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The Jihad Against the American People
By Marcel LeRoy, Southbury
I have to agree with the fine article [Bin Laden Advertising] by Ben Davidson that appeared in The Voice on December 7. He is correct in what he says about the news media and how they are terrorizing the American people, and about the problems we have with our polluted food and the increase in breast and prostate cancer in Connecticut.
In other matters of great importance lately, there has been much talk about the supposed threat to the Constitution posed by Ashcroft, Bush, military tribunals, and the U.S.A. Patriot Act.
Well, we don't have to worry about the Constitution because the U.S.A. hasn’t had a written constitution for a very long time. That's not to say that Bush, Ashcroft et al. aren't a threat to life and liberty. They are. But when you meet your end in front of a tribunal-ordered firing squad, you can depart secure in the knowledge that the Constitution had already vanished long before Ashcroft and the War on Terrorism.
Rather than a constitution, what we have is a ruling class of judicial bureaucrats and lawyers who both make and apply the laws for the entire country, in open defiance of the written constitution that once was in effect, long ago. A vast propaganda operation props up our legal aristocracy, using constitution-talk to equate its absolute rule with true constitutional government.
Set your propaganda alarm to go off at any of the following boilerplate terms: "our constitutional framework," "our constitutional liberties," "our cherished freedoms," "civil liberties," "civil rights," "right to counsel," "illegal search and seizure," and especially "judicial independence." Assume that any statement containing one of these terms is an outright lie when issued by any of the following: NPR, lawyers, ACLU, ABA, Larry Tribe, journalists, the federal judiciary, or Nina Totenburg. Extra-special warning: Lock up the silverware whenever you hear the phrase "Due Process." No two words in history have cost taxpayers more hard cash.
When these propagandists say "constitution," what they're really talking about is the series of 20th century federal court decisions striking down state laws, hijacking local schools and police, marginalizing religion, and centralizing power in federal government. This tyranny, whereby the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers and bureaucrats overthrew the constitutional system of decentralized, representative authority, was exactly what the original Constitution was supposed to prevent.
The Supreme Court's jihad against the actual Constitution and federalism was legitimized by the judiciary's supposed power of "judicial review," about which Thomas Jefferson, one of the Constitution's authors, had this to say: "I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the gratuitous opinion in Marbury vs. Madison brought before the public and denounced as not law." Marbury vs. Madison, by the way, was a case in which the Supreme Court announced that it had the power to review and strike down laws that, in its opinion, conflict with the Constitution.
In the 19th century the powerless Court, without prestige or allies, barely dared to exercise its claimed power. But in the 20th century the Court became a tyrant, ordering race busing in schools and striking down popular initiatives like Colorado's Proposition 8, in which voters attempted to prevent affirmative action for gays. The Court intervened on behalf of the losing side in the political struggle over abortion, setting criminal procedure for every court in the country—which law professor Akil Amar of Yale has called "an embarrassment." The Court also declared unconstitutional an all-male military academy, VMI, and generally undermined the power of democratically elected leaders and representative institutions. Jefferson was right. This is "not law," and it certainly ain't the Constitution.
Recent polls show overwhelming popular support for restricting "constitutional right" in favor of the Bush Administration's War on Terrorism. This reflects the deep resentment and unpopularity of the ruling lawyer aristocracy. It also shows that Americans aren't deceived by constitutional rhetoric. They know "the Constitution" and the courts destroyed self-government. At this point polls would probably show overwhelming popular support for repealing the Constitution altogether.
So for everyone out there fretting about the loss of the Constitution, not to worry. If the lawless regime of Blackmun, Brennan, Marshall, Souter, Ginsburg, and Rehnquist and company is undermined by popular support for the War on Terrorism, that’s all for the good. It's about time we had government policies that Americans actually support. For myself, I would rather prefer a United States that lives under the real Constitution as our Founding Fathers originally intended to be.
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