On March 6 there was a shift in this country, but most people did not notice.
A defense of freedom, liberty and the Bill of Rights was on display in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Rand Paul stood up in the well of the Senate and spoke for more than 13 hours.
The media will tell you the purpose of the filibuster was to block CIA nominee John Brennan, but the truth is even more significant.
Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Paul that said, “In an emergency, the federal government could execute a drone strike on U.S. soil.”
While Holder added the caveat “in an emergency,” the answer was yes, the executive branch of the U.S. government could serve as judge, jury and executioner, in an emergency.
Who determines what constitutes an emergency? Why of course the executive branch does. According to the top U.S. attorney the executive branch, headed by a sitting president, can declare an emergency, thereby having the authority to execute a drone strike.
Paul stood up with 14 other senators and demanded the executive branch answer the question: Can American citizens have their fourth, fifth and sixth amendment rights denied by a president?
Can a president, with a drone strike, take away an American citizen’s right to “be secure in
their person,” “be indicted by a grand jury,” “not be deprived of life, liberty and property
without due process of law” or to the “right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury”?
This is why this moment was so important. The Bill of Rights has been under attack for decades, but the past 12 years have seen an unprecedented attack: the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretaps, surveillance of emails, monitoring of cellphones and social media, attacks on religious freedom and the curtailing of free speech. Yet during this attack on the Bill of Rights, few in power stood up and took on the executive branch.
Paul and those that supported the filibuster did just that; they stood up and demanded that the president tell them if he had the power to ignore the Constitution.
These few rebels shook the earth in Washington, D.C., evidenced by the reactions of those in power during the next few days.
The “old guard” of the GOP took to the Senate floor and called Paul everything from “dangerous,” “Wacko Bird” and the “leader of the code pink Republicans.” Those in Washington, D.C., who believe in party over principle understood what had happened
and it scared them.
If the American people begin to understand that what is happening in Washington, D.C., is just a game of Republicans versus Democrats, the ruling class’ power would disappear.
As long as they keep us fighting each other, we will not notice the government overstepping its bounds and taking away our rights.
Paul lifted the veil just a little and an amazing thing happened. The people’s media, Twitter, Facebook, Internet news sites and citizen journalists covered the filibuster with astounding
success. The news that someone was standing for freedom and the Bill of Rights spread across the Internet, from C-SPAN to the Twitter hashtag #standwithrand trending to No. 1.
Even today if you Google “Stand with Rand” there are hundreds of blogs and new media stories, many of them left-leaning news sources. Even the progressive site Mother Jones questioned the use of drone strikes. Raha Wala, an attorney with Human Rights First said, “Any use of drone strikes or other premeditated lethal force inside the United States would raise grave legal and ethical concerns.”
If we can stand together on the issue of liberty and freedom, we can stop this attack on our basic freedoms and present a united front to remind those in government that the only
power they have is what the people grant them.
The ground has shifted, the veil lifted and the game has been exposed. We are purposely being pitted against each other to keep us distracted. We need to stop fighting each other and unite to defend our rights against a government that thinks it is OK to be judge, jury and executioner, as long as there is an “emergency,” which is defined by that very same government.
Scott Allegrini is a co-founder of the Children of Liberty. Email him at news@toledofreepress.com.
