Here we are, the beginning of a new year, and naturally we're looking at where we are, how we got here, and where we go from here. 2007 was a watershed year for the American people with the realization that unbelievable things are being done at unbelievable costs. We have seen torture conducted in our name, frequently on innocent people. We have seen taxpayer-supported renegade militia gun down innocent Iraqis with impunity. We have seen our president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, disregard the terms of his office and turn on his own people -- authorizing spying on us, wiretapping our telephones, and intercepting e-mails without warrants. We have seen our Constitutional rights removed. We have read the accounts of White House staffers devising ways to circumvent American law, international law, and the Geneva Conventions. We have been attacked by police as law enforcement powers have increased. We have been molested at the airports, all in the name of security, as more taxpayer dollars are funneled through to huge international corporations. And it's all being done in the name of the post-9/11 world.
However, thanks to Boston Globe reporter Charles Savage, the guy who first told us about Bush's Signing Statements, we now have a glimpse of why these things are really being done. And it has nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks or the threat of terrorism. It's for power. The power to drain American taxpayers of their hard-earned money and spend it, not on improving our lives, but on building the wealth of the wealthiest at the expense of the middle class. A return to feudalism with the concomitant power of the feudal king.
In his new book, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy, Savage reveals that Vice President Dick Cheney has been on a 30-year quest to install unfettered executive power, presumably in the hands of Corporatists like himself. Savage tells us that in 1987 Cheney, then a Representative from Wyoming and the minority whip for the House, along with his aide David Addington, authored a report for President Ronald Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair by claiming it was "unconstitutional for Congress to pass laws intruding" on the powers of the president. (See The New York Times for an article on the report.) This wasn't just a ploy to garner him the position of Secretary of Defense with the new Bush administration. It's a long-held belief, probably stemming for his time in the Nixon administration when he witnessed unfettered presidential power and expected to have it himself when he was promoted to Chief of Staff in the Ford administration. Something that didn't happen.
Having installed himself as Bush's running mate, he finally had the opportunity to implement his vision -- expanded presidential authority resembling a monarchy at best or a dictatorship at worst. It's turned out for the worst. According to Savage, who appeared on C-SPAN's Washington Journal last October, Cheney immediately sought to implement his new power. In the first White House meeting in January 2001, right after the inauguration and long before 9/11, Cheney was looking for a moment to "seize" power. The 9/11 attacks provided that moment.
Now we know the goal -- feudalism, through Corporatism, and extreme wealth for the wealthy; poverty for everyone else. Now everything else makes sense. Spy on people. Torture people. And make sure the threat of torture is well known. Take away rights so the threat of torture is real. It's all meant to tamp down our instincts to fight back. Now that we know their real intent, what will we do?
The Wonk