By: Daniel Nardini
It has always bothered me that the President of the United States seems to be able to get away with almost anything. It is disturbing in light of events over the past 11 years. In that time we saw one president start a war in Iraq over allegations that then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was creating and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. No thorough investigation was ever done of this accusation, no person in that administration was ever charged or indicted for misleading the U.S. Congress and the American public, and a whole war was started on a totally false premise. In the end we found no weapons of mass destruction.
The result has been thousands of American dead and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead. As a matter of fact, this same President, by his economic policies, started the economic disaster we are in called the Great Recession. Think of all the millions of lives who have been ruined and damaged because of the acts of one man in the White House. But that person will never face any court, never be tried for whatever wrongs and crimes he may have committed. Some people will say that in order for a U.S. President to be effective he/she must have carte blanche to make decisions—however wrong or bad—for the good of the nation.
Nothing could be more wrong. The U.S. Constitution lays out very clearly that all people, I repeat ALL PEOPLE, are beholden to the U.S. Constitution. There are articles in that document that state very clearly why a sitting President should be tried for treason, and why even a sitting President should be held accountable for their actions. The last President who nearly received justice for his crimes was U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. The one who initiated the break-in into the Watergate Hotel to steal Democratic Party records, he would have been impeached and most likely jailed for his crimes had he not resigned beforehand. Since that time no other president has ever been tried for their crimes.
Not Ronald Reagan for the Iran-Contra Scandal, and not George W. Bush for a whole list of things. The fact of the matter is that both the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress do not want to touch the President or his high officials because they feel they will damage their own candidates’ chances of becoming president. In other words justice has become a political no-no for the powerful. After they saw Nixon nearly get canned, they lost the stomach and will to try any sitting or former president for fear of establishing a precedent where they might be next. So this is why they will hold hearings, call witnesses and make a lot of noise.
But it is all theater for the most part. They may jail some people in an administration (they only did this with Reagan’s administration. They have not done it since), but going after the top dog has become a taboo. But again it begs for the question of what to do if a president—sitting or former—is guilty of a crime and a wrong? If all other people in this country can be tried and punished for a crime they have committed, then why is any president immune? This part of the U.S. Constitution should be restored. Perhaps a special court should be set up that deals with specifically what crimes and wrongs might be committed by those in the president’s cabinet and the president.
Such a court would be appointed by the U.S. Congress and all judges would remain on that court for life (much like the U.S. Supreme Court judges). This way no politician can influence what they do, and such a court would have jurisdiction over crimes and wrongs committed by the highest officials in the land. Perhaps such a court can be patterned off of the International Criminal Court in the Hague. No one should ever be above the law, and not even the person serving in the highest office in the land.
No One Above the Law
By: Daniel Nardini
It has always bothered me that the President of the United States seems to be able to get away with almost anything. It is disturbing in light of events over the past 11 years. In that time we saw one president start a war in Iraq over allegations that then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was creating and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. No thorough investigation was ever done of this accusation, no person in that administration was ever charged or indicted for misleading the U.S. Congress and the American public, and a whole war was started on a totally false premise. In the end we found no weapons of mass destruction.
The result has been thousands of American dead and tens of thousands of Iraqi dead. As a matter of fact, this same President, by his economic policies, started the economic disaster we are in called the Great Recession. Think of all the millions of lives who have been ruined and damaged because of the acts of one man in the White House. But that person will never face any court, never be tried for whatever wrongs and crimes he may have committed. Some people will say that in order for a U.S. President to be effective he/she must have carte blanche to make decisions—however wrong or bad—for the good of the nation.
Nothing could be more wrong. The U.S. Constitution lays out very clearly that all people, I repeat ALL PEOPLE, are beholden to the U.S. Constitution. There are articles in that document that state very clearly why a sitting President should be tried for treason, and why even a sitting President should be held accountable for their actions. The last President who nearly received justice for his crimes was U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. The one who initiated the break-in into the Watergate Hotel to steal Democratic Party records, he would have been impeached and most likely jailed for his crimes had he not resigned beforehand. Since that time no other president has ever been tried for their crimes.
Not Ronald Reagan for the Iran-Contra Scandal, and not George W. Bush for a whole list of things. The fact of the matter is that both the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress do not want to touch the President or his high officials because they feel they will damage their own candidates’ chances of becoming president. In other words justice has become a political no-no for the powerful. After they saw Nixon nearly get canned, they lost the stomach and will to try any sitting or former president for fear of establishing a precedent where they might be next. So this is why they will hold hearings, call witnesses and make a lot of noise.
But it is all theater for the most part. They may jail some people in an administration (they only did this with Reagan’s administration. They have not done it since), but going after the top dog has become a taboo. But again it begs for the question of what to do if a president—sitting or former—is guilty of a crime and a wrong? If all other people in this country can be tried and punished for a crime they have committed, then why is any president immune? This part of the U.S. Constitution should be restored. Perhaps a special court should be set up that deals with specifically what crimes and wrongs might be committed by those in the president’s cabinet and the president.
Such a court would be appointed by the U.S. Congress and all judges would remain on that court for life (much like the U.S. Supreme Court judges). This way no politician can influence what they do, and such a court would have jurisdiction over crimes and wrongs committed by the highest officials in the land. Perhaps such a court can be patterned off of the International Criminal Court in the Hague. No one should ever be above the law, and not even the person serving in the highest office in the land.