I’ve been doing some reading about the repeal of the 1950 Emergency Detention Act…. this is part of what Nixon said when he signed the bill to repeal that act:
“the mere continued existence of these legal provisions has aroused concern among many Americans that the act might someday be used to apprehend and detain citizens who hold unpopular views. Some have feared that it might someday be used to permit a situation comparable to the detention of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
I have supported and signed this repeal in order to put an end to such suspicions. In taking this action, I want to underscore this Nation’s abiding respect for the liberty of the individual. Our democracy is built upon the constitutional guarantee that every citizen will be afforded due process of law. There is no place in American life for the kind of anxiety–however unwarranted–which the Emergency Detention Act has evidently engendered.
This strong country has no reason to fear that the normal processes of law-together with those special emergency powers which the Constitution grants to the Chief Executive–will be inadequate to deal with any situation, no matter how grave, that may arise in the future. But we do have a great deal to fear if we begin to lose faith in our constitutional ideals.”
Yes, folks, this was Richard Milhous Nixon — and don’t you wish that President Obama had the courage and the spirit to make such a statement himself? Why does President Obama have less faith in the U.S. Constitution than Nixon? How could there be such a threat today from terrorism, that it would be beyond the imagination of Richard Nixon? Do you, or does any reasonable man or woman in this country, truly believe that there is a threat greater than anything in Nixon’s warped paranoid skull?
David Gergen said several years ago that if Richard Nixon were running for office today, he would have to run as a Democrat. I’m wondering if the Democrats would even take him. Nixon probably had too many real principles to fit into something like today’s Democratic Party……
I’m not sure who I’m going to support personally, but I think generally that Occupy as a movement should avoid this political struggle. We should be more focused if anything on local elections. The whole idea that the identity of the President is a huge deal is a fascist idea in itself. People imagine that the President is the King of the fucking Universe. Anything that happens is his fault. It’s a sickness. That belief is a sickness, not the actions of Obama or Bush or anybody else. Bobby Dylan told us: “Don’t follow leaders, and watch the parking meters.” The President is trivial compared to the 1%, or really the .01% as Paul Krugman has reminded us, who represent an actual malevolent influence on the lives of so many others.
Presidents are just puppets, we should recognize that and move forward from that premise instead of worrying about which puppet we’re going to have next year. The point is that Nixon was as fascist as he was allowed to be — and Obama is only as liberal as he’s allowed to be.
I’m not sure who I’m going to support personally, but I think generally that Occupy as a movement should avoid this political struggle. We should be more focused if anything on local elections. The whole idea that the identity of the President is a huge deal is a fascist idea in itself. People imagine that the President is the King of the fucking Universe. Anything that happens is his fault. It’s a sickness. That belief is a sickness, not the actions of Obama or Bush or anybody else. Bobby Dylan told us: “Don’t follow leaders, and watch the parking meters.” The President is trivial compared to the 1%, or really the .01% as Paul Krugman has reminded us, who represent an actual malevolent influence on the lives of so many others.
Presidents are just puppets, we should recognize that and move forward from that premise instead of worrying about which puppet we’re going to have next year. The point is that Nixon was as fascist as he was allowed to be — and Obama is only as liberal as he’s allowed to be.
No doubt Nixon was more ‘liberal’ than Obama…who is probably the most reactionary president since Hoover. (Yes, I think he’s even worse than W., who never would have dared to try to support the authoritarian measures Obama has pushed.)
In 2012, please consider supporting Rocky Anderson for President. He’s running on the Justice Party ticket.
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