Like many Americans, I find it difficult to consider the implications of public policy since Bush took office. Often I am stunned in disbelief. It is almost too amazing to believe that the 3 branches of Government, the so called Balance of Powers, have nearly collapsed, in effect allowing the Bush Administration to rewrite the Constitution in stealth. Because there are clearly proscribed methods for changing the Constitution that have not been openly pursued, these changes are certainly illegal. To say so, however, does not quite get at the core issue.

If you put all the facts together, it is possible to grasp that the events that constitute these changes are so large that their very scale masks their severity. I can scarcely believe this as I write it. Yet, here is the news few seem willing to articulate: Our government is engaged in undoing the legal underpinnings of our freedom as a people. The very structures of democratic Rule of Law in existence since our country was founded is under attack. Along with this, the Bush administration has tallied up more crimes and scandals than all previous presidencies together.

First there is invasion which the Nuremberg Tribunals define as “The Supreme War Crime.” It includes torture, which is the most flagrant of criminal acts and is the ultimate abuse of power. There is the wholesale violation of international law, long standing treaties, the Geneva Conventions and clearly proscribed laws that balance and check abuses of governments. In addition, there are so many instances of graft that it seems almost ordinary until its depth and scale begins to be seen. Bush is buying allies and buying silence by selling off public resources. He and his collaborators are undoing the safety and freedom of long standing legal protections. The sums of money involved are so gargantuan that they can’t be imagined and the scale of the disruption of law under the guise of “Homeland Security” moves like a plague through the country.

As in pre-fascist Germany, we are now confronted with “laws” aimed at subverting Law. In plain sight, the freedoms and protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution have been undone. The cynically named Patriot Act has displaced the democratic legal standard of Presumed Innocence. Suspected guilt -- that is, accusation absent a warrant substantiated by proof -- is all that is necessary to justify government inquiry, invasion of a household, the appropriation of property, even assault, battery, and arrest. This being the case, of course, freedom of assembly is gone along with presumed innocence. Freedom of speech is gone with freedom of association. The Fifth and First Amendments, protection from self incrimination or the right to the redress of grievances, have been treated as dispensable. The government need only cite secrecy and special knowledge to justify arrest and indefinite detention since the Military Commissions Act, in place thanks to the votes of a majority of the House and the Senate. Therefore, there is no cause for due process because uniform standards of evidence have been trumped by secret accusation, so no proof is necessary and no defense is possible. The Bush administration has done this and Congress has slavishly supported it. 

No defense is possible? Taking stock, this sounds like conditions behind the Iron Curtain or some dictator’s hamlet in South America. The Military Commissions Act allows Bush to direct kidnapping, torture, and assassination with impunity. Here our dire political condition and the sheer threat of the medieval views of the Bush government can be seen. They now can do anything to anyone until habeas corpus is reinstated. This specter makes Martial Law possible on the thinnest of pretexts.

These changes have been voted on as if they are new laws, but what they actually express is the breathtaking concept of illegal legislation. The supreme laws of our country have been subverted from within. Citizens are being positioned to be victims of any government assault or influence-pedaling scheme. The egregious aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina are relevant here.

One can be certain, for instance, that in a climate of unlimited warrantless surveillance there are programs to search for key words to draw government interest. Trying to educate oneself about any issue could be all that is necessary to get on a watch list. What is that but thought crime? Government officials and lawmakers know they are liable. There is every reason for them to be fearful that many among them could be impeached, if not hung, for international war crimes, felonies and, quite possibly, treason. This is why we have seen the unjustifiable introductions of retroactive immunity for government-sponsored lawbreakers.

For the moment, however, the issues are about whom you associate with or the color of your skin. It won’t be long, it seems, before what you say is all that is necessary to draw the attention of a guilt ridden, paranoid government because they have so much to fear. But here we get a glimmer of our strength.

In this light, I find it helpful to remind myself that we are a nation of laws, not of men. The democratic laws and mandated transparencies that stem from our Constitution are sacrosanct. These are living propositions. This means that they can’t really be undone because they live in the minds of the people. Constitutional principles identify and mandate the conditions of political freedom. Therefore, they gain strength when cited and they have deep roots in our culture. Here is the most important thing: Whatever has happened up to now, the Constitution is the best and most essential focal point to hold officials accountable.

With this as a given we must now aggressively claim our citizenship and demand democratic accountability at every turn. The urgency of our political condition becomes even more clearly apparent when we note the overall way current government actions contradict and subvert constitutional government itself. The Bush administration has aimed at a comprehensive erosion of democratic systems. Statutory law, procedural law, and civil law have all been pulled apart. Anti-constitutional judges and legislators have come out of the woodwork like roaches. It is natural that we as a people are inclined to confusion and doubt because previously existing standards by which we viewed and understood government are no longer in play. It’s not the same old government and we have never known such treachery.

To regain our democratic compass we can turn to the founding principles of our nation. For 232 years, the Declaration of Independence has been fundamental. It is fundamental because it has illuminated the truth in people's hearts through asserting that government “derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.” People have inalienable rights. These rights are not granted by some authority or by a court or by edict. They are not even dependent on citizenship. People have inalienable rights because we are people. It is as simple as that. Our nation was founded in that profoundly direct declaration, and we all are freed in the truth of it. In this knowledge, we find our strengths and from them we build strength in mutual recognition and collective action toward the common good. “We hold these truths to be self evident.”

That is to say, power is not bestowed or appropriated by individuals. The people grant it. The people embody it. This is not idealism. It is a self-evident truth. It, too, gains strength when cited. Democratic government is not derived from the barrel of a gun. Rather, it comes from the will of the people. The will of the people comes from the respectful mutual recognition of enlightened self-interest as our interests in common.

However, what we have now is not the government that we have had historically. What we have taken for granted as our rights now must be insisted upon. The representatives that have selectively and illegally removed our options as a free people now must be actively challenged.

When we recollect our nation’s founding principals we can see more clearly by contrast what is at work. Instead of the government we have known, we have an anti-government, a Vichy-government, aimed at subverting rather than improving democratic structures of law. In doing so, the very social, political, and legal standards by which democratic representatives hold office are abrogated. Therefore, they no longer have any democratic legitimacy to office. They must be driven out.

When we come to grips with this, we can begin to see that the malice and malfeasance of the Bush administration is unlike anything in our history. Our representatives no longer represent us. They no longer represent the legal structure of American freedoms, and that is a shock. However, considering that Bush has been responsible for the deaths of probably a million people in the last 8 years and made billions of dollars doing it, slaps us in the face with the reality. Unaccountably huge numbers of people have suffered the horrors of war having been maimed for life, displaced, left sick, without food, medicine or treatment, separated from their families and deprived of their homes. In the U.S. our treasury and our resources have been “privatized,” turned over to quasi-military organizations apparently unaccountable to anyone. Private companies affiliated with Bush officials like Cheney’s Halliburton, KBR, or Chevron Oil have reaped mind-boggling profits while the country is being driven to bankruptcy at breakneck speed. Remind me: Just how did we get “no bid contracts” and just how do such companies loose track of a billion dollars?

“The law” seems to be in the hands of the highest bidders, those who have no respect for the people or democratic culture. “Privatization” is the saccharine term used to obscure the truth that our natural and political resources are being strip-mined. The Bush-Cheney miners want to dismantle the government for profit. Democracy is inconvenient to lawbreakers. If democratic law is not on their side, buy the lawmakers to change the law.

Our representatives have betrayed the social contract by which they hold office. The Bush administration is thoroughly illegal indeed. Torture is its emblem and people are loath to admit that you can’t have torture without slavery. This clarifies what we are faced with from Bush and his Vichy-style collaborators.

Once this is realized we can easily see that we must reverse the illegal legislation in The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, The National Security Act and all the subversive “laws” aimed at rewriting the Constitution in stealth because their intent is thoroughly undemocratic. And it is the overall intent that must be addressed. This means that all the appointments, the anti-constitutional judges, and anti-democratic changes in law must be reversed, along with the impeachment of Bush and his entire criminal administration.

What else does one do? To realize this and communicate it everywhere is the first step. This is squarely up to you and me — for the benefit of someone else. No one need tell you what else to do. You can think of something. This is the fresh air of democracy.