Congress Has Become Irrelevant
Daniel D. New
When, in the course of human events, those who are entrusted with any particular duty decide to abdicate that responsibility and do other things, they become irrelevant, at best, and tyrants at worst. When those charged with preserving the liberty of a nation decide that it is more important to guard their elite status, their rank and privilege, their salaries and retirement, then those individuals and the institution which they comprise becomes irrelevant.
The Constitution clearly provides that only Congress shall declare War. The Founding Fathers greatly feared the inevitable tyranny of allowing one man, or even one branch of government, the absolute power to determine foreign policy and military policy for the nation. For this reason, they established a “separation of powers,” giving Congress the power to declare war, and calling the President into the role of Commander in Chief when war is declared.
It is a perversion of the Constitution for the President to send troops when and where he will, and to authorize himself with “Presidential Decision Directives,” such as PDD 25, which he claims is the basis on which Michael New was ordered into Macedonia. (And which he then classified so that even Congress is not allowed to read it!) Indeed, it is an impeachable act. But the very Representatives charged with enforcing the Constitution do not have the political will to impeach on Constitutional grounds. The best they could do was respond to national disgust with this particular president by impeaching on “Zippergate,” competing with day-time television for a season.
There are so many anomalies and questionable actions by this administration that impeaching on grounds of constitutional abuse poses only a problem of where to start!
The People understand that getting involved in the political process has become irrelevant, and yet a number of elected representatives are going to be surprised next year when they are not re-elected because the voters stay home in droves. Of course, the special interest groups will vote, because it is not irrelevant to them that they elect people who will pander to their pocketbooks. But the average citizen, gainfully employed and duly milked as a taxpayer, is glumly resigning himself to the fact that his voting and campaigning for better representatives in Washington causes nothing to happen. He stayed home in limited numbers in 1998, and he’s going to do it in larger numbers in 2000.
The bumper sticker I saw in 1976 best sums up the philosophy of a growing body of American citizens: "Spirit of ’76: Re-elect Nobody!" As Claire Wolfe so eloquently states, "If voting made a difference, it would be outlawed!"
At issue is whether the US of A is to be a nation ruled by law or by the whims of men. If the latter, then Congress may as well go home and let’s quit wasting our money on their irrelevant salaries. Should the miracle happen that Congress discovers its backbone, it could become relevant again. Don’t bet the farm on that happening.
We are witnessing the demise of a Republic and the rise of an Empire. The parallels to Roman history are so close that one can read the future by reading the past. The coming"Pax Americana" may bring "peace and prosperity" of a sort, but it will be at the cost of individual liberty, of national sovereignty, and of the progress that such freedom enables.