This Far and No Further!

I believe that in his heart, Thomas Jefferson was an anarchist.  Anarchy is a society without rulers, not a society without rules.  He understood that our rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are inalienable.  No government can reward those rights.  No government can take them away.  We are already in possession of them. We do not need government to protect rights that cannot be taken from us. That being the case, "in the best of all possible worlds," to quote Dr. Pangloss, we would not need a government.  If 2008 is any indication we are far from living in the best of all possible worlds.  I have a feeling Jefferson would agree. 

On the long term prospect of government being an effective instrument in defending human liberty Jefferson said:

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

There has been a lot of talk over the last several months about who is a real Democrat and who is not, who is a patriot and who is not. Anyone who allows their party to get away with violating its own charter and sunshine laws, gives tacit approval to rampant caucus fraud, and subverts its own democratic procedures at its convention by intimidating delegates, preventing them from meeting, and holding rigged votes behind closed doors to my mind is neither.  

 

In 1801 Jefferson told Benjamin Waring:

The will of the people... is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. 

We are already a society that has quietly accepted the suspension of habeas corpus, and warrantless wire tapping. Now we are supposed to accept the subversion of our right of franchise? Now we are supposed to accept that political institutions can reject democratic procedure in order to advance their preferred candidates and let the will of the people be damned?  NO! 

On May 31, 2008 we watched the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee violate its own charter and its sunshine laws when it arbitrarily assigned 59 Michigan delegates to Barack Obama.  It is well documented now that the Obama campaign perpetrated rampant fraud at caucuses around the country.  I was in Denver and was personally told by pledged delegates that they were being intimidated and threatened into changing their votes to Obama.  It is also now known that Clinton pledged delegates were not even permitted to organize or meet, and were forced to participate in a fraudulent roll call vote.  All in the name of presenting a wholly and totally false picture of party unity to the nation.  All in the name of advancing a personality.

The Oxford American Dictionary includes in the definition of fascism, "...a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach." 

The Democratic Party's leadership has certainly demonstrated contempt for democracy, insisted on obedience (though I would say Obama is far from a powerful leader), and has put forward a candidate that has employed a strong demagogic approach.  I will certainly not follow when an American political institution begins down the road of fascism.

As Democrats, and former Democrats, we must draw a line in the sand; this far and no further!  We must hold the Democratic Party responsible for what it has done in order to reclaim it.  This is America, not Putin's Russia. We are bound by our Constitution, and the natural law of human decency, to protect and defend our rights when faced with a body that designs to deprive us of them, as is the President and the Congress.  They have abdicated that responsibility. We have not, and we will not apologize for it.