By Ralph Nader
Nader.org
George W. Bush is hitting the lecture circuit. Represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau, Mr. Bush for a fee of at least $150,000 flew up to Calgary, Canada and spoke to a conservative business audience amidst street protests.
He also has signed a book contract with Crown Publishers tentatively titled “Decision Points” about a dozen personal and presidential decisions ranging from giving up booze to choosing Dick Cheney to invading Iraq.
Now that he is becoming a lecturer and an author, why not also be a teacher? The 43rd president has much to teach Americans about how weak their democracy is—rights, institutions, processes and the sovereignty of the people.
His first lecture to students could be how he and Cheney violated, circumvented and trampled our Constitution. It was as if they replaced the opening preamble of “we, the people” with “we, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.”
Early in his Administration, Mr. Bush showed a determination to pick up on King George III and root himself in something called “the inherent powers of the Presidency,” often called the “unitary Presidency.” With that, King George IV was establishing his unilateral kingdom, though instead of invoking his divine right, his mantra was the “war on Terror.”
He became the most recidivist criminal president, the most variously impeachable president on a regular day-to-day basis in American history. Violating repeatedly our Constitution, laws and treaties, Mr. Bush warred, terrorized, tortured, imprisoned without charges, illegally snooped on masses of Americans and set a record for signing statements saying he “the decider” would determine which laws he signed he would obey and when. And that’s just what is public knowledge so far from a very secretive regime.
The ways this outlaw President devastated the rule of law has been well documented in many firsthand accounts of former members of his government in the military, intelligence, and diplomatic service. The lies and deceptions that took our country to war, with immense loss of life and limb, and turned the rights and lives of millions of families upside down have been the material of many books, public hearings and admissions. Even the conservative American Bar Association condemned the Bush White House three times for unconstitutional practices.
Mr. Bush taught us how cowardly the Congress could be in not defending its constitutional authorities and the crucial checks and balances to hold the White House accountable. He taught us the degree of abdication by the major opposition Democratic Party which allowed him and his ilk to do what they did and to leave office on January 20, 2009 without being subjected to impeachment and trial, without even being subjected to a Congressional censure resolution.
He taught us that the courts, with few exceptions, cannot be counted on to defend the constitution from the marauding President—avoiding doing so by excuses that these seizures of power are “political questions.” Sure, Bush going to war without a declaration of war is too political? Tell that to Jefferson, Madison and other founding fathers who made a big matter out of taking away the war-making authority from any future would-be monarch and decisively repositing it with the Congress.
He taught us how easily you could fool, manipulate, delay or intimidate the mainstream media into becoming a cheerleader for war and a collaborator in covering up what a few intrepid reporters uncovered.
He showed that truth is indeed the first casualty of war and that lies have no consequences for him other than a 70% disapproval rating.
He did tell the truth, however, when he announced to a big business audience in Texas early in his first term that they were “his base.” Acting like a corporation masquerading as a human in the White House, Mr. Bush pursued policies unleashing the greed and control of Wall Street that tanked the economy and destroyed trillions of dollars of the people’s money in an orgy of reckless speculation.
As Jamal Simmons wrote recently, “Unlike the story of King Midas, everything Bush touched turned to coal.”
Mr. Bush threw the gauntlet down to 800,000 American lawyers and unlike the marching Pakistani lawyers, only a handful such as Michael Greco, Ramsay Clark, David Cole and Jonathan Turley took up his challenge. The vast majority of lawyers went about their own business, shrugging off what it means to be “officers of the court.”
Bush, former American Caesar tore the pretense off our democratic pretensions. By not holding him and his top collaborators responsible for violating the constitutional, criminal and civil laws of the land, those persons, entrusted with their observance, took a holiday. These outrageous practices—still unchecked—are becoming institutionalized as illustrated in the several (but not all) ways that President Obama is continuing Bush’s legacy of license.
Democracies when they are eroded must show resiliency to recover and strengthen what was lost by way of freedom and justice. Otherwise the erosions fester and deepen. Who, you might ask, must be the tribunes of such resiliency? You will not find them now in officialdom.
The wise early twentieth century judge, Learned Hand, gave us the compass. He wrote these words: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”
If you want to enlighten yourself and open your eyes to the possibility of the world not being all that it’s cracked up to be, PLEASE, take a look at Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist II, website: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com. For those of you that will never find the truth, it is because you are never up to the challenge to seek it. “We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers” (Nietzsche)
As so stated by our dear friend AnneLouise, “How ignorant to assume that all the millions of americans that voted him in, are just stupid trusting sheep” leaves a strange taste on my tongue when I read aloud. Is it so incomprehensible to believe that millions of Americans are fed most of the garbage they feed into? Do you believe the media spits out the god’s honest truth, without sway or hidden agendas? Is it so difficult to believe that a person of power, especially one who is blatantly commissioned by corporate giants ( I am speaking of both, yes, Obama AND McCain), are not just in it for the people?
Let’s stop and think here, America. I think that’s something that we may have stopped doing some time ago. Advertisements and commercials, selling political candidates like candy to the masses. If you think for one second that simply because Obama is a Democrat that it makes him a world of a difference from that of the Republican, you my friend, are ignorant.
I’m not sure if I agree that anyone could have inherited change after Bush, but one thing is for certain, there was NO way another Republican was going to be elected this election year. And maybe that’s a tiny reason why Americans seem so “ignorant” these days. It’s not just about being a Republican or a Democrat! It’s about having good morals for the good of the American people. It’s about creating progress and changing the way a failed and broken system operated. It’s about creating opportunity and instilling hope in citizens. It’s about creating change for the better, for the whole of the American people, not just the richest 10%!
It is not argument to say that Americans are being a little too ignorant when we say that voting for an independent or green party is “throwing a vote away”. This country was NOT founded on a bipartisan system, and I don’t see any reason why we should be falling down this path of a one-size fits all society. If you really want change, look at ALL your options, not just the publicized and commercialized parties that you see on tv.
Because I can honestly and whole-heartedly say, that after all the rigamoroll of research, I voted for Ralph Nader, and I know he would be doing a damn fine job as president. There is no comparison!
Needless to say my opinion is that GB is a punk president also. Shame on America for electing these 2 punks president.
Do you think if Billary had won the dem. nom. she would have lost to McCain? I don’t think so.
GF Doyle, have you read the comment following yours? I see no need to argue semantics-antics, shenanigans, war crimes, crimes against humanity, civil & constitutional rights, the environment etc. OK? Yes, by the time Obama was SELECTED for the keynote address on 04, the decision was made to go with him. So it goes back farther than that. Do you really think he could have skyrocketed up the political ladder without powerful party support? I suspect Massachusetts mischief & mayhem makers liberals Kennedy & Kerry. Like I said, punk president Obama is a dime a dozen democrat.
As I watched with interest the state of our economy and status throughout the world,
my impression of Barak Obama was one of hope, change, hopefully a little independence of
thought and deed. I was ready to extend time and patience for the transition of President. This is
not working, as I concluded with the team of economic advisors, Summers, Giethner, Volker,
keeping,but shuffelling, the same military advisors, Gates, Patraeous, etc……., maintaining the
same aggressive stance in the middle east, giving the future of succeeding generations to theives
and con men, letting corporations have their way with our society.I have not seen any hope or
change from this administration, just the same corporate controlled domination of the populace,
keeping control of the masses.
Now we are moving our military presence into Afghanistan, soon Pakistan, I was
hoping to see something other than an embracing of the status quo, but then I remembered that
our country elected a corporate candidate. I would hope that by this time the population would
have awakened to the corporate shenanegans that have been so redudant throughout this
country’s history, but then I thought about the collective attention span of America.
The time is ripe for us to stop the political complicit behavior, to adopt the Ralph Nader
suggestion of a 1/10 of one percent tax on all stock transactions, to stop the sacrificing of this
country’s future to the perpetraitors of economic collapse.
Mr. Milnes, you sure do know a lot of things that no one could possibly know. Do you work for Dionne Worwick’s ‘Psychic Hotline’? I also voted for Obama, and I was not ‘manipulated’ into voting for him by any definition of the word. I knew that I’d be voting for Obama for President one day, the first time I ever heard him speak. That was when he addressed the Democrats’ convention in ’04. No, not just ‘anyone who wasn’t a republican’ could have won this last election. You believe that this was a ‘scheme’ that was put into place years ago by the … Gasp! Liberal Democrats? How paranoid are you? Talk about being a manipulated schmuck. Truly, I hope that you’ll get some help. Obama ran an amazing campaign … showing that he wanted change. His use of the internet was just one way that he showed the American people, that he is a man of this century, and not the last. He’s an extremely intellegent and articulate man. Posters here, have agreed with Mr. Nader, who had the good sence to stay out of this election, and not mess the process up, as he did in 2000. You say that Anne Louise should have voted for Nader. Well, that would have been an action of pure stupidity, as she would have been throwing her vote away. Just because someone agrees with what someone says, it doesn’t mean that person should be president! I wish that more people of power would listen to Mr. Nader at this point though, and that charges will be brought against G Bush & Co., so they will be made to pay for their illegal behavior, because in this country, no one is above the law, no matter what Mr. Nixon may have believed. You call what Mr. Bush did to this country, and indeed the world, ‘antics’? Antics are things, situations, that young people get into, or cause. I don’t consider the bombing, and death of hundreds of thousands of people an ‘antic’, nor the loss of American soldiers lives, or limbs, or sanity … and ‘antic’. I suggest that you sir, get out a dictionary instead of AnneLouise, and look up some of these words that you’re throwing around. What a total lack of respect you have shown to all the families whos lives have forever been changed by ‘Bush and his antics’. Well, even kids toilet papering a house can get some jail time, I’m sure … so, I hope our ex-president and many in his cabinet get prison time. It’s the only right thing to do at this point, and I thank Mr. Nader for writing an article that clearly speaks to Bushes illegal actions.
AnneLouise, you were manipulated by definition. You express appreciation for Nader’s positions. Yet you voted for Obama.
I believe Obama was supercomputer selected years ago in a longstanding-since the close election and assasination of JFK-scheme by liberal democrats to get another liberal in the White House. The conclusion was the best scenario would be a clean cut married Christian black man with a highly choreographed scenario starting with duping progressives into supporting him. Be against the war in Iraq but with out specifics-as opposed to Biden whose Iraq proposal most closely resembled mine. Biden was the template-voting record etc. Hence he was selected vp as a liberal next in line to the presidency as opposed to LBJ in JFK’s case. LBJ certainly was no liberal but seen as necessary for the ticket at the time. What the media picked up at the time as Obama’s “confidence” was just the attitude you assume when you know the fix is in. AnneLouise, unless you are a black liberal democrat genuinely, you were manipulated on way or another into voting for Obama. Isn’t it the best sort of manipulation to do it without the manipulated schmuck realizing it? Anyone who was not a republican could have inherited the “change” from Bush and his antics.
Right on Mr. Nader! You’ve said exactly how most of the people, even republicans, feel about what G Bush and Cheney did. President Obama won the presidency with honesty and integrity. No one manipulated me into voting for him like the previous poster states. How ignorant to assume that all the millions of americans that voted him in, are just stupid trusting sheep. No sir, we finally all woke up and realized what had been done to us by the last administration. BTW, I am an educated white woman over 50. Oh, and I’m a Christian too.
If you want to see plans about how to fix what’s wrong, check out Ralph Nader’s books. I highly recommend Crashing the Party and In Pursuit of Justice. The Good Fight is also good, and very up-to-date.
The Green Party also has plans to fix what’s wrong – check out http://gp.org/
I see too many articles about what is wrong. Not one article with any plans on how to fix what is wrong.
Very astute, Ralph. Why aren’t you President? Because you did not do what Obama et al did: Add blocs of votes instead of doubling up on one. He started by fooling progressives into supporting him -a liberal democrat. You could have had the progressive vote legitimately. Then he added the vote democrat because you are black & vote black because you are black vote stealing that from Clinton to get the nomination -barely. You on the other hand picked Gonzalez vp, another progressive, instead of a libertarian vp & adding the libertarian vote instead of forfeiting it to the republican. Then Obama manipulated the rest of the democratic vote through party loyalty. Change synonym=revolution. Progressivism=slow revolution; revolution from the left and right. Obama is not a revolutionary or a progressive. He is a dime a dozen democrat.