A Filibuster for Democracy

Dear Mr. President, 
I never thought I’d agree with Rand Paul’s Libertarianism or his Tea Party defenders, but his 13-hour filibuster of your nominee for CIA director, Death-by-Drone Brennan, was the first sign of life in the somnolent swamp of Congressional stupor. Senator Paul questioned the ever-expanding powers of the president, questioned the legality of targeted assassinations, the necessity of a global military enterprise, of a national security state. But in spite of Paul’s filibuster, this amoral apparatchik, Brennan, was approved by Senators interested only in staying Senators and not the good of the country. This morning’s lead editorial in the NYT all but called Brennan an outright liar and yet, here he is, our new CIA director, a man who defended torture under Bush and targeted assassinations under Obama, responsible for thousands of deaths by Hellfire that created tens of thousands of new militants vowing death to America. Brennan is a cold-blooded killer and war criminal who has made America less safe but is honored and rewarded, praised by you for his American Values while Bradley Manning, who believes in democracy, transparency and justice, remains locked in a cell, unjustly persecuted by a government determined to make him an example to others and shut him up for life. This is your government, Mr. President, filled with people like John Brennan who do not understand either democracy or justice and no one to speak up for the true patriot among us, no one who will challenge the injustice wrought on this boy. “Aiding and abetting the enemy,” “espionage” and “stealing government property” are all spurious charges, unwarranted and unsupported by evidence. But no matter, for Manning is subject not to a jury of his peers but to the mock-justice of a military tribunal which will follow the orders of their masters. Sen. Paul said, “People are starting to understand that just by calling someone an enemy combatant doesn’t make them an enemy combatant. Someone has to assess their guilt or innocence, and it’s a pretty important question.” Indeed. Your secret memos and invocations of national security do not strengthen our democracy, Mr. President, but destroy it. You and your administration and the dysfunctional Congress that sits in mesmerized stupor, do not seem to get that. But Bradley Manning does. He understands that secrecy and unbridled power are the enemy of democracy. And until we—all of us—learn that lesson, America is in very serious trouble.