Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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leadership in <strong>the</strong> long emergency S 95<br />
and a great deal more. Such things are now possible because <strong>the</strong><br />
system <strong>of</strong> checks and balances carefully written in<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Constitution<br />
and explained in great detail in <strong>the</strong> Federalist Papers was systematically<br />
undone, partly as a result <strong>of</strong> his<strong>to</strong>rical circumstances <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> 20th century, but with a vengeance by <strong>the</strong> Bush administration.<br />
Said <strong>to</strong> be necessary in order <strong>to</strong> protect <strong>the</strong> country from terrorism,<br />
this expansion <strong>of</strong> presidential authority was in truth carried<br />
out by ruthless right-wing ideologues who smelled opportunity<br />
in <strong>the</strong> smoke and ashes <strong>of</strong> 9/11. While things appeared <strong>to</strong> be going<br />
well, <strong>the</strong>y were abetted by corporate opportunists wanting less regulation<br />
and higher pr<strong>of</strong>i ts, <strong>the</strong> well-<strong>to</strong>-do wanting lower taxes, a<br />
compliant media eager <strong>to</strong> please, megachurch zealots intending <strong>to</strong><br />
replace democracy with <strong>the</strong>ocracy, a ragtag army <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> congenitally<br />
angry, an opposition party that forgot how <strong>to</strong> oppose, and a<br />
drowsy citizenry <strong>to</strong>o distracted <strong>to</strong> notice <strong>the</strong> erosion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir liberties.<br />
Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, George Bush, and <strong>the</strong>ir allies, for a<br />
time, conjured up James Madison’s worst nightmare—<strong>the</strong> unifi cation<br />
<strong>of</strong> once carefully separated powers <strong>of</strong> government—executive,<br />
judicial, legislative—in <strong>the</strong> hands <strong>of</strong> a single faction, along with substantial<br />
control over newspapers, radio, and television and an extensive<br />
police and surveillance apparatus he would have loa<strong>the</strong>d. In <strong>the</strong><br />
words <strong>of</strong> at<strong>to</strong>rney Scott Hor<strong>to</strong>n, “subverting an entire legal apparatus<br />
requires great effort. Laws must be circumvented, civil servants<br />
thwarted, and opposing politicians intimidated in<strong>to</strong> silence” (2008,<br />
p. 38). And <strong>the</strong>y were . . . for a time.<br />
President Obama must decide <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>to</strong> which he will<br />
openly dissociate himself from <strong>the</strong> expanded powers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bush<br />
administration. But <strong>the</strong> his<strong>to</strong>rical record gives little encouragement<br />
about <strong>the</strong> contraction <strong>of</strong> presidential power. Typically, <strong>the</strong><br />
expanded powers <strong>of</strong> one president are carefully guarded by successors.<br />
The president has distanced himself from <strong>the</strong> more controversial<br />
actions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bush administration, but as a matter <strong>of</strong><br />
political expediency, not for reasons embedded in <strong>the</strong> Constitution<br />
or law. In Hor<strong>to</strong>n’s words: