Wow, I post a message and go to bed, and look what happened. I worry about Mary Anne staying up till after 1AM to carry the baton. But she did a great job, as usual.

"What chilling effect?" you seem to be asking. Well, Tom, the evidence is right in front of you: we're having this conversation. The government doesn't have to exercize its powers for those powers to have an effect. They exist, and people know it. That perception is what counts: "I love my country, but fear my government". When it was rightwing loonies (particularly the militia variety), I thought they were simply paranoid. But after the "Patriot" Act, I understand better where they were coming from.

Sure there's a lot of dissent. And the people engaged in it know that they're engaging in potential civil disobedience. The government now has broad powers to punish dissent, and could decide to use them at any time. The "Patriot" Act's prohibitions against giving "aid and comfort" to terrorists are so broadly written that they could be made to apply to criticism of the government. There's certainly precedent for it, in the past application of various sedition laws.

A subtext in what I'm talking about is how dramatically the Right's attitude changed when their boy took power. Somebody posted a parody of Bush's resume, and while half of it was a little shaky, there was a lot of truth in it. The things that would have had you shrieking like howler monkeys with outrage had Clinton or any other Democrat done them, suddenly became the very essence of patriotism and the American Way: Dramatically expanding the size and intrusiveness of government through creation of the Ministry of Internal Security, potential curtailment of civil liberties through the "Patriot" Act, destruction of the budget surplus and creation of the largest deficit in history, "foreign entanglements" on a scale no President has ever attempted before...the list seems endless.

Funny, Tom, but with Bush in the White House I'm actually starting to see the wisdom in your former beliefs. Too bad they're now inoperative. But as I said to Lee, wait until November 2004. You might rediscover them.

--Robert