J.S. Mill and James Madison Vs. George W.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)


Len Hart, "The Existentialist Cowboy," has a great post titled "Why the Bush regime is illegitimate" (hat-tip to Mike's Blog Roundup). He provides a great overview of some key philosophical and legal foundations of America's founding, and how the Bush administration has systematically attacked them. My favorite passage that he quotes is (emphasis mine):

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in old times this contest was between subjects, or some classes of subjects, and the government.

[...]

That (it might seem) was a resource against rulers whose interests were habitually opposed to those of the people. What was now wanted was, that the rulers should be identified with the people; that their interest and will should be the interest and will of the nation.

— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

The authoritarians of the Bush administration and their allies are not solely seeking power within the existing American system of government. They have been trying to undo the system itself. The Bushies and King George really aren't far from the monarchists of years past.