Divine emperor

If anyone still doubts that America is under the thumb of a self-anointed imperial demagogue, I urge you to read this incredible report in today's Boston Globe. In it, the Globe notes:

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution...

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to "execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional...

Bruce Fein, a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said the American system of government relies upon the leaders of each branch "to exercise some self-restraint." But Bush has declared himself the sole judge of his own powers, he said, and then ruled for himself every time.

"This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy," Fein said. "There is no way for an independent judiciary to check his assertions of power, and Congress isn't doing it, either. So this is moving us toward an unlimited executive power."

As I have stated repeatedly in this column, there is little point in discussing reform, rebuke, or policy change until the Bush Administration is removed from office. As long as America is headed by an individual who has named himself the sole arbiter of right and wrong, one who has declared his subjective interpretation of law to be infallible, one who has consistently and repeatedly stated that he is under no obligation to follow any rule he doesn't want to, there is no hope of taking any meaningful step toward altering the disastrous course on which this nation is headed.

This is the central issue about which all Americans must begin talking - and talking soon. As long as George Bush and his disciples are allowed to call the shots, and to ignore any measures they determine to be cumbersome or inconvenient, all else is simply an exercise in rose-colored futility.

Time to decide, America. Time to choose whether the President of the United States is an elected servant of the people, or a divine emperor whose arbitrary whims are the true law of the land.

(Be sure to also check out Anthony Ioven's post on this topic at UpdateAmerica/604.)