few examples of the many ways in which Bush has violated the fundamental basis of our country's system of government. It behooves America to think critically about the efforts of this Administration, and the effects those efforts have had upon our country, especially whether or not those efforts have helped or hindered the freedom, energy, happiness, and pursuit of all of the above of the individual citizen. We should examine whether Bush's innovations to the precedents set by our Constitution have been good or bad. To do otherwise would be to cave into a fundamental alteration of our nation's founding ideals. Unless we are true to those ideals we are not true to ourselves, as Americans. With that in mind, it should be clear that the Bush Administration has not been clear to us.