This weekend I saw the movie
Amistad for the first time (yes, I know, it came out in 1997...). There was a fascinating quote in the movie that I thought was particularly appropos to where we find ourselves today.
I've been hearing a lot on this website about how President Bush has been acting like a King, and sometimes it all seems a little too dramatic, but for once it dawned on me that, yes, he is acting like a King.
The quote below the fold.
I'm paraphrasing a bit, but for those of you who've seen the movie, you'll undoubtedly remember this part.
The scene involved the Spanish ambassador at a State dinner with U.S. President Martin Van Buren and Senator Calhoun, among others. President Van Buren was doing his damndest to get a result in the slave revolt court case to his liking, to avoid an impending civil war. And the Spaniards were perplexed as to what was taking so long to get the slaves delivered to Spain.
The dialogue:
Spanish Ambassador: Mr. Van Buren, if you can't rule your courts, then how do you rule?
President Van Buren: Any American will tell you, Ambassador, that the independence of our courts is what makes us free.
Here it is, 2006, and we have a President cramming his ideological bedpals into all the Nation's courts and rolling over his own party's leadership in Congress.
These words from Van Buren, a Democrat opposed to the expansion of slavery in 1839, ought to remind us why the separation of powers is so vitally important to the preservation of our freedom.
To expand Van Buren's words, it is the independence of our three branches of government that makes us free.