Now: We Get Our Lives Back

[babylonsister]

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/now-we-get-our.html

Now: We Get Our Lives Back
Andrew Sullivan


As I find myself barely able to function this weekend, I did manage to go for a bike ride, walk the dogs, and catch up on a few Netflix projects (finishing off John Adams, "The Savages", the rest of Season 11 of The Simpsons). What is this I'm feeling? Yes, it's clouded with Prop 8 grief. But it isn't euphoria. I haven't felt that since O-Day. It isn't redemption: I don't expect that from politics. I realize what I'm feeling is relief.

What I wrote last Monday was not meant casually. Knowing that the Bush-Cheney-Addington axis will be forced out of power is an immense, slackening relief. I've felt compelled by politics these past few years in ways I don't like or enjoy. With men and women finally back in power I can trust to act reasonably and ethically and within the rule of law, I feel less hesitation in getting on with life. A reader makes the point as well as I can:

One, mildly Oakeshottian, point I don't think is being made enough: one of the pleasures of the week is that it holds out the promise of not having to be obsessed with politics. It is unnatural, it seems to me, to have to care passionately every day about the workings of the central government: only in totalitarian societies, where a knock on the door may come at any time, or in authoritarian ones, where each sneeze of the King has to be analyzed for its potential consequence, does there exist a need to keep the government of the country forever in the forefront of your mind.

One of the blessings of liberal democracy, in theory, is that we delegate the common fate to the most able , intelligent and motivated people among us, and, though we keep an eye on them and make them subject to recall and revision, we can cede our trust to them to do a more or less decent and able job most of the time. We trust them. For the first time in years, we can say now: the government is in the hands of skillful people with a sense of the real; we can live the lives in front of our eyes without worrying that some horror is happening behind our backs. It would be a mistake, I think, for us all to carry on past the election and into the New Year with the same level of obsessive attention that this year, and the years before, have forced on us. Good government gives us back our lives.

Another word for this is freedom. And as the constitution is quietly restored, and torture finally relinquished, it grows.

[Eric J in MN]

1. The Military Commissions Act hasn't been repealed yet.

I don't know if Obama even said he wants it repealed, though he voted against it.

[babylonsister]

4. Here's part of a speech he gave recently: I bet

it's on his radar.

http://usliberals.about.com/od/extraordinaryspeeches/a/ObamaTorture.htm

Human Rights Should Be Bigger Than Politics

snip//

Human Rights Should Be Bigger Than Politics

And yet, while I know all of this, I'm still disappointed. Because what we're doing here today - a debate over the fundamental human rights of the accused - should be bigger than politics. This is serious.

If this was a debate with obvious ideological differences - heartfelt convictions that couldn't be settled by compromise - I would understand. But it's not.

All of us - Democrats and Republicans - want to do whatever it takes to track down terrorists and bring them to justice as swiftly as possible. All of us want to give our President every tool necessary to do this. And all of us were willing to do that in this bill. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to the American people.

Unconstitutional

In the five years that the President's system of military tribunals has existed, not one terrorist has been tried. Not one has been convicted. And in the end, the Supreme Court of the United found the whole thing unconstitutional, which is why we're here today.

We could have fixed all of this in a way that allows us to detain and interrogate and try suspected terrorists while still protecting the accidentally accused from spending their lives locked away in Guantanamo Bay. Easily. This was not an either-or question.

* Instead of allowing this President - or any President - to decide what does and does not constitute torture, we could have left the definition up to our own laws and to the Geneva Conventions, as we would have if we passed the bill that the Armed Services committee originally offered.

* Instead of detainees arriving at Guantanamo and facing a Combatant Status Review Tribunal that allows them no real chance to prove their innocence with evidence or a lawyer, we could have developed a real military system of justice that would sort out the suspected terrorists from the accidentally accused.

* And instead of not just suspending, but eliminating, the right of habeas corpus - the seven century-old right of individuals to challenge the terms of their own detention, we could have given the accused one chance - one single chance - to ask the government why they are being held and what they are being charged with.

more...

[Eric J in MN]

8. Before the Military Commissions Act, the US military could only try...

...people who were in the US military.

Obama implies in that text that it's OK for the military to try people who were never in the military as long as the accused get a habeas corpus review and the trial is similar to the trial of US soldiers by the military.

I don't want the US military to try anyone who was never in the US military.

If the Russian military started trying US citizens, we'd object.

[NC_Nurse]

2. I'm excited about that too. I'm still too nervous to let go of it yet, though. I'm

watching closely to make sure that I know what's going on during the transition, i.e. who is picked for important positions in the govt, cabinet, etc. and what the initial agenda will be.
The economy is such a mess I feel compelled to pay close attention. I also am watching for a RW backlash and anti-Obama propaganda they create to rear it's ugly head.

I hope to be free of all this within 6 months. Wouldn't it be nice to trust that things will work out and that our govt has our best interests at heart? Wow. :-)

[babylonsister]

3. Personally, I'm hooked. But my heart is lighter, too. I just

know our guys and gals aren't out to screw us like this current admin is/was.

[angrycarpenter]

5. So much of what I've said here

is full of outrage, dread and righteous indignation. Do you have any tips on how to be optimistic? Frankly, I am at a loss. Maybe I can start using smilies.:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

[babylonsister]

6. This might give you a shot of optimism-it did me...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7832073

[angrycarpenter]

7. I am really optimistic, I just have trouble putting it in words so far. nt.

[crispini]

9. K&R

[MasonJar]

10. I totally agree; everyday Bush did something terribly stupid or evil.

Hence I felt the need for constant vigilance. I had never felt that way before no matter who was preident and I hope to never again.