Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to How would we feel then?

But how would YOU feel?
Robert — (archived)

If Hillary used the Patriot Act to squash opposition to her socialist fantasies, I would bet a thousand dollars that the same people who organized marches against Bush, wailed about Ashcroft, and decried our loss of civil liberties, would turn right around and say that Hillary's use of the Act was the neatest idea since fish came up with lungs.

Nice, if convoluted, illustration of my point. Remember when I said to Lee "It's easy to be smug and complacent about government power when you're an avid supporter of the current government."? It's not the supporters of the current government who have to worry, it's the dissenters. I know it's perennially hard for conservatives to accept, but an integral component of the American Way is the freedom to dissent.

Funny how you Rightists are outraged by any expansion of government power when your side's not in power, yet when your guy's running the show, it's just peachy-keen when he grabs all the power he can get and uses it against your opponents. The point I wanted Lee to consider--and apparently you need to think about it too--is that no US government lasts more than eight years. Any power it takes unto itself is there for a successor to use, and you might not like the successor. The same powers you cheer when your side uses them against your opponents can eventually be turned against you.

That's a subtle point that Christian supremacists never seem to get when they go on about how America is a "Christian nation" and there's no need for separation of church and state. That separation protects them just as much as non-Christians...maybe not today, but someday they might really miss it when followers of another religion have grown in numbers and can grab the reins of power.

The only thing certain is change...take the long view.

--Robert

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (50 posts)