Chris Hedges: The Post-Constitutional Era - Truthdig
The U.S. Supreme Court decision to refuse to hear our case concerning
Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),
which permits the military to seize U.S. citizens and hold them
indefinitely in military detention centers without due process, means
that this provision will continue to be law. It means the nation has
entered a post-constitutional era. It means that extraordinary rendition
of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil by our government is legal. It means that
the courts, like the legislative and executive branches of government,
exclusively serve corporate power—one of the core definitions of
fascism. It means that the internal mechanisms of state are so corrupted
and subservient to corporate power that there is no hope of reform or
protection for citizens under our most basic constitutional rights. It
means that the consent of the governed—a poll by OpenCongress.com showed
that this provision had a 98 percent disapproval rating—is a cruel
joke. And it means that if we do not rapidly build militant mass
movements to overthrow corporate tyranny, including breaking the back of
the two-party duopoly that is the mask of corporate power, we will lose
our liberty.
Activist Lauren DiGioia is arrested Jan. 3, 2012, during a
demonstration in New York City’s Grand Central Station held to call
attention to the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President
Barack Obama on the previous New Year’s Eve. (AP/Mary Altaffer)
