One Vote

This past week was a real lesson in how close we came to going over the cliff.

By a vote of 66 to 34 -- one less than the 2/3 supermajority required -- the Senate rejected the first attempt in the history of the country to limit the Bill of Rights. The flag amendment was nothing more than a blatant attempt by the Republicans to enshrine their re-election campaign into the U.S. Constitution. Fortunately there were enough senators who felt that freedom of expression included the right to burn a piece of cloth and that our country and its ideals could withstand this infrequent and inflammatory insult.

Then the Supreme Court ruled that the president's powers are not without limits; specifically, the president's war powers do not include setting up military tribunals, and in broader terms, that the president cannot supercede the rule of law or treaties simply because he thinks he can.

The vote was close -- 5 to 3, with Chief Justice Roberts abstaining because he had already ruled on the case in a lower court. In that ruling Mr. Roberts ruled in favor of the president, thereby ensuring that the vote on the Supreme Court ruling would have been 5-4.

In both cases the margins could not have been thinner. I suppose we could feel a sense of relief that common sense and the Constitution withstood these efforts, both of which were promulgated by a policitical party that ironically claims the high ground on patriotism and the rule of law.

But it also points out how close we came to tossing out two hundred-plus years of legal precedent and American tradition in order to score both political points and prop up a president's attempt to ignore the other branches of government. We dodged the bullet this time.

Next time, however, we may not be so fortunate, and it proves what I've said many times before; it comes down to one person deciding the fate of the country, and I don't mean the president or a senator or a justice of the Supreme Court. I mean the person who steps into the voting booth who chooses the president or the senator who chooses or confirms the Justice. So, yes, voting does matter...and so does counting the votes. Taking that privilege for granted -- or not being vigilant in ensuring a fair and accurate count of the vote -- is more an assault on America than any burning flag or terror suspect rotting in a cell in Gitmo.