Home > Tyrant in the White House Bush Crosses the Rubicon

Tyrant in the White House Bush Crosses the Rubicon

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 17 January 2006
21 comments

Edito Governments USA History

by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Dictatorships seldom appear full-fledged but emerge piecemeal. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals and launched the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Fearing that Caesar would become a king, the Senate assassinated him. From the civil wars that followed, Caesar’s grand nephew, Octavian, emerged as the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.

Two thousand years later in Germany, Adolf Hitler’s rise to dictator from his appointment as chancellor was rapid. Hitler used the Reichstag fire to create an atmosphere of crisis. Both the judicial and legislative branches of government collapsed, and Hitler’s decrees became law. The Decree for the Protection of People and State (Feb. 28, 1933) suspended guarantees of personal liberty and permitted arrest and incarceration without trial. The Enabling Act (March 23, 1933) transferred legislative power to Hitler, permitting him to decree laws, laws moreover that "may deviate from the Constitution."

The dictatorship of the Roman emperors was not based on an ideology. The Nazis had an ideology of sorts, but Hitler’s dictatorship was largely personal and agenda-based. The dictatorship that emerged from the Bolshevik Revolution was based in ideology. Lenin declared that the Communist Party’s dictatorship over the Russian people rests "directly on force, not limited by anything, not restricted by any laws, nor any absolute rules." Stalin’s dictatorship over the Communist Party was based on coercion alone, unrestrained by any limitations or inhibitions.

In this first decade of the 21st century the United States regards itself as a land of democracy and civil liberty but, in fact, is an incipient dictatorship. Ideology plays only a limited role in the emerging dictatorship. The demise of American democracy is largely the result of historical developments.

Lincoln was the first American tyrant. Lincoln justified his tyranny in the name of preserving the Union. His extra-legal, extra-constitutional methods were tolerated in order to suppress Northern opposition to Lincoln’s war against the Southern secession.

The first major lasting assault on the US Constitution’s separation of powers, which is the basis for our political system, came with the response of the Roosevelt administration to the crisis of the Great Depression. The New Deal resulted in Congress delegating its legislative powers to the executive branch. Today when Congress passes a statute it is little more than an authorization for an executive agency to make the law by writing the regulations that implement it.

Prior to the New Deal, legislation was tightly written to minimize any executive branch interpretation. Only in this way can law be accountable to the people. If the executive branch that enforces the law also writes the law, "all legislative powers" are no longer vested in elected representatives in Congress. The Constitution is violated, and the separation of powers is breached.

The principle that power delegated to Congress by the people cannot be delegated by Congress to the executive branch is the mainstay of our political system. Until President Roosevelt overturned this principle by threatening to pack the Supreme Court, the executive branch had no role in interpreting the law. As Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote: "That congress cannot delegate legislative power to the president is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution."

Despite seven decades of an imperial presidency that has risen from the New Deal’s breach of the separation of powers, Republican attorneys, who constitute the membership of the quarter-century-old Federalist Society, the candidate group for Republican nominees to federal judgeships, write tracts about the Imperial Congress and the Imperial Judiciary that are briefs for concentrating more power in the executive. Federalist Society members pretend that Congress and the Judiciary have stolen all the power and run away with it.

The Republican interest in strengthening executive power has its origin in agenda frustration from the constraints placed on Republican administrations by Democratic congresses. The thrust to enlarge the President’s powers predates the Bush administration but is being furthered to a dangerous extent during Bush’s second term. The confirmation of Bush’s nominee, Samuel Alito, a member of the Federalist Society, to the Supreme Court will provide five votes in favor of enlarged presidential powers.

President Bush has used "signing statements" hundreds of times to vitiate the meaning of statutes passed by Congress. In effect, Bush is vetoing the bills he signs into law by asserting unilateral authority as commander-in-chief to bypass or set aside the laws he signs. For example, Bush has asserted that he has the power to ignore the McCain amendment against torture, to ignore the law that requires a warrant to spy on Americans, to ignore the prohibition against indefinite detention without charges or trial, and to ignore the Geneva Conventions to which the US is signatory.

In effect, Bush is asserting the powers that accrued to Hitler in 1933. His Federalist Society apologists and Department of Justice appointees claim that President Bush has the same power to interpret the Constitution as the Supreme Court. An Alito Court is likely to agree with this false claim.

This is the great issue that is before the country. But it is pushed into the background by political battles over abortion and homosexual rights. Many people fighting to strengthen the executive think they are fighting against legitimizing sodomy and murder in the womb. They are unaware that the real issue is that America is on the verge of elevating its president above the law.

Bush Justice Department official and Berkeley law professor John Yoo argues that no law can restrict the president in his role as commander-in-chief. Thus, once the president is at war—even a vague open-ended "war on terror"—Bush’s Justice Department says the president is free to undertake any action in pursuit of war, including the torture of children and indefinite detention of American citizens.

The commander-in-chief role is probably sufficiently elastic to expand to any crisis, whether real or fabricated. Thus has the US arrived at the verge of dictatorship.

This development has little to do with Bush, who is unlikely to be aware that the Constitution is experiencing its final rending on his watch. America’s descent into dictatorship is the result of historical developments and of old political battles dating back to President Nixon being driven from office by a Democratic Congress.

There is today no constitutional party. Both political parties, most constitutional lawyers, and the bar associations are willing to set aside the Constitution whenever it interferes with their agendas. Americans have forgotten the prerequisites for freedom, and those pursuing power have forgotten what it means when it falls into other hands. Americans are very close to losing their constitutional system and civil liberties. It is paradoxical that American democracy is the likely casualty of a "war on terror" that is being justified in the name of the expansion of democracy.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01162006.html

Forum posts

  • "State of Terror" - Pamela Yates director - the most amazing documentary about Peru’s struggle with terrorism and dictarorship and the murder of over 70,000 innocent people. War on terror - easy way to control public opinion. Go see it.

  • Tha "War on Terror" is actually the War OF Terror". It’s a scam. You cannot wage war on a verb. But the befuddled world population will easily be led like sheep into believing that governments are our parents and they will protect us. Governments are our SERVANTS and when they exhibit the signs of despotism, it is the right, indeed the DUTY of people to throw off such a yoke and replace it with a government in keeping with the rulel of law. The New World Order is a PLAN. The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) is a PLAN. The happenings around the world today are deliberate, not accidental. We are in the midst of an enormous chess game. The lives of civilians are of no concern to governments - they are expendable; necessary evils.

    The Bush administration is a collection of criminal, scheming, radical, fake-religious, pompous, arrogant and dangerous lunatics. Their first interest is money and their second is power. They’ve systematically dastroyed the US Constitution under the dubious guise of ’protecting’ people. the Government of the UK is not far behind.

    History has been written and it has been learned from, but not in the manner we would choose. The history of despotism and tryanny are the LESSON BOOKS of the current powers. They’ve used them as examples. The rise to power of Adolph Hitler and GW Bush are not simply coincidences - they are identical because the latter used the former as an EXAMPLE of how to eradicate freedom, control populations and garner support through FEAR. They’ve followed the lesson to the letter.

    If you really believe there is such the group as Al Queda, think again. Try Al-CIA-DUH. If you really believe there are people of the "true" Muslim belief who are bent on killing anyone for no apparent reason, then you deserve all the radical ridiculous and quasi-religious stricture bestowed upon you by your governments. And if you really believe the events of September 11 were committed by middle-eastern men with ’box-cutters’ then you haven’t a clue as to the depth of deception being committed by the Bush administration and other governments arould the world.

    If you really believe George Bush is intelligent enough to lead this fiasco, then you’ve really swallowed the red pill. He’s a cardboard cutout of a man - incapable of even pronouncing the word "NUCLEAR". He’s a stupid man, with a history of stupidity and emotional imbalance. He’s a front for a much larger machine.

    The US is the new Imperial Power bent on control and domination - not freedom and safety or the Rule of Law. But just as with Goliath, a small stone can bring the giant down.

    Give up your naive notions. Look at reality. The Bastille Day is coming once again.

    • Well said. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that the average bloke can or is willing to get his head around what’s being done to him in the name of religion, democracy, protection, etc. For the most part, people have lost the ability to tap into their common sense. They have forfeited their right to think things through for themselves, else the U.S. and U.K. would have had mass uprisings by now. Even those who realize the madness of Junior and his handlers don’t get the full picture, thinking as they do that the Democrats can and will turn this mess around. Not a chance. They’re in on it. By the time the masses wake up it will be too late. I am not at all hopeful of an even tolerable outcome.

  • The loss of liberty is seeping into the lives of every American. Most Americans are so unaware of the rights afforded them by the constitution, they hardly understand what they have lost.

  • If America is on the verge of a dictatorship (which is apparently the case), countdown to the Second American Revolution is commencing now...

    • it seems so clear that this is what’s required.... what are we waiting for? are we waiting for the next attack? why?

      Why don’t we have people setting up a permanent, stay-as-long-as-it-takes protest in DC? Right now- before the next attack gives them an excuse to really clamp down.

    • "THEY" will create the next attack - just as they did on 911. Those in power in Washington currently, are the culprits. The controlled demolitions of 911 were the pretext for world domination - hence the ’premptive doctrine’ of the Bush administration.

      Remember the anthrax? American-made, American Labs, Military grade.....but no suspects and no convictions? Oh yes...the evil middle eastern men did that all right! And I’m the King of Kashmir.

    • Our country is already a dictatorship. And the people are cowed wimps who aren’t going to do anything about it. Face it, we americans are finished.

  • Dictatorship has now turned into "executive power" - sounds more businesslike. The two party system has failed in protecting human and civil rights. The system of "checks and balances" has been ridiculed by the given fact that both house are in the hand of one party now. Also the judical system has been overtaken by "conservative" judges and attorneys.
    The situation can’t be solved by the next midterm election and moreover we will be suprised how it will turn out. America needs not bipartisanship, but honest independet politicans.

    • The two party system no longer exists in the US. It’s ONE party with two faces. And Diebold controls the vote-counting - and manufacturing thereof.

  • Roberts correctly points out the similarity of the Roman empire to the modern US. If his comparison track accurately, here is what we can expect: we will get a stream of emperors, some of whom will be mad, some of whom will be great and most of whom will be caretakers. Slowly the whole empire will unravel. The unravelling will accelerate in consequence to the debasement of the currency. (Take note that by 400AD or so, the Roman government would not accept its own specie at face value for the payment of taxes.) In any case, the Roman blowout was ultimately financial. The money became so debased that payment of taxes was made in kind. For reasons too tedious to explain here, the corruption if the money helped usher in the feudalism of the so-called dark ages. Feudalism was marked by serfdom and warlords. That outcome seems fairly likely for the US too, updated, of course, to the times.

    Our first ceasar, by the way, was Lincoln. Take note that he, like ceasar, was assassinated. Following Lincoln there was a muddle, of sorts, but by the late 1898’s we were back on track with empire building (the Spanish-American war).

    Robert’s comparison to Hitler’s Germany is a bit puerile, though. Roberts seems to mouth he same old tired pabulum that Hitler was a huge ogre. It’s easy to make an ogre out of a dead guy. The emergence of Hitler was caused by dreadful conditions within Germany and a response to the machinations of a fifth column. Even today the existence of that fifth column is carefully ignored. Just like it is in the US of today. There the coincidence is striking, but Roberts fails to point that out.

    • Wow! It’s scary how inarticulate and obnoxious some people can be - and still think of themselves as adults.

  • I agree with Paul when he says;

    "There is today no constitutional party. Both political parties, most constitutional lawyers, and the bar associations are willing to set aside the Constitution whenever it interferes with their agendas. Americans have forgotten the prerequisites for freedom, and those pursuing power have forgotten what it means when it falls into other hands. Americans are very close to losing their constitutional system and civil liberties. It is paradoxical that American democracy is the likely casualty of a "war on terror" that is being justified in the name of the expansion of democracy."

    Here is an article. ’Viva Fascismo’, on Fountainhead that says the same;

    "Moreover, in today’s America the elites are spread evenly in the two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. While they may appear to be on the opposite ends of the political scale, they have a commonality of interest in looting the masses. The elites in Democrats, the opposition in today’s America, would much rather have common Americans direct their fury into the electoral system rather than stir them to challenge the ruling elites. For however fraudulent the election process may be, the practice also keeps them in their positions of power and privilege. The ruling elite’s complicity in this sinister game, of course, is a definite given."

    Check out the rest of the article at ;

    http://malakandsky.blogspot.com/2006/01/viva-fascismo.html

  • Despite all the media hype of the ’atrocities’ in China etc etc, they are, in reality, angels when compared with US’s continuing attack against the people. The MSM’s Orwellian reporting distort everything. Disbelievers can go to China to find out the relative freedom the people there enjoy.

    • Have you ever heard of Emminent Domain where some 44,000 homes in N.O. have been ’repossessed’ for the peoples’ good. What about the lack of help to own citizens & now the unknown whereabouts of residents from Katrina what do you call all these?..what about innocent people being held without trial?...not to mention the terrible tortures going on in Guantanamo...Abu Graib...etc? China had allowed free and unconditional access to the UN Investigator Novak to investigate all the allegations - yet here in the US the UN were DENIED free access prompting Novak to level his criticism againt the US. What is there to hide especially when China had extended Novak free and unconditional access?

      What about the Patriot act where we are going to have biometrics, retina scan etc etc, encoded in our IDs? Is this freedom?

  • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—

    Have we forgoten that this???

    • Some of us haven’t forgotten this. But over the past decades, the concepts embodied in this treatise have first become a quaint novelty, and now have become treasonous. There is little question in my mind that if one were to publicly and loudly espouse these points, one would become ripe for arrest, of some sort anyhow. For the protection of the nation, of course. Sic transit gloria mundi.

      Thank you for restating this excerpt from our most precious declaration.

  • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—

  • This explains a lot, but much of what I’ve suspected all along:

    http://www.infowars.com/articles/Bush/americans_dumber_than_bush.htm

  • For the astute minority of people in the USA, i.e., those who know that 9-11 was one of the "Pearl Harbor Events" Dick Cheney spoke of in the now infamous PNAC as being necessary to expedite the NeoCon plans, you are faced with some serious difficulties in turning the tide in the country. For one, the American public, like so much of western society, is much too preoccupied in moral decadence, work / careers, vacations, etc, etc to be bothered looking at, much less thinking about, current affairs. To summarize, the people are too comfortable to do anything radical and the corrupt megalomaniacs in charge of the country know it!!!