Absolute Power

Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Now that the Republicans are in power it seems not only to corrupt, power has become their religion and anything or anyone that attempts to check that power in the name of balance is labeled as being against "people of faith". They will change the rules just as Henry the VIII changed the rules of his religion when the Pope challenged his power and denied him a divorce.

These Neo Con Republicans have no interest in the Constitution unless it suits their purpose.

In 1788, James Madison published Federalist Paper #47 titled, "The Particular Structure of the New Government and the Distribution of Power Among Its Different Parts". In it Madison wrote about the importance of the different branches of government to serve as checks and balances on each other.

"No political truth is of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty," wrote Madison. "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

The fact that 205 out of 215 of Bush's judicial nominees have been confirmed for lifetime appointments is not enough for the "Powerists". Opposition is heresy. They must have absolute control and so, like Henry the VIII, they want to change the rules of the Senate and abandon the 200 year tradition of allowing the filibuster. The filibuster is a check on total power which would allow the minority party to prevent total control by the party in power.

This is a threat to democracy. It is also a barrier to accountability. We have abandoned the Geneva Conventions against torture. That policy did not originate with a handful of National Guardsmen. It came from the White House.

From the leaked London memo, we now know that the intelligence about WMD in Iraq was "fixed" to dupe the American people and our elected representatives to support an unnecessary and preventable war that this administration had already pre-planned to wage.

Would lifetime Bush appointed judges be apt to allow charges to be brought against him and his co-conspirators? Not likely.

The Republican Congressional clergy will simply denounce the opposers and accusers as immoral heretics and since the "Powerists" define morality the followers of their cult will believe them.

The American people must make a choice. Tyranny or Democracy.