Lessons in Government

After 9/11 the Bush administration began wiretaps on Americans making phone calls abroad. With the help of the phone companies the NSA soon began keeping phone record data of nearly every American. Secret prisons, water board interrogations, and military tribunals have all been put into place in the name of fighting terror. Trials without evidence or representations were offered as justice against those that would do us harm. Is it possible that our leaders in Washington have no real understanding of how our Constitutional system works? Is it possible they are unaware or is it simply that they have grown more and more accustomed to ignoring the checks and balances that make us a great nation?

Federal and Supreme courts have struck down these ideas as against the basic rule of law we claim to protect. The President calls them “activist judges“. He is right in that respect, from a certain point of view. They are actively engaged in their rolls as oversight on the conduct of the rest of the government. I don’t always agree with the Supreme Court’s decisions. Nor do I always agree with Congress or the President. All three of these branches play activist rolls in the actions and conduct of our national government.

Now the President has turned to Congress and asked them to ratify nearly all of his secret programs in open session. If Congress agrees and passes such initiatives and the President signs, it still doesn’t make such actions like torture and unwarranted surveillance constitutional. This whole exercise by the President gives him a few more months to keep running his programs and ignoring the constitution. It also gives Republicans in congress a chance to stand up to an out of touch President and win points with voters back home right before an election. Democrats meanwhile, have offered little in the way of an alternative. Instead they have decided to focus on everything the administration is doing wrong without leading people toward actions that could be called solutions. Opposition is seems is the only thing the minority party has to offer.

Our 2 party, 3-branch system of government is bureaucratic and inefficient in its movement. The time we spend bickering and playing games often seems to be time wasted. Actions that could solve our real problems and threats are slow in coming. One branch of government always seems to be holding back the other. Without being forced to agree a government with so many representatives is destined to be paralyzed with disagreement.

Unfortunately, the alternative is the very efficient and fast acting form of government we call dictatorship. Strip away activist judges and annoying opposition parties, and decisions made are immediately translated into actions taken. When we as a nation, feel insecure and afraid, this option grows in its appeal. Why wait for two hundred year old procedures to be followed when situations dictate action now? Because ideals are best upheld when they are inconvenient. It is in times of testing when they become most valuable. This is exactly why we must double our commitment to the active pursuit of the checks and balances that make our government a shining example against tyranny. Bullets and bombs will never convince the world of the value of American ideals. Only by living up to what we believe to be self evident in the nature of government can we hope to prevail. We must do what we can to remind our leaders and ourselves that expediency can never override the convoluted and chaotic form of government we are so proud to be a part of.