The most important thing that Democrats can do with their power is address the critical flaws in US democracy that led to Iraq and other blunders.
November 9, 2006 (Press Release) --
It is no secret that the defeated Republican Congress failed in its duty to exercise suitable checks and balances over the Bush Administration. Now many political commentators are encouraging the newly victorious Democratic Congress to ignore that failure, and focus exclusively on resolving critical policy issues, most notably Iraq.
This advice is shortsighted. It represents an inability to comprehend that the root cause of America’s foreign policy disaster is the failure of democracy itself. The Democrats should make it their priority to remedy that failure.
The Republican control of the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, brought with it an abuse of power – an abuse that reverberated far beyond America’s borders. The only effective defence against such abuse is a more effective separation of powers – one that does not rely on who is in occupation of either the White House or the Congress.
If this is not addressed, then America will forever remain a single election away from repeating this abuse.
Nowhere has the abuse of presidential and congressional power been more pronounced than in Iraq. A whole country has been devastated, over 650,000 lives lost, and some 3 million people made refugees.
In both historic and current political terms, Iraq is a tragedy that reflects the perverse nature of western democracy. It was the perverse nature of western democracy that carved the bastard state of Iraq out of the former Ottoman Empire. It was the perverse nature of western democracy that nurtured Saddam and his brutal dictatorship. Finally, it is the perverse nature of western democracy that has reduced that country to ruin.
It is obvious that the newly elected Democratic Congress can do nothing to alter the injustices of past decades. However, it is not too late for it to investigate the latter perversity – how and why America’s intelligence services were manipulated and corrupted to aid and abet a grossly dishonest act.
The lack of suitable and sufficient congressional oversight over the conduct of the war and its wider foreign policy implications has been nothing short of scandalous. CNN political analyst, Frank Sesno, notes that there were more hearings on the conduct of the US government’s policy during both the Civil War and World War II, than for the war in Iraq.
That is an amazing statistic considering the extent to which democracy and representative government is supposed to have advanced in the 140 years since the end of the Civil War, and in lieu of the fact that America has been floundering in Iraq for longer than it was engaged in World War II.
The war in Iraq represents a tragic failure of democracy – on both side of the Atlantic. Prime Minister Blair has been no less “Presidential” in his conduct of the war and sadly for the British public, British democracy has even less checks and balances on executive authority.
Which personally gives me another reason for wanting to see a thorough review of what happened by a Democratic Congress – it may be the only way for Britons to learn the truth about their country’s involvement in Iraq.
One can only hope that the fallout from congressional inquiries in the US will finally force the British government into having an independent inquiry on its own conduct of the war.
In purely objective terms, the war in Iraq was caused by an Anglo Saxon democratic deficit that exposes the limitations of both the Westminster and Washington political models. The newly elected Democratic Congress is the best opportunity for remedying at least some of the obvious flaws in both these models.
The abuse of power by the US Administration has manifested itself in other ways. In fighting the War on Terror, the routine kidnap and torture of anyone suspected of being a terrorist has become the norm. They call this “extraordinary rendition” – as if a non-descript euphemism can somehow legitimise patently criminal acts.
It also explains why the Administration has been doing its best to overturn the Geneva Convention.
If America is to begin the long and very necessary process of improving its relationship with the rest of the world, if there are to be no more Abu Ghraibs and Guantanamos, then Democrats have to ensure that compliance with the Geneva Convention is writ both indelible and large into the entire process of government.
Quite apart from the thousands of soldiers dead and wounded in Iraq, the American people have suffered and been denied the rights, due care, and attention that citizens deserve from a democratically elected government.
The War on Terror and the conduct of American foreign policy have in general led to an erosion of freedoms previously taken for granted. US citizens have been placed under increased surveillance, and generally had their right to privacy trampled.
If the Democratic Congress does not look back at how and why this came to pass, and ensure that it never happens again, then they will be neglecting some very important lessons from the past.
It was the machinations of President Nixon during the Watergate scandal that forced the Congress to pass legislation that limited the ability of the Executive to place US citizens under surveillance. The current Administration did its very best to contravene both the spirit and specific intent of that legislation.
One should hope that memories of the constitutional crisis brought about by Nixon and Watergate are a sufficient motivation for Democrats to take the necessary remedial action.
If all else fails, if the Democrats still do not believe that the foreign policy blunders and abuse of Executive power is not enough reason to look back and take the necessary action, then they should at the very least do so for America’s poor and middle classes.
The War on Terror has highlighted the extent to which America’s elites, despite their protestations to the contrary, are more concerned with resources, power, and position than they are with the plight of the ordinary people.
The very nature of the Administration’s spending totally betrays where their true priorities and allegiances reside.
America’s annual defence budget increased from $270 billion a year at the end of the Clinton era in 2000, to almost $500 billion a year now. That is more than the combined defence budgets of Europe, China, and Russia.
The war in Iraq costs some $2 billion each week and the total cost now exceeds $340 billion. The total projected cost is $1 trillion. Add to this the vast amounts wasted on the awarding of government contracts for Iraqi reconstruction, much of which has gone to the corporate friends of the Bush Administration, and one can only marvel at the staggering cost of such a brazenly dishonest policy.
Yet, there are 46 million Americans who have no health coverage and many millions more who can barely afford the cover they do have. They must all be wondering why so much money is being wasted on war and the military industrial complex, and not spent on their health. The same can be said for those who are in need of public housing, improved education, and relief from high interest rates on college loans.
None other than Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, identified education as an area of underperformance. On more than one occasion, Greenspan expressed concern that America’s stock of intellectual capital could prove inadequate for the future needs of the economy. Echoing that sentiment, Bill Gates recently remarked that America was producing an inadequate number of skilled IT workers.
To top it all, the Bush Administration in conjunction with the Republican controlled Congress granted huge tax cuts to the wealthy.
Yet, with all this fiscal profligacy, the Administration and its Republican cohorts could not find it in their heart to increase a minimum wage that has remained static at $5.15 since 1997. USA Today reports that this represents its lowest purchasing power parity since 1949.
Nothing epitomises the lack of care and interest for the common people more than the Administration’s response to Katrina. While the US proved itself capable of projecting military power halfway around the world, it could not find the necessary resources to rescue tens of thousands of its own stranded citizens.
My recommendation to the Democrats is this; ignore the political commentators. We all know that democracy is flawed, but the recent manifestations of the Westminster and Washington models are the primary cause of our current distress. Improve the honesty and accountability of the democratic process, and you might amaze yourself at what you can achieve.
So go ahead Democrats – look back. It could be the best and most important thing you will ever do for Americans and the rest of the world.
This advice is shortsighted. It represents an inability to comprehend that the root cause of America’s foreign policy disaster is the failure of democracy itself. The Democrats should make it their priority to remedy that failure.
The Republican control of the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, brought with it an abuse of power – an abuse that reverberated far beyond America’s borders. The only effective defence against such abuse is a more effective separation of powers – one that does not rely on who is in occupation of either the White House or the Congress.
If this is not addressed, then America will forever remain a single election away from repeating this abuse.
Nowhere has the abuse of presidential and congressional power been more pronounced than in Iraq. A whole country has been devastated, over 650,000 lives lost, and some 3 million people made refugees.
In both historic and current political terms, Iraq is a tragedy that reflects the perverse nature of western democracy. It was the perverse nature of western democracy that carved the bastard state of Iraq out of the former Ottoman Empire. It was the perverse nature of western democracy that nurtured Saddam and his brutal dictatorship. Finally, it is the perverse nature of western democracy that has reduced that country to ruin.
It is obvious that the newly elected Democratic Congress can do nothing to alter the injustices of past decades. However, it is not too late for it to investigate the latter perversity – how and why America’s intelligence services were manipulated and corrupted to aid and abet a grossly dishonest act.
The lack of suitable and sufficient congressional oversight over the conduct of the war and its wider foreign policy implications has been nothing short of scandalous. CNN political analyst, Frank Sesno, notes that there were more hearings on the conduct of the US government’s policy during both the Civil War and World War II, than for the war in Iraq.
That is an amazing statistic considering the extent to which democracy and representative government is supposed to have advanced in the 140 years since the end of the Civil War, and in lieu of the fact that America has been floundering in Iraq for longer than it was engaged in World War II.
The war in Iraq represents a tragic failure of democracy – on both side of the Atlantic. Prime Minister Blair has been no less “Presidential” in his conduct of the war and sadly for the British public, British democracy has even less checks and balances on executive authority.
Which personally gives me another reason for wanting to see a thorough review of what happened by a Democratic Congress – it may be the only way for Britons to learn the truth about their country’s involvement in Iraq.
One can only hope that the fallout from congressional inquiries in the US will finally force the British government into having an independent inquiry on its own conduct of the war.
In purely objective terms, the war in Iraq was caused by an Anglo Saxon democratic deficit that exposes the limitations of both the Westminster and Washington political models. The newly elected Democratic Congress is the best opportunity for remedying at least some of the obvious flaws in both these models.
The abuse of power by the US Administration has manifested itself in other ways. In fighting the War on Terror, the routine kidnap and torture of anyone suspected of being a terrorist has become the norm. They call this “extraordinary rendition” – as if a non-descript euphemism can somehow legitimise patently criminal acts.
It also explains why the Administration has been doing its best to overturn the Geneva Convention.
If America is to begin the long and very necessary process of improving its relationship with the rest of the world, if there are to be no more Abu Ghraibs and Guantanamos, then Democrats have to ensure that compliance with the Geneva Convention is writ both indelible and large into the entire process of government.
Quite apart from the thousands of soldiers dead and wounded in Iraq, the American people have suffered and been denied the rights, due care, and attention that citizens deserve from a democratically elected government.
The War on Terror and the conduct of American foreign policy have in general led to an erosion of freedoms previously taken for granted. US citizens have been placed under increased surveillance, and generally had their right to privacy trampled.
If the Democratic Congress does not look back at how and why this came to pass, and ensure that it never happens again, then they will be neglecting some very important lessons from the past.
It was the machinations of President Nixon during the Watergate scandal that forced the Congress to pass legislation that limited the ability of the Executive to place US citizens under surveillance. The current Administration did its very best to contravene both the spirit and specific intent of that legislation.
One should hope that memories of the constitutional crisis brought about by Nixon and Watergate are a sufficient motivation for Democrats to take the necessary remedial action.
If all else fails, if the Democrats still do not believe that the foreign policy blunders and abuse of Executive power is not enough reason to look back and take the necessary action, then they should at the very least do so for America’s poor and middle classes.
The War on Terror has highlighted the extent to which America’s elites, despite their protestations to the contrary, are more concerned with resources, power, and position than they are with the plight of the ordinary people.
The very nature of the Administration’s spending totally betrays where their true priorities and allegiances reside.
America’s annual defence budget increased from $270 billion a year at the end of the Clinton era in 2000, to almost $500 billion a year now. That is more than the combined defence budgets of Europe, China, and Russia.
The war in Iraq costs some $2 billion each week and the total cost now exceeds $340 billion. The total projected cost is $1 trillion. Add to this the vast amounts wasted on the awarding of government contracts for Iraqi reconstruction, much of which has gone to the corporate friends of the Bush Administration, and one can only marvel at the staggering cost of such a brazenly dishonest policy.
Yet, there are 46 million Americans who have no health coverage and many millions more who can barely afford the cover they do have. They must all be wondering why so much money is being wasted on war and the military industrial complex, and not spent on their health. The same can be said for those who are in need of public housing, improved education, and relief from high interest rates on college loans.
None other than Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, identified education as an area of underperformance. On more than one occasion, Greenspan expressed concern that America’s stock of intellectual capital could prove inadequate for the future needs of the economy. Echoing that sentiment, Bill Gates recently remarked that America was producing an inadequate number of skilled IT workers.
To top it all, the Bush Administration in conjunction with the Republican controlled Congress granted huge tax cuts to the wealthy.
Yet, with all this fiscal profligacy, the Administration and its Republican cohorts could not find it in their heart to increase a minimum wage that has remained static at $5.15 since 1997. USA Today reports that this represents its lowest purchasing power parity since 1949.
Nothing epitomises the lack of care and interest for the common people more than the Administration’s response to Katrina. While the US proved itself capable of projecting military power halfway around the world, it could not find the necessary resources to rescue tens of thousands of its own stranded citizens.
My recommendation to the Democrats is this; ignore the political commentators. We all know that democracy is flawed, but the recent manifestations of the Westminster and Washington models are the primary cause of our current distress. Improve the honesty and accountability of the democratic process, and you might amaze yourself at what you can achieve.
So go ahead Democrats – look back. It could be the best and most important thing you will ever do for Americans and the rest of the world.
Email
Print
SPAM
LEAVE A COMMENT
