Nuclear Shadow
[written for the MA MoveOn "millibuster"]
First, a quote, from the Constitution of the United States of America, Section 2, Clause 2:
Those are the words of the remarkable group of men who assembled to create the rules by which our great country is governed. They had all lived through a time when the courts were rigged to favor the ruling party. They had all experienced life under the tyrannical rule of a dictator whose minions controlled the legislature.
Our Constitution was forged on the anvil of bitter experience. From the wisdom gained in their struggle against tyranny, our founding fathers intentionally designed a system of government with built-in safeguards to protect citizens from a power-hungry majority. A system in which the Senate had the right to reject judges it deemed unfit to guard the rights of American citizens. A system in which the courts have the power to judge each case on its merits, where each citizen has the right to a fair trial, no matter how much the President or legislature might dislike that citizen.
If the “nuclear option” is allowed to pass, it will lay waste to the rights granted to us by the Founding Fathers. Under the nuclear option, a power-mad majority can simply wipe out the rights of anyone they don’t like by appointing judges who will rule for “their side,” ignoring the protections provided to ordinary Americans by the Constitution. With this last protection against oppression removed, America will fade to a pale shadow of its former greatness. No longer the leader of the free world, America will be the oppressor of the free.
First, a quote, from the Constitution of the United States of America, Section 2, Clause 2:
... and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law...
Those are the words of the remarkable group of men who assembled to create the rules by which our great country is governed. They had all lived through a time when the courts were rigged to favor the ruling party. They had all experienced life under the tyrannical rule of a dictator whose minions controlled the legislature.
Our Constitution was forged on the anvil of bitter experience. From the wisdom gained in their struggle against tyranny, our founding fathers intentionally designed a system of government with built-in safeguards to protect citizens from a power-hungry majority. A system in which the Senate had the right to reject judges it deemed unfit to guard the rights of American citizens. A system in which the courts have the power to judge each case on its merits, where each citizen has the right to a fair trial, no matter how much the President or legislature might dislike that citizen.
If the “nuclear option” is allowed to pass, it will lay waste to the rights granted to us by the Founding Fathers. Under the nuclear option, a power-mad majority can simply wipe out the rights of anyone they don’t like by appointing judges who will rule for “their side,” ignoring the protections provided to ordinary Americans by the Constitution. With this last protection against oppression removed, America will fade to a pale shadow of its former greatness. No longer the leader of the free world, America will be the oppressor of the free.
posted by rhetoretician at 11:27 PM
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