Fareed Zacharia describes
two distinct qualities, constitutional
liberalism ("the rule of law and basic human rights"), and democracy ("selection of government
through free and fair, competitive, multiparty elections") as the
cornerstones of a healthy, peaceful and sustainable state. He laments
the rise of "illiberal democracies", where democratic governments have
deemed their ballot victory to put them above the law, eroding basic
constitutional freedoms and corrupting the democratic process.
As the result of an horrendous double blow yesterday, the U.S. has lost
its credibility as either a
democracy or a
constitutionally liberal state. First, the arch-conservative and deeply
partisan U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by its now standard 5-4 margin, that
gerrymandering is not
unconstitutional. Ruling on the outrageous redistricting plan in
Pennsylvania, which essentially guarantees incumbent Republicans two
thirds of the state's seats in Congress although they have a minority
of the registered voters, the Chief Justice threw it back to the executive and legislative branches, saying, incredibly,
"Our legislators have reached the
point of declaring that, when it comes
to apportionment, 'We are in the business of rigging elections.'"
The Court made it clear that there is not
really any point in anyone in the U.S. bothering to vote in future
Congressional elections because gerrymandering has already determined
the results in all but a handful of districts. But in abrogating its
responsibility in a baldly partisan manner, the Court also said that it
is up to the 'legislators' to fix the system, and that even though,
under Zacharia's definition above, the U.S. can no longer call itself a democracy,
they will not declare this completely fraudulent practice
unconstitutional. The NYT calls on both parties to introduce
"nonpartisan redistricting", as is done in Iowa, Canada, and just about
every true Western democracy, a process that the thoroughly corrupt
judge Scalia denied, in his argument for the majority supporting the
continuation of gerrymandering, was reasonably possible. But asking the
legislators to regulate themselves is like asking the fox to run the
hen-house. The judiciary, not the legislature, is responsible for
protecting the country against laws that are undemocratic and
unconstitutional, and it has utterly and disgracefully failed to do so
in this ruling.
The second blow came in an announcement from the ACLU that its constitutional challenge of the Patriot Act
cannot be publicized because the Justice Department has put a 'gag
order' on the challenge while the Presnit campaigns around the country
for renewal and expansion of this outrageous law. So, first, we have a
law that allows the arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention, denial of
constitutional rights and freedoms, and unlimited rights of search and
seizure of anyone by the
paramilitary FBI/Homeland Security brownshirts, with no need for
demonstration of reasonable cause, just the issuance of a vaguely
worded "national security letter". And the perpetrators can hide behind
"national security" to deprive the victims of this law, their families
and their lawyers, of any information about why they have been
victimized, and who authorized it. And now, to muffle any criticism of
the law, the Justice Department is prohibiting opponents of the law
from even talking to the public about challenges to it.
So, again, under Zacharia's definition, the U.S. is now no longer a
constitutionally liberal state -- the rule of law, and basic human
rights and freedoms, are both abrogated, and in no small way, by the
Patriot Act. There is no longer freedom of speech, freedom of dissent,
freedom of assembly, right to a speedy and fair trial, or right to
information about government actions. Rule
of law has been subverted to the absolute authority of the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security to do whatever, in its discretion,
limited only by the whim of the government of the day, it wants to do.
To someone living in a democracy and a constitutional liberal country,
as I do, where gerrymandering and laws like the Patriot Act are
unthinkable, the fact that these two rulings occurred in one day, in an
election year, with hardly a peep from the mainstream press or the
candidates, is absolutely terrifying. Although, to be sure, these
outrages have not yet been
used in the U.S. to the extent that similarly undemocratic and
constitutionally illiberal processes and laws have been used in Cuba,
China, Iraq, North Korea and others of the most "unfree" states in the
world, there is no reason to believe, after yesterday's double blow, that they couldn't be, and won't be in the future. Especially when (not if) the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil occurs.
History is replete with examples showing that the decline from liberal
democracy to ruthless and tyrannical dictatorship can occur quickly,
and begins with a single step. Yesterday, the U.S. took two giant leaps
along that path. The rest of the world can only watch, and shudder, at
how easily and quietly the fall of a once-great country is beginning.
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
