Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Alright, I'm not a raging liberal or anything like it. I tend towards a conservatively moderate political outlook with a a view towards social justice and a strong conviction in a conservative monetary policy (i.e.-balanced budgets, simple tax plans, etc.). I side with those who feel that a stricter interpretation of the constitution is what we need in the courts with legislators doing the hard work of drafting policy. I'm in favor of a stronger congress and a weaker executive branch. Events of the last couple of days have convinced me that W is in need of a swift kick in the ass. The Executive Branch has its own court to approve warrants to spy in folks for national security reasons. Yet, the President has decided that he needs to be able to bypass this. This is, to me, a clear violation of the 4th Amendment and if the Pres doesn't come clean, apologize and promise not to do it again (with some real oversight) then I think the Congress ought to issue articles of impeachment. To any Republican Party election types: if I had to do it again, I'd now vote against the President. In three years, I'll not support the Reublican party unless it strongly distances itself from these events.

Now, down here where I live, there is a lot of support for W and the "War on Terror" and so there are a lot of folks who don't seem to mind the intrusion but that how civil liberties get eroded. We talk about saving lives but what abobut the principles and the lives given to establish them between 1775 and 1781. The price of liberty in our nation is that we will always be less safe that those who choose to restrict it for their citizens. I'm willing to pay that. There are families that has lost sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers in this war. The rest of us need to accept that our values require that we are at risk and that we will be at risk as long as we commit to protect the 4th Amendment rights of our citizens and we askew the atrocity that is torture. The lives lost will be, as Jefferson might have said, martyrs for liberty.

I know that's easy for me to say as I haven't lost anyone close to me in a terrorist attack but restricting civil liberties was wrong when John Adams did it after the XYZ Affair, when Lincoln did it in the Civil War, when Wilson did it in WW I and now when W had done it in his nebulous "War on Terror" (which fighteningly sounds like Johnson's War on Poverty and Reagan's War on Drugs). If you don't have a case that'll stand up in court (and this court has turned down 5 requests out of thousands given it) then you don't have a case. Yes it might just cost some people their lives but it'll preserve the principles that thousands have died to defend.

Anyways, sorry for the political heaviness and thanks for reading.

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