A day or so ago, I was discussing, in an altogether too haphazard manner, the Bush Administration's subversion of the Fourth Amendment, and I brought up loyalty. Loyalty, in our form of government, flows in one direction, and that's towards the people. The sitting government, its officials and its policies owe us loyalty. The other way around is something quite unlike what our nation's constitution stipulates. Anyone who claims otherwise, is a fool or an authoritarian Bush cultist. I repeat myself.

Since it's 3:43 AM on Sunday morning, and I may have a beer or ten in my system, I'm going to indulge myself just a little here and quote something I think is really special, even if it's a bit old. Here's what The Editors (who I want to be when I grow up) had to say about loyalty.

The loyalty “owed” a President, or any government official, or any policy of the same, by a private citizen, is this much loyalty: zero. Let me say that again: the loyalty I, or you, or anyone “owes” to someone in the government, or to some course of action they favor, is none whatsoever. To think otherwise, Teddy Roosevelt might comment, is “unpatriotic and servile”. Now, this is not to say you can’t give your loyalty to the President or his policies - it’s a free country, and you can do any non-treasonous thing you want with your loyalty - but that’s your decision, and nobody has to live with it but you (and all the people who suffer from the consequences of your stupid choice of loyalties, of course.) Personally, I think the President is a horrible fucking stupid cunt and his policies are for shit. Your results may vary. But if someone tells me that I “owe” it to the President or his crap policy to act like I don’t think that, well, that person can get in the big long line with WPE and the rest of folks who really desperately need to go fuck themselves.

But Democracy gets even worse. The President and the President’s policies owe me loyalty. The President and his policies are supposed to be working for the good of the country and her people. That’s how the loyalty flows. The President is required to act for my (ok, “our”) benefit; if he does not, the betrayal is his, and the sorts of things which you’d like to call “disloyalty” become duty. Does Gore’s speaking out against torture “undermine” the country? That’s a tricky position to hold if you oppose torture. Does it “undermine” the policy? I wish. No, it does this: it reminds the world that however fucked up our government is, it isn’t us, it doesn’t speak for us, and it can never, ever make us quiet down. And I do say God Bless America.

If I knew what was good for me, I'd print that out and paste it to my refrigerator door so I could be see it each morning before I leave for the cubicle farm. Clean up the language a little, and those two paragraphs really belong in every high school civics text book published from here till forever. Too many people, who think they know better, just don't get it.

We live in an extraordinary era. An era where a woefully unpopular president commands extraordinary power. He debases our nation, with his policies, his conduct and his lies. To make matters even worse, he is completely unhindered by the legislative branch, which has been rendered docile by effective fear mongering and rigid party dicipline. to say the least, this is unsustainable. The failures of this administration either stand as a lesson about how not to govern, or our country, as we understand it, dies. Reminding ourselves and our cohorts, that the extraordinary idea, that is the United States of America, exists only by our consent and only for our benefit, is worth doing every now and again.

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