Power Grab at the Height of the Empire\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFilibuster Wars\r\nPower Grab at the Height of the Empire\r\n<\/p>
Revolution #004, May 29, 2005, posted at\r\nrevcom.us<\/p>\r\n
The political establishment of the United States is gripped by a raw and\r\nescalating struggle over power at the very heights of the empire.<\/p>\r\n
A collision course has been set by the rightwing Republican forces that now\r\ndominate the Congress and the White House.<\/p>\r\n
As we go to press, the public showdown is now set for the Senate floor on\r\nTuesday May 24.<\/p>\r\n
The Senate is scheduled to vote on ending their debate over Bush's nomination\r\nof Priscilla Owen for a federal judgeship.<\/p>\r\n
If the Republicans don't get the 60 votes they currently need to \"end\r\ndebate\", their leadership has announced they will simply change the\r\nSenate rules<\/i> and forbid filibusters over judicial nominees, and then move on\r\nto confirm Judge Owen.<\/p>\r\n
On the surface, these events may not appear all that earth-shaking. Many\r\npeople don't see the impact this fight could have on their lives and hopes. Most\r\npeople have no idea what a filibuster is.<\/p>\r\n
And for this moment at least, this struggle still appears<\/i> to be going\r\nthrough the traditional channels of political business-as-usual. This intense\r\ninfighting is mainly taking place deep in the bowels of the U.S. power\r\nstructure-where little packs of U.S. Senators scurry from secret meeting to\r\nsecret meeting, stopping occasionally to posture and sound-bite in front of TV\r\ncameras. To put it crudely: None of this has the outward<\/i> look of a coup\r\nd'etat. There are no tanks in the street, there have not been arrests or\r\nassassinations of opponents.<\/p>\r\n
However, despite these appearances, this country is in the midst of a\r\nhistoric power grab that could have consequences as far-reaching as any coup\r\nd'etat.<\/p>\r\nRemoving Obstacles By Any Means Necessary\r\n\r\n
\"Now comes the revolution. If you don't implement a conservative\r\n agenda now, when do you?\"<\/p>\r\n
Richard Viguerie, founding leader of the\r\n Christian right, election eve 2005<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In many ways, this is the moment<\/i> that the Religious Right has been\r\nwaiting and working for over decades. With high level support and funding, they\r\nhave painstakingly increased their power throughout the Republican Party and at\r\nall levels of the state apparatus-including the military. In 2000, their\r\nleader George Bush took over the White House. And they now dominate both houses\r\nof the Congress.<\/p>\r\n
In other words, key levers of power are there in their hands.<\/p>\r\n
And at the same time, they are tremendously dissatisfied with what they have\r\naccomplished with that power so far. They want much, much more. They intend to\r\nmake changes that are so sweeping and deep that there is no \"going\r\nback\"-so that their vision dominates the U.S. and their domination is\r\npermanent.<\/p>\r\n
They want to drastically<\/i> change what people are allowed to say, think\r\nand do. They want to force Christian fundamentalism to the center of\r\nsociety-as the standard for law, behavior, and morality. They want school\r\nchildren indoctrinated in their anti-science beliefs about Creationism and\r\nmiracles, and they want teachers forced to lead their students in Christian\r\nprayer. They want biblical standards of punishment and behavior to become the\r\nlaw of the land- with all the horrors this would mean (including the severe\r\npunishment of children, the escalation of executions and the ominous\r\ndemonization of gay people).<\/p>\r\n
To impose their backward vision of family and submissive sex roles, they want\r\nto prevent women from controlling their own reproduction-including by\r\ncriminalizing abortion and even birth control. And, they are in a frenzy to\r\nimpose a sweeping censorship over anything they consider indecent and\r\nsubversive-most cultural expressions of overt sexuality, revolutionary\r\npolitics, anti-religious satire, teenage rebelliousness and much more.<\/p>\r\n
This push for a Christian-fundamentalist police state has brought the issue\r\nof federal judges to center stage- because it has long been clear that to fully<\/i>\r\ncarry out their chilling vision they will need to make sweeping<\/i> changes\r\nin the existing legal standards of the U.S.<\/p>\r\n
Many federal court rulings over decades objectively represent legal obstacles\r\nto the Christian-fascist plans for the society and culture.<\/p>\r\n
The federal courts have enforced a separation of church and state. They have\r\nstopped organized prayer in schools. And they have put limits on the\r\ngovernment's power to censor both sexual and political matters. The Supreme\r\nCourt has ruled that there is a constitutional \"right to\r\nprivacy\"-and on that basis has knocked down state laws that criminalized\r\nbirth control, abortion and gay sexual acts. Major Court decisions have ruled\r\nthat advocating communist revolution or burning the U.S. flag should be\r\nconsidered forms of speech that are protected from criminal prosecution.<\/p>\r\n
These are current standards of U.S. law that the Christian right has been\r\ndetermined to overthrow.<\/p>\r\nA Strategy for a Profound Change\r\n
For decades, extreme right-wing political forces tried to make constitutional\r\nchanges piecemeal. In the Civil Rights days they called for impeaching the\r\nWarren Supreme Court that upheld desegregation. Since then, their successors\r\nhave tried to pass a long series of amendments to reverse significant parts of\r\nthe Bill of Rights-amendments to allow religious indoctrination in public\r\nschools, to ban abortion, to ban flag burning, to ban gay marriage, and so on.\r\nThough these efforts revved up their political movement, they never got enacted.<\/p>\r\n
Now, with the heights of power in their hands, a whole different strategy\r\npresents itself. Rev. Rick Scarborough, leader of a large network of\r\n\"Patriot Pastors,\" recently said: \"It takes two-thirds of\r\nCongress, the President's signature, and three-fourths of the states to change\r\nthe Constitution-or one judge.\"<\/i> ( Newsweek<\/i> , May 16):<\/p>\r\n
In short: Instead of slowly rewriting what the Constitution says,<\/i> they\r\nintend to pack the top court and then announce a change in what the Constitution\r\nmeans.<\/i><\/p>\r\n
At the very time when Republicans dominate both the White House and Congress,\r\nthere will be two, three, or perhaps even four vacancies on the U.S. Supreme\r\nCourt over the next couple years. Seeing this opportunity, they are moving with\r\na \"now or never\"<\/i> intensity. They are determined to use their\r\noverall power to step-by- step bulldoze any legal and political obstacles to\r\ntheir recasting of the Supreme Court-and then of many of society's most basic\r\nrules.<\/p>\r\n
It needs to be pointed out, again and again, just how extreme this whole plan\r\nand vision is.<\/p>\r\n
The current Supreme Court (which the Religious Right hates so much) is, in\r\nfact, a very<\/i> conservative institution that loyally serves this whole\r\noppressive system.<\/p>\r\n
This is the same Supreme Court that helped carry out the virtual coup d'etat\r\nthat put George Bush into power! On a day-to-day basis, this Supreme Court\r\nenforces modern capitalism-upholding and arbitrating the rules of capitalist\r\nproperty. This is a court that has allowed the round-up of immigrants without\r\ntrial, that okayed unprecedented new police surveillance, and allowed the U.S.\r\ntorture camps at Baghram Airforce base, in Afghanistan, and Guantánamo in Cuba.<\/p>\r\n
And yet, after all that, when evangelist Pat Robertson gets on ABC's This\r\nWeek<\/i> (May1), he rages that the federal judges and the cultural changes they\r\nhave allowed over a hundred years are a more serious threat to the U.S. than\r\n\"bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.\" It shows the harsh\r\nwar-like mentality of fascists straining for final victory.<\/p>\r\nBusting the Filibuster\r\n
So what, then, is this showdown in the Senate over?<\/p>\r\n
The vast majority of Bush's new court nominations have been approved by\r\nCongress-often with very little debate or opposition. So far Congress has\r\napproved 204 of Bush's court nominees, 34 of them judges for the important\r\nAppeals Courts (just below the Supreme Court).<\/p>\r\n
However the Senate Democrats have used the traditional Senate procedure\r\ncalled \"filibuster\" to stall the nomination of seven<\/i> of the\r\nmost extreme court nominations. And this is being treated as completely\r\nintolerable<\/i> by the Senate's Republican majority.<\/p>\r\n
Here is how that filibuster procedure works. On the Senate floor, it takes a\r\nmajority of Senators (i.e., 51 votes) to approve a judge. However, under the\r\nSenate's traditional rules, a minority of Senators can insist on continuing\r\nthe debate<\/i> -thereby delaying any vote. Delaying a vote this way is called\r\na filibuster. Filibusters have historically been a way to prevent a Senate\r\nmajority from having their way, by stalling and by rallying public opinion. And\r\noften it has been used for reactionary purposes-as when Southern Dixiecrat\r\nsenators filibustered on and on against civil rights bills in the 1960s.<\/p>\r\n
According to the Senate's rules, it takes a \"super-majority\" to end<\/i>\r\na debate. This means that the Republicans need 60 votes<\/i> to end the debate\r\nover their seven stalled judges.<\/p>\r\n
This is what has frustrated the Republican leadership and the\r\nChristian-fascist right. The White House sent up those ugly right-wing judicial\r\nnominees to the Senate long ago, and the Senate Republicans have a 51 vote\r\nmajority to approve them, but they don't<\/i> have the 60 votes needed to end<\/i>\r\nthe debate.<\/p>\r\n
And so, under the current rules, the Democratic minority in the Senate can\r\nstall the appointment of any particular nominee-virtually forever.<\/p>\r\n
You might wonder: only 7 stalled out of 204? What's the big deal?<\/em><\/p>\r\n But for the top Republicans, getting their most extreme<\/i> appointees\r\nconfirmed is exactly the point!<\/i><\/p>\r\n The forces represented by George Bush, Bill Frist and Tom DeLay have no\r\nintention of getting this far in the game, and then accepting a Supreme Court\r\nfreshly staffed with old-school \"moderate Republicans\" that\r\nessentially accept the current framework of the status quo! They don't want a\r\nfuture Supreme Court to look essentially like the current<\/i> Supreme Court.<\/p>\r\n The whole point<\/i> of their strategy now is to pack the next Supreme\r\nCourt with a much more<\/i> extreme new majority that will actually reverse<\/i>\r\nmajor legal precedents and overturn<\/i> established interpretation of what\r\nthe U.S. Constitution means.<\/p>\r\n The Christian fascists are perfectly aware that any Supreme Court nominee\r\nthat serves their<\/i> purposes would certainly face a filibuster by a sizable\r\nchunk of the Senate. And so, they produced the present aggressive power play:\r\nThey intend to simply abolish the Senate rule that allows filibusters for\r\njudicial nominees.<\/p>\r\n Current Senate rules require 67 votes to change the rules.<\/i> But the\r\nSenate Republicans intend to simply bypass that rule too. They have dreamed up\r\nthe \"nuclear option\" where Dick Cheney (who, as Vice President,\r\npresides over the Senate) will announce that the decision to abolish judicial\r\nfilibusters can be made with a simple 51 vote majority.<\/p>\r\n This is a raw gangster move: If the Democratic opposition uses its\r\ntraditional right to stall Bush's seven most extreme nominees, the Republican\r\nmajority in the Senate and Cheney have announced they will simply change the\r\nrules<\/i> and take away that power.<\/p>\r\n And you can almost hear them say: \"Whaddaya gonna do about it?\"<\/p>\r\nImplications and Outcomes\r\n Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats, offered a humiliating compromise\r\nweeks ago-promising to approve four of the stalled seven judges, and\r\n(according to one report) even secretly promising not to filibuster George\r\nBush's first nominee for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\r\n But this slavish offer was arrogantly turned down by Republican Senate leader\r\nBill Frist.<\/p>\r\n Since then feverish attempts to forge some kind of \"compromise\"\r\nhave fizzled-the White House and Republicans are determined to strip the\r\nDemocrats of any power to stall a judicial nominee, and they think they have the\r\npower to do it. And they seem prepared to weather any fallout.<\/p>\r\n As we go to press, it is still unclear what exactly<\/i> will go down on\r\nMay 24 and afterwards. But no matter what, a profound change is happening in the\r\npolitical life and norms of the U.S. government. Those holding supreme power in\r\nthe Congress and White House are making an unprecedented power grab-with the\r\nobvious intention of wrenching the Supreme Court and then the whole society onto\r\nan extreme, new and sinister course.<\/p>\r\n They have ruthlessly shown their hand. They are mercilessly tearing that\r\nexisting fabric of official establishment politics in ways that even have\r\nsignificant sections of the Republican Party blinking in disbelief.<\/p>\r\n Conservative columnist David Brooks warned that Frist is leading the Senate\r\n\"into this bloody unknown.\" Republican Senator Arlen Spector publicly\r\nfrets that events are stampeding toward \"the abyss.\" There is open\r\ntalk that this nuclear option may \"destroy the Senate as an\r\ninstitution.\" No matter how these events turn out, their actions are\r\nthreatening to pull apart the \"center\"-and important ways that state\r\npower has traditionally been exercised and justified.<\/p>\r\n These are important and ominous developments, even for the many millions of\r\npeople who have no stake in this whole political and economic system. On one\r\nhand, the future demanded by these Christian fascists would be a horror for\r\nhumanity, and the successful achievement of their plans would make the struggle\r\nfor justice and liberation all that much harder. And, on the other hand, the\r\nvery fact that official politics is lurching in such unpredictable and reckless\r\nways to the right has the potential to stir millions of people to throw\r\nthemselves into the political fray, and potentially raises profound new\r\nquestions among them about what future we need to be fighting for together.<\/p>\r\nWhat Is Missing and Desperately Needed\r\n Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats, said on the floor of the Senate: \"If\r\nRepublicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no check on\r\ntheir power. The radical, right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they\r\nwant. And not just on judges. Their power will be unchecked on Supreme Court\r\nnominees, the president's nominees in general and legislation like Social\r\nSecurity privatization.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n This statement captures the intentions of the Republican Right with a\r\nbluntness rarely seen in Congress. The \"nuclear option\" of Bill Frist\r\nand Dick Cheney is intended to brush aside any official obstacles to their\r\nagenda-and, yes, their plans obviously do not stop at picking judges, or even\r\nthe new Supreme Court.<\/p>\r\n But it is worth looking closely and critically at Reid's opening sentence:\r\n\"If Republicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no\r\ncheck on their power.\"<\/em><\/p>\r\n For one thing, Reid and his Democrats have proven to be little of a real\r\n\"check on their power\"!<\/p>\r\n They have responded to the steady advance of the Christian fascists in the\r\nmost cowardly and stupid ways imaginable-with endless offers of compromise,\r\nwith promises of collaboration, with weak and quickly spurned appeals to\r\nmoderation. And they have too often promoted, among the people, a naãve\r\ndisbelief that all this is really happening, and a dangerous, intolerable\r\nparalysis as events move around us.<\/p>\r\n The same cannot (unfortunately) be said for the forces of the extreme right.\r\nTheir movement is highly focused, financed and motivated. The most extreme,\r\nignorant and fundamentalist sections of the population have been riled up and\r\nmobilized for exactly<\/i> this fight. They are actively directed by their\r\nleadership, which now sits entrenched in the very heights of power.<\/p>\r\n There does truly need to be a \"check on their power\"<\/i>-and\r\nmore. And yet where is it? Where are the defiant cities filled with protest.and\r\nthe campuses shut down in defiance...and the whole political climate where these\r\nswine are mocked and hounded wherever they move? It is not there yet, it is\r\nglaringly, maddenly missing.<\/p>\r\n And yet, isn't the potential and possibility obvious?<\/p>\r\n Though all these events, there has been mounting horror and even real fear\r\nover the rise of Christian fascism- among millions of people-and with it\r\noften a sputtering fury over the stand and response of the Democratic Party.\r\nThere is, as Bob Avakian points out in this issue of our newspaper, a very stark\r\n\"disconnect\" between these people and the Democrats they have so often\r\nvoted for.<\/p>\r\n It is past time to break out of the paralyzing framework of official\r\nbourgeois politics-to lose the illusions that \"everything will swing back\r\nto normal like a pendulum\" or that these fascists will be beaten back into\r\ntheir holes by politics-as-usual.<\/p>\r\n People need to be mobilized in their millions<\/i> to actually fight<\/i>\r\nthose in power, and consciously prepare to wrench that power from their hands.\r\nAnd it is exactly the right time to fight to bring forward a new liberating and\r\nrevolutionary vision of a whole different future-to contest boldly with the\r\nfascists in the spotlight.<\/p>\r\n Events are moving quickly. These high-level power plays will not run on\r\nforever without reaching some decisive resolutions.<\/p>\r\n In a very important sense, the outcome of it all is not yet decided. And yet,\r\nat the same time, important victories will almost certainly be won by the\r\nChristian fascists if a powerful political earthquake is not organized, and if\r\nkey sections of the people are not brought into determined struggle in a whole\r\nnew way.<\/p>\r\n These words are meant to sound the alarm -to provoke sleepless nights and\r\ntireless days, creative actions and defiant visions.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolution Online
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\r\n Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/revcom.us","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"Filibuster Wars\r\nPower Grab at the Height of the Empire\r\nhttp:\/\/rwor.org\/a\/004\/filibuster-wars.htm\r\n\r\nThe Senate was heading for a major showdown, as the Republican majority and Vice President Cheney conspired to strip the Democrat minority of their ability to even filibuster the most extreme judicial nominees.\r\n\r\nThen, after playing chicken for two weeks, a "Gang of 14" Senators suddenly announced they had reached a "historic compromise based on mutual trust" -- and they announced that they had saved the Senate from destruction. And the media oohed-and-aaaahed over the last minute development.\r\n\r\nBut it quickly became pretty obvious, that nothing here was an obstacle to the most dangerous plans for remaking the courts.\r\n\r\nAnd did the compromise "safe the filibuster" as the media said? In fact, the compromise said "If you don't take the filibuster, we promise not to use it." Which, if you think about it, gives the top reactionaries what they want.\r\n\r\nPart of this "compromise" is that the Democrats immediately stopped their opposition to Precilla Owen and several other of Bush's judicial nominees -- these are people who are literally monsters of an extreme kind, who had been stalled in the Senate (in some cases for years.) So this "compromise" meant that these vultures are headed for powerful courts.\r\n\r\nAnd, it is also clear that huge new showdowns lie just ahead -- as the White House and Senate brace for a struggle over putting extreme rightwing judges on the supreme court.\r\n\r\nThe following article (written just before the "compromise" was announced) lays bare the stakes and dynamics of this whole crisis.\r\n","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2005\/05\/filwars.jpg","filesize":"29.4 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2005\/05\/127680.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2005\/05\/filwars.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2005\/05\/filwars.jpgthumb.jpg"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}