Bush Has Crossed the Rubicon

[rodeodance]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11578.htm

Bush Has Crossed the Rubicon

By Paul Craig Roberts

01/16/06 -- -- Dictatorships seldom appear full-fledged but emerge piecemeal. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals and launched the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Fearing that Caesar would become a king, the Senate assassinated him. From the civil wars that followed, Caesar’s grandnephew, Octavian, emerged as the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.

Two thousand years later in Germany, Adolf Hitler’s rise to dictator from his appointment as chancellor was rapid. Hitler used the Reichstag fire to create an atmosphere of crisis. Both the judicial and legislative branches of government collapsed, and Hitler’s decrees became law. The Decree for the Protection of People and State (Feb. 28, 1933) suspended guarantees of personal liberty and permitted arrest and incarceration without trial. The Enabling Act (March 23, 1933) transferred legislative power to Hitler, permitting him to decree laws, laws moreover that "may deviate from the Constitution."

The dictatorship of the Roman emperors was not based on an ideology. The Nazis had an ideology of sorts, but Hitler’s dictatorship was largely personal and agenda-based. The dictatorship that emerged from the Bolshevik Revolution was based in ideology. Lenin declared that the Communist Party’s dictatorship over the Russian people rests "directly on force, not limited by anything, not restricted by any laws, nor any absolute rules." Stalin’s dictatorship over the Communist Party was based on coercion alone, unrestrained by any limitations or inhibitions.

In this first decade of the 21st century the United States regards itself as a land of democracy and civil liberty but, in fact, is an incipient dictatorship. Ideology plays only a limited role in the emerging dictatorship. The demise of American democracy is largely the result of historical developments..........

[ixion]

1. Paul Craig Roberts is a great op/ed writer

straight talk, facts, tellin' it like it is.

:applause:

[sarcasmo]

2. Kick and Nom, we are ever so close to a Dictatorship.

The problem is the mega churches and the rest of the sheep won't know the Dictatorship is here until they burn their non church going relatives at the stake.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's painful to read, but true. From the article:

President Bush has used "signing statements" hundreds of times to vitiate the meaning of statutes passed by Congress. In effect, Bush is vetoing the bills he signs into law by asserting unilateral authority as commander-in-chief to bypass or set aside the laws he signs. For example, Bush has asserted that he has the power to ignore the McCain amendment against torture, to ignore the law that requires a warrant to spy on Americans, to ignore the prohibition against indefinite detention without charges or trial, and to ignore the Geneva Conventions to which the US is signatory.

In effect, Bush is asserting the powers that accrued to Hitler in 1933. His Federalist Society apologists and Department of Justice appointees claim that President Bush has the same power to interpret the Constitution as the Supreme Court. An Alito Court is likely to agree with this false claim.
(snip)

This is indefensible. Apparently there's no "higher authority" available to counter _Bush's (or his puppeteers') brutal power theft.

[Demeter]

4. Our Democracy Rests With A Handful of Men and Women

Patrick Fitzgerald and his counterparts in Florida, Ohio, California, and Texas.

How is it that BushCo didn't totally corrupt the Justice Department? Was Ashcroft too busy draping nude statues, or too timid? Was Gonzales too busy clothing the naked Emperor to take care of business?

In any event, the fascists cannot be permitted a third chance. This time we have to finish them for good.

Bless the prosecuters and their staffs. May they all live long and prosper in doing their jobs honorably and thoroughly.

[yurbud]

5. kick

[Uncle Joe]

6. Excellent column, I believe he is right on.

Kicked, unfortunately too late to recommend.

:kick:

[katty]

7. "The commander-in-chief role is probably sufficiently elastic to

expand to any crisis, whether real or fabricated. Thus has the US arrived at the verge of dictatorship."


All too true...if radical action or the process of removal does not seriously begin soon (like yesterday)Americans will be in full & fast descent mode on the slippery slope-as king george observes from his ivory tower.

[rayofreason]

8. Rubicon rubbish

The person who wrote this knows very little about Roman history.

"When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals..."

Dude, ever hear of Lucius Cornelius Sulla? How about the Proscriptions?

BTW, Cesar was assasinated by "optimates" who feared his "populari" politics, like giving public land to retired veterans instead of letting the oligarchs take over the land and use slaves to till it, leading to mass unemployment of Roman citizens. DUers would have been on the side of the Populari like the Gracchi, Marius, and, yes, Caesar.

[Psephos]

9. Point well taken

as usual.

There's no substitute for actually reading history.

Peace.