This is a follow-up to the story I wrote yesterday, adding more statements by the Republican party in their war on the Constitution and their eagerness to destroy our democracy and replace it with a fascist tyranny.
Do you think that's irresponsible hyperbole, or rhetoric?
Not when GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and twice-former GOP presidential candidate and Senator John McCain, Representative Peter King, and soon-to-be-jobless Joe Lieberman all agree that our government should strip U.S. citizenship of people who have merely been accused of a crime.
It's bad enough that these Congressmen – sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution – badly want us to ignore the constitutional rights of American citizens merely because of what they are accused of having done, with no evidence, no trial, and no finding of guilt by a jury in a court of law. All required by the Constitution, all critical and irreplaceable cornerstones of any democracy and the hallmark of a civilized society.
It's not irresponsible to question whether or not these people believe America should be a fascist police state (most, if not all, of these people support Arizona's racist immigration law, the unconstitutional Detainee Treatment Act, and George Bush's illegal domestic surveillance program) rather than a democracy or a Constitutional republic. Not when they argue that we should ignore the Constitution based on who the accused person is or what they are accused of having done, and certainly not when they believe that a person's rights should exist on a graduated scale where the worse the crime they are accused of is, the fewer rights they have.
And not when they go beyond that to demand that because the Constitution requires us to provide citizens of this country with inalienable rights to ensure they are treated fairly, that we should end-run around the founding document by revoking their citizenship. Again, without a trial and any proof of guilt.
Just an accusation. This is what we think you are, and boom, no more Constitutional rights for you.
This goes well beyond academic arguments over "innocent until proven guilty" into a system of pseudo-justice where a person's guilt is predetermined by the severity of the accusations laid against them by the state, and the rights they receive under the Constitution are determined by how much Congress or the President happens to dislike them or the alleged crime.
Republicans, of all people, if they had even a minimal amount of intellectual honesty, ought to be horrified by the extreme and unchallengeable power that would place in the hands of the federal government. If the President or the Attorney General arbitrarily decides that you're a terrorist, then you're no longer a citizen of the country you were born in. You don't get Miranda warnings, you don't get a lawyer – ever – aren't graced with such pleasantries as charges or a trial. The "don't tread on me" federal government would replace the courts entirely. They decide you're guilty, and then you are.
It's just that simple.
I can think of few things more nakedly fascist or authoritarian than a country that would strip its own people of citizenship based on the mere accusation of wrongdoing, not because that somehow makes us all safer or makes it easier to catch them, but because our "democracy" can't be troubled with quaint ideas like due process, the rule of law, and the right to be judged by your peers and not by government bureaucrats.
Forget those imaginary "death panels" where the federal government alone decides if you get X health benefit, or don't. Republicans would empower it to wipe away the basic rights you were born with. No more first amendment, no right to a trial, no right not to have to incriminate yourself, no pesky fourth amendment preventing the government from ransacking your house at-will and without cause.
Republicans are now willing not just to shred one amendment here, or two amendments there whenever they find it convenient – or rather whenever they breakdown in complete and utter terror over the thought of terrorists Slaughtering Us All – they are essentially saying the Constitution only protects those people that the federal government wants it to, at their sole discretion with no legal recourse.
No legal rights at all, really. If the President, Attorney General, or some influential Congressmen wants, you'll be taken out behind the courthouse and shot in the face. Summarily executed. You're a terrorist, after all. You have no rights in this country, even if you were born in Massachusetts, or Texas.
In retrospect, Glenn Beck's insane rants about FEMA interment camps that will reeducate conservatives seems pretty tame compared to the fundamental destruction of our democracy that Republican party leaders are proposing, just so they can sleep a little better at night.
It has been common all throughout history for cowards to use the always-present threat of war to justify their atrocities. Fear is a primal motivator that is perhaps the most efficient method for controlling people. Convince anyone that their life is in imminent danger and you can get them to do just about anything. Normal strategies aren't working, the confines of a civil society are holding us back. They would be doing it to us, anyway. Just give up a little more and you'll feel a little bit safer. Now give up some more.
Don't let detainees in the War On Terror have access to the courts, they'll make fun of us and waste our precious money. Don't give them trials, they don't deserve to be able to argue their innocence. Don't let Americans accused of terrorism have lawyers, either. In reality, the Constitution was optional all along, we only give rights to people who by definition aren't terrorists. Now just give up a little bit more. Don't have the police or FBI explain their rights to an accused terrorist, even if they are an American citizen. They don't deserve to know, they are terrorists after all.
Now give up a little more.
Just do away with those pesky rights and that old, lame Constitution. The document this country was founded on, the ideals and core values that used to define our nation. Those dirty terrorists -- Americans or not -- don't deserve anything at all. Strip them of their citizenship based on a mere accusation.
And why stop there?
Accused of murder? No Miranda rights for you, either. Accused of raping a child? Silly pedophile rapist, only innocent Americans get lawyers and trials. No rights for you, just bypass the justice system and go straight to prison – or the electric chair.
Accused of stealing? Who needs courts when we can just teach you a lesson by cutting off your hands. I mean who would accuse someone of something they didn't do? That would be silly. If someone accused you of being a terrorist/murderer/pedophile/rapist/thief, then they must have a reason. And to keep us all safe, I'm afraid you're just going to have to make due without a Constitution. If you don't like being accused of a crime, maybe you shouldn't have committed it.
Now, does that sound like the United States of America, the land of the free, shining beacon of democracy where fairness and justice aren't just bumper sticker slogans?
Or does it sound more like Iran, North Korea, China, Somalia, Darfur, or some other place that Americans stick their chins up at and mock on a daily basis as uncivilized, primitive, and oh so terribly undemocratic?
Isn't it odd that if we were to strip accused criminals of citizenship to create a Constitution-free zone, that we'd be even less democratic than Iraq – which we brought democracy to via war – or even Iran, so evil and terrible that we need to drop nuclear freedom bombs on them?
And conservatives in this country have the gal to ask what happened to the Constitution. This is what happened: conservatives wet their pants over every minor threat, willing to trade away every last freedom that makes America unique and special in the world, for no practical gain in safety or anything else for that matter.
What if we refused to read Faisal Shahzad his Miranda rights, what does that get us? All of his statements would be inadmissible at his trial, and that's about it. What if we stripped him of his citizenship? Does that magically make it easier to convict him in a court of law? Does that make the country more safe, or less free?
Does it accomplish its primary goal, to make Republicans less cowardly for the next five minutes, until the next Big Threat occurs and we have to surrender even more freedom so that they can feel a little bit more safe?
I think that question clearly answers itself.