The Grand Experiment

It may be that we are in the middle of the biggest experiment of the last two hundred years. I am referring to the ongoing crisis that exists in these United States in our form of government. Every time a great country has reached a crisis like we are currently experiencing, and I will summarize my understanding of it below, that country has disintegrated. Sometimes to rebuild (as in China or Japan), but almost always the stress of events has caused the basic structure to fracture and collapse. (Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome and the Ottoman Empires are well known example. Bernal Diaz's description of Cortez and the destruction of the Aztec Empire in "The Conquest of New Spain" is just as poignant.)

What we have seen over the past five years in particular, is a challenge to the American system that was instituted with our Constitution. Yes, it has been challenged before, most notably by the Civil War. People also often refer to Truman's attempt to break the steel worker's strike during the Korean War as a Constitutional challenge, but this seems miniscule compared to what we are going through today.

Let me be blunt, although I will be viewed much as a heretic was viewed in the Middle Ages. The attack of 9/11 was, in reality, a minor blip in the life of our country. As tragic and as brutal the experience, the number of deaths pales in comparison to other tragedies such as the Civil War, WWI, WWII and Vietnam. Why the attack of 9/11 is of some importance is the use that has been made of it by Bush administration to advance an agenda which has resulted in the current crisis.

The elements of the crisis are well known. They begin before Bush took office. The Republican capture of the House of Representative in the mid term elections of 1994 set the stage though the Reagan years were an earlier preparation. Certainly the fiasco in Florida in 2000, which paved the way for this current administration, was a far more significant event than 9/11. The capstone to date has been Iraq, though an invasion of Iran would make the Iraq War pale in comparison. There can be little doubt now that the planning for the invasion of Iraq had begun even before 9/11. While the administration continues to deny it, the reality is that the justification given to the American people (and the UN, and the World) for the invasion was a fabric of lies. Since that time we have had nothing but boondoggle after boondoggle including Katrina.

However, it is not the ineptness of the administration that is so disturbing, of course. It is the contention by Ashcroft, Gonzales, Cheney and, ultimately, Bush, that they are above the Law that strikes at the heart of our system of government as enshrined in the Constitution. The Valerie Plame affair and the Wiretapping scandal are prime examples of this attitude, though there are more including the use of torture and the secret incarceration of suspects without trial.

Let me repeat, the crisis that I see in our country is that the President and his Administration do not feel that they are bound by the laws as passed by the Congress. This is a very serious situation.

This is not to say that Bush and company could have brought us to this impasse alone. They had the active complicity of the Congress and the Supreme Court. They also had the complicity of a cheerleading media led by vociferous pundits on television and paradoxically quiet editorial pages. This has never happened in our country before. Heretofore the press has been vigilant watchdogs if not outright cantankerous overseers.

So, in conclusion, we are involved in a gigantic experiment, at least vis a vis the American experience. Can our Constitution, as it was written and as it has been understood up until this time, survive an imperial presidency floundering forward with a boy king at the helm? Many see the elections in November as the critical juncture. If Congress can re-establish itself in its rightful place as a co-equal branch of government, maybe we have a chance.

If not, the experiment has failed.