The most promising progressive people-power movements have been Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution, the Sunni Awakening in Iraq and the Green Revolution in Iran. But the Cedar Revolution has been stymied by Syrian might and internal divisions. The Tehran uprising has been crushed by the iron fist of the Iranian regime, fueled by petro-dollars. And it is unclear whether the Iraqis will set aside their tribalism for a shared people power.
So as we try to figure out how many troops to send to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan, let’s remember: Where there is people power wedded to progressive ideas, there is hope ”” and American power can help. Where there is people power harnessed to bad ideas, there is danger. Where there is no people power and only bad ideas, there will be no happy endings.
I wonder if Friedman considers the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as documents which give the “people power,” which they very clearly do.
However, these documents, taken together and singly, also speak to protecting the people aginst ‘government power.’
And its ‘government power,’ wielded undemocratically that has caused most of the world’s repression and warfare over the past century or so.
“People[‘s] power” can be a synonym for repressive populism manipulated by dictatorial politicians.
Those politicians seeking populist “people[‘s] power” welcome disorder and chaos, because it is under these conditions that they are most able to persuade “people” to give up their “power” into the hands of a ‘dictatorial authority to govern’ offered by the politicians.
Actually, the founders, stated that rights came from a transcendent authority. The declaration states this quite clearly:
[blockquote]We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.[/blockquote]
Governments are instituted to secure these pre-existent rights.
The US Constitution is based on this concept. The Constitution grants no rights. Rather is a grant of power from the people and States to the federal government. That’s why the Bill of Rights uses language of prohibition against the federal government. For example in the 1st Amendment it begins: Congress shall make no law….” The idea is that the rights being protected are those rights that pre-existed the drafting of the Constitution. Since the federal government is not the source of those rights it is limited in its ability to encroach on those rights.
You need only to look at the 9th and 10 Amendments which state:
[blockquote]
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. [/blockquote]