Sunday, November 14, 2004
Patriot-Ism
We haven't heard too much about it yet, but battles over the Patriot Act will be one of the main political events of 2005, as many of its provisions are due to expire a year from now. Bush and Ashcroft have already pushed for its renewal, and for its expansion. As bad as Patriot I is, Patriot II would be even worse. As first revealed early in 2003, Patriot II would resurrect Total Information Awareness and increase other forms of surveillance, add more secrecy to government operations and legal proceedings, and just for kicks, would make it illegal for you to encrypt your e-mail and would allow the government to strip you of your citizenship more-or-less at whim.
Nat Hentoff writes in the Village Voice this week about roadblocks on the way to Patriot II. He notes that there is still a coalition of civil-liberties Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans in Congress, and he praises lower federal courts for their "awakening" to the implications of the act. Hentoff's example is federal judge Victor Marrero of New York, who struck down sections of the Patriot Act in September. Ashcroft likely had Marrero in mind, among others, when he gave a speech last week blasting judges for endangering national security by second-guessing Bush. (My guess is that the speech was a way for Ashcroft to announce that he wants to be a Supreme Court justice someday.)
When the history of our era is written--if we manage to keep the theocrats from establishing a Ministry of Truth to write it for us--the various land wars we are fighting and will fight under the umbrella of the War on Terror will be footnotes. The Patriot Act is going to be seen as the main event. Ashcroft and the Bushistas don't believe in democracy, they don't believe in accountability, and they sure as hell don't believe in the Constitution. People of Ashcroft's ilk believe, ultimately, that they're doing God's work, and that the ends justify the means. Alberto Gonzales won't be anointing himself with Crisco every morning or holding Bible study in his office, but his contempt for the Constitution is equally toxic.
In a way, the most noxious thing about the Patriot Act is its title. True patriotism is something else entirely.
We haven't heard too much about it yet, but battles over the Patriot Act will be one of the main political events of 2005, as many of its provisions are due to expire a year from now. Bush and Ashcroft have already pushed for its renewal, and for its expansion. As bad as Patriot I is, Patriot II would be even worse. As first revealed early in 2003, Patriot II would resurrect Total Information Awareness and increase other forms of surveillance, add more secrecy to government operations and legal proceedings, and just for kicks, would make it illegal for you to encrypt your e-mail and would allow the government to strip you of your citizenship more-or-less at whim.
Nat Hentoff writes in the Village Voice this week about roadblocks on the way to Patriot II. He notes that there is still a coalition of civil-liberties Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans in Congress, and he praises lower federal courts for their "awakening" to the implications of the act. Hentoff's example is federal judge Victor Marrero of New York, who struck down sections of the Patriot Act in September. Ashcroft likely had Marrero in mind, among others, when he gave a speech last week blasting judges for endangering national security by second-guessing Bush. (My guess is that the speech was a way for Ashcroft to announce that he wants to be a Supreme Court justice someday.)
When the history of our era is written--if we manage to keep the theocrats from establishing a Ministry of Truth to write it for us--the various land wars we are fighting and will fight under the umbrella of the War on Terror will be footnotes. The Patriot Act is going to be seen as the main event. Ashcroft and the Bushistas don't believe in democracy, they don't believe in accountability, and they sure as hell don't believe in the Constitution. People of Ashcroft's ilk believe, ultimately, that they're doing God's work, and that the ends justify the means. Alberto Gonzales won't be anointing himself with Crisco every morning or holding Bible study in his office, but his contempt for the Constitution is equally toxic.
In a way, the most noxious thing about the Patriot Act is its title. True patriotism is something else entirely.
