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8 Republicans That Deserve A Progressive Thank YouFor Voting Against the Military Commissions Act
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8 Republicans That Deserve A Progressive Thank YouThese are dark days for democracy in America. With the signing of the Military Commissions Act into law on October 17, 2006, a new era of American political culture began - a era of fear.
With the passage of the Military Commissions Act, the United States of America slipped into the tyranny of unrestrained government power that marked Europe's Dark Ages. Indeed, the law revokes the right of habeas corpus, which was won as part of the Magna Carta in the 1200s. To say that America has gone back to medieval standards of law is not at all an exaggeration.
The sad fact that most American citizens don't even know what habeas corpus is, or why it is so important to democracy, liberty, and the rule of law. The right of habeas corpus is the right of the citizenry to know who the government is holding prisoner and on what those people are being imprisoned. The Military Commissions Act takes that right away.
The supporters of the Military Commissions Act says that those habeas corpus rights are only taken away from foreigners, but in practice, when habeas corpus is taken away from anyone, it is taken away from us all. Once the government is allowed to set up secret prisons with secret prisoners whose identity, treatment, and status is withheld from public view, the government becomes able to deprive any person of their rights.
With the establishment of prisons where habeas corpus does not apply, the American government could now snatch even an American citizen off the streets, place that citizen into one of the secret prisons, and then refuse to answer any questions about that person. The government could claim that the citizen is in fact a foreigner, and then with the circular reasoning embedded in the Military Commissions Act, refuse to acknowledge even that the person is being held prisoner, much less acknowledge the citizenship of that person.
There weren't many Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose the Military Commissions Act. Only 8 did so. At other times, these 8 Republicans support nasty, right wing laws, but this time, they did the right thing. This time, they respected the Oath of Office they all took when they entered the Congress of the United States of America. They deserve our thanks for that.
The eight Republicans who did the right thing are:
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