This is America, Part II!!!

The fundamental problem facing this country right now is not terror, or peak oil, or even Iraq. It is, put in stark terms, the struggle between those who want to continue to exist as a free nation and those who would transform America into a dictatorship masked by a sham democracy. The stakes involved are revealed clearly by President Bush’s statement that those who oppose his violation of the Constitution “don’t understand the nature of today’s world.” In other words, this modern world is a dangerous place (but when hasn’t it been?) and “quaint” notions like the Bill of Rights need to be cast aside if we are to be kept safe.

This is what the right-wing hissy fit over NSA wiretaps and FISA is really all about. No one has demonstrated that FISA compliance would materially affect the “GWOT,” yet wingers rant continually about how any such constraints on executive power, no matter how minor or benign, must be eliminated if we are to “prevail.” In other words, they see the present danger as an opportunity to achieve their vision of one-party government—their party, of course—and will brook no obstacle in reaching that goal.

This is why it is essential that Judge Taylor’s decision be upheld or, even better, that the government’s appeal be rejected outright. Real Americans (no authoritarian neocons need apply) have to do everything they can to force our elected officials to do their job, and that is to defend democracy. And if that defense requires impeachment of one or more federal officials, so be it.