The American Republic died last week
michaelbor...@yahoo.com
The Death of the First American Republic
By Mark A. LeVine
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 03 October 2006
The American Republic died last week. At least the first one.
Is there any other way to understand the meaning of the Military
Commissions Law passed by the Congress and soon to be signed by
President Bush? Without any serious opposition from Democrats (twelve
of whom actually voted for the bill, while none offered a serious
threat to fillibuster it), President Bush has signed into a law a bill
that guts the right of habeas corpus, legalizes the use of secret and
coerced evidence, "clarifies" the Geneva Conventions to allow torture
on the his command, prevents future war crimes prosecutions, and
arrogates to himself the right to declare anyone - including American
citizens - enemy combatants who can be dragged from their families,
thrown in any prison he chooses, anywhere on earth, for however long he
chooses.
There have been other terrible laws and legal decisions in American
history to be sure. The confinement of native Americans to
reservations, Jim Crow, the Dred Scott decision, the internment of
Japanese Americans during World War II - all these and more rank among
the lowest points in our nation's history. But these actions were in
keeping with the morality of their times. At least we, the people of
the United States of America, continued to move closer toward the
"truths" we've held to be self-evident since our Declaration of
Independence. They remained a beacon calling Americans to a future that
would be more just and democratic.
But who can believe the future holds such a promise today? Has
there been another moment in our history when we have gone so far
backward, abandoned so easily ideals and values that most Americans
assumed were settled long ago? Are we still living in the republic of
Jefferson and Madison?
France, for reasons never quite clear to me before today, has had
five republics. The first four were undone by military defeat,
dictatorship, or the inability of the existing constitution to meet the
political realities of the day. (The Fourth Republic ended when
military officers staged what amounted to a coup in the French colony
of Algeria, and threatened to conduct a parachute assault on Paris
unless Charles de Gaulle was named president. Let's hope our generals
in Baghdad don't feel the need to resort to such a tactic to preserve
their or the country's honor).
Could it be that our blessed Constitution, one of the greatest
documents ever penned by woman or man, is no longer capable of
guaranteeing the truths that since the Declaration have been
self-evident? Surely the present combination of unparalleled corporate
power and greed, a messianic, divinely appointed president, and a
citizenry lulled into complacency by decades of unconstrained
consumption, presents among the greatest challenges ever to our
Constitutional system.
Or perhaps the situation is, as I fear, even worse than this.
Perhaps we, Americans, no longer hold the truths enshrined in the
Declaration of Independence - "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" - to be so
self-evident. How else to explain the nearly complete acquiescence of
our society to this new law, and to all the abuses, from the launching
of a disastrous war on demonstrably false pretenses, to torture and
indefinite detention, unending occupation, unconstitutional
eavesdropping, and other betrayals of our founding ideals, that have
led up to its passage last week?
On Monday, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Chapters 57 and 58 of
the Book of Isaiah were read in synagogues the world over. I am not a
religious person, but the Prophet's words have profoundly shaped my
values and world view. In this reading, or Haftorah, Isaiah reminds the
Israelites that God, who dwells "on high, in holiness," also - indeed,
because of His position - "dwells with the lowly and humiliated." And
it is precisely from this vantage point that God chastises Israel for
its arrogance and conduct toward the less fortunate in its midst: "For
your sin of greed I grew angry and smashed you, I even hid My face. Yet
you wander off the path as your own heart, wayward, takes you...."
God orders Isaiah to "cry out aloud, don't hold back ... Tell My
people what they are doing wrong." Israel didn't listen, and so went
into exile for a second time, to Babylon. But there it took the words
of Isaiah and the other prophets to heart, and so was allowed to return
to the Holy Land for one more go at fulfilling the terms of its
Covenant with God.
Who will warn us today as Isaiah did Israel all those millennia
ago, and will we pay more attention than did our ancestors? Do we even
realize that we are quickly leaving civilization behind to wander in a
wilderness far more dangerous than the threat of a host of bin Ladens?
Who can lead us back from exile before it's too late? HIllary Clinton?
Al Gore? John McCain?
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The translation of Isaiah was made by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, and
after checking the original Hebrew I feel it more accurately reflects
its meaning that most commonly read English versions. Please go to
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/673 for the complete text of these two
chapters.
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Mr. LeVine is professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture,
and Islamic studies at the University of California, Irvine, and author
of the forthcoming books: Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on
the Axis of Evil; and Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the
Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948. He is also a contributor, with Viggo
Mortensen and Pilar Perez, to Twilight of Empire: Responses to
Occupation.