Paul Loeb presents a strategy that could stop Alito, Bush, and more.

understandinglife

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Sat Jan-14-06 09:01 PM
Original message

Paul Loeb presents a strategy that could stop Alito, Bush, and more.

Edited on Sat Jan-14-06 09:07 PM by understandinglife

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If there's a chance to stop Alito, much less reclaim our democracy, we need to bring these realities together. The filibuster just might be the vehicle to do that, as Senators could spell out the links between runaway executive power and a nominee who has consistently ruled and spoken in favor of the unaccountable expansion of that power. Suppose the Democratic Senators actually used a filibuster to talk about the Alito nomination in its broadest context. They wouldn't read the phone book. They wouldn't get lost in an endless maze of legal rhetoric about stare decisis. They could talk about how they'd have readily accepted a more moderate nominee, much as Clinton nominated Steven Breyer and Ruth Ginzberg in part because Orrin Hatch said he'd accept them as preferable to other proposed justices. They'd use the filibuster to educate as well as impede.

However they label their actions, suppose the Democrats started debating the nomination, and didn't stop, in the process addressing the real roots of why Alito would be so destructive. They could read from articles and books about this administration's abuse of presidential power. They could talk about whether we really want government officials to be able to strip us of our rights at will, listen in on our phone and email conversations without a court order, and infiltrate the citizen groups through which we gather peacefully to express our beliefs. They could talk about the choices women were forced to make when abortion was illegal, what it's like to be discriminated against, then told you don't meet an impossible burden of proof, and whether police should be able to shoot unarmed 15-year-olds who flee after stealing $10. They could talk about the Sago mine disaster, and the fruits of a politics where unions are busted and regulations gutted at every turn. They could tell the stories that bring seemingly abstract issues of jurisdiction and constitutional interpretation to life, and make clear their real-world consequences.

In the process they could remind America that this president, with this track record of lies, deceptions, and favors for the most destructive private interests, deserves no presumption of deference. And that when he nominates someone, like Alito, who will only further his abuses of power, Senators have a moral responsibility to oppose him however they can. The wink-and-nod games of the hearings were designed to obscure Alito's record and frame him as genial and reasonable. If the Democrats accept this, or even quietly vote against him without further protest, they further the lie that this is an ordinary nomination in an ordinary time. If they filibuster and stand firm, there's a chance that the now politically weakened Republicans will back down and not risk putting themselves on the line for destroying nearly 200 years of Senate tradition for the naked goal of increasing their power. But Democrats have to take the risk of standing strong, and we as ordinary citizens have to do all we can to convince them to do so.

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-loeb/filibuster-bush-impeach-_b_13830.html

This makes sense.

And, all it takes is for us, you and me; all of us, to back our Senators and Reps. If they know we're going to support them -- write, call, bring them lunch!!, whatever it takes, to keep them fueled and talking, the whole world will, indeed, be watching -- first on C-SPAN and then .....

And, that is exactly what we need to make happen -- call it "Reality Constitution."

Peace.