Letters to the Editor
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Zack
Political officials operate in groups, in parties. Thus, when we speak about "what Democrats do" and "what Republicans do," we are obviously speaking of their beahvior collectively. It's understood that there are exceptions on the individual level, often many.
You mentioned yesterday that your Senators voted against this bill, and they also voted against the MCA. But what did they really do to stop it? Did they filibuster? Did they try? Did they get out and make the case strongly and publicly against it?
Parties matter. They act as a unit, decide who controls the houses of Congress, who controls the agenda. The fact that one Democrat (or more) is "not X" does not preclude us from asserting that "Democrats are X."
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@J.M.
It was certainly not my attempt to "twist your words."
However, I read (and re-read) the following as something less than a "horrified" response:
I just think that there's a real dilemma that Americans are struggling with - balancing the need for domestic security with preservation of civil liberties and the rule of law. Not easy.
I objected, and meant to do so in a collegial, rational way, to the characterisation of what you apparently later called "cynical calculat[ion]" as a "real dilemma."
My humble opinion is that it just ain't so.
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J.M.
I just think that there's a real dilemma that Americans are struggling with - balancing the need for domestic security with preservation of civil liberties and the rule of law. Not easy.
Possibly. But it's unlikely.
What is more likely is that a lot of Americans take their civil liberties very much for granted and consider only the 'national security' aspect - when they consider these issues at all. I seriously doubt there's so much as a 'balancing act' as you may think.
Keep in mind that the Bushites push 'national security' issues relentlessly - but mention the implications for the rights of citizens not at all. And so do their enablers in the MSM. Because that's what Bushites want people to think about, and to not think about. So a lot of people do just that.
Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ...
- General Douglas MacArthur
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
- James Madison
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
- John Adams
Some day many people may wake up to find that their 'rights and freedoms' have disappeared overnight, and that will be a great surprise to them.
But it will be no surprise to me. And it won't be a surprise to a few thousand other people. Current circumstances favor it.
We have seen it before:
Noch weiz ich an im mêre | Daz mir ist bekant,
Einen lintrachen | Sluoc des heldes hant,
Er badet sich in dem bluote: | Sîn hût wart hurnîn,
Des snîdet in kein wâfen: | Daz ist dicke worden schîn.
- Das NibelungenliedAnd I know even more, more I can tell.
Once, by his violent hand, a dragon fell.
He bathed in blood, grew hard, and can't be slain.
And many have seen this again
and yet again.Keep in mind that the neocons would not have gone through so much trouble, and would not have risked so much prison time, unless they very much intended to succeed in sweeping away the Constitution in favor of their New World Order. And they do not seem much worried about failing.
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@j. m. greysky re: How *strongly* do Americans feel about requiring the warrant?
I have been somewhat extreme in my recent comments because the past six years have seemed to me to be about as extreme as it gets, short of a world war or a full-scale invasion of the US by a foreign country or a takeover of our country by a dictator.
That we have reached a state of affairs where the concept of a warrant is considered optional is nearly incomprehensible. The only thing that makes it comprehensible (to me) is the fact that it has happened and is reality.
If I made a checklist of all the things that identified a totalitarian society it would contain items like:
1. secret prisons and/or gulags
2. illegal search and seizure
3. extrajudicial surveillance
4. extrajudicial (i.e., "star chamber") trials
5. disappearing people
6. torturing people
7. political prisoners
8. political assassinations
9. a political bureau (i.e, politburo) or central committee
10. state run media
In the US we now have items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Scott Horton would make the case that Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is a political prisoner, his incarceration the result of a Republican orchestrated kangaroo trial. There is also the case of the artist Steve Kurtz, who is facing federal prison for making art (post 9/11) critical of the biomedical industry. So that takes care of number 7.
I'll leave 8 alone.
Whether the partisan politicization of every component of the executive branch constitutes a Republican politburo (number 9) is perhaps debatable. I pretty much have my mind made up on the issue.
State run media (number 10)? Well, the MSM is certainly in the pocket of the Beltway. If it's not state-run, it's the next best thing.
I'm not trying to slam you. I know what a democracy is. What we have at present looks much less like a democracy and much more like an emergent totalitarian society.
Scott Horton spoke the truth when he said that the boot is coming down and it will soon be on our necks.
Whether or not Americans perceive a constitutional and democratic crisis should not be based on the price of gas, home mortgage rates and the quality of TV entertainment.
This constant call for increased security is just too weird for me. As a nation we have been in a civil war, two world wars and a long cold war. We survived with our democracy intact.
After all of that sacrifice and experience, who would deliberately choose to live in a totalitarian society when they could live in a democratic society?
Fear did not make us a free and secure nation. Democracy did.