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"Despite all the danger signals, America remains today, fortunately, a civil society. And I feel there are three main things keeping America that way. One is our incredible wealth. It’s always easier to be civil when you’re economically fat. Two: most Americans are Democrats, Independents, or liberal to moderate Republicans, and none of these groups is dangerous. And three: our wonderful constitution, an exceedingly powerful document, with its amendments, which continues to serve as a judicious guide to all well-intentioned people and, so far, as a severe impediment to those of ill-will. But it has to be noted that the U.S. Constitution is only what those who warm the bench say it is. At present, we have two right-wing zealots on the bench; two right-wingers (we’ll know later if they are zealots); one normal, moderate Republican; and four ordinary, sensible people. So we have four justices who are frightening or potentially frightening, and five who are not.
"America should realize that if one of the five retires or dies, and Bush (or any conservative successor of his) appoints one more right-winger to take his or her place, America, incrementally, will become a different nation, for the worse, to live in. We are that close, just one justice, from waking up in the morning to a new America. Hypothetically – and I’m not saying five right-wing justices would necessarily make such a ruling – if a search and seizure case came before the court in which the police, though having time to get a search warrant, broke into an American home without one, and the court held that this was not an ‘unreasonable search and seizure’ under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, America would change overnight.
"The principal enemies I see to a brighter day for America are the right wing, which mostly consists of people who are not only rotten from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet, but who also successfully appeal to the worst and most base instincts of many outside their group: religious fundamentalism, which is necessarily hostile to a pluralistic society, has always been the source of intolerance and wars through the years, and which can only increase the nation’s ignorance and intolerance if it continues to rise as it has here in America ….
"Because of our heritage, and the unparalleled rich diversity of our people that gives us so much strength, I think it is still within our grasp (though I have no idea how to bring it about, and do not want to resort to platitudinous utterances) to once again be the respected leader of the free world, the land of opportunity like no other, the most generous nation to the world’s needy population, number one in everything, whether its heavyweight champions, the tallest buildings, or Nobel Prize winners, a nation whose expansive image will again be embodied by the words written on the Statue of Liberty to other nations across the sea – ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’."
--Vincent Bugliosi; The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder; pages 248-249.
As we approach the summer and fall of 2008, Vince Bugliosi’s book serve as an important reference for the democratic grass roots. I can think of no significant issue facing us in the November elections that who each presidential candidate would appoint to the federal bench. The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on habeas corpus, and the responses of both John McCain and Barack Obama, illustrates that.
There are republican operatives posing as grass roots democrats, who are promoting disunity in the democratic ranks. They are attempting to exploit differences between the supporters of Obama, and a group of people who supported Senator Hillary Clinton in the primary. Among their tactics is one that proposes that the democratic focus on having President Obama appoint federal judges is meaningless, because it only applies to the issue of abortion, and McCain is pro-choice. This is nonsense at best: McCain has already said that as president, he would appoint conservative republicans to the bench.
As Bugliosi points out, the federal courts will be defining how a number of issues, including how the Bill of Rights translates into social policy. His example of a search and seizure of citizens’ homes without a warrant can actually be taken a step forward. The Bush-Cheney administration has been like a burglar, breaking into our homes and stealing the Constitution. A McCain presidency means that the thieves could be accompanied by "black water"-like muscle.
There is no magical solution. However, we know that the Founding Fathers intended the U.S. Constitution, including that Bill of Rights, as being the source of strength for our society. It is a muscle that needs the grass roots to exercise it, in order for it to remain strong. Citizens can use those rights included in Amendment 1 to advocate for democratic candidates winning at all levels this November -–the presidency, the Congress, and state and local levels.
Let’s roll.
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