archived: 3 - 9 Apr, 2005         Back                 Next

UPDATED:  April 7, 2005 

                        “THE SCHIAVO CASE AND THE LOCUS OF THE ‘POLICE POWER’ ”
                         (SJ TPJ No. 55, “The Coming 2nd Civil War,” No. 7) 

This column is the seventh in this series.  The cataclysm foreseen will come to our nation, if it does, because of the ideology, policies, and ever-growing political power of the Republican Religious Right (RRR) and their policy arm the Georgites.  The RRR agenda is clearly stated in writing by its ideologues from Norquist to Wolfowitz to Falwell.  For obvious political reasons it is hardly ever articulated by its front men from Bush to Frist to DeLay, for if they spelled it out it would be a sure loser.  The major components are: imposing their religious beliefs on all Americans through the use of the criminal law; reducing the functions of the Federal government to the barest minimum outside of the military-and-prison-industrial complexes and the opposition-repression/suppression and private-thought/behavior-control sectors; and replacing Constitutional government as we have known it with overwhelming Executive Branch dominance operating on its own authority – that is via a theocratic-fascist dictatorship.   

A minority of Americans, in the 20% range, adheres to this ideology.  However, the Georgite regime, abetted by its lap-dog mainstream media otherwise known as the Privatized Ministry of Propaganda, act as if it has a majority behind it.  There is as yet no effective national political opposition to the Georgites and their true agenda of dismantling US Constitutional Democracy – an opposition that is, after all, supported by the majority of Americans.  Every day passing without such an entity that could possibly win the struggle politically, brings us one day closer to civil war.  Civil War – not written lightly.  The reason for such a stark prospect is that there are too many Constitution-loving Americans who will not give up freedom and liberty without a fight.  Each essay in this occasional series is, thus, about an issue that, if not resolved politically in favor of traditional US Constitutionalism, will eventually need to be resolved for it by force. 

Some will characterize this position as alarmist and premature.  That is the intent.  We must start focusing on what the Georgites are really about and quickly develop a strong, national political opposition that focuses on what their agenda really is, not what they say it is.  To use Jefferson’s characterization of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as indicating an eventual bloody conflict over slavery, “the firebell is ringing in the night.”  Now to the specifics of today’s column as to how the Constitution is being torn apart piece by piece by the Georgites. 

The Georgite Executive Branch has clearly demonstrated its penchant for amending the Constitution without bothering to go through the constitutionally mandated amendment process.  As detailed previously in this space, under the “USAPatriot” Act, the regime has abrogated major portions of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, it has arrogated to itself the power to declare war when it pleases to do so, and it has revoked without negotiation major portions of international treaties that, under the Constitution, are part of the “highest law of the land.”   

Not to be outdone, the Georgite Congress has now gotten into the act, with yet another attack on the Constitution. 

The Tenth Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  This is known as “the reserve clause” of the Constitution.  Among these powers “not delegated to the United States” (that is, they are reserved to the States) is something called the “police power” of sovereign governments.  It was well-known, well-understood, and well-defined in English Common Law and statute at the time of the adoption of the US Constitution.  This is the power (FP Grad, Public Health Law Manual, 1975, p. 5): “to enact and enforce laws to protect and promote the health, safety, morals, order, peace, comfort, and general welfare of the people.”  That the Police Power belongs to the States has been accepted law in our land since the Founding.  Among the many matters covered by it is, for example, the determination by the Courts of who, in the absence of a Living Will, has the say over the matter of the maintenance of cardio-respiratory functioning in a person when there is no evidence of brain function --- spouse, or parents.  In this instance, the settled State law around this country says the spouse had the power of decision. 

With the horribly mis-named “Terri’s Law” and abetted by some Democrats who apparently had not, or did not care to, read the Constitution either, the Georgite Congress brought a matter governed by the police power up from the Florida state court to the Federal courts.  In so doing, and mimicking the Bush Administration in other actions, Congress repealed a major element of the Constitution, the Tenth Amendment. It did so just as the Georgites have done: without bothering to go through the amendment process.   

It is immaterial that the Federal court system, all the way to the Supreme Court, refused to hear the case.  The hard fact is that, if the Georgites are able to stock the courts with judges who think the way they do, such judicial self-restraint will be a thing of the past.  The train carrying those who would destroy Constitutional Democracy as we have known it in the United States for 200+ years has left the station.  Since that train is totally out of control, a massive train-wreck is coming.  I wonder when some elements of the mainstream media will wake up to that fact and when a political party opposed to that outcome will come powerfully onto the scene? 

NB:  This column is derived from my “Short Shot No. 54” that appeared on The Moving Planet.

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Dr. Steven Jonas is a TPJ contributing author.  He is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author of over twenty books. Dr. Jonas is one of America's most perceptive Democratic political analysts.

In his book The New Americanism, Dr. Jonas presents his case that the Democratic Party has come adrift from its founding principles.  He urges the Party to turn to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to find the new vision and mission that it, and our country, so desperately need.  "The New Americanism: How the Democratic Party Can Win the Presidency  is available from Amazon.com (go to "Books;" enter the title) and BarnesandNoble.com (same). 

He is also the author of The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022, originally published in 1996 under the pseudonym “Jonathan Westminster,” and republished with a New Introduction in 2004, under the same author's name.  The 2004 edition is available at www.barnesandnoble.com (search with author’s name) and www.xlibris.com (click on “Bookstore,” then “Search” with title).  Both versions are available at www.amazon.com (go to "Books;" search with title).