Do We Want An Emperor?

[struggle4progress]

By John Brummett
The Morning News

If we want an American emperor to fight the war on terror, we ought to go ahead and amend the Constitution. We should take out the parts about democracy and a republic and individual liberties and the three supposedly co-equal branches of government that exist to provide checks and balances on each other ...

The authority for "signing statements" is not expressly constitutional, and never was, even for use just once. Under the Constitution, a president is to sign a law, veto it or let it become law. He doesn't even have the power to pick sections of bills for what are called line-item vetoes ...

Embarrassed and outraged by reports of American torture of military prisoners in Iraq, a noted former war prisoner, U.S. Sen. John McCain, pushed through legislation requiring the country to abide by international rules on prisoner treatment and not engage in torture. Bush signed the bill. But it turns out that he also threw in a "signing statement" by which he, as commander in chief, reserved to himself the authority to disregard the law if he saw a need ...

The simple question remains whether citizens of the world's greatest experiment in liberty and accountable government will stand for it while a president reserves the personal right to torture people on our behalf and in our name, and otherwise ignore laws to suit purposes he assures us will serve our best interests.

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/07/30/columns/john_brummett/01brummett.txt

[MrSlayer]

1. Only if I get to be the Emperor.

Otherwise, no.

[Turbineguy]

2. OK, better

you than Bush, that's for sure!

[SquireJons]

3. Maybe we better not ask this question

The majority of Americans may actually want a 'strong man' leader, rather than clumsy democracy. Consider that only 28% of Americans believe in evolution while 67% believe in the virgin birth of Christ... even if they are not christians. We live in seriously delusional times; the new 'great awakening.' Unfortunately, every time this has happened, it has taken a national catastrophe to bring people back to their senses. Iraq does not qualify yet, it will take something much worse.

[struggle4progress]

5. I doubt that most Americans really want a dictatorship, though perhaps ..

.. about 25% of Americans might be objectively be classified as supporting it, however they tried to spin their politics: frankly, I'd be just as happy to identify them in advance ...

[brokensymmetry]

4. Yes.

Not you or I, of course.

But the vast majority (Yep, dead serious on that one) want to have
a good economy, to be able to shout "We're number one!" and not to
need to think. Or vote.

Offer a strong man, one who won some victories and made the average
American feel positive about the future, and he would be elected in
a heartbeat. If he continued to deliver as Emperor, we'd put a crown
on his head and kneel to worship him.

Believe it.

[struggle4progress]

6. To encourage me to believe this, offer evidence beyond mere ..

.. assertion.

There, of course, do exist people whose ideas closely resemble your description; the true believers among them are limited in number.

The political views of most people are not cast in stone: they are cultural phenomena that shift with perceptions -- and what people think, that a majority believes, will have some influence on their own beliefs. Thus when you push your "analysis" of popular politics, I think that you are in a small way helping to consolidate the power of my political enemies.

[brokensymmetry]

9. Evidence?

Well, that's the challenge, isn't it?

I observe that, through history, periods of
change, disruption, and hardship bring out
men who seek power ruthlessly - and they are
supported in their quest by the masses.

Hitler is an obvious example; so is Mao. Napoleon
is another. Mussolini was a further example.

Saddam is an example - and I suspect the current
mess in Iraq will produce another just like him.

Can I prove any of this will happen? No, and I'm
no fortune teller. But I suspect we'll see a
"great leader" in the U.S.

[struggle4progress]

12. That paints with rather too broad a brush for my tastes: a simple

recital of names, without any investigation of historical context.

The Nazi seizure of power, for example, did not occur during the period of greatest chaos, namely the so-called "revolutionary period" after the Great War, but after a period of relative prosperity during which the potential opponents of the Nazis were too occupied with fighting amongst themselves to unite against a party whose organizing efforts they had more or less completely ignored, and from the beginning the Nazi consolidation of power included constant terrorization of opponents through political violence.

Mao came to power after winning a civil war, which started in the 1920s and which was interrupted by WWII: to summarize this biography simply as a ruthless power seeker taking advantage of "change, disruption, and hardship" ignores essential political elements of the specific history.

You similarly recite Saddam's name. Yet, neither does the history of his rise to power appear result from masses clamouring for a strong man:

Roger Morris.
"A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making," New York Times, 14 March 2003

... In 1963 Britain and Israel backed American intervention in Iraq, while other United States allies -- chiefly France and Germany -- resisted. But without significant opposition within the government, Kennedy, like President Bush today, pressed on. In Cairo, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad, American agents marshalled opponents of the Iraqi regime. Washington set up a base of operations in Kuwait, intercepting Iraqi communications and radioing orders to rebels. The United States armed Kurdish insurgents. The C.I.A.'s "Health Alteration Committee", as it was tactfully called, sent Kassem a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief, though the potentially lethal gift either failed to work or never reached its victim.

Then, on February 8, 1963, the conspirators staged a coup in Baghdad. For a time the government held out, but eventually Kassem gave up, and after a swift trial he was shot; his body was later shown on Baghdad television. Washington immediately befriended the successor regime. "Almost certainly a gain for our side", Robert Komer, a National Security Council aide, wrote to Kennedy the day of the takeover.

As its instrument the C.I.A. had chosen the authoritarian and anti-Communist Baath Party, in 1963 still a relatively small political faction influential in the Iraqi Army. According to the former Baathist leader Hani Fkaiki, among party members colluding with the C.I.A. in 1962 and 1963 was Saddam Hussein, then a 25-year-old who had fled to Cairo after taking part in a failed assassination of Kassem in 1958.

According to Western scholars, as well as Iraqi refugees and a British human rights organization, the 1963 coup was accompanied by a bloodbath. Using lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the C.I.A., the Baathists systematically murdered untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite -- killings in which Saddam Hussein himself is said to have participated. No one knows the exact toll, but accounts agree that the victims included hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers and other professionals as well as military and political figures ...

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/morris.htm

While I'm somewhat inclined to share your pessimism, politics is not deterministic: ordinary people can and do learn from history ...

[Hawkowl]

7. Emperor= Commander and Chief

Recently read that our English word Emperor is derived from the latin equivalent which literally translated means commander and chief.

[oldboy101]

8. The Emperor of America

Your question ties in closely to the following rant I wrote. Because I am still considered a "newbie" here at DU I am not allowed to post it by itself yet. So I am using it as a reply to your article. Perhaps someone will consider it to be worthy of posting by itself and will do so for me.

This is a cautionary tale of what could soon happen in America if true patriots are not vigilant.


THE EMPEROR OF AMERICA

They came in the middle of the night, all across Washington, D.C. first, and then all across America. They came knocking on the doors of the Disloyal, waking whole families, arresting them and hauling the leaders off to prison, and their families and followers off to re-education camps.

The President declared himself Emperor and used his powers which he said had been granted him under the War Powers Act to arrest all those who opposed him. He re-instituted the draft and greatly increased the Armed Forces including the new Political Police. This elite unit was made up of carefully screened loyalists, who could be depended on to do their leaders' bidding.

They took one Disloyal Member of Congress who was on the most wanted list straight to prison for interrogation. His wife and teenage daughter were to be taken to a re-education camp to be indoctrinated in Righteous doctrine. They would likely be considered as second-class citizens for the rest of their lives.

However instead of taking them directly to the camp the policemen decided to have a bit of fun with the mother and her daughter first. They did not have to worry about any repercussions because Disloyals were no longer under the protection of the law. The Political Police could do anything they wanted to with the women.

They took turns raping the women repeatedly until they had satisfied their lusts for them. Later when the police finished with them they delivered the bruised, raped women to the re-education camp where they were to live for their remaining years. The women wondered what had gone so wrong with their world. Everything was so confusing now.

Many terrorist attacks were being carried out by foreign infiltrators pouring across the borders into the country. Some of these agents used bombs against key targets, blowing up many bridges and government buildings. There was no longer room for dissent in America. It was necessary to stop dissent the Emperor announced because the nation was at war. Therefore dissent was considered to be treason. The Republican Party was renamed the Righteous Party, and the Democratic Party became known as the Disloyal Party.

Only lip service had been paid to securing the nation's borders. This was because the business interests who indirectly controlled the government welcomed a pool of cheap labor. They had no interest in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. The government had deliberately dragged their feet on border enforcement, and they refused to enforce laws against employers who hired illegal aliens.

The Disloyals claimed that the terrorist attacks were a result of the President having failed to secure the borders and having inflamed the entire Middle East into war, a war that was rapidly becoming World War III. They said that the President had been an idiot to call it a Crusade when he sent troops into Iraq. They said that he was appallingly ignorant of history and what the use of the word Crusade would mean to the Moslem world. The entire war had been unnecessary they said. Clearly such disloyal talk could not be tolerated according to the Righteous Party leaders.

For many years the educational system in America had failed to teach kids much about Civics or about Patriotism. Kids were far more interested in the passing fads of pop culture and the latest computer games than in getting a meaningful education. Gradually most of the older generation who had suffered through World War II and knew how precious freedom was had died off. As a result there came to be an unmotivated electorate who cared little about politics.

There came a time when some corporate leaders decided to take advantage of the political malaise. They said that as an affable if dim-witted son of a former President, W. was just the man to become a figure-head leader, a puppet whose strings could be pulled by the real leaders who were loyal to Corporate America. These men included W.'s Vice-President and a number of other high-ranking Neo-Cons, or new conservatives who had an ambitious agenda to change America.

W.'s political czar, a clever man without scruples, engineered a coalition of the wealthy elite plus those who aspired to become members of the wealthy elite, along with the followers of right-wing religious leaders who declared everything that did not meet with their approval to be Evil. Others who joined the coalition were just plain good ole' boys who figured that W. talked their language and so he must be all right.

W.'s opponent in the election was not well-liked and so many people stayed home and did not vote. This allowed the more motivated voters for W. to make it a close election. Then using new voting machines in many places around the country, machines that could be manipulated by agents of the manufacturers, the election brought W. a narrow victory by a 5 to 4 vote of the U.S. Supreme Court. A similar scenario occurred four years later and W. managed to win re-election.

The main agenda of the fat cats who now had their own President was to get huge tax cuts for themselves, to make themselves richer at the expense of the poor and the middle-class. Laws were pushed through Congress that favored greedy Corporations so that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Programs for the poor and needy were cut way back to support the tax cuts. Prescription drug prices were kept high to enrich the drug manufacturers at the expense of people who desperately needed the drugs to survive.

The Neo-Cons were determined to overthrow a certain Middle Eastern despot. They coveted his large oil fields and thought that they could invade the country and enrich themselves with the oil. When a monstrous attack by terrorists brought down tall buildings in New York, the neo-cons had the excuse they needed to invade Iraq. They falsely claimed the despot was responsible for it and that he had ties to the true terrorists in Afghanistan.

After the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqis plus more than 2500 U.S. military, the neo-cons discovered that they had made a terrible mistake. The war in Iraq dragged on abetted by the infiltration of many outside terrorists. Then civil war broke out. Still many greedy corporate leaders managed to enrich themselves even more through war profiteering.

The world soon condemned W. and his handlers for what they were doing. When the time drew near for the next presidential election, W. and his handlers decided that they dare not give up power. They feared that the International Community would indict them all for war crimes against humanity and haul them before the International Court in The Hague to try them, convict them, and possibly send them all to prison for the remainder of their lives.

So it was that the President and his handlers decided to declare him to be Emperor of America. They said that democracy and dissent were luxuries that our country could no longer afford. When many in Congress protested, mostly Democrats, the Emperor declared them all to be disloyal Enemies of the State and they became the Disloyals, to be hunted down and imprisoned.

Re-education camps were established all across America, and anybody who said anything against the Emperor could expect to be sent there. Those who resisted the draft could expect to be arrested also, and their families sent to the camps. The Political Police who ran the camps had a great deal of fun raping the women and girls who were sent there, and some police who were gay did the same with young boys.

Many young women in the re-education camps were forced to become unpaid prostitutes who served the sexual appetites of the Political Police. There was no escape for them. They were raped repeatedly, night after night, as new police recruits came through the camps and were given girls to use as they pleased, further indoctrinating the police in their brutality.

The world was appalled by all of this and many nations protested. The Emperor therefore closed down the United Nations and sent all the diplomats home to their respective countries. They passed U.N. resolutions condemning these actions, but no one was prepared to do anything about it. And so it was the the entire world drifted into World War III.

Eventually a nuclear holocaust resulted. It destroyed all of civilization and nearly wiped humanity off the Earth. In time perhaps a new civilization might arise after several centuries. Or maybe some more intelligent creature than Homo Sapiens would later arise to inherit the Earth. Only God knows.

Postscript:

What lessons might we take from this tale? The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Ignorance and complacency are the enemies of freedom. We need to understand and fight for the principles of government that the Founding Fathers laid down for us in our Constitution, especially the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government.

We need to understand that those who attempt to gather excessive power to the executive are the enemies of freedom. They need to be condemned and resisted with passionate patriotism. If you are a U.S. citizen I urge you to register and vote, while you still can! Some 40 years ago I was myself a member of the Intelligence Community and I know how they...ah, but they are coming for me now. Farewell!

[Amonester]

10. Welcome to DU, oldboy101.

Post often!

Though I honestly believe the little AWOL impostor is much too cowardish to ever let this happen: "So it was that the President and his handlers decided to declare him to be Emperor of America." The PNAC crackpots want ** to fire Condo_Lies_A because they say she's too "lefty" and I don't think their puppet will fire her.

Also, the lil' deserter king said something like "a future president" in public so, I guess he's more interested in clearing brush, going fishing, and trying to learn how to ride his bike than to be declared Emperor of America.

We all know the ignorant blivet loathes all things "hard werk" in reality, and believe me, to be declared Emperor of America would require too much "hard werk" for him, at 60 now.

That ain't to say that he should not be impeached, indicted, and imprisoned before he gets to be 62...

He must be. (And Darth Chenious too.)

[oldboy101]

14. Thanks for reading my rant!

Hello Amonester,

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant. I was active here at DU back in 2004 but I got discouraged after the Rethuglicans stole the election - again! I forgot my logon and had to start all over. Hopefully we will at least get the Congress back this year. I think the people may have finally had enough of big giveaways to the rich at the expense of the poor. It remains to be seen if we will have an honest election this time.

[cliss]

16. Thanks for the post, Oldboy.

Wow, it's for people like you that I keep coming back to the DU. Thank you for those thoughts.

Keep posting. :smoke:

[Captain Hilts]

11. Franklin and Eleanor are dead, and had idiot children, so, no. nt

[struggle4progress]

13. You don't like Eleanor Roosevelt?

[Captain Hilts]

15. I ADORE her. nt