Thomas Hattan's letter to the editors at the Concord Monitor on Chris Dodd's leadership to restore the Constitution got me thinking about the extent to which the rule of law is a fundamental issue in this campaign.
In my travels with Senator Dodd, I've heard countless people ask about what he will do to restore the Constitution and make America safer by following the rule of law. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the issues that is on most Americans' minds, even if they are never polled about it and there is no major treatment of the Constitution as a focal issue in the media and in the presidential debates.
The damage done by the Bush administration reaches into the DNA of America: our Constitution and our respect for the rule of law. This isn't an issue that is only cared about by political experts inside Washington DC or the faculties of America's top law schools or those whose incomes rank them in the top 1%. This issue fundamental to who we are as a people. America's relationship to her Constitution and to how this seminal document sets the relationship between the government and the citizenry who grants the government authority. Because the matters at hand are so fundamental and because they take place at the most elemental levels of who we are as a people, I see Americans of all walks of life deeply concerned about where we are today as a people.
Senator Dodd is asked questions about the Constitution, about the rule of law, about extraordinary rendition, torture, secret prisons warrantless wiretaps and data mining by Americans regardless of where he is speaking -- be it to farmers in southwest Iowa, students in northern New Hampshire, or union members in Johnson County, Nevada. In fact, I'd hazard that he gets more questions from regular voters and caucus goers about the rule of law than he does from DC pundits like Chris Matthews or Wolf Blitzer.
The point that I'm trying to make is a simple one: the Constitution and our government's comportment towards it is a transcendent issue that Americans care about. Chris Dodd is the only candidate who has made his dedication to restoring the Constitution and the rule of law in America a top priority in his campaign and in his administration. He's not doing it because this are ideas that dominate the polls (even if they are anecdotally important, as I've argued here), but because it's the right thing to do. Americans who support turning our country back onto the path set by the Constitution and a commitment to the rule of law can find their candidate, the one person dedicated to the Constitution above all else, in Chris Dodd. It's one of the biggest reasons why I first became a supporter of Senator Dodd and one of issues that makes me most proud to work for him today.
I invite you to join the Dodd Squad and help us elect the only candidate who has pledged to restore the Constitution in his first hour in office in January 2009.
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