Truth or Conseqences/Part 1 - John Dean

Lies are not only ugly, they have consequences. Grave consequences. Republicans have taken Americas for suckers, "screwed us," says John Dean in his Broken Government. While Republicans may not have cornered the market on lies, it's not for lack of trying, he shows. He pins his hopes for the future on how much Americans hate being suckered.

We talked with John Dean in September. It's taken until now to get my anger about what he told us and what he reports in his book sufficiently under control to calmly share what follows.

Having recklessly abandoned the truth, Republicans are totally unfit to be in positions of public responsibility, Mr. Dean says of what he calls his "former tribe." People who despise government can hardly be trusted to run one, he points out. Think foxes in the henhouse.

Republicans can't even manage to rule, he says, repugnant as the idea of "rulers" is in a democratic nation where monarchs, oligarchs and aristocracies are by definition anathema. Republican actions today are not "just" worse than Watergate, says this person uniquely positioned to know. Their lies, deceptions and affronts are MUCH worse than Watergate: for starters, no one died because of Watergate, and Watergate did not deny Americans fundamental freedoms.

It's downright creepy to need John Dean again, 40 years after he so clearly articulated painful lies - and truths - before the U.S. Congress and the world. But Watergate is woefully relevant. Mr. Dean documents decades of Republicans relentlessly seeking revenge following Nixon's forced resignation.

Mr. Dean meticulously makes his case, as we should expect from a lawyer who served a U.S. President. He examines one branch of the federal government at a time: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. While our Constitution explicitly created each branch to balance the others, Mr. Dean shows Republicans relentlessly putting their extremist partisan politics ahead of all else. They have thrown the branches out of balance, radically altered the government itself and corrupted the fundamental processes necessary for us to govern ourselves, all to their own ends. A sucker's deal, if we accept it.

The Supreme Court is most dangerous of the branches, Mr. Dean convincingly argues, standing as it does at the pinnacle of the federal judiciary. This is twice scary when you consider how Supreme Court decisions impact practically everything in our daily lives. And Justices are appointed for life - unless impeached. (Hold both of those thoughts.)

Ultimately, those 9 people decide what "goes" in this country and what does not. And today, we are one scary swing vote away from an authoritarian country which America's Wrong Wing longs to impose on the vast majority - the rest of us.

How did this happen? Mr. Dean carefully demonstrates how successful post-Watergate Republican political and religious wrong-wing extremists have been over decades, relentlessly stacking the entire federal court system, bottom to top, with judicial fundamentalist conservatives. Four such men -- Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts -- are poised to radically alter America. All they need is one more vote.

These judicial fundamentalist Supreme Court Justices embrace the "dead Constitution" school of thought. They reject anything not explicitly permitted or prohibited in the Constitution itself (except when anointing a Republican President is involved). If the Founders did not write it in the Constitution itself eons ago, forget it. Period. If you're tempted to dismiss this as arcane legal theory, don't.

Judicial fundamentalists say things like: The Bill of Rights do not apply to the States. One more fundamentalist Supreme Court Judge's vote and be prepared to wave goodbye to your protection against a State Religion. Mormonism in Utah? Catholicism in Texas? Secularists in North Dakota?

Protection against self-incrimination? Nope, that would apply only at the federal level, not in state or local courts.

Women's rights? Women have no rights -- at all -- in fundamentalist thinking, Mr. Dean reminds us. Remember, women are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. You figure it out. And just in case this doesn't give you pause enough, the next time a question arises before the Supreme Court as to whether a woman has the same right to determine her future as does a man, consider what it means that we already have five Roman Catholic Supreme Court Justices.

Congressional hearings are intended to assure that all of the American people - not a small partisan cadre or sect - will be well-served the by person being considered. If telling the truth jeopardizes a nominee's appointment to the federal bench, it appears no qualms get in the way of Republican nominees. Mr. Dean shows two, probably three, sitting Supreme Court Justices of saying - or not saying - whatever was necessary to secure the post. Of course, the truth soon becomes apparent -- from the bench.

And just to be sure your sleep is disrupted, a generation of extremist Republicans have made sure that judges-in-waiting on the rest of the Federal Judiciary are also, increasingly, fundamentalists. These people are an active threat to our freedoms far into the future.

It took only one swing vote - Sandra Day O'Connor's - for Republicans to appoint George W. Bush to head the Executive Branch as president. Presidents come and go, Justices serve for life. One swing vote on the Supreme Court - ONE - now stands between us and what Mr. Dean characterizes as a "very, very different country."

You can listen to John Dean on our website for The Paula Gordon Show: Conversations with People at the Leading Edge.

Comments

[ceu]

It is rather creepy to need/trust John Dean again - although, in the long term, he has proven to have the most integrity of the Watergaters. (who'd've believed, 30 years ago, that left-wingers like me would genuinely like John Dean?!) Dean's been calling for Bush's impeachment for a long time - he was pushing for it less than 3 months after we invaded Iraq & found no WMD. Interesting, well-written essay: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html

[stlrfan]

Keith Olberman has been having John Dean on for months and his comments and analysis are always spot on. Everyone should read his book and be very aware that the '08 election will be a watershed for this nation. We really can't afford to let the wrongwing twist the framer's intent any further or we will loose it all.

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Gordon,

Thanks for the report, and excellent commentary, it places things in a profound and poignant perspective. Sad that! Agape.

[alibe]

Do you really think we are one swing vote shy? And just why have all these illegal wiretaps been in place for the last 6 years? To get the goods on the Anthony Kennedys, the Nancy Pelosis, the Harry Reids and any one else they need intimidated. We are there, NOW. And just how was Schumer and Feinstein so agreeable to Mukasey? What is being held over their heads...and maybe Mukasey's? We are so F*cked! And the media have had the same intimidation.