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The Truth About Government
Oct. 19th, 2007 02:42 pmThe Bush administration, in one of its many post-9/11 reactions, issued a document called National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51). It's not gotten a lot of press, but various conspiracy theorists and anti-Bush hard-left types seem to think NSPD-51 is the blueprint for a Bush-led coup in the United States. Even Ron Rosenbaum, writing an article about it in Slate magazine, seems to think that it's at least possible that the conspiracy theorists are on to something. Ron says, "the specifics of the directive are a matter of legitimate concern that has not been given the urgent and sustained attention it deserves by Congress or the mainstream media."
NSPD-51 is a plan, or rather a statement of goals around which to develop a plan, for continuity of government in the event of a major terrorist attack or similar crisis. It's full of vague phrases, including what kind of disaster triggers the plan. More troubling to the conspiracy types, it calls for "a spirit of comity" between branches of government. Asking for teamwork between Congress and Bush is rather a stretch, I admit.
However, people who take NSPD-51 as some kind of plan for a coup have no concept of the realities of government. Here's the reality - at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what a piece of paper says or doesn't say. What matters is what people do.
Under the old Soviet Union, citizens had constitutional rights in many cases greater then in the USA. Only an idiot or a Soviet propagandist thought that the average Soviet citizen was as free as an American. In the US, "separate but equal" was a legal fiction allowing mass discrimination.
If the people actually implementing NSPD-51 are decent folks, doing their best in a difficult situation, there is a good chance the constitution will survive. If not, NSPD-51 might as well have never been written.
NSPD-51 is a plan, or rather a statement of goals around which to develop a plan, for continuity of government in the event of a major terrorist attack or similar crisis. It's full of vague phrases, including what kind of disaster triggers the plan. More troubling to the conspiracy types, it calls for "a spirit of comity" between branches of government. Asking for teamwork between Congress and Bush is rather a stretch, I admit.
However, people who take NSPD-51 as some kind of plan for a coup have no concept of the realities of government. Here's the reality - at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what a piece of paper says or doesn't say. What matters is what people do.
Under the old Soviet Union, citizens had constitutional rights in many cases greater then in the USA. Only an idiot or a Soviet propagandist thought that the average Soviet citizen was as free as an American. In the US, "separate but equal" was a legal fiction allowing mass discrimination.
If the people actually implementing NSPD-51 are decent folks, doing their best in a difficult situation, there is a good chance the constitution will survive. If not, NSPD-51 might as well have never been written.
