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During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended the right of American citizens to challenge their arrests in court, something known as due process, and when the courts told him he did not have the authority, Lincoln simply defied the court order. In taking this action, Lincoln asserted the right of a King rather than that of a President. In due time, reason prevailed, and due process was restored.
President Lincoln's flaunting of the rule of law is not an isolated case. The Alien and Sedition Acts gave John Adams the right to imprison his critics, and the Sedition Act of 1918 gave Wilson the same rights. Roosevelt imprisoned 100,000 Japanese Americans, and Truman single-handedly attempted to nationalize the steel industry. And we cannot forget Nixon, whose unauthorized wiretapping got the ball rolling on impeachment. Had Nixon not resigned, he would have become the first president to be successfully impeached and convicted by the Senate.
President Bush is only the latest in a long line of Presidents who took the stand that being a president is tantamount to being a king. However, our Constitution provides a system of checks and balances, because our forefathers had the wisdom to make all 3 branches of government EQUAL in power. However, a president who is popular enough has the ability to tip the balance of power, and end the Constitution as we know it. Thank God Bush is not popular at this time.
We need to elect presidents who will obey their sworn duty to faithfully exectute and protect the laws of the United States of America. Failure to do that will result in a high price being exacted from the American people - The loss of the basic freedoms we all cherish. And whose fault would that be? The American people's fault, of course.
Article is here.
President Lincoln's flaunting of the rule of law is not an isolated case. The Alien and Sedition Acts gave John Adams the right to imprison his critics, and the Sedition Act of 1918 gave Wilson the same rights. Roosevelt imprisoned 100,000 Japanese Americans, and Truman single-handedly attempted to nationalize the steel industry. And we cannot forget Nixon, whose unauthorized wiretapping got the ball rolling on impeachment. Had Nixon not resigned, he would have become the first president to be successfully impeached and convicted by the Senate.
President Bush is only the latest in a long line of Presidents who took the stand that being a president is tantamount to being a king. However, our Constitution provides a system of checks and balances, because our forefathers had the wisdom to make all 3 branches of government EQUAL in power. However, a president who is popular enough has the ability to tip the balance of power, and end the Constitution as we know it. Thank God Bush is not popular at this time.
We need to elect presidents who will obey their sworn duty to faithfully exectute and protect the laws of the United States of America. Failure to do that will result in a high price being exacted from the American people - The loss of the basic freedoms we all cherish. And whose fault would that be? The American people's fault, of course.
Article is here.