The Thin End Of the Wedge

In 1858, a man stood up and walked to the lectern at the front of the assembled dignitaries of the Illinois Republican party. Three hours previous, the assemblage had appointed him their candidate for the United States Senate. In his acceptance speech, this man – in his high reedy voice – would famously paraphrase Jesus's words in Matthew chapter 12: "…every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."

He was talking about slavery, of course. And he lost that election… according to many at the time, he was doomed from the outset because of the political incorrectness of that speech which went on to forecast the coming storm. As every schoolchild knows, he became our 16th president, emancipated the slaves, brought the southern states to heel and was assassinated in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth, who raised the murder weapon before the crowd and shouted "Sic simper tyrranis". The state motto of Virginia then as it is now... "Thus always to tyrants."

Today, we a young black man stepped up to succeed him as president. He began his run on the steps of the old Illinois state capitol building where Lincoln made that speech. And as some have pointed out, he finished his run in Manassas, VA near the battlefield known as Bull Run, the touchpoint of the American Civil War.

As I have repeatedly noted here and elsewhere, we have been quietly fighting a new civil war, one which has been largely fusillades of divisive rhetoric rather than fusillades of musket shot. In this – the longest campaign for president in history – America has stripped itself naked before the entire world, exposing our scars and our still-seeping wounds wrought by wars both figurative and literal, our economic woes ground like glass into the unhealed wounds of the 11th of September seven years past. As the campaign dragged on, we have been forced to come to terms with our feelings about race, gender and age... or refuse to as the case may be.

And here we stand at the touchpoint of another tidal shift in American history. It is quite possible that the energetic young black man who began his campaign in the shadow of Lincoln – in every imaginable sense – has just fulfilled the motto of the state where he concluded his run. And gave new meaning in the minds of the current administrations detractors (myself included)

I admit a degree of shadenfreude that frightens me as I whisper softly 'Sic semper tyrannis' in the wake of two eloquent speeches. One conceding, one accepting the mantle of the presidency. We know he can lead, we know he can speak, can he unify us?

I cannot stress enough the degree to which this campaign season has changed the dynamic of American politics. Whether for the better or the worse remains to be seen. For one thing, this is very likely the end of presidential candidates trying to exist solely on public financing. And the part that alarms me the most... they have driven the wedges ever deeper into the cracks that divide us. Hammered them home for two straight years with speeches invoking words of hatred and division, invoked images of fear and the ineffable other.

On the bright side (and almost ironically) both campaigns have brought women and minorities deeper into the process than every before.

Which brings us back to Lincoln... sort of.

Awhile back I opined that America had embarked upon a "Rhetorical Civil War". It's interesting to me to see that this idea isn't unique to me and has found traction in both the right and left as those few pundits with the clarity of vision to realize what's happening are standing agog, at a loss for how to stop it.

Recent conversations I have had and observed with those I usually consider to be calm and logical thinkers frighten me. The ad hominem attacks both against the candidates and against their opposite number in the argument have escalated. Names have been called. Teeth bared. Crowds in front of Palin and McCain have chanted "Terrorist" and "Bomb Obama" and "McCain, not Hussein", "Get him", and raising in an ever more shrill fashion the specter of otherness that they wrapped around their opponent.

I listened to McCain's concession speech tonight with an air of surprise. This was the man that I admired what seems so many years ago. A man who - had he shown up for the campaign - may yet have won my vote. He spoke well. His words were well-intentioned, I doubt not, and I do not cast any doubts upon his intention to try to heal the wounds of this campaign. It was an honorable speech. But I hoped for more. I still do.

Too late McCain's effort came during the campaign to halt the whispers that Obama was a Muslim. He told that woman that the senator was an honorable man who they need not fear. But I fear it was too late, too little, too inadequate. And no attempt from the firebrand of the campaign who seemed so eager to unleash the rage of the chanting crowds. I look for Palin to help put the pin back in that grenade, but as a resident of the Northwest, I am all too aware of her style, tone and rhetoric and I despair that she recognizes the damage that has been done to the fabric of the republic on this quest for glory.

For most of my life I have watched as political operatives found and focused on specific issues, wedges to drive between the voters. Wedges that are hammered home with such blind zeal that any attempt to repair the broken social security system has been toxic to the career of anyone daring to assay such a thing. It has been called "the third rail of American politics." Abortion, defense spending, the war on drugs, pick your issue and find the single-issue voters who will relentlessly punish the candidate who crosses their involate line, no matter what else the might offer, no matter their intentions, no matter their reasoning...

In a change for me, I have taken an active hand in this election cycle. I have stepped out of the shadows where I have – as a rule – hidden my political opinions for most of my life. I didn't want to get involved. George W Bush and especially Dick Cheney changed that. They tortured people in my name. They broke the constitution, or at least bent it until it began to show stress fractures. And thus will you find it inscribed on the straw atop a broken camel somewhere behind me.

I have engaged. I have fought. I have won and lost and fought to a draw. I clawed with those opposite me in the political spectrum. I have been labeled a liberal, a conservative, a libertarian, an elitist, a peacenik, a warmonger, a Jesus freak and many other less pleasant names besides. Some of them are even true.

I have been living on the thin end of the wedge.

About a month ago I realized that if McCain won, my world would not end. And began to notice the conviction with which my opponents were convinced that theirs would if the opposite were true. At that point, I began to come to grips with the core of the issues that divide us, with the dimensions of the gulf that yawns at our feet...

And I do not have the answers. I certainly hope someone does.

One thing I do know: I will continue to speak. That genie is decanted and there is no cork that could reseal that bottle. What is done cannot be undone.

As I saw it then and see it now: neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. McCain were launching a wholesale assault upon my life or system of beliefs. Truthfully, if you hold these past 21 months up to the light, you might well find that to be true for yourself as well.

My candidate won tonight, but I am not a Democrat. Too many pay lip-service to any party's political platform as the forge a path of their own devising for me to willingly surrender my desire to vote the candidate rather than the party. From the liberal-leaning Republicans to the "Dixi-crat" Democratic senators of the Clinton era, Rinos and Dinos make me cynical of any party-line vote.

The names tossed at me that I mentioned before are nothing as to what has been bandied about with abandon in this campaign, mostly from the Reds to the Blues, the gloves coming off and the nails coming out as we find ourselves in politics embodying what Tennyson might have called 'politics, red in tooth and claw.'

For too long we have sat and listened and watched in silence as our putative leaders drive in the wedges, chant and wave signs and trade barbed verbal attacks in rallies and on the internet, tell lies and sling mud as they pound gleefully upon the wedges without regard for those on the thin end. Wedge issues abound in this election, made all the more virulent by the stark differences in the candidates, the attachment of ageism to the one and the dangerous and ineffable 'other' to his opponent.

This is what scares me about an Obama victory.

I watched and listened as this election has unfolded, as we regressed from a national conversation to a national argument with shouts of "Terrorist" and "Commie" coming from the cheap seats. And it has become increasingly clear to me that we stand at the potential flashpoint of our hitherto rhetorical civil war. It scares me to think that I might be right, that the leaders who set this fuse might not be able to walk back the damage they have done. That we might not heal. I can't help but think that every time we walk down this path it gets more difficult to walk back. If 21 months is the new standard for presidential elections, then we have 24 months to rest - at most - before we do this again.

Rest, America. You've earned it. Communicate with your leaders. Tell them what you want from them in the next cycle of elections as the midterms already loom large on the horizon.

Tonight, John McCain made an excellent speech. An eloquent concession and call for unification. But it cannot pass mention that those calling and hooting from the gallery were only told 'please'. And there was no direct address to walking back the charges made, the whispers spoken on the internet.

We need more. The man has yet to assume the office and already two bizarre plots to kill him have been stopped. This is a dangerous time, a time that can be the time of honor and disciplined governance from both sides that our nation needs. A time of healing and statesmanship. A time of civilized discourse and earnest disagreements given voice with passion and erudition.

In the past 232 years, we have endured 43 men in the office of the presidency. Some have sought the office. Many assumed the mantle in a time when it was considered more appropriate that the office seek the man rather than vice versa. There have been successes and failures, giants and poltroons. And the republic still stands.

Whomever is reading this, I implore you to take a deep breath. If he's not your guy, this too shall pass as the 43 men before him have. If he is, enjoy this moment. Do you utmost to see to it that your candidate becomes the president that you saw in him. That his potential is fullfilled.

I believe that the thin end of the wedge to end all wedges is poised above us. It is up to us to see to it that it is never driven home. To re-couch the words of Lincoln from the speech with which I began this rambling blog post, from the conclusion of his famous speech, his words describing the insurgent Republican party of the election of 1854, but better still they could describe the coalition of Americans we need now from all points on the political spectrum:

"Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now?-now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail-if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come"

God bless, everyone. And God bless the United States of America.

Voting for America’s king

All of this talk in this presidential election cycle about who has the most experience to be president leaves me wondering when we developed an American nobility only from which can our candidates for president be chosen. When did some sort of ephemeral experience at being “presidential” become the prerequisite for being president?

Even more, what kind of experience qualifies someone to be president? We are electing someone to represent us, not rule us, the last time I checked. If some kind of executive-international experience is what qualifies someone to be president, then why is the last commander of Central Command not the universal candidate for president?

After all, since 1976, the man whose experience was arguably closest being presidential was George H.W. Bush, who was vice president for eight years and ran the CIA before that, and we only elected him for one term and replaced him with the licentious governor of Arkansas. The other three presidents in the same period were also governors whose résumés certainly beg the experience question.

From my view, there are two basic qualifications for my support for a presidential candidate.

The first qualification is Constitutional. My support is contingent on the candidate being a natural born citizen of the United States who is at least 35 years old and who resided in the United States for the past fourteen years.

The second qualification is that the candidate demonstrates the worldview, positions, and mettle I expect a president to demonstrate while in office. I believe discovering those qualities is what campaigns and journalists--when they bother to do their jobs--are supposed to accomplish.

Certainly, experience can help show how a candidate fulfills the second qualification, but such experience does not somehow pre-qualify a candidate to be president. Such pre-qualification is the stuff of monarchies, not democracy.

Therein lies the reason that I support John McCain for President of the United States, all the more so because he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Granted, neither of them is perfect, but as an aggregate on issues important to me and especially on my deal-breaking issue of foreign policy, their worldview, positions, and mettle proves to match my own views. Experience factors into my support for McCain only inasmuch as his history of service to his nation proves his qualification by my standards.

So, before you choose a candidate based on experience, consider what that experience really means. Frankly, Dick Cheney and Al Gore are eminently more qualified to be president by the experience measure, but who is going to vote for them? Instead, we should consider which candidate believes what we do about America and its future and pick that person to represent us for the next four years.

-=DLH=-

Cross-posted on Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog

Executive Expectations

George Will should contribute to this blog.

An Interesting Anniversary

Huzzah!

Well worth the read, im(h)o.

Hmmmm...

The wages of sin? Well... the oval office anyway.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/07/ex.presidents/index.html

Laws of surveillance

The United States of America faces a difficult and ongoing issue that was brought into dramatic focus on 11 September 2001: agents of foreign enemies are operating on American soil with the intention of killing American citizens, and in great part, the government does not know who they are.

Whether or not the current struggle represents the beginning of a long war against fundamentalist Muslim jihadism or a short-term fight against a flare-up of terrorist activity by the same, the United States has a problem: First, it has enemies on its own soil. Second, its laws are not adequate to deal with the existing threat.

In 2001, President Bush decided to address part of that problem by authorizing warrantless surveillance in order to discover who the enemies were and then pursue lawful actions to stop them. This authority was derived from well-established and historical precedent established by many previous administrations and in is in keeping with the actions of administrations throughout American history in dealing with crises that threaten the Republic.

This authority also represents a temporary and constitutionally difficult solution that is far better resolved by better-crafted laws targeted at dealing with the nature of the issues at hand. If there is any mistake in the administration’s handling of these issues, it has been that it did not aggressively pursue legislative remedies to these issues far sooner.

Now, the administration and Congress have no choice. The methods the administration was using have been compromised and legally challenged. In order to resolve these issues, the administration and Congress must craft laws that simultaneously protect the American people from potential abuse and also grant the intelligence agencies the ability to discover who the enemies are so those enemies can be stopped.

Unfortunately, it seems that the politicians and thinkers responsible for crafting such solutions are too fixated on politics to fulfill their obligations. This fixation seems to be a national infection, which results in no solutions being presented even as the threat continues and, perhaps, even grows.

In an effort to counter that infection and help guide the national discussion in a direction that may lead to solutions, here are presented several ideas that can form the basis of those solutions.

First, any law that is created must ensure that the liberty of the American people is preserved to the greatest extent possible and that the Republic is defended so that this liberty can be enjoyed. Therefore, the intelligence agencies must be granted the ability to establish causal evidence against enemies of the United States, but they must be constrained from using that evidence for any other purpose than cause by continual and practical oversight. The most effective way to accomplish this end is to create a function, probably judicial, that reviews gathered evidence and certifies it for legitimate use as causal evidence against agents working militarily against the United States on behalf of foreign enemies.

Second, any law that is created must protect intelligence sources, methods, and means from disclosure to protect intelligence agents and those cooperating with them. Specifically, this law must exempt those who cooperate from civil liability over the collection of causal intelligence in order to ensure continued cooperation for that purpose.

Third, the law must clearly state that any punitive action requires the securing of warranted surveillance and authority to act as clearly established by the Constitution. Due to the sensitive nature of these warrants and resulting cases, federal jurisdiction must be clearly established over them, the FISA court must be greatly expanded to accommodate the legal function of the intelligence services in this capacity, and a parallel court must be established to handle cases resulting from this activity.

Fourth, any law must be clearly set to expire on a regular basis, forcing the existing administration and Congress to review the law for applicability and flaws.

Finally, any law must specifically and explicitly apply only to the gathering of causal intelligence against agents of foreign enemies acting on American soil; however, this law must apply to the activities of both foreign nationals and natural citizens acting in this capacity.

This list is neither exhaustive nor complete. Such a law is very complex due to the nature of the problems it deals with and must be carefully crafted before it is implemented. This list simply gives a place to start the conversation, one that will hopefully happen quickly and for the benefit of the United States and its citizens.

-=DLH=-

Cross-posted on Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog

Laws and surveillance redux

[T]hat government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-The conclusion to the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln, 1 June 1865

The Civil War was the greatest Constitutional crisis the United States ever faced, not just because of the obvious schism of the Republic, but also because of the things the government of the United States, including President Lincoln, decided to do to weather the conflict. Yet, even in the midst of that crisis, the goal of the Union was always clear: to preserve the Republic against forces that would destroy it from within and from without.

That effort was a difficult, costly, and bloody one. Things were said and done during that effort that still reverberate through American society one hundred forty three years after it ended. Broad wounds left from that effort took decades to heal. Some scars are still visible, and some argue that those scars have not completely healed.

In 2008, new threats loom against the Republic both from within and without. Much like the government of 1861 discovered, the counters to these threats are neither always clear nor always the best. Unfortunately, as with all threats in all times, the government of the United States in 2008 must respond with the resources it has available to it, not the resources it wishes it had.

The chief role of the Executive of the government of the United States is to preserve the Republic. Without the Republic, there is no Constitution, there are no citizens, there are no liberties, there are no laws. In 2001, President George W Bush, seeking to fulfill his role against the threats he and his administration perceived as arrayed against the Republic, authorized the warrantless surveillance of individuals in the United States believed to be operating in a military capacity against the United States in cooperation with foreign enemies.

According to the Congressional Research Service (.pdf, 44 pages), every President since Franklin Roosevelt has asserted the right to and used warrantless surveillance against perceived threats to the Republic. Since the Carter administration, warrantless surveillance has been a regular part of every administration’s actions to counter terrorist threats. Warrantless surveillance against agents of foreign enemies is a well established and well documented method for countering the threat these agents possess.

The matter at hand in the several posts on A Host of Contributing Factors has been whether or not the President violated established law by using warrantless surveillance to gather information on the activities on fundamentalist Muslim jihadis working on behalf of al Qaeda and other similar organizations and--I am speculating--working on behalf of some nations against the United States.

Empirically, I do not believe this violation has occurred, for the very same reasons that Lincoln, Roosevelt, Carter, Clinton, and Bush did not believe they had occurred. I believe these violations have not occurred because there is a well-established and historic body of evidence saying that the current administration has acted in accordance with the actions of many previous administrations in dealing with threats against the Republic in times of crisis.

I believe that the current problem that lies before the administration and Congress is that the current body of law that exists to describe the bounds of this well-established and historic authority of the President did not anticipate the contradictions within that body of law itself. A particular portion of this contradiction is granting immunity to telecommunications providers when this authority is exercised. This immunity is important not just to protect telecoms from liability for cooperating, but also to prevent the disclosure of sources, methods, and means in open court, thereby compromising active intelligence operations and personnel.

I also believe that this method of collecting intelligence against foreign agents is the worst solution to a very complicated and ongoing problem. The administration has made countless decisions in implementing and carrying out this program that would have been far better done through better legislation and its accompanying oversight. I have and continue to advocate for those better solutions even as I grant that the existing solution must be allowed to continue until those better solutions exist.

Further, I believe these solutions are necessary because, like any conflict, the current conflict is not isolated to a single front. Certainly, fighting our enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq has substantially reduced those enemies’ ability to bring the fight to us, but they still have some capacity, and it is that capacity these solutions are designed to protect against. In the same way that Civil Defense was organized to combat the domestic threats posed by America’s enemies during World War Two and the Cold War, so these solutions in conjunction with law enforcement combat the domestic threats posed by our enemies now.

I think the problem that has presented itself in the warrantless surveillance debate and is repeated in so many of the debates surrounding the actions of the current administration since 2001 is that one side in the debate typically demands that the other side concede or agree to some significant point before any further debate can be had. As a result, there is no opportunity to move beyond the point of concession because these are often fundamental points that the other side cannot concede.

I do not and will not concede that warrantless surveillance has violated the law, nor will I ask anyone who believes that such surveillance does violate the law to set aside that belief before I am willing to discuss better ways to solve the problems of collecting intelligence against foreign agents on American soil. I also grant, even with as strongly as I state my position, that I may still be wrong; however, I believe that the case for my being right is compelling and I will stick with it.

If those who believe that I am wrong wish to pursue their conclusion to its logical course, that is their right, even their Constitutional responsibility. I find that such a pursuit is destructive in a time of conflict, but I concede that our nation is capable of enduring even that kind of destructive behavior if it sets its mind to it.

In the mean time, my greatest wish is to move beyond the “Bush lied, broke the law, knows the size of my underwear…” debate to come up with solutions to the problems that remain whether anyone concedes or not. It is clear to me that our government and its supporting appendages in think tanks and like organizations are so fixated on one problem that no one is coming up with solutions. In the same way that the border with Mexico remains unsecured because of the Washingtonian fixation on comprehensive immigration reform, so the United States remains vulnerable to the actions of the agents of foreign enemies because one side of the debate wants someone to go to jail.

If someone going to jail is the solution to this impasse, then fine, I volunteer. In the meantime, let’s concentrate ourselves on finding solutions to this mess before it really does destroy the Republic.

-=DLH=-

Of laws and surveillance

Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed."

Daniel 6:8

In his post “Code Violations”, Scott asked some pointed questions about the legality of the telecommunications companies’ cooperation with warrantless surveillance with regard to the law as contained in the United States Code. The appeal made in the post was, in my view, to the inviolate nature of the laws that these companies and the current administration purportedly violated and how this violation proves the wrongness of the activity.

Fortunately for us Americans, unlike the Medes and the Persians, our laws are not inviolate. They can be and are often changed for a variety of reasons. This ability to change our laws represents one of our greatest strengths as a republican democracy: the ability to adapt and change our governance to keep it consistent with the circumstances at hand.

When the current body of telecommunications and foreign surveillance laws were originally crafted, their writers did not anticipate the circumstances that currently challenge those laws. Those writers did not anticipate a situation where our intelligence agencies are a fraction of the size and budget that existed at the time the laws were crafted. Those writers did not anticipate a situation where an enemy was present on American soil in numbers sufficient to be a military threat.

Those writers and very few Americans anticipated a situation where 19 foreign militants would take advantage of the protection of those laws to strike and kill nearly three thousand of our fellow citizens. Since 9-11, attempts have been made to rectify the significant shortcomings those laws proved to have in fighting an enemy that is not a state and already among us, but those attempts themselves have failed to appreciate the sheer scope of the threat.

The result of this shortcoming has been that the current administration chose to more widely execute an already existing executive power. From the moment that decision was made, the administration, the legislators in oversight, and the professionals of the executive agencies knew this was an inoptimal decision that would have to eventually be resolved legislatively rather than executively. Before the existence of this temporary solution was made into a headline, the administration and the Congress were already working to resolving the problem.

Now, this resolution is stalled, not because it is unneeded, but because some want an admission that the original laws were broken. Some want the inviolate nature of the original laws to be confirmed before they can be amended to more adequately deal with the circumstances that actually exist now and were not anticipated when they were crafted.

Hypocritically, some of those who want this admission were involved in the crafting of the original laws, were aware of the temporary solution, were involved in the derailed solution, and were part of drafting the current compromise. What purpose does this appeal then serve? Not to make the law better, no to solve the problem, not to give the professionals the tools they need, but to score political points against an opponent that something was done wrong.

Even this desire to score political points would be forgivable if some kind of alternative was being offered, but instead the demand is that the inadequate laws be left in place and wrongdoing be admitted. Meanwhile, America’s enemies continue to exploit flaws in its own laws against it. How many political points are scored with dead citizens?

I know that there will be many, many people who disagree with my view. Some have gone so far as to declare the government the enemy because it violated the law, ignoring the damage the enemy has done exploiting the same. Nevertheless, the one option we do not have is to do nothing, because that option has already been proven not to have worked.

There are compromises that can be reached that would likely make everyone happy. Some options might even leave these much vaunted laws untouched. Of course, any of these alternatives cost the kind of money that very few seem to be willing to spend and require a political will of their own.

What remains is that inadequate laws governing telecommunications and foreign intelligence need to be amended to deal with the circumstances at hand. Will we manage to accomplish that task, or will our belief in the inviolate law simply make us victims of our own rigidity?

Sacrifice

PART I
Enemies Foreign and Domestic

The United States is an idea. An idea enshrined in the document that frames it's ideals and protects the people from the government meant to serve them. The United States and our Constitution are an idea worth dying for. So it says in the oaths taken by every soldier and every elected official since it was ratified in 1787. Every fourth January 20th (formerly March 4th), the president-elect becomes president only when he places his hand on the Book and swears this oath before the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the assembled public...

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

In order to become a citizen of the United States of America, each immigrant must raise their hand before a duely-appointed official and state the following oath:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

I find it distressing, demoralizing, and deplorable that we ask of the immigrant what we're not willing to give of ourselves. But I'll get to that in a minute.

I often hear - as I have here from Denny a few months back - that the opponents of the excesses of the current administration and those who would oppose the actions supposedly taken in the name of our protection need to 'grow up'. That the pragmatic approach is the only one that makes sense. Frankly... those are fighting words. And the assertion is patently false. I posit instead that those who think that we need to surrender to the terrorists by allowing them to undermine our most basic principles and persuade us through the threat of actions to turn our republic into a police state, handing over vast and unchecked powers to the government... they are the ones who are refusing to make the grown-up choices. All the worse, I find that by refusing to engage fully in this debate, I have certainly been immature, but no more.

As such I am not ready to seek the middle ground for I have yet to fully speak my piece. I've held back to this point because of the very things you recently invoked in your 'finding common ground' post, and I find it is not to my credit. You were trying to tone down the rhetoric, remind us we're all friends here. And I applaud that. We can continue this in the spirit of friendship, that's fine.

But where are all the heroes?

My grandpa Perkins was a great man in a quiet unassuming way. Chris will attest to that. A decorated war hero. Won the bronze star. During fighting on Luzon during the liberation of the Philippines, a unit of my grandpa's battalion was pinned down by Japanese fire. It was a bloodbath. Men were wounded, dying, and there was a crossfire with wounded men lying beneath the arcing streams of gunfire crisscrossing the jungle clearing. Grandpa didn't hesitate. He crawled in on his belly and dragged a half dozen or more men to safety, going back into the firefight repeatedly to get the next guy until the last guy was out. He had a wife at home. If he'd been shot, my dad and my aunt wouldn't exist today and the world would be the poorer for it. But he was willing to risk life and limb. For his buddies. For those who died at Pearl. Because the president told him to. And because he took an oath to defend America and the Constitution.

I look around me at the America that has arisen in the wake of the latest assault on our country and I want to cry. I cannot believe for a moment that my grandpa, my hero, would approve of the torture of enemy soldiers in our hands. I cannot imagine that he would approve of the conduct of the country as it faces this threat. And I cannot help but wonder how I - who am not in the military or part of the shooting-portion of this war - how I am living up to his example... and how I am not.

The arguments for allowing the broadening of police and surveillance powers to the government are so often 'to protect us' and 'because they'll get us if we don't' or other similar arguments. Because if we don't... people will die. And I agree. If we don't allow the FBI, NSA and CIA to have vast and unfettered power, access to every minutia of our daily lives, then people will die.

The pragmatic choice, the choice of the moment, the obvious choice is to hand the executive branch all the power they can fit in their pockets and hide under our beds waiting for them to blow the all-clear. It's still the wrong choice. Because that's exactly what terror is intended to do. Change the people it's aimed against. Whether we capitulate or not, it's aim is to change the playing field, provoke us, make us retaliate in kind, get dirty, fight their way, change what it is that makes us Americans, that makes us not like them.

But people will die.

Yes. They might. That doesn't make torturing detainees the correct choice. It doesn't make setting aside the ideals and the ideas of the America that my grandfathers fought for the correct choice.

It doesn't ok torture.
It doesn't ok illegal and amoral behavior.

And we are not absolved of the sins committed on our behalf and at our behest simply because it seemed like the right choice at the time. Because someone might die if we don't allow it. Yes, they might. And it might be someone I love. It might be me. And I accept that. I'm a citizen. And as such I "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law..." And that means even unto death. Without blinking. Without shirking. Without ceding the high ground to my enemies or giving in to their aims to change what makes us not like them.

This is a war about ideals. If it's a global war on Fundamentalist Militant Islamic Fascists or not, it has become a non-shooting civil war of sorts for our own country, a war between the needs of the now versus our contract with the future, our constitutional ideals and the backbone of what made us who we are... were.

I look at my government's actions and I am ashamed. I feel sullied by the acts undertaken on my behalf, bloodied by the innocents dead on 9/11, yes, but soiled by the actions taken by the administration in my name - and allegedly on my behalf - since then. And the two do not equate. I don't care what we're supposedly fighting for.

Denny's right. We need to empower the clandestine forces to act on our behalf. We need common-sense protections and laws that allow the protection of our homeland from the dangers of the world at large. I'm not advocating that we stand aside and look while another airplane ploughs into another building. But such laws and such agencies CANNOT act in an atmosphere without checks and balances. And they cannot sacrifice what they are fighting for in order to win the fight.

Do I think the rest of America agrees with me? That we're all willing to die for the ideals and ideas that have lit the world for over two centuries? No. But then, some people believe that a lapel pin is all it takes to be a patriot.

Nobel Laureate Hans A. Bethe once famously noted (regarding war with H-bombs), "If we fight a war and win it... what history will remember is not the ideals we were fighting for but the methods we used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan who ruthlessly killed every last inhabitant of Persia." The same can be said of our current course. And it is incumbent upon every citizen sworn of the United States to shoulder their share of that burden.

I find the current debate about warrantless wiretapping and the illegal behavior of the current administration to be part of a larger and far more important debate. And I fear that in the focus on minutia and pragmatism the larger debate is getting obscured.

Our constitution isn't a contract we make with ourselves, it's a contract we make with our kids and our grandkids. We can bequeath to them a country proud and free, protected by a government of, by and for the people, or we can bequeath to them the first tentative steps toward authoritarianism and darkness.

The first step to fighting a war against "Terror" is to stop being afraid.

PART II
The Way It Is As I See It...

We live in a time of vast and far-reaching challenges to our republic. But the greatest threats are not from without, but rather from the manner in which we are reacting to those threats and what it is doing to us as a country.

What does it say to you when the FBI's own inspector general annually comes out with ever more appalling reports on the manner in which the agents of our government are abusing the powers vested in them? And some that most certainly were not. We see our government taking more and more power for itself, law enforcement essentially issuing their own subpoenas on-spec with no oversight, no checks and balances. And now they want more power with less oversight.

The Attorney General of the United States of America has refused to enforce Congressional subpoena and censure, precipitating a constitutional crisis that has yet to be resolved as two branches of our government vie against one another. By refusing the mandate of the constitution for checks and balances and oversight, the executive is shaking the foundations of our country when we can ill afford to do so. As they keep reminding us, we're at war, and we can't afford these distractions. No. Before you ask, no, I do not hold the congress accountable for the crisis. For once, I think they're doing what they're supposed to, exercising oversight. Too late, I fear and for the wrong issue, but something is better than rubberstamping the executive's whims.

I feel this is further compounded by Mukasey taking the chair but refusing to repudiate his successor's arguments for the legality of a practice pioneered the the Inquisition. And I refuse to vote a man for the presidency when he, an officer in our armed force who was captured, imprisoned and tortured as a POW in Viet Nam, who has vehemently opposed such practices has now reversed himself as long as it's the CIA and not the army doing it. ("Abusive interrogation tactics produce bad intel, and undermine the values we hold dear." -John McCain, 2005) Torture's ok for you, but not you. If the CIA gets the bad intel from torturing detainees in black sites, that's ok. As long as it's not Our Boys doing it...

The mistreatment of prisoners harms us more than our enemies. I don't think I'm naive about how terrible are the wages of war, and how terrible are the things that must be done to wage it successfully. It is an awful business, and no matter how noble the cause for which it is fought, no matter how valiant their service, many veterans spend much of their subsequent lives trying to forget not only what was done to them, but some of what had to be done by them to prevail.
- Senator John McCain, Newsweek Op-Ed, 2005
(linked above)

It's pathetic. And in case you had any doubts, this is when he lost all hope of my vote.

We live in a time of constitutional crisis, when the vice president is operating under the illusion that he is a fourth branch of government and a law unto himself (since no laws apply to this fictitious fourth branch) with vast extra-constitutional powers.

We live in a time when dangerous precedents are being sought and set regarding the extra-constitutionality of presidential powers, of the Executive branch as a law in and of itself and of military bases as living outside the scope of federal law governing the manner and conduct of those who reside there or are held there. The president has spent his entire presidency shoring up the belief that he is a law unto himself, that he can create, ignore and set aside laws and policies both foreign and domestic without recourse to constitutional channels. Vast extra-constitutional powers that include the ability and right to choose which laws he shall enforce, the right to act in a complete blackout from congress and the people who elected him. A man who has repeatedly attacked the separation of powers encoded in the constitution and in many ways failed to live up to an oath we all watched him take. Twice, God help us.

This is a time when heroes are needed. Men and women willing to face the fire, willing to shoulder the burdens of life in an uncertain world. Citizens willing to sacrifice all for the ideals and to set aside the terror engendered by that horrible act on that fateful day. America changed that day, yes, but not for the better.

PART III
So... Now what?
There isn't anyone in the political arena who speaks to these issues adequately. Not one. Because no one wants to hear it. No one wants to think about what it really means to fight a war, not at the mall, or in Iraq, but in our own hearts and minds, knowing that it might mean our fellow citizens might die horribly before our very eyes... that we might be sacrificing ourselves for a higher ideal.

As Denny has noted, our diplomatic corps is woefully anemic. Our foreign policy has been a mess for years. And our once mighty economy is coming down around our ears... and now here I stand, talking about sacrifice. Real, honest-to-God sacrifice... or the potential thereof.

I'm willing to die for this country. I'm willing to risk it all to save something worth the sacrifices of my forebears, worth the risks endured by the immigrant who threw it all away to sneak aboard that ship and come here illegally. Just as they were, so am I.

We make dangerous decisions without thinking forward to the time when those empowered will be asked to return those powers to us. I hear confident speech that the government works for us, they'll do what I ask or I'll vote them out. Good luck. I am not so optimistic. Every legal decision to uphold this implacable erosion of freedoms and protections from search and seizure, every time we hand more power to the government, it gets harder to take it back. The courts can't help us if we keep handcuffing them by removing them from their constitutional role of oversight. And the principles of stare decisis we heard about so much during the Supreme Court nominee hearings awhile back are very real, and those alone make these decisions perilous. Future attempts to roll back such expansions of surveillance powers are eroded with every law and decision affirming this. When the time comes... how will we get back what we have so blithely given away?

Our nation is risk-averse. We're coddled and spoonfed. And we'd rather take the surety of the current course than plot a new one so uncertain as what I've been talking about here. And my vision is a worst-case. I'm not advocating throwing it over and letting them come... we'll fight them on the streets of New Jersey and Deleware. I'm advocating a real view of what we're talking about and assessing what has already been sacrificed to get it for us, and whether we - as a nation - are really, truly willing to throw it away in the throes of the current conflict.

Our grandparents are called the "Greatest Generation" and indeed there were giants in their midst. Men and women of stature and integrity. There was also Joe McCarthy and the travesty of HUAC and the Red Scare and all the rest.

Or forebears have made manifold mistakes. Each generation compounding them as they think of the now and put off 'til tomorrow what we should pay for and do this day. This is manifest in our debt, in our crumbling infrastructure, in the deplorable waste and embarrassing contempt our elected officials show for us, the electorate that put them where they are. Our dismantling of the intelligence gathering apparatus and our inward navel-gazing that has allowed so much unrest to fester in the world when we could have done something about it... or at least kept a closer eye on it so we would see it coming.

Our country's history since 1945 is a litany of unbelievable potential largely gone unrealized. As great as we became, we could have been better and I find that sad. Fellow citizens and closely-held freedoms cast aside in the interests of the moment. And that is what is being asked of us once again. A new era of fear and surveillance. Of being allowed to hide from the unknown until someone in a government-issue suit sounds the 'all clear'. It took an act of greatness to set aside HUAC, heroism on the part of those who found themselves at the nexus of a historical moment doing the hardest thing a human can do... make the right decision. The decision that sets aside the certainty of personal safety in the interest of preserving our integrity.

We can fight this war with honor and inside the rule of law. No one has yet convinced me that the loose constraints of the FISA courts place an undue burden on law enforcement and intelligence gathering.

Denny's first real post on this site asked "Where Are the Heroes?" Where are those willing to die that others might live, that others might be free? I ask again. Where is the informed citizenry raising their fists to the sky, saying "We will not let them change us! We will fight with honor and we will win with honor?"

My forefathers did not sacrifice so much to preserve what we have only for me to buckle to the pressures of the present and set aside the promise of the future. I am here to keep the pact we have made with the future. A promise enshrined in the constitution - with all its flaws - a promise not to me, but to my nephews and children yet unborn (God willing). It is something I am willing to fight for. Something I am willing to die for.

I am not a child. I do not need to 'grow up'. I don't need to be coddled, I do not need to have my patriotism defined for me. I know full well what I ask of myself and my fellow man. And I bear the full and total responsibility of my actions and those undertaken on my behalf. I feel that the ideals and the aims of this country would be better served if the citizenry would wake the fuck up from our media-induced coma and believe in something... and fight for it.

There is risk. Some may die. But only so that others may truly live in freedom. In this country and others. I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Now you know where I stand. Now... only now can we see if there's a middle ground somewhere on which we can meet and agree. I don't know. You tell me.

The Economy, Politics, and Ohio

“Pity me that the heart is slow to learn / What the swift mind beholds at every turn.”

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Sunday, February 24^th edition of the Dayton Daily News ran an article entitled “Slumping economy is on the minds of these voters” making the argument that the state of the Ohio economy will be a significant decision maker for Ohio voters in both the primary and the general election. No doubt the economy is on the minds of these voters, and it is sad to realize that they put so much stock into the promises of a person who can do virtually nothing to change Ohio’s economy in the short term or, perhaps, even in the long term.

Ohio’s economic problem is not presidential policy so much as it is an ongoing reliance on old economy income sources in a new economy world. Ohio relies heavily on low-tech manufacturing for many of its jobs, and many Ohio politicians, unions, and workers claim that it is the export of those kinds of jobs from Ohio that has had such a dramatic effect on Ohio’s economy. From their view, a president who promises to prevent the export of such jobs cannot help but benefit Ohio.

And a president can put into place policies that prevent companies from exporting manufacturing jobs, but preventing those jobs from leaving will not make Americans buy domestically produced products. The problem with low-tech manufacturing is not one of retaining the jobs, but of producing products consumers will buy, and American low-tech manufacturing, to a great degree, is not doing that.

There are two pieces to this production problem for Ohio:

First, American low-tech manufacturing has far too high of a cost to profit ratio. Significant portions of that cost are related to wages. Frankly, in order for American companies to pay manufacturing workers what they are willing to work for, it then requires the companies to charge far more for their products than many Americans are willing to spend. Without demand, there is no need for supply, and that is a lesson that Ohio is in the painful midst of learning, as an example in domestic auto industry.

Second, American low-tech manufacturing has not embraced the developing high-tech economy. Frankly, the days of being able to graduate from high school and find a factory job that can be worked for thirty years until retirement are dwindling. The modern economy requires a higher degree of education and specialization than ever before, and low-tech manufacturing simply does not make that cut. Further, the modern economy is not one where people stay with one job, even one career, for the entirety of their working lives. As a result, continuing education and the ability to adapt to the demands of modern job availability are a must.

If Ohio needs any kind of president, then, it is a president who will invest in retooling education, taxation, and opportunities so that Ohioans can adapt to the economy that exists rather than the economy they wish would come back. Of course, that presumes that the president can affect those things either. Even better, Ohioans should invest in those things themselves, whatever the president thinks or tries to do.

Certainly, the economy is on Ohioans’ minds as they go to vote, and it is unfortunate that so many voters plan to vote for a panacea rather than a solution. Until Ohioans realize that the solution to Ohio’s economic woes lie with them, they can vote for whoever they want, the economy will remain the same.

-=DLH=-

Cross-posted from Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog

Liveblogging “Super Tuesday II”

Tomorrow, 4 March 2008, is the primary election in Ohio and probably D-Day for the Democrat candidates for president.

I will be liveblogging at my Worldview weblog throughout the day, providing my impressions as the election unfolds from when polls open in Ohio at 6:30 AM EST to sometime that night. I hope to have six to ten posts for the day, maybe more depending on how things unfold.

I invite all of you to participate as well by contributing your comments and by passing this weblog on to others who might be interested in what’s happening in Ohio.

By the end of the day tomorrow, we could know who the contenders for the White House will be in November. Then the real fun begins.

-=DLH=-

Living freely and happily in the land of “the Government should”

I have heard the collective gasp that I, an otherwise avowed libertarian, would grant the government the power to eavesdrop on my communications in order to prevent harm to myself, my fellow citizens, or my nation. “How can you possibly believe the government should have such power,” people ask. Bluntly, I think the government should have that power because the government works for me and because I believe in the system of checks and balances our system allows for.

Again, I point out that I am an active, engaged, participating citizen in a nation governed of, by, and for the people. Part of that engagement is that I understand, as a citizen, what tools I have available and what tools I am then willing to let the government use. I also understand that, if the government decides to take tools I do not allow for or fails to give tools back once it is done with them, I have options that I can exercise.

Perhaps, the problem that so many people have with this reasoning is that they want to give the government a carefully crafted blank check then be able to forget once that check has been issued. I, on the other hand, do not believe for a moment that the government should be able to do anything without the constant, hawkish watching of its citizens. This watching is the citizen’s role in republican “democracy” and is the price of liberty.

What strikes me as so odd about the current reaction to warrantless wiretapping and its associated issues is that people ignore their history and their practical application. People have this image of a monstrous, overpowering government watching over each and every one of us with Gestapo-like powers. If such a government comes into existence, then it is our fault for not stopping it.

Now some people, at this point will shout, “But that’s exactly what warrantless wiretapping is allowing to happen!” I argue, however, that is not what is happening at all. Instead, warrantless wiretapping represents the inevitable results of other choices, made a while ago, that limit our ability to effectively protect ourselves as a nation. Does warrantless wiretapping mean greater vigilance? Certainly. Does it mean the police state has come into its own? Absurd…

For those people who just cannot accept that warrantless wiretapping should be allowed, there are solutions. The broader power exercised by at least the past two administrations and the current one would not be necessary if we had not allowed our intelligence agencies to be decimated and hamstring since 1989. If our intelligence agencies had enough funding, manpower, and resources, they could pursue our enemies “over there” instead of having to do so from here. If our military had not been allowed to shrink to such a small size, we could keep our enemies over there instead of being worried about them coming here. If we had not allowed our diplomatic service to atrophy to the point where it cannot tell the difference between over there and here, we would not have this problem.

Warrantless wiretapping is the result of our own national laziness toward our own wellbeing. We want our government to protect us, to defend us, and to do the things we are unwilling or unable to do ourselves, but we are not willing to be vigilant enough to ensure that it can do the job. Is warrantless wiretapping the best answer? Hardly. If not, then how would you do it differently?

-=DLH=-

It’s Academic – Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That

In his last post, Denny Hitzeman takes me to task for what he characterizes as an “academic understanding of the Constitution, the war against fundamentalist Islam . . . and the role of the President and the federal government in our lives.” He doesn’t believe I understand our nation’s toolbox or the reasons for its hammer, our military.

Generally the charge that someone has an academic understanding of something is tantamount to saying he is being unrealistic. I think it is fair to suggest that Denny is using the charge in this way, though he does so respectfully. Denny himself gives mixed signals about how he weighs the academic and the real. He has no problem using his academic understanding of the Constitution and his understanding of the reality of history to conclude that the President’s domain is international in scope, but what are we to make of his reading of the Constitution and history to suggest that we are a nation that “otherwise chooses to deal with its own affairs by actions other than the government?”

This statement seems to be a denial of the legislative role of the Congress that is laid out in great detail in the Constitution and the long history of its role in our affairs. He further clarifies his position in the comments section of his last post. In a response to my comment he says, “Put another way, I take the Constitution very seriously when it doles out responsibility, and want my elected leaders to do the jobs the[y] have been assigned and nothing else.” It is a wonder, then, that he seems willing to ignore the Senate’s important role in balancing and enforcing the limits on the Presidency or, in fact, legislating.

Regarding the Constitution and the role of the Presidency, Denny rejects the President’s role in solving domestic issues. “I do not elect a president,” he says, “to stimulate the economy, force me to accept government health care, or create moral dictates for me to abide by. I elect a president to abide by the role he occupies as clearly defined by the Constitution and nothing more.”

Denny places great weight on the fact that the first of the President’s duties is as Commander in Chief. Though he picks up on the importance of the placement of the enumeration of the President’s powers, he doesn’t give enough weight to the actual words. The President only assumes the role of C in C when “the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States” are “called into the actual Service of the United States,” in other words, when Congress declares war. Further, the President’s other international role, that of treaty making, is a power he only has “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate.” It is clear from such a reading of the Constitution – a reading, I would argue that is at least academically accurate, if not an indication of what now actually happens – that the powers of the President are extremely limited even in the international arena.

This confusion between the academic and real, if that is what it is, is easy to understand. We the people have not been particularly vigilant of what has become of our Constitution over the years. As a group, we have been all too willing to let the office of President gather power to itself well beyond the intentions of the people who framed out our government. This fact is far from academic. The Constitution is a living document, not only in the sense that it can be amended, but in the sense that it provides a blueprint, one adjudicated by our Supreme Court, for how to run our government. That process has very real effects on our lives. How then are we to set aside what that document says in some instances and not in others?

All that said, Denny takes a realistic view of the situation. As he says in his comment, “We're not going to achieve limited government in one President's term.” He does acknowledge that change needs to be made but that it will take time. On that point we agree.

Denny also claims I possess only an academic understanding of fundamentalist Islam. On this point he is certainly being too kind. I’ve heard a lot about this threat, how vast and deadly it is, but only in the most vague terms. It is almost always as part of some doomsday scenario where the fundamentalists acquire a nuclear or dirty bomb and obliterate our civilization. There’s a lot of talk about “us” and “them” and “over there” and “good” and “evil” and all of it, or most of it, is very non-specific.

Denny and I do not disagree that fundamentalist Islam is a threat to us. Fundamentalism of almost any sort is a danger to rational beings everywhere. What we seem to disagree on is the level of that threat. I can’t speak to Denny’s inside knowledge, but I know that I can’t say with certainty what the level of threat is because I have never heard it specified. How many fundamentalist Islamists are there? How many actually want to destroy us (all of them, I assume, but again, how many is that)? What weapons do they actually have at their disposal? What are their finances? Where are they located? How likely is it, really, that they will be able to obtain and successfully deploy WND? We never get this information. We only hear about a most dire, amorphous, usually faceless “threat.” How are we to gauge our response or even accurately target that response if we don’t have this information?

One might assume that someone has this information. We are certainly asked to trust that the President and his administration do, yet they have given us little reason to trust either their judgment or intentions. Certainly, I believe he and his advisors want us to be safe, but I fear that this simple motivation is mixed with others less simple and obvious. Again, it is a matter of just how big a threat fundamentalist Islam presents that determines whether or not our current actions – which appear on the surface to be out of line with our stated principles – are justified and appropriately measured.

So to the extent that I know anything on this subject, it is, in fact, academic. A point to Denny on that score.

On Denny’s last point, that our struggle against fundamentalist Islam is a war and one “fought on behalf of the United States by an all-volunteer fighting force made up of professional, educated, dedicated, and willing warriors who understand better than anyone of any political ideology what our nation is and why it is necessary to fight,” I clearly have to tread carefully. That it is a war may be true. Wars are generally fought between nations, but perhaps the term is fitting for this struggle. His other contention about our military is a trickier issue.

While I have not myself served in the military, I have many family members, both immediate and extended, and friends who have. I say this not to somehow excuse my own lack of service; I do not believe I need an excuse for not joining the military. I say it because I know some military people and have had some exposure to their demeanor and their reasons for joining. Their service, particularly the service of those who have seen combat whether direct or from rear positions, is commendable and, I would never do or say anything to impugn the sacrifices they and their families have made.

However, as a nation, we have perhaps become overly sentimental in our views of the military. We have created icons out of the men and women who serve and have often forgotten their humanity, both the positive and negative aspects of it. Returning veterans do not always receive the care, treatment and benefits that our government has promised them. Too often, we find that once they have completed their service, veterans are no longer actively appreciated though we speak emotional words at various times about their brave service.

Similarly, we tend to lionize these men and women. Yes, they are as Denny says, “professional, educated” – at least in the arts of war – “dedicated, and willing warriors” – for the most part. However, I don’t think it is fair to say that they “understand better than anyone of any political ideology what our nation is and why it is necessary to fight.” This sentiment may be true of Denny and certain people with whom he has served. It is certainly true of some number of our military personnel, whether that is many or few, I cannot say with certainty.

However, it is also certainly true that many of the people who volunteer do so for reasons that surpass an undying commitment to and understanding of the principles that lie at the heart of this great nation. Some number enlist to escape economic hardship – which is saying something when you consider how little the average soldier in any branch is compensated – some enlist because of promised money for higher education, some enlist for the training, because they have no other driving goals, or simply because they like the romantic idea of being a soldier, traveling to far lands, and using modern weaponry.

These are not bad reasons to join, merely common ones. They aren’t the noble reasons that Denny and others assign to our military personnel in our eagerness to create that romantic vision and pay rightful homage to their sacrifices when they have been called upon to make them. I do not seek to denigrate them – any of them – but I do seek to clarify that you do not need to have survived boot camp and carry a gun or faced enemy fire to understand the intended nature of this country’s founding principles in either a very real or an academic way.

Furthermore, that the men and women in our armed forces continue to serve during this period may be an indicator of their understanding of the threat, as Denny implies, but I find it far more likely that it is an indicator that for them to leave the military before the term of their service is up would be a crime that would certainly be punished. For those that re-enlist, I suspect that the commitment to their fellow soldiers and the guilt they feel leaving others behind has more to do with their re-enlistments than their supposedly superior understanding of our nation’s principles and the threats arrayed against us.

In a final analysis, our entire discussion is, to a great degree, academic. Neither Denny nor I are in a position to make policy decisions. Denny clearly has the right to vote as his conscience leads him. On that point, there can be no argument. However, in my view, the internal threats we face to our nation – an economy groaning under the weight of debt and an increasingly unaccountable government that has grown disconnected from the people it serves among others – are at least as important to the future strength and safety of our country as the threat from the fundamental fringe of an otherwise peaceful religion.

We’ve seen what adherence to a one issue government policy has wrought over the past eight years. It’s time for a course correction, and that will require a leader who has a broader vision. If Denny feels McCain it that man, so be it. But I hope others won’t take such a narrow view of our future.

Of toolboxes and rebuttals

The Preamble to the Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Preamble

The Presidential Oath of Office

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pioaths.html

Article II Section 2 - Civilian Power over Military, Cabinet, Pardon Power, Appointments

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article2

The 10^th Amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am10

 

I appreciate my fellow writer David Bringhurst’s response to my endorsement of John McCain for President. I knew from the moment I first conceived of the idea of the post I eventually wrote that I was exposing myself to such criticism, both because I am supporting a political moderate and because I am supporting him for a single, defined reason.

However, I found Bringhurst’s response predictable and presumptive. The refutations that he presented appeal to an academic understanding of the Constitution, the war against fundamentalist Islam—I used “War on Terror” simply as a recognizable term—and the role of the President and the federal government in our lives. In short, I think he fails to understand the nature of the toolbox he alludes to and why it contains a hammer to begin with.

I have never questioned whether or not the people of the United States of America have the ability to address one or many issues, especially domestic ones. What I question, in fact what I reject, is that the President or the federal government has any real role in ultimately solving those issues. I do not elect a president to stimulate the economy, force me to accept government health care, or create moral dictates for me to abide by. I elect a president to abide by the role he occupies as clearly defined by the Constitution and nothing more. I fervently believe that all other issues of national importance are issues for the people, not the federal government, to address and resolve as each person and as groups of cooperative people see fit. I believe that this view is the embodiment of the ideals of a government of, by, and for the people as conceived of by the Founding Fathers.

The idea that the President’s primary responsibility is to protect the Constitution from domestic threats clearly ignores the actual mandate of the Presidency as presented in the Constitution. It is no accident that Article II, Section 2, which lays out the responsibilities of the President, lists his role as commander-in-chief before all other concerns. In fact, if one is referring to oaths, then it is the oaths of everyone who works for the President, most especially the military, that contain the actual exhortation to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and it is those agencies of the executive that are charged with the task of preservation and defense, even against the President if need be.

Indeed, in the history of the executive branch of our federal government, the enduring agencies of the executive have always been State and Defense—until 1949 rightly entitled War—and those two agencies are explicitly outward looking in their very natures. Accepting this history as precedent, the role of the President as the chief executive agent, in my estimation, is to act as the international face of a nation that otherwise chooses to deal with its own affairs by actions other than the government.

Now to the more important issue, which is single issue that I believe has already defined the current Presidency, will undoubtedly define the next, and will likely trouble many administrations following that one: fundamentalist Islam is a threat not just to the United States, but to the rest of the non-fundamentalist world. This is not a slander against Islam itself but against a particular flavor of Islam that believes that it is a Muslim’s duty to subjugate the entire world under that interpretation by whatever means are necessary, including litigation, intimidation, and violence. I agree that this threat was brought into full focus on 9-11, but I was speaking against this threat after Khobar Towers, the first Trade Center attack, the African Embassy bombings, and the USS Cole. I continue to speak out against this threat, and will continue to do so until it no longer threatens.

Further, I understand something else about the war against fundamentalist Islam that so many people, including Bringhurst apparently, miss: it is a war, declared by our enemies and fought on behalf of the United States by an all-volunteer fighting force made up of professional, educated, dedicated, and willing warriors who understand better than anyone of any political ideology what our nation is and why it is necessary to fight. It should be telling to everyone that our military, made up of less than 1 percent of the population—just 2.4 million brave men and women—continue with courage, valor, and commitment to fight in places most people cannot find on a map or pronounce, not because they have to, but because they chose to and continue to choose to.

Which brings me to John McCain, the single issue of electing a wartime President, and the American toolbox that Bringhurst cites at the beginning of his rebuttal. Certainly, America has a vast and capable toolbox at its disposal. I choose to give the President I will vote for the hammer and ask him only to pound those nails well and with all of his might. The rest of those tools should reserve for the people for projects of our own choosing.

-=DLH=-

Postscript: For the sake of an accurate record, I have been in the military for 14 years and served from December 2002 to May 2003 as part of the 332^nd Expeditionary Communications Squadron, then stationed at Ahmed al Jaber Airbase, Kuwait.

Our Nation's Toolbox

IF I HAD A HAMMER (The Hammer Song)
words and music by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

There’s a saying that when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The insanity gripping our country at the moment is that while we pound our chests about America’s innovativeness and strength, we actively pursue limited approaches to our problems that weaken us. For a country with as many tools at its disposal as the United States has, we’ve taken to treating our foreign policy problems as if all we have is a hammer. And boy, are we eager to use it.

In a previous post, Dennis L. Hitzeman expressed his support of John McCain for President on the premise that this election is a one-issue election. I'm not here to debate Mr. Hitzeman's choice for President; McCain is probably not the worst choice we could make. I do, however, take issue with Hitzeman’s characterization of the problem and his subsequent choice of the single issue.

Hitzeman makes a valid point that no candidate of either party could possibly satisfy all of our desires or points of view. However, his assertions that "[t]he question before the American people in this election is whether to continue the current prosecution of the War on Terror or to turn our attention away from that concern to address other issues" and that the “most important job of the President of the United States is to keep America strong and safe against its international enemies” are overly-simplistic.

Hitzeman’s framing of the question as an “either/or” proposition is a dangerously myopic view. A country of our capabilities should be able to consider and address more than one idea, goal, or important issue. The strength of our nation depends precisely on our ability to assess and manage multiple threats, including internal and non-military ones. Furthermore, his simplification of the question ignores the very real impact of our economy and other domestic factors on our strength and security.

Similarly, Hitzeman’s claim that the President’s job is to keep us “strong and safe” is both false and ludicrous. Our strength and safety do not and could not rely on one person, but rather on the collective efforts of our citizenry and the collective wisdom, when it can be found, of the Legislative, Judicial, and, yes, Executive branches of our government.

The President’s most specific role is described in the oath that he takes prior to assuming his position. The President swears to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” (emphasis mine). His primary job is not to defend the country from outside threats (though he is the public face of the nation), but rather from internal threats to the Constitution. But even if our founding fathers had chosen to imbue the Presidency with the autocratic, monarchial powers that the radical and pernicious theory of the “Unitary Executive” would give it, the President still would not be able to keep us safe.

Hitzeman also places great emphasis on the so-called ‘War on Terror.” This breathless phrase, with its overly dramatic use of capital letters, is used as cover for our increasing military adventurism. We’ve eagerly slipped into a mindset that allows us to brand anyone who disagrees with us as a terrorist or terrorist supporter. There are actual terrorists out there and we should be fighting them, but using their existence as an excuse to attack nations we fear not only doesn’t address the problem, it creates new ones.

In fact, our greatest battle now is truly one against terror. Not “Terror” as a euphemism for some faceless Arab, but the actual terror we have felt in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. It is often repeated that “9/11 changed everything.” This is not true. That day, as horrible as it was, was merely an extension of a conflict that has been going on for some time. What changed was us.

We have steadily betrayed our principles in an attempt to make ourselves feel safe in an unsafe world. We have taken positive steps to secure our country and avoid the mistakes we made prior to 9/11 to be sure, but we have also succumbed to panic and fear. That panic and fear has caused us to strike out against the wrong targets. It’s the same panic and fear that leads smart people like Hitzeman to believe we have somehow entered a new time where our long-held principles no longer apply.

We cannot allow fear to narrow our scope of vision. We have more options than just “fight or flight.” If we are the strong country we claim to be, a brave people with the most enlightened form of government on the planet, then it is time we started to act that way. We desperately need some perspective. We need to wake up to the fact that no matter how dire our worst nightmare fears are, the enemy we face is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. In fact, their very choice of tactics – terror – is an indication of their actual weakness.

To date, we’ve wrongly resisted labeling and treating the terrorists as what they actually are: international criminals. Like other violent criminals, they are dangerous, but they are not the threat to our nation that fear has made them out to be. Yes, they can and have caused harm. Yes, they are dangerous. Of course, we must be alert, vigilant, and we must not let them escape our justice. However, we should also remember that these are people without a country, and they lack the resources to conquer our country.

If there is a singularly important issue before us in this election, it is the choice of a President who is truly unafraid, who understands the limits of the office, and who will fight special interests to restore balance to our tripartite government and justice to the rule of law. If we don’t repair the very fabric of our government, then the terrorists will have already won because they will have terrorized us into ceding away our principles and our freedom. They are already on the way to succeeding in just that.

One final note while we remain on a war footing. So many of our political pundits who are beating the drums for war are, themselves, unwilling to take up arms. Their excuses for this lack of personal conviction are legion. What they all have in common is a willingness to send other men and women to die for their safety so that they may, as Hitzeman puts it, “dwell on the other issues our nation faces.” This recalcitrance is strange because what our military is clamoring for more than any other resource is people willing to fight. If there is one thing upon which the pro- and anti-war camps agree, it is the belief that once we made the ill-advised decision for a war of choice with Iraq, we did not commit enough personnel and resources to the process of stabilizing the country after our initial assault.

To those of you who advocate for the continuance of war, be it in Iraq or Iran, it’s time for you to step up to the plate with more than rhetoric or your ballot. It is time you support your position in the strongest terms possible: enlist. It is unseemly and cowardly for you to ask others to fight the wars of your choice.

Update: It's come to my attention that Mr. Hitzeman has indeed served his country, continues to, and has served in Iraq. While my last comment wasn't directed specifically at Mr. Hitzeman, I nevertheless want to recognize his service and thank him for it. I am pleased to see that he hasn't taken the same hypocritical stance that so many pundits in the media have. He has, in fact, acted upon his beliefs.