Is It The Republican Party Or Just G.W. Bush?
By Chuck Baldwin
September 30, 2005


The Republican Party professes to stand for less government and
more freedom. It claims to be a conservative party. However, ever
since assuming control of the entire federal government, it has
revealed itself to be something entirely different.

For example, since the White House and both houses of Congress
have been under Republican Party domination, the federal
government has increased federal expenditures and deficits to
levels never before seen. Beyond that, individual liberties have
come under federal assault in ways that would make even old King
George seem tame.

The latest example of the Republican Party's seeming insatiable
desire to eviscerate constitutional liberties is the announcement by
President Bush that he seeks to federalize domestic emergencies.
According to The Washington Times, "President Bush yesterday
[September 26] sought to federalize hurricane-relief efforts,
removing governors from the decision-making process."

The Times reports that Bush is seeking to change federal law to
create "a new, direct line of authority that would allow the
president to place the Pentagon in charge of responding to natural
disasters, terrorist attacks and outbreaks of disease."

According to the Times report, President Bush wants to shift
power and authority to deal with domestic emergencies from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and give it to
the Department of Defense (DoD).

However, as the Times notes, "[S]tabilizing a crisis might require
federal troops to arrest looters and perform other law-enforcement
duties, which would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The
law was passed in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction to
prevent the use of federal troops from policing elections in former
Confederate states.

"The White House wants Congress to consider amending Posse
Comitatus in order to grant the Pentagon greater powers."

Before the American people allow their congressmen to yield to
the president's thirst for greater and greater federal expansion into
the affairs of states and local communities, however, they need to
realize that the end result of this power-grab will only prove to be
an unmitigated disaster for liberty! In fact, it would literally undo
the American experiment and turn our country into a monarchy at
worst or an oligarchy at best.

Military personnel are not trained (and should not be) for domestic
law-enforcement. They cannot worry about Mirandizing suspects
or waiting for search warrants. Their concern is not about the right
of Habeas Corpus or the laws against searches and seizures. To
them is committed the waging of war. They are trained to kill and
destroy. Do we really want to send soldiers and Marines into our
own streets and neighborhoods with their guns turned on American
citizens? God forbid!

The reason freedom has survived more than 200 years of history is
due to the American people's lawful access to firearms and to the
preservation of our republican form of government. It appears that
President Bush is determined to undo the latter. And if the way in
which the Republican Party quickly passed an egregiously flawed
Patriot Act is any indicator, the GOP seems poised to support Bush
in this quest, also.

The Republican Party needs to do some serious introspection. Are
these despotic machinations the personal foibles of a fumbling
Chief Executive or are they the innate desires of the entire party?
The GOP's recent love affair with burgeoning government and
shrinking liberties makes it necessary for every lover of freedom to
seriously ponder that question.

© Chuck Baldwin


NOTE TO THE READER:

To subscribe to these columns, send a message to
majordomo@chuckbaldwinlive.com with the words subscribe
chuck-wagon in the body of the message. To unsubscribe put
the words unsubscribe chuck-wagon in the body of the
message.

Chuck Baldwin's commentaries are copyrighted and may be
republished, reposted, or emailed providing the person or
organization doing so does not charge for subscriptions or
advertising and that the column is copied intact and that full credit
is given and that Chuck's web site address is included.