Charles Pierce: Nobody on Stage Tonight Will Be President

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34078-focus-nobody-on-stage-tonight-will-be-president

When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, "commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." That title is rarely—more like never—heard today. It is just "commander in chief," or even "commander in chief of the United States." This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline. In wartime, it is true, people submit to the national leadership more than in peacetime. The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hide its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets.

Constitutional shortcuts are taken "for the duration." But those impositions are removed when normal life returns. But we have not seen normal life in 66 years. The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and "the duration" has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever—more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism.

—Garry Wills, 2007.

I needed to put that on the record because its basic truth was completely lost in a dark land of fear and amid the waving poison ferns in Wolf Blitzer's amygdala. First of all, none of these people will be my commander in chief. None of these people will have the job of keeping me "safe." The first priority of a president is not keeping the country safe. The first priority of a president—indeed, the only priority of a president—is to preserve, protect and defend not me, but the Constitution of the United States. So sitting there, listening to a bunch of people who never served a day in combat talk about how they're going to turn the Middle East into obsidian glass and how they will keep me safe, it was hard not to fall off my chair. Frankly, I wouldn't hire any of these people to watch my car in a valet parking lot, let alone lead the country into what they never miss a chance to call, "the Third World War." Chris Christie? Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio?Trump?

You see where I'm going here.

When he was a "federal prosecutor," Chris Christie made more ferocious war on his expense account than he did against the "people who want to kill us." (His big trophy case, the Fort Dix Six, is one of those strange half-entrapment cases.) He also doesn't seem to like the Senate very much. Marco Rubio, continuing his ongoing effort to fill out a grown-up person's suit, postured and promised us (again) a 500-ship Navy to keep us safe from the people who drive their pick-up trucks across the ocean to attack us. He also puffed himself up and declined to talk about classified information on national television. (This assumes, of course, that he even knows any, given the fact that he seems to have developed a severe allergy to something in the room where the Senate Intelligence Committee meets.) Ben Carson said something very weird about being a neurosurgeon in connection with carpet-bombing Syria. (I'm not kidding.) It's a very good thing that we really are not electing a commander-in-chief for the whole country because none of these guys is up to the job.

[pacalo]

1. He's become one of my favorite political writers.

So well said.

[SunSeeker]

2. K & R

[shadowmayor]

3. Fight them over there so we won't have to fight them here

How'd that whole WMD-mushroom cloud-Saddam equals 9/11 thing work out? Our last repuke idiot started this whole mess with this same kind of tough-guy, dead or alive, fightin' "terrorists" in their own country crap and we got taken for a ride that hasn't ended. In fact, it may just be beginning. ISIS is just al qaeda 3.0, formed in our detention facilities in Iraq. Hell, Saddam hated al qaeda and there wouldn't be an ISIS or al qaeda 3.0 if we hadn't invaded. The USA has been bombing, starving, and killing Iraqi people since 1991 to the tune of over a million dead, millions displaced and injured and now it has spilled into Syria. I thought Assad was our buddy when we were handing him enemy combatants to be tortured? And all that these assholes running for President want to do is throw more gas on the fire. Such good Christeeun people advocating the murder of innocent women, children, and folks who just happen to be in the way of our bombs and bullets. What a dangerous and pathetic group of psychopaths!!!

Was Saddam a good guy? No. Was Bush a good guy. Hell no. Bush was and is much much worse. And these idiots want to follow his lead. That our media treats this shit like a horse race and not the horror show that it truly is, says loads about our country. In a sane society, nobody would have tuned in and CNN would be laughed off the air.

When I arrived in Iraq in 2005, we were in the process of destroying one of the most secular and "western" countries in the Middle East. Iraq had a brewery, Sunnis and Shiites were marrying each other, the University had college kids dressed much like what you'd see in our country; the Christians owned liquor stores and tens of thousand of Jewish people were about to be run out of their homes. We took apart an Arab country that had Jewish, Christian, Yazzidi, Kurdish, and other cultures within its borders, where beer was being brewed and sold, and had liquor stores. WTF were we thinking? And what did the people of Iraq ever do to us? To hell with the Republican party forever, and the tough talking Democrats can kiss my dusty butt too. War truly is a horrible racket.

[Martin Eden]

5. Great post, fully agree.

The only thing they're keeping safe is profiteering from perpetual war.

[Hekate]

4. From his lips to God's ears.

shaking my head....

[Paladin]

6. Charlie Pierce is a national treasure. (nt)