Sacrificing Democracy - Profiles in Cowardice

September 28, 2006 will go down in history as the day that the U.S. government -- the one that supposedly represents us -- vivisected the Constitution they're sworn to uphold.

Nearly two hundred and fifteen years after the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, one bill, one single act of Congress, has seriously compromised the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments; worse, the power to do so has been handed over to one person - El Presidente. Two hundred and thirty years after we declared ourselves independent of a tyrannical king, we've decided to place many of those powers we detested one man holding into the hands of one man.

"...Nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"? How pre-9/11. "...Nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted"? Quaint, outdated. "...The accused shall enjoy the right ... to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation..."? Really, now, that's such an old precept (centuries, in fact). Box it up and bury it at Ground Zero.

We've taken major portions of our liberties -- those "freedoms" that we're told the terrorists hate -- and crushed them. Why on Earth would we do this?? Whatever could possess our elected officials to do this??

Fear.

Think about that for a moment. Think about the nature of terrorism...

In the days after September 11, 2001, our leaders spoke mightily of this powerful nation, of how we'd not let the terrorists destroy us. The collective national anger coalesced into a steely resolve that we'd never give in to this mysterious threat from abroad. Yet five years later, we have severely damaged the "freedoms" we're told the terrorists hate. And the reason we're willing to so do is nothing more than fear.

Fear of various mysterious bogeymen drove millions to vote to give an incompetent set of leaders and a willing-to-please set of Rubber-stamp Republican legislators longer terms in office. Fear of those bogeymen is the motivation behind the ridiculous claim that this government "needs" the tools of tyranny -- the power to lock up, for "as long as his lordship pleases", anyone suspected of being aligned with the terrorists.

The people who support this rubbish -- the Senators and Representatives who passed this heinous bill, the voters who did and will again select them in November, the media mouthpieces who second and approve their actions -- all are cowards. Not one of them has the intestinal fortitude that all the "Founding Fathers" -- of whom they so reverently, yet illegitimately speak -- displayed two-hundred-plus years ago. With their complicity, we've moved from "Give me liberty or give me death" to "Screw my liberty, give them death." Fear wins, liberty loses.

And the terrorists succeed.