Monday, March 9, 2015

This is Outrageous!

A few months ago I wrote about the threat of a confederate insurgency. In doing so, I quoted Doug Muder, who wrote an article titled: Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party. In it, he says this:
The essence of the Confederate worldview is that the democratic process cannot legitimately change the established social order, and so all forms of legal and illegal resistance are justified when it tries.
That Confederate worldview has NEVER accepted the legitimacy of President Barack Obama. Those who thought that had been put to rest after talk about birth certificates calmed down have recently seen it revived with talk about how he's not really one of us and doesn't love this country.

But nowhere has this President's legitimacy been challenged more than in this letter to Iran from Republican Senators in a blatant attempt to undermine the negotiations over nuclear weapons. This isn't simply the blathering of Tea Party rabble-rousers. Those signing it include: Mitch McConnell,Tom Cotton, Orrin Hatch, John Cornyn, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Mark Kirk, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.

The message is clear. They are telling the leaders of Iran not to bother negotiating with our President (and the other 5 nations involved in these talks)  because he's simply passing through. It is an attempt by Republican Senators to directly challenge the authority given to presidents by our constitution.
Even if you are not concerned about the threat posed by a confederate insurgency, this kind of undermining of one branch of our government by another on the international stage is incredibly dangerous. I don't think I'm over-reacting when I say that this - more than what Matt Yglesias wrote about - is a real threat to our democracy and it's institutions.

Whether or not these Senators agree with President Obama's approach to the negotiations with Iran, he was elected by the people to lead this country...twice. They have a right to speak their mind. But they DO NOT have the right to de-ligitimize his authority to carry out the duties assigned to his office.

5 comments:

  1. “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953

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  2. They're no better than the SAE fraternity at OU.

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  3. Not only that, but in this letter, the Republicans are saying the Iranian government should not agree to the nuclear deal. What is the alternative? Why it would be to develop a nuclear weapon! This is what the Republicans are saying: Any deal to which you agree to with this administration in which you pledge to NOT develop a nuclear weapon will be reversed by us once the President's term ends. Therefor, Iran, forget the deal and just go ahead and develop a nuclear weapon, why dontcha'.

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  4. For people who claimed to be so concerned about what will happen if Iran gets the bomb, they really are doing everything they can to encourage the sense of siege that drives Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. The Iranians look at the world, they must realize how utterly friendless they are, and now surrounded by enemies (I mean the Arabs specifically, but broaden the circle as you see fit. I reckon you'll be right). Of course they would want to acquire weapons. That is only logical. Yes, Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon is perfectly logical, owing to the circucmstances, and so is the resistance to it in the West and Middle East.

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  5. Neither the right nor the left is being honest about this whole Iran/Netanyahu thing. Just watch John Stewart ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTAWytbzjAk

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