What's Being Written - Waco Tribune Herald

Johnson: Living under 1-party rule

HARLEY JOHNSON Board of Contributors

Monday, January 31, 2005

HILLSBORO – Under our noses, for those who weren't duly concerned, our "checks and balances" system has given way to one-party rule.

A Congress controlled by the Republican Party and Republican judges falls in line behind a corporate-controlled administrative branch. I hasten to add that one-party control also describes our state government.

I also must add in this analysis that many Democrats have contributed to this worrisome trend.

The most dangerous tendency by Congress in recent years has been to give the president virtually unlimited power to make war. The Constitution vests that power only in Congress.

Ah, but under today's alignment, the presidency is more like a monarchy. (And under this president, the title of emperor would be wholly appropriate).

The news media have failed us. There are so many issues which need close scrutiny and exhaustive reporting. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are horribly under-reported (do you remember the hunt for bin Laden?) Enron and "Kenny Boy" Lay and all the influence they bought just sort of came and went. And was that investigation into the anthrax attacks shelved?

Instead, on what do the consumers of news dine? On sensational murder trials. On the Michael Jackson saga. And with so much to debate about governance prior to the national elections, somehow the issue of gay marriage became all-consuming.

Now we learn of elaborate taxpayer-funded propaganda efforts by the Education Department and even the Social Security Administration to push the empire's agenda.

We are on a fast track to losing America as we have known it. One-party domination? Be careful, voters.

Communist Russia had a one-party system. The Communists made a big deal of elections. It was curious how they always managed to win.

In Germany, Hitler used times of crisis to gain ironclad control. He suspended the German constitution, permitting the arrest of persons suspected of being enemies of the state. Citing a national crisis, he sanctioned torture to gain information for the state.

Germany attacked a third-rate nation that posed no threat to it. With the help of propaganda and fear, Hitler convinced the people that it was necessary to protect them.

Possibly, we should post the Constitution in public buildings rather than the Ten Commandments that some people demand. For so long as we have a constitutional government as established by our founders, we can freely read the Ten Commandments and basically anything else we wish. Without it, we face the very thing against which President Bush warned us about on inauguration day: tyranny.

Harley Johnson is a member of the Board of Contributors, Central Texans who write columns regularly for the Tribune-Herald . He is superintendent of Penelope Independent School District.