Misc. Ramblings

In the most recent local election, Hawaii citizens were asked to vote on four state Constitutional amendments. Even though most people didn't realize it (insert disclaimer here as I am an employee of the Hawaii Judiciary), the amendments were intended to shift power from the Judiciary to the Executive and/or Legislative branches.

As many people will remember from their high school civics class (is that even taught anymore? - ed.), the idea of separate and co-equal branches of government was intended, among other things, to prevent any one or two of the branches from seizing absolute power (with, as the old saying goes, leading to absolute corruption). For as long as the three branches remained roughly in balance, no one could achieve hegemony over the people.

However, the Framers created a mechanism of amending the Constitution to take into account unforeseen situations that would occur in the future. But this mechanism requires, if citizens wish to keep their freedom, that said citizens are vigilant towards any changes that would weaken the protections found within the Constitution.

Recently, the Republican Right-Wing/Neo-cons/Evangelicals have been alleging that the Judiciary is an obstruction to what the people want and that the solution is to force the Judiciary to bow down on its knees to the Executive and Legislative branches. They say the courts have barred Christian prayer from the public schools; banned displays of the Christian 10 Commandments in public buildings, required equal protection among the races, sexes, genders and ages; and beat back the Federal Justice Departments' efforts to find terrorists through draconian searches and seizures of innocent citizens without the protection of judicial review. This, these seriously misguided people say, will not stand.

So the electorate went along with the changes and passed the four amendments, either not knowing or not caring that they had begun a journey down that slippery slope that leads to tyranny. Taking notice of the shift in power is Slate writer David Faige. Faige correctly frames the changes as a weakening of the right to confront and cross-examine witness, the right to due process, and perhaps most importantly, the right to live freely unless a grand jury returns a list of indictments against an accused. Go read the article and be chilled that even in blue states like Hawaii, the Republicans are moving ever towards absolute power. Power they are not afraid to misuse against you. Power that inevitably becomes corrupted absolutely.