Silencing Democracy

George W. Bush, facing a nation that hates him and his twisted policies more every day, is resorting to his favorite defensive tactic: attack the attacker. He is perverting the hollow saw of "support the troops" by stating that criticizing him is "sending mixed messages" to them. I guess our boys in Iraq will feel bad knowing that their war was a hoax and not fight as hard. He has even stated that people have died because Congressmen are criticizing Bush and his handling of the war, from the initial sales pitch to the muffed post-war state of affairs.

To take his argument at face value, this means that no one has the right to criticize the President as long as American troops have boots on foreign soil. Since America has been at war--Cold or hot, declared or undeclared--since December 7, 1941, this means that Bush is favoring an unofficial reinstatement of the Alien and Sedition Act. Actually, I'm surprised he hasn't had his lapdog, Bill Frist, introduce such a measure explicitly.

Besides the fact that American democracy is based entirely on our ability to criticize and reject our own government, Bush's argument is extremely dangerous to our national security. A President who fails in the deadly business of War and Diplomacy is putting the lives of Americans, both civilian and military, at risk. A government which mismanages its foreign and military affairs, especially in times of war, leads its nation to the brink of extinction.

If no one speaks out against the President in the moments of his greatest failings, then he can assume that he is on the right course. He can then proceed to even further wreckless adventures, costing Americans more in lives, money and deteriorating security.

Bush is not just saying that American citizens cannot speak up. He is specifically stating that Congressmen, those elected to speak for you or me--Okay, not me, since I live in DC and have no voice in Congress-- have no right to speak out against his policies. He is saying that the Opposition Party should have no right to mount any opposition to his government. Since Republicans love talking about our glorious fight against Communism and Fascism, shouldn't they recall that the biggest problem with those systems was the complete domination by one party over all the others?

To be snide, we might also point out that Bush was among those Republicans who openly criticized Bill Clinton's handling of Somalia. Did American soldiers die in Africa because Republican Congressmen and then-Texas Governor Bush sent "mixed messages" to our troops there?

Apparently, this principle only applies if the President happens to be a Republican. Otherwise, he is unworthy of the enormous priviledges and exemptions from criticism that Republicans have been ascribing to the Presidency since 2001. I also somehow doubt that John Kerry would be afforded the same luxury that Bush seems to claim for himself.

By branding his opponents as unpatriotic and detrimental to national security, Bush is treading a dangerous path that would lead to the extinguishment of our democracy. Without the right to criticize our own government, what is the point of our foreign adventures to "promote democracy"? If we allow Bush to use such crass tactics, we effectively allow him to destroy our right to control our own government, which is the very definition of Democracy: rule by the people.