I call upon Democratic and Republican members of Congress today to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution. Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you're supposed to be.
But there is yet another Constitutional player whose pulse must be taken and whose role must be examined in order to understand the dangerous imbalance that has emerged with the efforts by the Executive Branch to dominate our constitutional system.
We the people are-collectively-still the key to the survival of America's democracy. We-as Lincoln put it, "[e]ven we here"-must examine our own role as citizens in allowing and not preventing the shocking decay and degradation of our democracy.
Thomas Jefferson said: "An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will."
Read the rest here. I could expound further, and I suppose I did, to some extent, in my Flag burning post. But Gore said everything I could say, and more. It certainly makes one wonder how different the world would be right now if Gore had been sworn into office in January 2001.
8 comments:
Here's a thought for my yesterday. Read this blog entry from a Brit on the poem 'America'. The first word is link to it in full http://justinhorton.blogspot.com/ I'm enjoying you blog immensely.Keep up the good work. Regards from New Zealand.
Oh, America would be different.
We still would have gone to war in Afghanistan. We still would have gone to war in Iraq. That wouldn't be different.
But what would be different is this:
Democrats would be defending Gore and the war, arguing that it is the obligation of free Americans to bring liberty and opportunity to a corner of the third world that our bungling actions for thirty years have made worse.
Meanwhile, Republicans would, after three years in Iraq, be complaining that America has bitten off more than it can chew, and should return back safely behind our borders.
You can argue that this isn't how it would be. But you'd be naive, wrong, or both. I've witnessed for a dozen years, how the most vocal wings of both parties have argued for or against various military actions with only one common denominator defining their incongruous stances: the party of the President in power at the time.
zardoz says:
hey bob k ,,, TOUCHE'
ANY LINKS ON GORES SPEECH
-----------ZARDOZ
The full text of the speech is:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html
Bob, yes, maybe. Perhaps 9/11 might not have happened...it probably would have, but maybe not. And I seriously doubt Dems would have gone to war in Iraq, but who knows? I just have to wonder. But I wonder about things going much farther back than the 2000 election in America, too...
Oh, and thanks edt! Glad you are enjoying the blog, and thanks for the link. I love the poem America and just about everything Ginsberg has written.
911 would have happened no matter who was president - just as other terrorist bombings happened during Clinton's administration. You guys are soooo naive!
zardoz says:
holy cow..!
what a speech , didnt think
he had it , in him .
So now what ?
--------------zardoz
9/11 would have happened regardless who was president. The planning for it was started in the Clinton administration times, before Bush or Gore or anybody wer even a nominee for the Presidential election.
I just heard a radio announcer quote Al Gore on the illegal phone use by Bush of some Americans making overseasa calls. He thinks it is dead wrong, but considering that the Clinton administration did similar things I think he's full of hot air.
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