ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A group of conservatives is unveiling a statement of principles called Constitutional Conservatism on Wednesday that reaffirms their belief in limited government and a strong national defense _ but also chides members of their own coalition for straying from their beliefs. ...Yeah, right.
Many conservatives balked at the rapid rise in non-defense spending under Bush, and at the expansion of unchecked government power in the name of fighting terrorism after the 2001 attacks.
Give me the names of a dozen conservative politicians who spoke out when the Patriot Act was proposed. Show me the list of well-known conservatives who spoke out against the warrantless interception of all Americans's electronic communications by the NSA. Tell me the roster of prominent conservatives who had anything to say about the use of torture and the Bush Administration's claim to the power to arrest and hold anyone they wanted for any reason as long as they mouthed the magic word "terrorism". Enumerate those principled conservative intellectuals who objected, in public, to the deficit-ballooning spending and tax reductions of the Bush Administration. Provide citations to those public objections, if you please.
I'll wait. But I suspect that I'll be waiting for a very, very, long time. Conservatives kept their mouths mainly shut as the Bush Administration trampled on the rule of law. Conservatives had nothing to say when Dick Cheney and his minions wiped their asses with the Constitution.
But now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office and the conservatives are concerned. I am shocked, shocked.
We told you so, conservatives. We told you, when all this was going on, that the GOP would not hold the presidency forever. We told you conservatives that the powers that you were so willing to grant to Bush and Cheney would some day be in the hands of a Democrat. You didn't listen, then.
Only now you're concerned? OK, prove it. I dare you to do these things: Work to eliminate the provisions of the Patriot Act. Make it the law that there will be no interception of electronic communication without a warrant. Abolish "national security letters". Outlaw "sneak and peek" searches. Ban the use of "material witness" holds, absent immediate judicial review. Prohibit civil forfeiture of property based on anything other than a criminal conviction for illegal possession of such property.
I won't hold my breath waiting for those things to come about.
1 comment:
The level of conservative awareness was made clear by Marco Rubio trying to make fun of President Obama's use of teleprompters while using a teleprompter at CPAC. Maybe the crowd thought they were bullet proof shields?
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