I Have A Dream, Two Speeches: The Law Is King, Not George Bush
"The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in
their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very
existence of our country was at risk." "Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.""...It is simply an insult to those who came before us and
sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be
fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and
now it is up to us to do the same."
We were treated today to what I can only think of as a uniquely
American experience: A white former future president, a son of
privilege, summoning up the words and life of a black minister who
rocked this country to its roots with his dream 40 years ago, both of
whom referred back more than a century to a rural lawyer who took on
the burden of the presidency when this nation's indivisibility and very
survival were in doubt.
Both stressed the immediate dangers to our democracy, with King's words
urging an expansion of rights and a national commitment to tolerance,
and Gore sounding the alarm that those rights - to all Americans - are
at risk as never before from a "strong arm" presidency. Both painted
the contemporary picture as stark and dark and true. King acknowledged
the deep divide between black and white, Gore talked of the
divisiveness along party and constitutional lines. But both were and
are committed to an incontrovertible and optimistic belief that there
is a solution to the recurring problem of power in America: this
republic's people.
A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our
government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established
a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the
structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our
system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of
ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams
said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial
powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of
laws and not of men."
An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the
legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the
check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders
sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too
reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of
James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive,
and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and
whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be
pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, "On Common Sense" ignited the American
Revolution, succinctly described America's alternative. Here, he said,
we intended to make certain that "the law is king."
The rule of law makes us stronger by ensuring that decisions will be
tested, studied, reviewed and examined through the processes of
government that are designed to improve policy. And the knowledge that
they will be reviewed prevents over-reaching and checks the accretion
of power.
" I mentioned that along with cause for concern, there is reason for
hope. As I stand here today, I am filled with optimism that America is
on the eve of a golden age in which the vitality of our democracy will
be re-established and will flourish more vibrantly than ever. Indeed I
can feel it in this hall."
I'll tell you, the crowd WENT WILD when he spoke about bush using fear
and invoking fear all the time, sayng we are at war, and will be at war
the rest of our lives. Al asked the question, "Is America really in
MORE danger now"-- after citing our living with nuclear threats for 30
years of Cold War, (he cited other perilous times for our nation--my
notes are just scribbles), "Is America really in MORE danger now?" Nice
way to frame that.
Thought Barr was great on CNN tonight.(never thought I would say that
after Clinton). Barr destroyed top PNAC Liar Gaffney and clearly
pointed out that the Fisa law was broken by Bush repeatedly.
Clearly there is a bi partisan call for a special prosecutor afoot. Magnificent Gore!
We were treated today to what I can only think of as a uniquely
American experience: A white former future president, a son of
privilege, summoning up the words and life of a black minister who
rocked this country to its roots with his dream 40 years ago, both of
whom referred back more than a century to a rural lawyer who took on
the burden of the presidency when this nation's indivisibility and very
survival were in doubt.
