Friday, December 16, 2005

One Angry Feingold

Okay, I bitch enough when democracy doesn't work like it's supposed to. So hats off to Senator Russ Feingold, who was the sole guy who voted against the Patriot Act back in the hot and heavy days of crisis and has now managed to assemble a coalition of Democratic AND Republican Senators to stop the Patriot Act from automatically renewing and force debate on the issue. The Administration just wanted the whole thing approved, part and parcel, without discussion.

You'll note that they're not tossing the Act out the window. All Feingold's coalition wants to do is take the time to debate the specific provisions of the law that they believe may violate basic Constitutional rights and civil liberties. That's right, this guy had to pull off a miracle to get the Senate to DEBATE AND EXAMINE A LAW. Which is, in theory, their goddam job.

The Administration is reportedly disturbed that the Senate has stopped being a rubber stamp.

Predictable response all 'round, of course, from those who think the Senate's job, all our jobs, are to be a rubber stamp for the heroic Executive Branch of the government. I cannot repeat enough times how much I despise the fact that these so-called patriots completely ignore the way the democracy they scream and crow about is supposed to work.

Quick primer: There is supposed to be debate. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent. Judges are supposed to examine laws critically. This means the country is working.

The bits you love, when the President -- any President -- gets to do whatever the hell he wants: that's a bad thing.

There's a reason democracy scared the crap out of people when the Revolutions started, and it wasn't just the loss of First Night privileges. It's alway, always just a fine step away from the unknown, when we plebes have to figure stuff out rather than having the Good King tell us what to do. It always, subtly, psychologically works right on the edge of the abyss. Democracy is anarchy, baby, with the torches and pitchforks just stowed in the coat room ... for now. Democracy and debate and doubt are terrifying.

You want to feel safe? Fine, go seek shelter in the shadow of your King, who knows no doubt. He'll tell you what to do, who the Enemy is, and you'll no longer need to burden yourself with questions. Who needs thought when you have dogma? Ignorance is a virtue, doubt is a sin, and we can all just shuffle along watching the rich folk do the hard work of passing laws and making policy. After all, They Know Best.

You gave it up. All those people fought and bled and died and you tossed aside what they fought for -- your right to debate, to question -- because the Bad Brown People SCARED YOU.

I wish I could come up with a word stronger than disgust.

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

Repulsed? Abhorred? Loathe?

No, no, I think you're right. Disgust.

Alex Epstein said...

No, disgust doesn't get the sense of deep disappointment. The outraged idealism...

Anonymous said...

This post is a companion piece to V for Vendetta, only in theaters November... uh... err... I mean March...

Anonymous said...

Revolted.

Feingold is leading the good fight. Lets hope we get a few more like him, since the Republicans are trying to force drilling through again tomorrow on a Defense bill.

Anonymous said...

"He doesn't give two shits about the constitution, just his own re-election chances."

Um... OK yeah, Feingold was just trying to get re-elected when he was the sole senator to vote against the Patriot Act, a mere 5 weeks after 9/11.

You should really try to choke down on that bile before it eats out your trachia.

Hawise said...

Since all these men and women have given their oaths of Office multiple times and each time it was to the Constitution and not the Office of the President, I am predicting that there is going to be trouble at the Pearly Gates.

(looking into the cloudy orb)

I see a man, medium build, greying hair, lots of baggage. He is presenting his credit card to a tall bearded man behind a desk. The bearded man in a white robe looks at it, checks a list and precedes to cut up the card with a large pair of golden shears. Two large security agents in red carry the other man to the down escalator. Crowds waiting in line cheer.

Anonymous said...

"disgurst"?

Anonymous said...

"disgurst"?

Doc Nebula said...

People expect too much of democracy. I think one of the constant ironies underlying representative government is that every form of republic makes the thoughtful citizen yearn for an enlightened, wise, and benevolent tyranny in its place... yet the problem is, enlightenment, wisdom, and benevolence are individual traits, not social ones.

Which is my fancy way of saying, you only find these qualities in individual human beings, never in groups. And, of course, they are as rare as tachyons even there... but still... you're just not going to find them in groups; humans en masse are about as benevolent, wise, and enlightened as any other tribe of primates shrieking in the trees.

But you're right, of course; we get even LESS wise, enlightened, and benovelent when we are frightened... a particular trait that the conservative movement, and its extremely cynical leaders, have played on to great effect over the past four years.

Doc Nebula said...

Sorry, somewhere in there I lost track of my point. Explicitly -- we all desire wise government, we only find wisdom in individuals, never in groups, therefore, group government (i.e., democracies) are never wise. Or any of that other stuff. Despotisms actually work very well, until a moron or a creep gets into power.

Bush's rise to authority is reflective of our nation's deep and fundamental yearning for a wise king. Unfortunately, in our system, we have to vote for kings, which means someone has to run to be king, and anyone who actually wants that job is, by definition, unwise.

Only in comic books do we have groups that exhibit wisdom. In the real world, the Guardians of the Universe would be self centered, venal little creeps taking bribes from the celestial equivalent of a Jack Abramahoff. For enlightened government, we need a despot. It is the essential fallacy of democracy.

Anonymous said...

"Feingolds new found "concern" about the constitution was absent when he wrote the 1st ammendment violating McCain Feningold incumbant protection act."

McCain-Feingold doesn't infringe on speech. You can spend a fortune on ads supporting your candidate, but you can't give a fortune to your candidate in order for him to run ads. The former is speech. The latter is buying influence, aka a bribe.

You also can't coordinate with your favorite candidate's campaign in order to run megabucks ads on his behalf, because that's just an end-around way of buying influence.

If you have a problem with this, I think you are confusing money with speech. The two are not synonymous, except in the fevered minds of some arch-conservative Supreme Court justices.

Anonymous said...

Democracy is anarchy, baby, with the torches and pitchforks just stowed in the coat room ... for now.

And I can't tell if it's irony or hypocrisy or something else (and on who's part) that this is purty damn close to one of the arguments so beloved by the gun nuts. "I need mah .45 in case them jackbooted gummint thugs come after me."

Is G.Gordon Liddy still giving target advice on his radio show, or was that only while Clinton was in office?

Anonymous said...

Feingold '08, John baby. Feingold '08. You in? You know you want to.

Unknown said...

You know, in the roots of paranoia there is always a tiny bit of truth.

I'm always amused by that reason for keeping guns. The government has TANKS, people. You ain't holding off shit with that .45. Learn to grin and smile to your new Christian Overlords while I work on getting you to my compound in Canada.

Anonymous said...

I think the .45 lover would point out that they have to come out of those tanks sometime, and that it's better to have a dinky pistol than nothing at all.

Anonymous said...

I think the .45 lover would point out that they have to come out of those tanks sometime

Yeah, sometime after they bring down your house with a cannon blast and roll over your body with the tank just to make sure you're dead.

Besides, it's not like any of those goddamn NRA types have been any use fighting the governmental oppression we have right now. "Domestic spying? Fine by us! All hail King George!"

Xactiphyn said...

Who cares if the government has tanks. You know dang well tanks don't help against an insurgency; the army has pretty much proven that.

Anonymous said...

I know thus is an old (but still superb and timely) post but I have to add to: "because the big brown people scared you!" and...

Because the president is a Republican!

Republicans and I (like H.L. Mencken am proud to have never once been a Republican) have no problem with an R. or D. "watching the bastards" when we have a Democratic president. Thats democracy and you should have the courage of your convictions. Plus, Americans hate kings, right? But let a Republican become president and then Democracy is out the window. They don't want to share or even lead. They want to rule and be ruled. Fuck them.

They want to portray us as girly-men but they're the ones without the courage of their convinctions. Its easier and safer to be ruled (so they say) and takes courage and sacrifice to live in a democratic America. So the RWs/authoritarians,Bush Admin.,goobers say "screw democracy and all the men who died for it." and "Its our duchiospmue"

Again, fuck them.

Anonymous said...

that last bit is supposed to say "Its our due" by Dick Cheney.

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