those who deserve neither liberty nor security

I thought I had grown tired of the quote, by Franklin, that, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” I feel that it is oft misapplied in today’s world. In Franklin’s time, the enemies of the state, even of civil society, could not attack that which they opposed in the devastating ways that they could in today’s world. In 1760, when Franklin wrote that, a person could not walk into the middle of Manhattan with a backpack and destroy the entire island and everything for hundreds of miles. The world is profoundly more dangerous than it was a quarter millennia ago. In his time people had to be far more clever and inventive about how they gathered and communicated to avoid detection – today it is far easier to gather and disseminate information that it would have been in his time. When Franklin wrote that he had no idea what the world, the republic he founded, would come to – indeed when he wrote that he was a loyal son of the British Empire, bent on preserving it.

However, over the past year I have lost my stomach for the way we are fighting the war on terror. Sure, they destroyed a large section of Manhattan and the Pentagon. We were all terrified at the brazen assault on our real estate – but the attack was meant to undermine our way of life. In our reaction to that attack, we initially mortgaged our liberties in hopes of securing ourselves against another attack. Certainly, in four years, there has not been a serious attack on our soil – although our allies have been attacked as well.

However, the worst thing that has happened since September 2001 has been the erosions of liberties and debased behavior by our government – in what I honestly believe is a genuine desire to preserve the republic and its citizenry. Unfortunately, by undermining what our republic stands for it and what makes our way life so envied, our government has changed our society into something that is probably not worth preserving.

I do not just blame President and his cohorts, I also lay a great deal of blame – probably more – on the opposition senators who failed to oppose him, either out of fear of terror or political cowardice. Even if I were to merely blame the President, past presidents, Senators from both parties, whomever, blame would not fix our problems.

Essentially, this is why I think Senator Russ Feingold’s idea that we censure the President to be a bad idea. We need to look into the wiretapping, and everything else. Torture, the treatment of detainees, the legal status of Americans being held without charges, and everything else that has gone on and gone wrong.

I feel that if we censure the President he will be publicly humiliated, or punished and the republic will turn to the next problem without resolving it. I am not sure what should happen to the President or anyone responsible. Should they be impeached, censured, or put on trail? I really have no idea but in censuring the President, we are putting the issue to rest. I feel that is wholly inappropriate – he deserves his day in court and so do we.

I also feel that in the same sense that the President’s actions deserve great scrutiny that his opposition not receive a pass. The behavior of the Democrats can be likened to one of those accounts of absurd robberies wherein the homeowner’s negligence aided the thieves – they gave him the keys to the house, pointed out where all the valuables were kept, and helped him carry out what he wanted.

I share Senator Feingold’s feeling that something should be done, this should not be allowed to continue or happen again but before we make the mistake of fighting this war like ones before we need to look at everyone in our government critically and judge their actions.

In looking at the areas where the Senate should have been checking Executive power we see not only sins of omission but sins of commission. Senators Feingold and Rodham-Clinton are two of the five members of Congress (out of 535) – the only Democrats – that signed into the vault to read prewar intelligence. How many voted for the so-called Patriot Act? How many filibustered it?

No matter the President nor the situation, they will try to overstep their authority. Allegedly, the President has – because everyone deserves their day in court – and the same allegations have been made against every President. Clinton has admitted to it himself, the hallowed of the liberals, Jimmy “put on a sweater” Carter, begrudgingly admitted it himself.

It is the constitutional responsibility of the President to defend the republic – but within the bounds of the constitution. It is the responsibility of the Congress to make sure he stays within those bounds.

Let us bring President Bush to heel and prevent his successors from behaving as he has. First, we should get all the facts and all the culprits. Maybe in the end censure is all that is appropriate – certainly it would have been more appropriate for President Clinton – or maybe like Nixon, he needs to be swept from office.

The only thing we know for sure is that something should be done but we do not fully know about what. Until we know we should reserve punishment.

Comments

[Fi]

No matter how you look at it, the terrorists have already won. They have made us terrified and thus achieved their purpose. The more we react, the greater their victory. God alone know how we can fight them but the methods we have used so far have hurt us more than it has hurt them. You can't fight for freedom locked in a nice safe cage. I don't know what the right path is but we surely need to dind a different one from the route we have taken so far.

[Christopher]

You're absolutely right.

[Alex Vance]

Cogent essay as always, Sprite.

[liz]

Nicely done. The thing with President Bush is that, even if he has done the wrong thing at times, I will go to my grave believing that he did them for the right reasons. And when the lives of so many who are in his charge hang in the balance, that should mean something to all of us.

[l'empress]

I don't know whether you saw my opinion on the war -- or whatever it is -- in Iraq http://l-empress.liscious.net/older/006419.html It gets harder to be optimistic. My reluctance to blame everything on the president is that he didn't do it by himself; I'm not sure he has the capacity to think it all up. He's not like John Kennedy, who could say the Bay of Pigs was his responsibility *because* he was the president. If he didn't know, he should have. It is just too easy to try to lay the blame on one person only. But I have trouble trusting any of them any more.

[myspinonthings]

I applaude your thoughts and post -- I wish I could blame just one person, but that wouldn't be realistic now would it? I am with L'empress, I have trouble trusting any of them.

[Margaret]

Yeah, many people who should have known better caved into the thirst for revenge--against a country that wasn't even involved. Now we have an even bigger mess to deal with, and a huge price tag to boot.

[Terri]

I completely agree with Liz. What a shocker. :) I shudder to think where this country (and others!) would have gone with Kerry in office.

[Christopher]

Don't think for a moment that I support or supported John Kerry, even he disagrees with his position.

[Supra TK Society]

BABY....YOU ARE MY OWN STAR....NOW I CAN'T LEAD MY WAY....