Why Conservatives Will Want a Trial for Cheney

In urging his fellow colonists to revolt against the crown, John Adams passionately made the argument that America would be a republic of “laws, not men”.  In other words, while a Monarch could do what she liked and justify it on any grounds, this country would be one where even the leaders would be subject to the written laws.  If they violated those laws, they would be subject to trial and conviction like any other citizen.  With a system like that in place, tyranny could never gain a foothold.

The law in the United States clearly bars political assassinations.  Evidence suggests that Richard Cheney and his subordinates may have broken that law, but we won’t know until he gets a fair trial.   Using the Cheney administration’s own justification for investigating Americans, if he did no wrong he has nothing to fear from an investigation.  If he did do wrong, the American people have everything to fear from the lack of one.  If Cheney is not tried, that sets a precedent for any current or future White House official to act as an unaccountable monarch, something that President Obama’s opponents will find very worrying indeed.

The Bush Administration’s Department of Legal Counsel wrote nine legal memos that basically argued that the President could violate any provision of the Constitution at any time.  Combine this with the absence of legal action against law-breakers in the White House and you get some potentially scary scenarios.  What if a current or future president decides that torture is necessary to help solve crimes within the United States?  What if that president decides that members of the other party or of the press are a threat and need to be detained without trial?  What if he wants them assassinated?  What if he or she declares that habeas corpus needs to be suspended for American citizens, or that certain religions or denominations should not be able to practice freely?

Some of those things sound far-fetched, I know.  But as a child who was taught that the Soviets and the East German Stazi were evil because they spied on their own people and detained people without benefit of a public trial, I never thought I would see the day that my own government did the same thing and called it patriotism.  As a young person who was taught that the North Vietnamese and Saddam Hussein were evil because they tortured prisoners, I never thought I would see the day that my own government would not only engage in, but publicly defend torture.  As a student of the constitution who was taught that our system was better because our freedom was ensured by a document that checked the power of the national government, I never thought I would see the day that Americans would argue that an investigation of what may be an egregious and violent abuse of power at the highest levels would be “bad for the country”.

Eventually it will dawn on conservatives that no trial for Cheney means no trial for Obama administration officials who may break the law or violate the constitution.  It also will mean that America is no longer the greatest country on earth, but another authoritarian backwater where unaccountable leaders pursue ends without regard to means.  And that will mean the end of a country of laws, and not men.