<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Arial; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><I>There is one piece of law that grassroots organizing and electoral</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><I> </I></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><I>politics as usual could never have gotten us: the Bill of Rights.</I></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Arial; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">But, as Dan Lazare likes to argue, we rely on the BoR and the rest of</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">the Constitution to protect us, serving as a replacement for</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">politics. Thus the incredible melodramas over court nominations,</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">since the SC is the official arbiter of the constitution. Dan argues</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">that this is central to the depoliticization of American life</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><</SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#050908"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000ED">http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#050908</FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">>.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Arial; min-height: 21px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Doug</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><DIV> <DIV>But I doubt that Americans would be any more politicized than they are now had the American Revolution not made the Bill of Rights law. The reason individuals (in their everyday life) and organizations (in their political life) often turn to courts rather than political parties, trade unions, etc. is that the latter hardly function as such any longer. If they saw the latter as more effective means to achieve their ends than the former, presumably they would turn to the latter rather than the former. The sad thing is that many individuals and groups sometimes even had to sue what could and should have been their political instruments -- such as trade unions -- for damages that they caused them.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Moreover, the most important amendments in the Bill of Rights are not replacement for politics but what enables politics in less-than-revolutionary times. Minus the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to due process of law, the right to a speedy and public trial, etc. politics can only exist as a revolutionary underground activity, the sort of politics for which Americans, even leftist Americans, are generally unprepared.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Yoshie Furuhashi</DIV><DIV><<A href="http://montages.blogspot.com">http://montages.blogspot.com</A>></DIV><DIV><<A href="http://monthlyreview.org">http://monthlyreview.org</A>></DIV><DIV><<A href="http://mrzine.org">http://mrzine.org</A>></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>