Letters to the Editor

• Pragmatism vs. Principle

  [Read the article: Obama says he supports FISA compromise]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Let me say from the outset that I'm a Republican, so those of you on the other side of the aisle should take what I have to say with a few grains of salt. That being said, I find the whole "Obama's a politician; he has to do this to win" line kind of disappointing. In the first place, is it clear that he had to do this to win? Maybe polls indicate that a majority of Americans are for immunity; I wouldn't be surprised. But even if those polls are reliable indicators of public opinion on this issue, and I think it's doubtful because so much depends on how the question would be worded, I think that if Obama spoke forcefully on this issue he could actually change public opinion. This isn't like abortion, an issue that most everyone has given some thought to and has a set view on; the vast majority of Americans probably don't even know what FISA is. If he explained, in one of his fine speeches, why immunity is such a mistake, how it really has nothing to do with protecting us in the future and everything to do with protecting some corporations and elected officials who acted very illegally in the past, I think he could really sway public opinion. Obama, however, is afraid to take that risk; he, and the Democratic Party at large, is terrified of being beaten on terror and will happily go along with practically any intrusion on civil liberties if the Republicans say it's needed for security purposes. The only way, ultimately, that those of you in the Democratic Party who care about civil liberties can show the party leadership that this political calculus is misguided is if you punish them at the polls, either by voting for some third party candidate or not voting at all. Granted, you might end up suffering four years of McCain as a punishment for your disloyalty, but in the long term, the threat of a viable liberal third party would create a much more principled Democratic party. The fear, of course, would be that this new Democratic Party would never win, but as I've argued above, if Democrats spent a little time educating voters on civil liberties issues instead of signing on to each and every encroachment on civil liberties for fear of Repub terrorism demagoguery, that wouldn't be the case.

  Permalink Friday, June 20, 2008 03:37 PM