Against Standing Armies
"There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:323
"I do not like [in the new Federal Constitution] the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for... protection against standing armies." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:387
"Nor is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of peace for [defense against invasion]." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:334
"Standing armies [are] inconsistent with [a people's] freedom and subversive of their quiet." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Lord North's Proposition, 1775. Papers 1:231
"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force." --Thomas Jefferson to Chandler Price, 1807. ME 11:160
"A distinction between the civil and military [is one] which it would be for the good of the whole to obliterate as soon as possible." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:90
"It is nonsense to talk of regulars. They are not to be had among a people so easy and happy at home as ours. We might as well rely on calling down an army of angels from heaven." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1814. ME 14:207
"There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776. Papers 1:363
"The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:184
"Bonaparte... transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm. Some will use this as a lesson against the practicability of republican government. I read it as a lesson against the danger of standing armies." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams, 1800. ME 10:154
Today's conservatives regard themselves as the "keepers of the flame" of lower-case "r" republicanism. THEY have not forgotten Jefferson's admonitions against standing armies. The way that they get around the principle that a standing army is antithetical to a democratic republic is to declare that we are constantly at war. Hence, the Cold War followed World War II and, hard on the heels of the Cold War, the "War On [read: Of] Terror."
The Military Industrial Complex gets away with this War-Without-End only because we the people have forgotten what it means to be free.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A case study in how to squander political momentum
That is how I would describe the trajectory of the Obama administration to date.Or maybe this way: a colossal waste of personal charisma.
It was Obama's alleged left-leaning political convictions and his personal charm that led many of us to place our bets on his promise to effect real change in this country. But as the course of the health-care "debate" has unfolded (I put "debate" in scare quotes because there is no genuine debate, and there never has been; what we have been treated to is just more political theater--what I like to call the "theater of the corrupt"--that passes for debate in the era of manufactured consent), it has become painfully obvious that something is terribly wrong with the picture Obama painted for us of himself during the Presidential campaign.
Perhaps he really is one of the "best" among us--and as one of the "best" lacks all conviction (as Yeats profoundly noted in "The Second Coming"); or, perhaps, he is hamstrung by an almost pathological desire to please...But who does he desire to please? That, it seems to me, is the $ 64 Billion question...
Certainly not the "people" who continue under the illusion that they actually elected him; there must be someone else: those to whom he owes his political career and his present "historical" position as a person of color in the otherwise solidly White House.
As his tenure in the presidency has evolved, this "historical" position has been celebrated time and time again--no one mentioning the fact that Obama is not descended from Africans enslaved in the Americas--it's all about his complexion.
Well, OK. That is historical. And that appears to be the role he was assigned to play. A handsome black face in a high place to keep the liberals at bay.
Meanwhile, nothing really changes.
When I think of American political figures who have possessed real charisma--the kind that could galvanize public opinion and potentially force the plutocracy to grant concessions--I think of the Kennedy brothers (Jack and Bobby), Martin and Malcolm, and Barack Hussein Obama...
Hmmmm. Perhaps what really stands between BHO and his convictions is his completely understandable desire to see old age.
As Cindy Sheehan has argued, it is time for the "left" (if there is such a thing in this country) to wake up from the drowse of "hope-nosis" and take to the streets demanding real change.
They can't shoot us all.
In any event, it is time that we accept the fact that Obama has been effectively side-lined for the remainder of his term. We can no longer look to him for leadership but must cultivate leadership from the ground up. And we must find a way to do this en masse. Otherwise we will be ignored.
The demand for a single-payer health care program (not option--screw that "option" business--we want single payer health care like the rest of the civilized world) is a good place to begin.
In late 2006, I had the good fortune (if you can call it that) to require medical attention while on a research trip to Holland. Since I am not a Dutch citizen, I had some difficulty gaining access to the level of care my symptoms suggested that I needed. But I was befriended by a Dutch family who took me under their wing and saw to it that I was examined by a specialist. Once I had been admitted into the system, I saw first-hand what "socialized medicine" is all about. I received the absolute best medical care I have ever received in my life.
Fortunately, my symptoms were far worse than the underlying medical condition that caused them. The Dutch physicians who examined me made certain that that was the case before releasing me from their care. They were smart, multi-lingual, good-humored, caring, and conducted themselves with matchless professionalism. The hospital I was admitted to for testing was shockingly clean and the nursing staff and other professionals with whom I had to interact throughout the administration of a battery of tests were wonderfully kind to me and unfailingly attentive.
When I returned to the United States I sought follow-up treatment at a University Hospital (per the instructions of my Dutch physicians). The medical personnel refused to accept any of the findings of the Dutch doctors and proceeded to subject me to the same battery of tests that the Dutch had administered, plus some, yielding the same negative results. The tests were conducted in facilities that were dirty and shabby in comparison with what I had experienced in Holland. But the doctors and the hospital got what they wanted: about $10,000.
We must turn our backs on the theater of the corrupt that the media has been show-casing in its coverage of "town hall" meetings--the media is largely in the pocket of the plutocrats--and demand a SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE system, and nothing less.
If we cannot do this one thing for ourselves, then I suppose we get what we deserve; but how dare we foist this pathetic excuse for a health care system on the children we claim to love?
Friday, August 7, 2009
Issa Bagayogo
Last night, I saw the Malian musician Issa Bagayogo and his band perform in a free concert. They were truly superb. It made me marvel again at all the great music that comes out of Mali. And as I watched how he could make those over-fed white people in the audience get up and dance, it occurred to me that here was the solution to all of our problems: Mali must invade the U.S. and take it over...Just think about this...Rush Limbaugh (speaking of over-fed white people)--the man's addicted to pain-killers, right? It makes perfect sense. If you were Rush Limbaugh, wouldn't you be addicted to pain-killers? The pain is caused by the fear that white people (or their surrogates) may not always rule the world as they have for the last 500 years. Well, here's the remedy: let Mali take over and let Issa Bagayogo teach that miserable son of a bitch how to dance.
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