The LNS Editor in Chief, like LNS hero Sen. Robert
Byrd (D-WV), carries a small copy of the US
Constitution (including the Amendments) with him
wherever he goes. Of course, the LNS Editor in Chief
also carries a small copy of the UN Charter (and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights) with him
wherever he goes...In a climate in which Sen. Ted
Kennedy (D-Camelot) is being harrassed by the Dept of
Homeland Insecurity whenever he boards a plane, we
suggest you do the same...At least until the November
referendum on the CREDIBILITY, COMPETENCE and
CHARACTER of the increasingly unhinged and incredibly
shrinking _resident...IF the impending Electoral
Uprising is somehow short-circuited, that small copy
of the US Constitution will be either little more than
something to include in a time capsule or a call to
the streets...Remember, 2+2=4, 2+2=4, 2+2=4..."Let us
not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
Sidney Blumenthal, Salon: Since the birth of the
American party system, presidential candidates have
always gone directly to the sovereign people, who are
the only source of legitimacy and power, to make their
case. After the Democratic Convention, Kerry traveled
from New England to the Pacific Northwest doing just
that. Not one of the hundreds of thousands who
attended his open-air rallies had to pledge allegiance
to him, and he encountered organized Bush hecklers as
part of the price. At Bush's rallies he is the
packaged president as pseudo-populist. But these
controlled environments reflect his deeper view of the
presidency as sovereign, preempting democracy.
Save the US Constitution, Show Up for Democracy in
2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/082004C.shtml
Isn't This a Democracy?
By Sidney Blumenthal
Salon
Thursday 19 August 2004
At staged "Ask President Bush" events, audience
members have to pledge their allegiance to his
reelection to gain admission. Bush has forgotten who's
sovereign in America.
Before attending a rally to hear Vice President Dick
Cheney, citizens in New Mexico were required to sign a
political loyalty oath approved by the Republican
National Committee. "I, (full name) ... do herby (sic)
endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United
States." The form noted: "In signing the above
endorsement you are consenting to use and release of
your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President
Bush."
Around the country, Bush is campaigning at events
billed as "Ask President Bush." Only supporters are
allowed entrance. Talking points are distributed to
questioners. In Traverse City, Mich., a 55-year-old
social studies teacher who wore a small Kerry sticker
on her blouse had her ticket torn up at the door. "How
can anyone in the United States deny someone entry?"
she asked. "Isn't this a democracy?"
At every "Ask President Bush" rally, Bush repeats
the same speech, touting a "vibrant economy" and his
leadership in a war where "you cannot show weakness."
He introduces local entrepreneurs who praise his tax
cuts. (More than 1 million jobs have been lost in his
term, the worst record since Herbert Hoover.) Then
Bush calls on questioners. More than one-fifth of them
profess their evangelical faith or denounce gay
marriage. In Niceville, Fla., one said: "This is the
very first time that I have felt that God was in the
White House." "Thank you," replied Bush. Another: "Mr.
President, as a child how can I help you get votes?"
In Albuquerque, he received this question: "It's an
honor every day when I get to pray for you as
president." And this one: "Thank God we finally have a
commander in chief." Others repeat attack lines on
John Kerry's military record to which Bush responds
with an oblique but encouraging "thanks."
Bush's overriding strategy is to bolster his
credential as a decisive military figure and to impugn
his opponent's manhood. In his latest TV commercial,
he says, "We cannot hesitate, we cannot yield, we must
do everything in our power to bring an enemy to
justice before they hurt us again." But, according to
the Washington Post, for the last two years he has
uttered the elusive Osama bin Laden's name only 10
times, and "on six of those occasions it was because
he was asked a direct question ... Not once during
that period has he talked about bin Laden at any
length, or said anything substantive." At "Ask
President Bush" events, he mentions Sept. 11 only to
raise the threat of Saddam Hussein.
Vice President Dick Cheney (who had five draft
deferments during Vietnam, saying he had "other
priorities") sneered at John Kerry for even using the
word "sensitive" with respect to counterterrorism. Not
one war was "won by being sensitive," mocked Cheney.
Kerry, in fact, had called for fighting "a more
effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more
proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches
out to other nations and brings them to our side and
lives up to American values in history." Cheney's
distortion is calculated to attempt to portray Kerry
as somehow effeminate.
At the same time, a Republican front group of
Vietnam veterans financed by a major Bush contributor
is running an ad campaign claiming Kerry's account of
his military record is false. But not one of these
veterans served with him on his boat. They remain
enraged that he had the temerity to return home
decorated with combat medals to become a leader
against the war.
During the Vietnam War, of course, Bush famously
used his father's connections to get a posting as a
pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, known as the
"Champagne Unit" because it was filled with the sons
of privilege. After refusing to submit to a routine
drug test, he was suspended and never flew again. He
got himself transferred to the Alabama National Guard,
but apparently never turned up for his tour of duty.
Not one person has stepped forward to claim he served
with Bush there. Since then, he has withheld his full
military records. Now he encourages smears that claim
a genuine war hero, wounded three times, has lied
about his service and is a coward. But this is more
than a classic case of projection. The more profound
issue is not who served in Vietnam and who dodged. It
is whether the president is a sovereign.
Since the birth of the American party system,
presidential candidates have always gone directly to
the sovereign people, who are the only source of
legitimacy and power, to make their case. After the
Democratic Convention, Kerry traveled from New England
to the Pacific Northwest doing just that. Not one of
the hundreds of thousands who attended his open-air
rallies had to pledge allegiance to him, and he
encountered organized Bush hecklers as part of the
price. At Bush's rallies he is the packaged president
as pseudo-populist. But these controlled environments
reflect his deeper view of the presidency as
sovereign, preempting democracy.
Floundering in the polls, without a strategy for
Iraq, unwilling to say the name of bin Laden, he is
always secure in the knowledge that the cheering
multitudes before him have been carefully selected.
Strutting and swaggering on the stage as though he has
conquered the crowd, he plays to true believers. But a
55-year-old social studies teacher from small-town
Michigan who would not bend her knee had her ticket to
see her president ripped up. "Ask President Bush" has
crystallized the essential underlying question, framed
succinctly by the greatest American poet of democracy,
Walt Whitman, who wrote, "The President is there in
the White House for you, it is not you who are here
for him."
About the writer: Sidney Blumenthal, a former
assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and
the author of "The Clinton Wars," is writing a column
for Salon and the Guardian of London. Join Sid
Blumethal along with Ann Richards, David Talbot and
others on the Salon Cruise.