The Republicans took control of Congress is 1994 by campaigning on their so-called "Contract With America," which has been violated so often it should be renamed The Fourth Great Lie. They've broken the real Contract With America, too - the one that Americans have believed in and defended, sometimes with their lives, for more than 200 years.
I may have my differences with some Democrats, but every single one of them will work to defend the Constitution against the depredations of the GOP. That's reason enough to vote for a new Congress and Senate.
Here are some suggestions for how a Democratic Congress can enforce this now-broken agreement. First, in keeping with the Republican practice of re-naming everything they don't like (e.g. "death tax" for "estate tax"), I suggest that from now on Democrats refer to the Military Commissions law as the "Surrender to Terrorists Act of 2006."
Hammer the message home as often as you can -- this bill sold out the Constitution our brave soldiers have died to protect. Why? Because our Republican leaders know they aren't competent enough to defend our country and our freedoms at the same time.
Sure, they were also giving themselves a "get out of jail free card" for their known violations of law, but in the grand scheme of things their own destiny is trivial. It's our national liberties that matter, not whether a few Republicans end up wearing striped suits and making little rocks out of big ones.
Wouldn't it be striking if, in every electoral debate between now and November 7, the Democrat turned to the Republican and said "Why did your party surrender our freedoms to the terrorists?" They could follow up by saying, "If you guys can't defend liberty without giving it away, turn the country over to people who can."
As a public service to Republicans, here's a quick review of the document you've just discarded. Its preamble says that we, the people, want to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." If the meaning of the word "liberty" is unclear to you, Merriam-Webster defines it as "freedom from arbitrary or despotic government and control."
"Arbitrary" is defined as "subject to individual will or judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon one's discretion." That's what this law allows a President to do. (FYI - a "despot," according to Merriam-Webster, is "a ruler with absolute power." It doesn't say anything about whether you like him or not. He's a despot either way.)
The Surrender to Terrorists Act of 2006 allows the President to deny civil liberties to - and to torture - "a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents."
And what have the Republicans been saying? Why, that Democrats want to make things easier for terrorists. That's "materially supporting hostilities against the United States." What's the matter, boys? Not sure you can win in a fair fight? Need the option of locking your opponents up?
Our original Contract with America also provides us with the Bill of Rights. Here's one of my favorite parts of that section, which was added later (you anti-intellectual types can think of it as "the sequel"):
"Congress" (that's you guys) "shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech."
The Fourth Amendment's pretty good, too - that's the "no warrants shall be issued without probable cause" one. Don't know it? Well, don't beat yourselves up. Guess they didn't have an episode about it in this season's "24."
We could go through the rest of the Amendments in that contract between the government and the people, but hell - you've violated most of 'em.
And what about the Republican Contract With America, the one that helped them to take over Congress? It may have been a grab-bag of cynical pandering moves, but hey - a contract's a contract. Let's take a look.
Oh, here's a nice passage. In it, you promise to
"... restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves."
How's that working out for you?
You were going to balance the budget, too. Remember? We'd love to hear a progress report on that one. And you were going to enforce "stronger child pornography laws" - hey, did that include emails from Congressmen?
You also promised "term limits" in your Contract. That would have limited any U.S. Representative's term of office to no more than twelve years. That never happened either, did it?
Reading your document makes it pretty obvious that the American people could rise up and sue the entire GOP for breach of contract. Luckily for everyone, however, the Republicans still have an honorable way out. The GOP took control of Congress in 1994. It's 2006, which is ... hey! Twelve years on the nose!
Memo to Republicans: Don't embarrass yourselves in November. Declare your willingness to respect the term-limit portion of your contract. Resign now.
You might even respect yourselves in the morning. That would be a change, wouldn't it?
A Night Light