America reborn, it can be done 

by Kary Love 

823 words

As America heads towards its 250th birthday, it is appropriate to ask if the America launched at the founding still lives, or are we about to celebrate the birth of a deceased experiment in government of the people, by the people and for the people, degenerated into a Monarchy? The war power may be the test.

America was birthed by ordinary folks (the billionaires of the day were buddies with the King, just like today). Ordinary folks did the hard work, the dirty work, the fighting, the killing and the dying. It is to them one ought look to evaluate whether their goals and objectives survive or have expired. They are the true American Heroes: white, black, red, they pulled together to begin the world again.

It is beyond historical dispute that one key objective of the revolutionary Americans was to avoid the failures and abuses of the past, of the English Empire that ruled them. Two flaws of English rule (among others) were major errors they wanted to correct: 1) rule by one person replaced by rule by consent of the governed through representatives in Congress; and 2) military power subordinate to civilian control. The English Empire was ruled by one person in charge of the military power and George III abused that power in multiple ways, including using the military to attack the people, so that the Revolutionaries risked their lives to ensure it would never happen again in America.

One can make many sophisticated and convoluted arguments interpreting the Constitution to allow a King to emerge. And this has been done, mostly by lawyers working for the Presidency to expand Presidential power, and who were paid more the more they expanded it. 

In fact, America has devolved into a Nuclear Dictatorship where one man can order, without check or balance, nuclear war potentially killing the human species. Such a government is anathema to the genius of the Revolutionaries. In the government they constructed Congress, because it contained the peoples’ representatives, and it alone controlled the peoples’ armies. Only when Congress declared war did the President become “Commander in Chief”—this is clear in the actual words of the Constitution approved by the people, and made the supreme law of the land ruling over even Presidents:

Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Commander in Chief clause, states that “[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”

Clearly, Congress alone has power to call the military into actual service, and service of the United States is only legal when done by the lawmakers in Congress. 

Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 (Militia Clause): Gives Congress the power to provide for calling forth the militia to “execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” 

Article IV, Section 4 (Guarantee Clause): “The United States shall… protect each [State] against Invasion.” 

Until Congress authorizes by law calling the military into “service of the United States,” the President doing so acts illegally, and arguably his orders are also illegal, putting the troops at risk of acting illegally. A president acting illegally is no president, he is a mere War Lord, unauthorized by the supreme law and unprotected from it, Trump v US notwithstanding.

Over time fear and greed which benefits from concentration of power, have succeeded in expanding the Presidency until the President is regarded as full time commander in chief because of the allowance of “standing armies in times of peace”—the opposite of what the Revolutionaries fought for. 

Opponents of expanded presidential powers note correctly that the authority to initiate war was not divided between the Executive and Congress but was vested exclusively in Congress. The President had the duty and the power to repel sudden attacks and act in other emergencies, and in his role as Commander in Chief he was empowered to direct the armed forces for purposes specified by Congress. In this way the consent of the people remained sacred.

Today we stand on the precipice of another Presidential initiated war, one that could easily spin out of control into nuclear holocaust, should nuclear armed Israel fear existential defeat given its numerous enemies in its neighborhood. Or Iran striking Israel nuclear depots, having already landed a missile within 10 miles. The lesson for America is clear: restore Congressional exclusive power over war. Dethrone and declaw any pretend King of America. Take away his Nuclear Football; war is not a game. 

If accomplished, America can celebrate its 250th birthday. If not done, America is dead and July 4 nothing but a wake, held in memory of a dream denied. America will have been Made English Empire Again. (MEEA) The people did it once before, they can do it again. Long live the genius of America. Government by the people and No Kings.

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Kary Love, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resisters and many others in court for decades.