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dirty,” I told him. “It’s time for you to aim a few blows below the belt, if that’s what it takes, or they’re going to run right over you.” He refused, and I think that’s why he lost the election. People started saying, “If he can’t stick up for himself, how can we expect him to stick up for us .”
    These guys have put everyone on notice: “Criticize the war and we’ll ruin you.” They did it with Max Cleland, another war hero. Max is in a wheelchair. Do they think he’s faking it? They did it with Kerry. And they came after Murtha. Karl Rove could smear Mother Teresa—he’s that devious. When will we stand up and say, “Enough!”
    I take it personally when our government tries to ruin a man who speaks his mind.
     
    ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS
     
    We pride ourselves on our two-party system. But the way it stands now, each of the two main political parties tries to gain all the power. They each want to create a one-party system, because it’s so much easier to rule when everyone’s on the same side. The Republicans mostly succeeded in having a one-party system during the first six years of Bush’s administration. They turned Congress into a big dissent-free zone. If you don’t believe me, just look at Bush’s record of vetoes. When Congress passes a law that the President disagrees with, he can veto it. Then if Congress can scrape together enough votes (two-thirds), it can override the veto. This process is called the separation of powers.
    If the process is working, you expect to see a lot of vetoes in the course of a President’s term, although some Presidents have gotten carried away. They used to call Truman “Harry S. Veto.” He vetoed 250 bills during his presidency—but he didn’t even come close to FDR’s record of 635. Recent presidents have calmed down somewhat. Reagan vetoed 78 bills, Bush senior 44, and Clinton 37.
    And the current President? One veto. Wait, you say, am I hearing right? Just one ? That’s right. In six-plus years, George Bush disagreed with Congress exactly once. In case you don’t get the significance of that, let me spell it out: Under Bush, the executive and legislative branches of our government merged into one. Bush didn’t veto legislation because it was basically his legislation to begin with.
     
    BRING BACK THE CONSTITUTION
     
    We don’t have to fly by the seat of our pants. We have a blueprint. It’s called the United States Constitution. But we’ve got to stay vigilant, because when people get into power in Washington, they tend to work hard to get around constitutional provisions.
    Bush did that with wiretapping. His attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, assured him that a “war President” didn’t have to abide by the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the citizens of the United States the right to privacy. They spied on us, and when people complained they said, “What do you have to hide?” That’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Finally, a federal judge in Detroit named Anna Diggs Taylor called a halt to the illegal wiretapping, taking a jab at the imperial Bush presidency, declaring, “There are no hereditary kings in America.” I wonder if Bush was surprised to hear that.
    When you stop and think about it, the Constitution is like the Bible. You don’t really have to read it every day to know what’s in it. You don’t have to memorize every word to know what it stands for.
    The Constitution is a tool, and a blueprint, and a process that we have to use every day to preserve our great democracy. Its words were hammered out by pragmatists—a group of men who understood that democracy doesn’t happen because of starry-eyed idealism, but through a process of tedious negotiation and compromise.
    And for 230 years it has worked. The real genius of the Constitution, it seems to me, is that it has retained its fundamental values while giving us the freedom to adapt to the times. You can read the Constitution all day long and you