PATRIOT ACT Out Of Control

It's funny and tragic to me that some people actually believe that the Bush Administration actually made them safer. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The massive constitutional damage to the rights of Americans will take years to repair, if ever. How far back you need to go to find a President with a greater disregard for the Constitution and rule of law will not be known for some time, but it will be somewhere between FDR, Lincoln, and Jackson.

A prime example of this is the abomination of using the PATRIOT act, which will likely go down in history as one of the great legal abominations of American history, to indefinitely detain a home schooled tenth grader.

One of the idiotic beliefs of the neo-cons that run the GOP is that the laws they pass will be used only on the people they don't like. This is one of the reasons that they, and the Republican party, are not conservatives, nor are Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity or any of the other talking heads that misappropriate the term. They are right wing fascists to varying degrees. Basic conservatism tells us that any power granted to the government will be used to it's fullest, and stretched as far as possible. This is precisely why the founders strictly limited the powers of government, and warned against expanding them.

Law Enforcement are not bad people, they simply use every tool granted to them by us through politicians to do what we through politicians tell them to do. If we give them a tool they will use it. That's simply logical. So when you allow them to do things to American Citizens, remember that they will not simply do that to the Muslim they find suspicious because you would be ok with that, they will also do it to your pastor if he associates with the wrong antiabortion group, or you if you vent your frustration with politics wrong. They simply do the job we ask them to do with the tools we give them. We are to blame, not them. We asked for it and received it. It is the voters responsibility to not be fooled by politicians, and to hold them accountable for the laws they pass. It is us who re-elect those who disregard the constitution. It is us who fall into the "lesser of two evils" trap. When you look at who to blame for the state of civil liberties in this country, start by looking in the mirror, especially if you vote for one of the main parties.

So what is the solution? Think and share. Don't blindly follow. It may feel good to listen to the guy with an R after his name bash Obama for running a huge deficit, and expanding government, but ask how we fared under his party? Did the size of government increase, or decrease. Did they cut taxes AND spending? Or did they add to the debt by spending money they didn't have. Did they protect your gun rights AND your right to constitutional rights when in detention? When you talk to other people about your beliefs, don't do what President Obama suggested on the campaign trail and "get in their face". Listen to what's important to them. Find common ground and relate. Use nonthreatening examples, and don't be afraid to agree to disagree. The conversation is the victory. When people think though the issues and don't fall into soundbites, we make progress.