[Marxism] The single worst expression in American politics

[Dbachmozart at aol.com]

Glenn Greenwald - 
 
Sunday Nov. 2, 2008 06:54 EST
 
clip -- 
Joe Biden, _speaking yesterday_ 
(http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/biden-come-tues.html)  at a rally in  Ohio (h/t _Jonathan Schwarz_ 
(http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002669.html) ): 
Over the past week, Republicans have gone way over the top in my view,  
calling Barack Obama every name in the book, and it probably will get worse in  the 
next three and a half to four days . . . . After next Tuesday, the  very 
critics he has now and the rest of America will be calling him something  else - 
they will be calling him the 44th president of the United States of  America, 
our commander in chief Barack Obama!
As I _wrote a couple of weeks ago_ 
(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/17/mccain/)  (see the last few  paragraphs):  if I could be granted one 
small political wish, it would  be the permanent elimination of this 
_widespread_ 
(http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/public-servant-v-military-commander.html) , execrable Orwellian  fetish of reverently referring to the 
President as "our commander in  chief."  And Biden's formulation here is a 
particularly creepy rendition,  since he's taunting opponents of  Obama that, come 
Tuesday, they will be  forced to refer to him as "our commander in chief Barack 
Obama" (Sarah  Palin, in the _very first speech she delivered_ 
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94118910)   after being unveiled as the 
Vice Presidential candidate, said of John  McCain:  "that's the kind of man I 
want as our commander in chief,"  and she's been delivering that same line in 
her stump speech ever since). 
This is much more than a semantic irritant.  It's a perversion of the  
Constitution, under which American civilians simply do not have a "commander in  
chief"; only those in the military -- when it's called into service -- have one  
(_Art. II, Sec. 2_ 
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article02/) ). 
full -- 
<_http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/02/biden/index.html_ 
(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/02/biden/index.html) >

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