On The National Front: Gore Rebukes Bush While The Bush Junta Comes Crumbling Down



“Democracy itself is in grave danger”

by Former Vice President Al Gore

Salon.com



Former
Vice President Al Gore charges that the Bush administration's use of
executive power goes beyond the pale. America's greatest challenge
today, he argues, “is not terrorism but how we react to terrorism.”



June 24,
2004  |  When we Americans first began, our biggest danger
was clearly in view: we knew from the bitter experience with King
George III that the most serious threat to democracy is usually the
accumulation of too much power in the hands of an executive, whether he
be a king or a president. Our ingrained American distrust of
concentrated power has very little to do with the character or persona
of the individual who wields that power. It is the power itself that
must be constrained, checked, dispersed and carefully balanced, in
order to ensure the survival of freedom. In addition, our founders
taught us that public fear is the most dangerous enemy of democracy
because under the right circumstances it can trigger the temptation of
those who govern themselves to surrender that power to someone who
promises strength and offers safety, security and freedom from fear.



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