More thoughts on EO 13083
USA Journal Online
July 1, 1998 Jon E. Dougherty
As the nation's 222nd Independence Day fast approaches, many Americans feel more uneasy about future Independence Day celebrations than at any other time during their lives. That's a pretty bold statement, considering that tens of millions of us have survived world wars, civil unrest, and the threat of `mutually assured destruction' during 35 years of the Cold War.
But the American spirit has prevailed throughout all of these concerns, so what makes 1998 so much different? Why is the anxiety about our future higher now than during any of these other periods in our history?
Because those times were all marred with problems most people could either see or understand. They were physical, tangible things that took on a single dimension and were predictable.
Now, however, the danger to liberty in America does not [at this time] come from recognizable global enemies. It isn't coming from an outbreak of civil unrest over an unpopular war. And it isn't coming from having thousands of nuclear missiles pointed at our neighborhoods [so we're assured by Bill Clinton].
This time, the threat to our future is purely ideological. Many of those in power today are itching to transform American values and our system of government into something more controllable, manageable, and - yes - more communistic. And because ideologues are fellow Americans, that makes the fear even more ominous.
When enemies to our way of life came from without, we could always depend on our government to let us know when to be worried. When our own people became unruly and demanded change, we could depend on our media to inform us. But when our own government and media became infested with greedy, self-centered and self-serving ideologues, the danger to our liberties and way of life became more dangerous and nearly invisible.
Such is the case with Executive Order #13083 - "Federalism" - as defined by President Bill Clinton on May 14th of this year. Within that document resides all the necessary "authority" to fundamentally alter our system of government forever, and nobody in Washington, DC or in the mainstream press is getting upset about it.
You'd think Congress would be wildly protesting the fact that this document effectively writes the legislative branch of government out of existence, but they're not. In fact, I had Rep. Bob Barr [R-Ga.], so-called staunch supporter of small government conservatism scheduled to talk about the order on my radio show last weekend, but he didn't make it. After talking with press secretary Brad Alexander about scheduling Barr three times last week, both on the phone and via email [which he always answered] - plus faxing the entire EO to them twice [along with an earlier piece I wrote where I assessed the meaning of the order], Barr did not present himself come showtime. On Sunday morning, an email from Alexander said it all: `Sorry. We forgot about it.' How convenient.
You'd think the establishment media would be wildly protesting this order, because if Clinton [or some other president] ever uses it, it will effectively create martial law, and the press will be severely controlled by the government. But they're not; in fact, I have not seen a single article or op-ed piece on this order in the traditional establishment outlets. They're still too busy trying to convict Ken Starr of illegally leaking information, or trying to find out what Monica Lewinsky knows to report on a matter of such truly dire implications.
So, as America stands on the crest of another Independence Day, the reasons why many of us are so unsure of the future are indeed very plain after all. The silence of Congress and their compliant media machines tell the whole story.
Get ready for 2000, folks. It looks like we're going to have, in the words of the Chinese [ironically], `interesting times.' ***
USA Journal Online
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