Caudillos
The NY Times today has an editorial by a (sort of) neighbor of mine, Garry Wills, professor emeritus of Northwestern University, in Evanston Illinois (the next-door suburb.) He straightens out a yet another wrinkle in our propaganda machine’s depiction of our warmonger president. simply put, our aggrandized Commander-in-chief is not in command of the people.
WE hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.” The word has become a synonym for “president.” It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.” It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.”
But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army.
We’re being conditioned into a militaristic mindset to accept without question the actions of elected officials who operate covertly and increasingly fail to represent either the populous or Democracy.
When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” That title is rarely — more like never — heard today. It is just “commander in chief,” or even “commander in chief of the United States.” This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline. In wartime, it is true, people submit to the national leadership more than in peacetime. The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hide its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets. Constitutional shortcuts are taken “for the duration.” But those impositions are removed when normal life returns.
But we have not seen normal life in 66 years. The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and “the duration” has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever — more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism.
There has never been an executive branch more fetishistic about secrecy than the Bush-Cheney one. The secrecy has been used to throw a veil over detentions, “renditions,” suspension of the Geneva Conventions and of habeas corpus, torture and warrantless wiretaps. We hear again the refrain so common in the other wars — If you knew what we know, you would see how justified all our actions are.
Of course America is awaking from the dream of Imperial Sovereignty into the nightmare of military dictatorship. We’re finally asking the right questions about our current ordeal, questioning the caliber of our leaders or, as Mr. Wills aptly phrases it:
We used to take pride in civilian leadership of the military under the Constitution, a principle that George Washington embraced when he avoided military symbols at Mount Vernon. We are not led — or were not in the past — by caudillos.
Indeed.