I’ve written quite a bit about my shock, awe, and frank disgust at how the Bush administration (and frankly, the FBI under Clinton were bad at this too) get away with pushing what are essentially police state tactics by fear mongering.
For me it always comes back to that Ben Franklin quote about people who are willing to trade liberty for safety, and what they deserve. I don’t expect anyone to ever come up with a pithier summary.
Robert Steinback’s op ed piece in the Miami Herald this week is slightly longer than the Franklin quote, but it’s still pretty damn pithy:
If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden’s attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution — and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it — I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat — and expect America to be pleased by this — I would have thought our nation’s sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.
If I had been informed that our nation’s leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas — and call such procedures necessary for the nation’s security — I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.
If someone had predicted the president’s staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy — and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy — I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy.
That’s what I’m talking about!
I like his conclusion, too:
Bush stokes our fears, implying that the only alternative to doing things his extralegal way is to sit by fitfully waiting for terrorists to harm us. We are neither weak nor helpless. A proud, confident republic can hunt down its enemies without trampling legitimate human and constitutional rights.
That’s a story I’d love America to start telling itself about itself once again.
