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James Madison once warned: "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
And so it has come to pass.
Under the guise of fighting terrorism, Congress has passed, and the president has now signed, an egregiously unconstitutional bill called the "Military Commissions Act." In doing so, they have ushered in a new era of authoritarianism in America.
American citizens should not delude themselves into believing that they are exempted from the ramifications of this despotic bill. Although certain parts of it are aimed at non-citizens, other parts explicitly state that any "person" (not just aliens or residents,) may be subject to it.
After analyzing the new bill, Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman writes that the MCA, "…authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights."
That is not an America that our founders would recognize.
Perhaps Jonathan Turley, constitutional law professor at George Washington University, captured the true spirit of the MCA when he said that it "...essentially revokes over 200 years of American principles and values."
What we are witnessing is nothing less than the transformation of the United States from a constitutional republic, into a de facto military dictatorship. One in which citizens no longer have constitutionally guaranteed rights, but rather privileges that can be nullified at the whim of the government.
To allow the government to circumvent the US constitution in the name of fighting terrorism is not only unnecessary, it is dangerous: A government not limited by a constitution will surely lead to tyranny.
Today's Americans would be wise to heed the words of former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas:
"As nightfall does not come at once," Douglas wrote, "neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
Well, my fellow Americans, I would submit that we are now in the twilight of our Republic.
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