Monday, January 15, 2007
Police State Threatens (maybe) The Right and The Left
For a few years, I’ve been arguing with the Right that the police state is as big a threat to them as it is to the left...Hmm, maybe they know something I don’t? Like, the Left ain’t ever going to get a chance to persecute the Right. Old Lenin story: Lenin was discussing ‘communism’ with one of his associates; “but, Comrade, there have been ‘communists’ for centuries.” Yes, Lenin said, “but nobody has ever heard of them, and after we get done, nobody will ever hear of them again.”
Authoritarianism knows no ethnic, sexual, or national boundaries.
Today, it seems like the authoritarians who threaten our country are all on the Right. At least they’re the ones supporting police state activities. I guess they could be deluded enough to think their paltry collections of weapons will fight off any threats to their freedoms...Who has the biggest and meanest guns? Right: it’s the government. Always. Hitler’s suppression of the S.A. is today’s lesson...
This is from Digby. He carries more blogging weight than I do. Dammit.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_digbysblog_archive.html#116873210351012644
We have thrown so much money away on the Department ofHomeland Security that they can't even account for billions in missing funds. Small towns in the Alaskan Bush are putting camera's on every street corner with their free money from Uncle Ted Stevens. (To catch the terrists, dontcha know.)
We are building a well funded national police state apparatus at the same time that we are giving unlimited money and power to our military and foreign intelligence agencies to operate in the United States. This is incredibly dangerous and I can't help but wonder why there is so little effort on the part of anyone in public life to educate the public on the inherant dangers of such powerful, unaccountable institutions. This is why we had a revolution to begin with. It's why we fought two world wars in the last century. (Where is the Al Gore of civil liberties?)
And the most laughable thing is that all of this is apparently perfectly acceptable to the principled right wingers and "libertarians" who spent decades railing against the jack booted government thugs --- at least until a Republican administration was wielding the power. It seems that unless the target in question is buying weapons or explosives (in which case they come roaring in to protect the only amendment in the Bill of Rights they care about) these people are just fine with all this. After all, only the "right" people are being spied upon --- Muslims, war protestors, liberals, Democrats and other enemies of the state.
But guess what? That could change. The list of enemies will grow longer. It always does. And you never know who might land on it. This is not a partisan issue and it's tragic that there are so few on the right who can't extricate themselves from their pep club and cheerleader team sport world to consider that this is one issue we civil libertarians and at least some conservatives should be able to agree upon. I can say with absolute confidence that if a Democratic administration were institutionalizing spying on Americans and building a new all-powerful unaccountable police state apparatus, I'd be screaming just as loudly.
This exposes the right's total intellectual bankruptcy as nothing else has, in my opinion. They are nothing more than rich authoritarian thugs whose only real mission is to maintain their prerogatives. One of these days somebody is going to find a reason to think they are unamerican too --- and they are probably going to use that very same police state power against them. Then they'll screaming too --- but it will be too late.
Authoritarianism knows no ethnic, sexual, or national boundaries.
Today, it seems like the authoritarians who threaten our country are all on the Right. At least they’re the ones supporting police state activities. I guess they could be deluded enough to think their paltry collections of weapons will fight off any threats to their freedoms...Who has the biggest and meanest guns? Right: it’s the government. Always. Hitler’s suppression of the S.A. is today’s lesson...
This is from Digby. He carries more blogging weight than I do. Dammit.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_digbysblog_archive.html#116873210351012644
We have thrown so much money away on the Department ofHomeland Security that they can't even account for billions in missing funds. Small towns in the Alaskan Bush are putting camera's on every street corner with their free money from Uncle Ted Stevens. (To catch the terrists, dontcha know.)
We are building a well funded national police state apparatus at the same time that we are giving unlimited money and power to our military and foreign intelligence agencies to operate in the United States. This is incredibly dangerous and I can't help but wonder why there is so little effort on the part of anyone in public life to educate the public on the inherant dangers of such powerful, unaccountable institutions. This is why we had a revolution to begin with. It's why we fought two world wars in the last century. (Where is the Al Gore of civil liberties?)
And the most laughable thing is that all of this is apparently perfectly acceptable to the principled right wingers and "libertarians" who spent decades railing against the jack booted government thugs --- at least until a Republican administration was wielding the power. It seems that unless the target in question is buying weapons or explosives (in which case they come roaring in to protect the only amendment in the Bill of Rights they care about) these people are just fine with all this. After all, only the "right" people are being spied upon --- Muslims, war protestors, liberals, Democrats and other enemies of the state.
But guess what? That could change. The list of enemies will grow longer. It always does. And you never know who might land on it. This is not a partisan issue and it's tragic that there are so few on the right who can't extricate themselves from their pep club and cheerleader team sport world to consider that this is one issue we civil libertarians and at least some conservatives should be able to agree upon. I can say with absolute confidence that if a Democratic administration were institutionalizing spying on Americans and building a new all-powerful unaccountable police state apparatus, I'd be screaming just as loudly.
This exposes the right's total intellectual bankruptcy as nothing else has, in my opinion. They are nothing more than rich authoritarian thugs whose only real mission is to maintain their prerogatives. One of these days somebody is going to find a reason to think they are unamerican too --- and they are probably going to use that very same police state power against them. Then they'll screaming too --- but it will be too late.
