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This post, written by Taylor Marsh, originally appeared on Taylor Marsh.com
America wakes up in bondage today.
There's no other way to see it. A president and vice president have taken hold of the helm of this country and are dictating by fiat the very freedom and air that people are allowed to breathe, while holding themselves and their own above the law. We are led by the most un-American of men. Let there be no doubt. But in the wake of inaction and a Congress only equipped to hurl words, the question remains what will be done about it?
It's ironic to me that the quote Keith Olbermann used last night to begin his special comment were words I know so well. I used them in my one woman show two years ago, which revolved around John F. Kennedy. I used them to illustrate that Kennedy held the people's hopes and dreams, even for those who weren't Democrats. We've come along way since those days of J.F.K.
"I didn't vote for him," an American once said, "But he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."
That--on this eve of the 4th of July--is the essence of this democracy, in 17 words. And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
The man who said those 17 words--improbably enough--was the actor John Wayne. And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair's-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960.
"I didn't vote for him but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."
Olbermann: Bush, Cheney should resign
On this 4th of July, I. Scooter Libby may be free, but America is not. We the people are not. Most of the Senate certainly is not, tied down to some traditionalism that tacitly gives permission to the president's lawlessness, because raising the Capitol dome is judged unseemly. House Democrats are at least standing up and shouting loudly, holding hearings and investigations, even if some can't bring themselves to stand up and lose their jobs by doing their jobs, which is to preserve this republic at all costs, even your own. As for the Republicans in Congress, those Republicans, conservatives, as well as their right-wing pundits beyond who hail what Mr. Bush did in commuting Libby's sentence as action of the good. They are now pariahs of The Patriots fighting to take this country back. People like you and me.
I have no answers for anyone today, even if we had the will and the ideas to set the Congress on course, because we have no leaders to show us the way towards the road that will set this nation free from the worst president in history and the most egregious overreach of executive power orchestrated out of a vice president's office that rules with impunity. Usurping the very meaning of what the Founders meant for this country, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have hijacked this democracy and made it something other and they did it with the help of cowards in the conservative movement that now lies in tatters, because of the largeness of their own incompetence and moral spinelessness.
The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier, but there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne's voice: The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.
We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president's partisanship. Not that we may prosper as a nation, not that we may achieve, not that we may lead the world--but merely that we may function.
But just as essential to the seventeen words of John Wayne, is an implicit trust--a sacred trust: That the president for whom so many did not vote, can in turn suspend his political self long enough, and for matters imperative enough, to conduct himself solely for the benefit of the entire Republic.
There is no doubt that it was George W. Bush's privilege to commute I. Scooter Libby's sentence, but it changed the nature of this country to do so and a large section of this land will forever disown this president who has betrayed the people yet another time, as well as what this nation means to the world, and the fighting U.S. troops on the ground around the world, because he has put himself and his loyal subjects above country and all else, so that our soldiers are giving their lives for a Commander in Chief who has betrayed his charge.
Our generation's willingness to state "we didn't vote for him, but he's our president, and we hope he does a good job," was tested in the crucible of history, and earlier than most.
And in circumstances more tragic and threatening. And we did that with which history tasked us.
We enveloped our President in 2001.And those who did not believe he should have been elected--indeed those who did not believe he had been elected--willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.
And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.
I was one of those people who put partisanship aside after 9/11. Mr. Bush has proven unworthy at every turn. So this latest betrayal put on top of all of the other ones does not surprise. However, as Mr. Bush prays to his God, which hasn't resembled anything I know spiritually, morally or religiously for a very long time, our president should come prostrate and humble, on bended knee and asking for forgiveness for himself, because he has committed the gravest sin against us all. Mr. Bush has taken the oath of office he swore to his God and we the people of this greatest nation on earth and turned the Constitution and everything for which we have stood and the Founders and Americans die to preserve, and made it all a mockery. Turned it all to ashes.
For many months now and with every day that passes many of us have prayed or simply hoped this would be over soon; counting that the long nightmare of Mr. Bush's presidency would be over, because the end was getting nearer. But with each march towards the finish line reality in this now hobbled republic just keeps getting worse.
Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.
Did so even before the appeals process was complete; did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice; did so despite what James Madison--at the Constitutional Convention--said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes "advised by" that president; did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder: To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish--the President will keep you out of prison?
(snip)
We of this time--and our leaders in Congress, of both parties--must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach--get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.
For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.
Resign.
And give us someone--anyone--about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."
There is no independence today, not for The Patriots, simple Amercians like you and me.
The president and his privileged pack will eat barbecue and (not) drink beer, while clucking over their constitutional wand waving, as fireworks burst above. I. Scooter Libby will walk in and the applause will start and rise, then grow.
But out in America there will be unrest; a majority of dissenting voices going unnoticed and ignored by the president and his privileged pack. But a growing furor still. Where it will lead we yet do not know.
Tagged as: bush administration, 9/11, bush, olbermann
Taylor Marsh is a radio show talk host, national blog reporter and author who’s been a consistent political, social and cultural force on TV and radio for over 15 years.
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