Military tribunals and the state of American democracy

Over at The Washington Note, Steve Clemons has a must-read post on America's secret military tribunals in anticipation of an upcoming Supreme Court case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (to be argued tomorrow, March 27). Roberts has properly recused himself, but Scalia has already declared his support for such tribunals, but he's "an enemy of democracy, of real and true democracy".

Ultimately, this is about the state of American democracy and about the political values that America promotes, intentionally or otherwise, around the world: "America needs to stop teaching thugs in the world the loopholes in democratic process and needs to get back to walking the walk of democracy."

Those thugs are watching. So is the rest of the world. Scalia and his ilk may not care, but the rest of us should.

It's time for America to be America again. Otherwise, what's the point?

(Also see Political Animal, Ann Althouse, and TalkLeft.)