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MARCH 20, 2005 –
As this was a special vote, a two-thirds majority was needed to pass
the Terri Schiavo legislation in the House of Representatives.
Screencap from
CNN
There were 261 members present, so 175
yea votes were needed to pass it.
If the Democrats had stood up to this
usurpation of power, they could have stopped it red-handed. If
even two-thirds of them did, it wouldn't have passed. In fact,
if no Democrats had showed up at all they wouldn't have had a
quorum.
But half of the Democrats who showed up
voted to let President Bush be a theocratic dictator, to discard the
Constitution and let the President and GOP overrule any state court
ruling at will.
They will say they were afraid of the
power of the religious right in their districts, that they were just
going with the political pressure. In reality, they were
afraid to stand up against TV and the high it was offering this
weekend, the distraction of the Schiavo nonsense.
This whole episode marks the official
end of America the Democracy. You have a President and party
in power who will not tolerate anything occurring that is not to
their liking. They are Machiavellian anarchists who have now
clearly shown that if something occurs that goes against their
religious beliefs, or, more accurately, if they feel they want to
distract the nation, they can issue edicts at will and thwart the
entire structure the Constitutional set up of checks and balances
and protection from dictatorship.
This is not an issue about right-to-die
or a woman in Florida - all of those things were dealt with as the
law and Constitution allowed and were resolved properly and fully.
This is simply and entirely a case of absolute abuse of power, of
the GOP declaring themselves dictators free to do as they please,
and of the Democrats choosing to let them do so.
This is the biggest power grab in our
lifetimes. This is the end of Democracy. No law or
Constitution now stands between the President and his command -
whatever he wants, he is the law of the land. And TV was what
was used to make this happen.
As one Democratic Congressman put it,
"Courts in Florida have received expert testimony from prominent
neurosurgeons and neurologists," said Robert Wexler, another Florida
Democrat. "The evidence provided by a standard of clear and
convincing evidence is that it is Mrs. Schiavo's wish that she not
be allowed to continue in a persistent vegetative state"...
Approving the bill would "undermine over 200 years of
jurisprudence," he said. (from
CNN)
Yet it was his fellow Democrats who made
this bill happen, by showing up and voting for it after being
pressured all weekend by TV about this non-issue, this distraction
from the real, massive issues facing our nation.
"Today, congressional leaders are trying
to appoint Congress as a judge and jury," said Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla.
"If we do not draw the line in the sand today, there is no limit to
what democratic principles this Congress will ignore or what
liberties they may trample on next." (from
ABC News)
And they did, thanks to help from his
partymates.
And as a legal analyst put it: "Not liking a particular result in a
case that has been litigated fully and completely by a court with
competent jurisdiction, Congress now has said that the game must be
re-done with new rules that heavily favor one side over the other.
The implications of this move are astonishing. Just think about it.
Anytime Congress doesn't like the result in a particular case, it
could swoop in and call a "do-over," which is essentially what this
legislation represents. And this from a Congress that has for a
decade or so tried to keep all sorts of citizens-- including
disabled employees-- out of federal court... no decision in any state court in the country will be immune
from Congressional second-guessing. It would throw out of whack the
entire concept of separation of powers. The constitutional law
expert Tribe calls it "trial by legislation" and he is right." -
from
Attorney Andy Cohen via CBS News.
As you might have noticed, this is no
small matter. We are not joking to say it is the death of our
democracy.
The only hope for the nation is that the
Supreme Court does the right thing and refuses to hear the case,
admonishing Congress and the President for the power-grab. But
in reality, none of that matters now. We have seen the
President show he does not believe in Democracy, does not let laws
or the Constitution stand between him and what he wants; and we have
seen the Democrats go out of their way to help the GOP obliterate
our democracy.
The ironic part is that if the people
who voted nay had, instead, not showed up at all, the bill would not
have passed because there would not have been a quorum to allow the
vote in the first place. Only 203 voted for the bill; 218 was
required for a quorum.
For those of you who want to hold your
rep accountable, here is the actual vote person by person, from the
House website, as well as the list of those who didn't bother to
show up and defend our Democracy. The Democrats are in
italics.
Forget the deficits, debt, unemployment,
failure in Iraq, etc., etc... The road to increased GOP power over
our nation was just paved by 47 Democrats who put their own
political interests above the Constitution, the nation, and the
democracy we used to have. The GOP explained what they were up
to clearly in a memo: "ABC News
obtained talking points
circulated among Senate Republicans explaining why they should vote
to intervene in the Schiavo case. Among them... the "pro-life base
will be excited," and that it is a "great political issue — this is
a tough issue for Democrats." And the Democrats showed
they will cower and whimper and pander and do anything except stand
up for what is right.
On March 21, 2005, at 12:45 AM, our both
parties running our nation decided democracy was no longer
convenient for them, and so our nation's run as a democracy was
brought to an end, our Constitution overturned.
While the nation sat quietly. No
street protests prior to the vote, no response.
In all fairness, though, what response
can you have when both parties team up to do it?
May God let the Supreme Court save what
is left.
You just might want to give your rep and
Senator a call. You might want to point out there are more
than just the people they hear on TV, more than just the
big-mouthed, democracy-hating far right; that there a millions of us
actual Americans who are appalled that while 140,000 of our troops
have their lives on the line - and are losing their lives - to
defend democracy, they have let TV and political pressure lead them
to entirely discard it here at home. They need to hear us, or
we are just as guilty of letting our democracy go without a fight.
There should be protests in the street -
there will be by the GOP side. There should be a massive
outpouring to let the Supreme Court know the people will not stand
for them destroying the separation of powers that keeps us a free
and democratic nation. There should be a massive calling
effort to those Democrats who betrayed the nation.
Or you can just go watch some TV and
pretend what just happened was not real.
The entire setup of our nation has just
been overturned. And the nation sits silent, lost in the blue
light daze of TV addiction; the TV that
just whipped the nation into a distractive frenzy over something
that was not worthy of five seconds of air time as it was simply a
settled legal matter to be left to the family involved.
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