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marmar

(77,080 posts)
Wed Jun 18, 2014, 11:14 AM Jun 2014

What We've Lost Since 9/11: Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America


from TomDispatch:


What We've Lost Since 9/11
Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America

By Peter Van Buren


America has entered its third great era: the post-constitutional one. In the first, in the colonial years, a unitary executive, the King of England, ruled without checks and balances, allowing no freedom of speech, due process, or privacy when it came to protecting his power.

In the second, the principles of the Enlightenment and an armed rebellion were used to push back the king’s abuses. The result was a new country and a new constitution with a Bill of Rights expressly meant to check the government's power. Now, we are wading into the shallow waters of a third era, a time when that government is abandoning the basic ideas that saw our nation through centuries of challenges far more daunting than terrorism. Those ideas -- enshrined in the Bill of Rights -- are disarmingly concise. Think of them as the haiku of a genuine people's government.

Deeper, darker waters lie ahead and we seem drawn down into them. For here there be monsters.

The Powers of a Police State Denied

America in its pre-constitutional days may seem eerily familiar even to casual readers of current events. We lived then under the control of a king. (Think now: the imperial presidency.) That king was a powerful, unitary executive who ruled at a distance. His goal was simple: to use his power over “his” American colonies to draw the maximum financial gain while suppressing any dissent that might endanger his control. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_rip%2C_the_bill_of_rights/#more



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What We've Lost Since 9/11: Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America (Original Post) marmar Jun 2014 OP
K&R /nt Dragonfli Jun 2014 #1
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. Albert Camus Tierra_y_Libertad Jun 2014 #2
Kicked and recommended. Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #3
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