When It Comes to War, America Is Functionally a Dictatorship
If only we had a system where the people and their duly-elected representatives had power. Instead, we get the War of Trump's Rear
President George W. Bush once quipped that his life as POTUS would be a lot easier in a dictatorship. Yet when it comes to war, that is essentially what America has become, a dictatorship, an unrepresentative government in which Congress is powerless and the people’s voices are ignored.
As Dick Cheney once said when he was told the American people were against further U.S. involvement in Iraq: “So?” Who cares what ordinary Americans think? War isn’t even declared anymore, not since World War II, the people aren’t mobilized (indeed, they’re largely kept isolated from war’s true costs), even as war budgets, funded by the taxpayers or supported by more debt, keep surging and surging some more.
These facts were on my mind this AM with the news that President Trump has rejected Iran’s latest peace proposal as “totally unacceptable.” Totally unacceptable to whom? Not to the American people, who are against the war to the tune of 60% or higher. Support for the war hovers around 30% in national polling, which is likely a measure of Trump’s cult-like political support.
The Iran War is basically Trump’s war, which is to say it’s a dictator’s war, a war that one man, Trump, can choose either to prolong or to stop based on personal whims.
If Iran gave Trump a golden statue of himself, I wouldn’t be surprised if he called off the war.
One of my favorite names for a past war is the War of Jenkins’ Ear, a dustup between Britain and Spain in the 18th century. The U.S. is perhaps now fighting the War of Trump’s Rear, as America’s self-avowed winner tries to cover his own ass in a stupid war he started under pressure from Bibi Netanyahu. The great winner doesn’t want to look like a bigly loser so the war must go on.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a system of government where the people’s voice could be heard? Where duly-elected representatives held the power of the purse and the power to declare (and stop) war? Even the power to impeach and remove dictatorial presidents?
I guess we couldn’t keep our Constitutional republic after all. Anyone in the mood for a 250th birthday party this July 4th?
If only we had a document that said that the government's powers are limited and specified. Maybe something they made at the founding of the republic. Hmm. If only we had politicians who respected that document like they promised to when they were sworn into office. If only ...
The Constitution was written - and whatever else its faults, given the aristocrats who wrote it - with an eye toward George Washington becoming President. I wonder how they would have written Article II if they could have foreseen a Lincoln (who tossed out habeas corpus); Wilson (who used WWI to suppress consittuional protections); Truman (who fought a ' police action'); LBJ and Nixon (Vietnam); and all the rest - up to and including Trump.
The record seems to toss out the notion of 'original intent' in the Constitution.