RUSSIA’S POWER GRAB SHOULDN’T ALARM U.S.
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political Activist
It’s official: Vladimir Putin’s power grab seems–by all accounts–a threat to democracy and the freedom of the press.
But before we start harping on what Russia is doing, maybe we should–instead–take a look at what we are doing to our own country:
Bush and Cheney have made it a point to disregard the powers of the Oval Office since taking the reins in 2001.
In doing so, they have usurped the power of the government, Congress, and the people–in a concentrated (and visible) effort to build themselves an imperial democracy that pretty much runs parallel to something you see in any of George Lucas’s movies.
The Patriot Act was created to destroy many of the protections afforded by the US Constitution. It allows the government to search and seize personal property with any of us knowing.
It also lets the government consider any one of us a threat to the US and its fight for democracy and freedom (commonly known as the war on terror). This in turn let’s the US seize American citizens and charge them as being an “enemy of the state”.
Holding them indefinitely without charge.
Coupled with the illegal spying, media censorship, torture of prisoners (also known in the CIA as “rendition flights”), why is Condoleezza Rice so up at arms over what Putin is doing in his own country?
After all, he pretty much has seen what we’ve done here in the United States.
Why should he have any worry about what we say and do? After all, one only has to look into the infamous history of the Soviet Union during the Cold War–and you will easily see how the US and Russia are now kindred spirits.
A chip off the ol’ block as it were.
It just took 50 years for the U.S. to finally do what the USSR had done for that long: Become a mirror image of its former enemy.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.com
Labels: Cold War, Constitution, democracy, enemy, George Lucas, illegal detention, illegal spying, imperial presidency, power grab, Russia, Star Wars, unlimited power, US, USSR
posted by Schuyler Thorpe @ 5:32 PM
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