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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat We've Lost Since 9/11: Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America
from TomDispatch:
What We've Lost Since 9/11
Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America
By Peter Van Buren
America has entered its third great era: the post-constitutional one. In the first, in the colonial years, a unitary executive, the King of England, ruled without checks and balances, allowing no freedom of speech, due process, or privacy when it came to protecting his power.
In the second, the principles of the Enlightenment and an armed rebellion were used to push back the kings abuses. The result was a new country and a new constitution with a Bill of Rights expressly meant to check the government's power. Now, we are wading into the shallow waters of a third era, a time when that government is abandoning the basic ideas that saw our nation through centuries of challenges far more daunting than terrorism. Those ideas -- enshrined in the Bill of Rights -- are disarmingly concise. Think of them as the haiku of a genuine people's government.
Deeper, darker waters lie ahead and we seem drawn down into them. For here there be monsters.
The Powers of a Police State Denied
America in its pre-constitutional days may seem eerily familiar even to casual readers of current events. We lived then under the control of a king. (Think now: the imperial presidency.) That king was a powerful, unitary executive who ruled at a distance. His goal was simple: to use his power over his American colonies to draw the maximum financial gain while suppressing any dissent that might endanger his control. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_rip%2C_the_bill_of_rights/#more
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What We've Lost Since 9/11: Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America (Original Post)
marmar
Jun 2014
OP
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. Albert Camus
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jun 2014
#2
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)1. K&R /nt
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)2. The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. Albert Camus
Uncle Joe
(58,524 posts)3. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, marmar.