Constitutional Crisis; the last days of the American Republic

Gryphons Eyre

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Fri Mar-02-07 02:14 PM
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Constitutional Crisis; the last days of the American Republic

Of all the serious issues confronting America today it is hard to determine which represents the greatest danger. This would get my vote simply because it eclipses everything else. discusses the end of the American republic brought about by empire and thereby our �insidious� dependence on the �military-industrial complex�. To summarize; we can either continue imperialism or we can have democracy but we cannot have both. Ultimately the industrial-military complex and standing army needed to �establish, defend, and police American imperialism" will result in military dictatorship or the civil equivalence of it.
The following is transcript from the interview:

This is in the Eisenhower sense different. You see the interesting thing about Eisenhower�s warning is it was so strident. It wasn�t diplomatic. He was scared to death about what had been created during his administration and that it was going to dominate us. That military Keynesianism would come to exercise a powerful influence over our society. I agree with this. I think that it is; let�s put it this way, If I�m wrong you�re going to be so pleased I was wrong you will forgive me but what I really fear is that I am not wrong. We have good institutions in our constitution for dealing with unsatisfactory political leaders, its called impeachment. So the American people last November elect the opposition party in congress; they come to power and the first thing they say is that impeachment is off the table. Well with remarks like that I think its possible democracy is off the table. The congress is not working the way it was suppose to. The citizens are not playing the citizen role that Benjamin Franklin Imagined in a certain sense they are not because they are so uninformed; they have such enormous difficulty gaining information. One of the reasons why we continue to admire the efforts by NPR to overcome the interests of people who report simply for advertising purposes but at the same time NPR is not unaware they have often been a target from people who have vested interests��The Public could be mobilized; could inattentive citizens be caused to understand what they are about to lose and what it would cost them. What I meant to say was in the three volumes I have published so far I received a much more cautious inquiring and response to Nemesis talks at universities and book stores and that sort then I did to the first two. The public is clearly worried. They seem rife for mobilization by somebody who could warn them of the dangers coming. I obviously would not be on this radio program if I thought that was absolutely hopeless; that there was absolutely no way to mobilize anybody but as a matter of fact I suspect, I�m not Cassandra, but my rough guess, we will stagger along maintaining a facade of Constitutional government until we are overcome by bankruptcy.�I do not see it in the cards that we are going to mobilize the American public given the raw lack of information; the inability to conduct elementary over site on our government; that�s the one thing that has to be done or we will write the United States off is to reconstitute, to reenergize the constitutional system; to bring, that�s what Washington was talking about, he wasn�t opposed to defending the country, he was saying standing armies inevitable are going to move wealth, money, influence to Washington D.C. and to the executive branch. That�s the imperial presidency; that�s what we have today. That�s what we have being defended by the greatest use of secrecy in the history of our government. These are serious problems. The country at the time as I see it right now, doesn�t seem very serious about them but clearly I am attempting to issue a warning.
Kennedy�s key concept was imperial overstretch; I believe he was right about it. I believe the truth of the matter is our mistake, the invitation to Nemesis began after the collapse of the Soviet Union when we began extremely arrogantly saying we were the lone super power; beyond good and evil; a new Rome; capable of doing anything; would insist on dominating the world through military power. That the truth of the matter is both the U.S and the U.S.S.R. lost the cold war it was simply we were always richer; we three lost it for the same reasons; imperial overstretch; economic ideology; and failure to reform.

Excerpt: 'Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic' taken from the link to NPR provided above:

If the American democratic system is no longer working as planned, if the constitutional checks and balances as well as other structures put in place by the founders to prevent tyranny are increasingly less operational, we have not completely lacked for witnesses of every stripe, domestic and foreign. General Tommy Franks, commander of the American assault on Baghdad, for instance, went so far as to predict that another serious terrorist attack on the United States would "begin to unravel the fabric of our Constitution," and under such circumstances, he was open to the idea that "the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government." The historian Kevin Baker feared that we are no longer far from the day when, like the Roman Senate in 27 B.C., our Congress will take its last meaningful vote and turn over power to a military dictator. "In the end, we'll beg for the coup," he wrote.

I like Johnson do not see the American people and therefore congress addressing this crisis in any inclusive way for reasons stated here. Therefore when not if it happens I can only wonder at how many Americans will stare incredulously in disbelief at what happens in their beloved nation; where they believed it never could happen.
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