The government scandals in Illinois led pundits to draw parallels with the colorful history of political corruption in my home state of Louisiana.
The comparisons are facile, but shallow.
A more striking parallel, which those pundits have failed to draw, is between the Louisiana Legislature in the Huey Long era.
Louisiana had a constitution that like the U.S. Constitution created three branches of government. Huey Long was elected governor under that constitution and proceeded to shred it, establishing what is likely the closest thing we have seen to a dictatorship in America.
He seized control of the legislature. Those who didn’t succumb to persuasion were bullied and blackmailed. One legislator is said to have a waved a copy of the constitution in front of Long only to be met with the response that “I’m the constitution now.”
Soon the courts and the supposedly independent state agencies were under his thumb, too. He even instituted a Bureau of Criminal Identification, a separate organization responsible only to the governor, which could arrest and detain anybody without warrant.
Of course, Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany under the Weimar Constitution and then shredded it.
We can look back and shake our heads and wonder why no one was brave enough or principled enough or cared to defend the constitutions.
One day perhaps we will look at our national government and wonder why no one was brave enough or principled enough or cared to defend the Constitution.
Power flows to the executive branch during times of military or financial crisis. People seem to be more willing to accept authoritarian government when they are afraid.
Congress long ago gave up its constitutional authority to declare war. Its authority “to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.”
After 9/11, when the Land of the Brave became the Land of the Afraid, instead of providing leadership to defend the constitution, the Congress rolled over to the executive branch. The same people who once called for reading the Constitution literally suddenly found that some of the provisions that spell out the most fundamental rights – the right to a Writ of Habeas Corpus, the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to a speedy trial and to be confronted with witnesses – didn’t mean exactly what the words say. The executive branch could decide what they meant.
The Congress’s most immediate priorities seem to be securing partisan advantage and winning re-election.
The founding fathers weren’t gods, or even demigods, although I think we can make the case that they were visionaries. They had had recent experiences with the abuses of power, and they framed a constitution that was designed to prevent the government they were creating from subjecting its citizens to those same abuses.
They provided a framework, but no written constitution can protect our freedom unless we – and those we elect to lead – believe in it enough to defend it.
John Nance Garner famously said that the vice presidency wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.
Which may put it one notch above the Congress.
Contract the writer at billatthelake@gmail.com
