Guest Entry: The Late Great Constitution (and the Coming Civil War?)

by Nancy Fulton (blogging from the California Democratic Convention in San Diego)

Here we are at the convention with thousands of delegates, activists and ordinary citizens, all discussing our nation and its future.

I think it might be bleak.

This convention is split between "impeachment" folks and pragmatists. Should we impeach a president/vice president and administration who seem to have broken so many laws we lost count? Or should we be pragmatic and focus on electing a Democratic president so we don't get a guy that makes Bush look good.

Half the folks at this convention, educated, affluent, wealthy, politically active . . . have no idea why impeachment is critical.

They don't understand that if they do NOT exercise impeachment when the crimes are so aggregious . . . we are saying we cannot hold the president and the executive branch accountable for anything. We are effectively eliminating the use of impeachment as a means for controlling a president.

If you don't prosecute a President who has lied you into a war that's killed 500,000 people to the tune of $500 billion dollars, tortured people, given his friends tens of billions, who says he can arrest, torture and hide people, who has done a hundred other impeachable things, . . . you are saying a President can do ANYTHING.

If you don't impeach him because you fear losing an election, how WILL you hold him accountable?

Tell me what will happen when this incestuous relationship between government and industry lets businesses contaminate ground water without repercussion or when it leads to civil suits being dismissed due to "national security".

The people of this nation have to reaffirm that even presidents and vice-presidents will be held accountable for crimes they commit, and that the rule of law founded in the constitution is in full force.

Failure to do this will result in a US without a constitution. And then this nation will be torn apart as we have to try to "reinvent" some kind of social contract and foundation in law.

Some of us won't pay taxes to support a dictatorship that won't guarantee the validity of their elections. I am personally disinclined to pay for a government that tortures and runs secret prison camps. I know soldiers who are telling other soldiers to desert rather than fight an illegal war.

This kind of thing translates into riots.

People will not like having their rights stripped away. As individuals they will try to hold the government (and others) accountable. That, in turn, will result in an escalation of force exerted by the government as the folks running it try to protect themselves and the public. It will create widespread division between communities and populations with differing economic and cultures interests.

See?

We NEED the constitution because it is the only social contract we have that spans the nation. Tearing apart that contract means all of us who must live together must reinvent a new social contract and that is a very bloody process.

I wouldn't be active in SO CAL GRASSROOTS if I weren't a patriot and a progressive. I know 99% of people are intelligent. I know that our constitution was shot to pieces by a bunch of fascists. I know we can tape it back together and it will be STRONGER for all that tape.

But it starts with holding Bush, Cheney and their fascist junta accountable. Because without impeachment they will face no prosecution at all. We absolutely must, as a nation reconfirm our committment to the constitution and to public servant accountability . . . or you can expect some very, very ugly times ahead. Bush was bad. Worse is on the horizon.