Democrats Decry Bush's Abuse of Civil Liberties

December 31, 2005

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Enough already from Democrats and unaffiliated liberals who want to cry me a river about how the evil George W. is out to rescind all American civil liberties just to catch a few terrorists.

The "other presidents did it, too" defense works only if you go back far enough in history. For example,Clinton apologists had no luck defending his sexcapades, because they could only point to Johnson,Kennedy and FDR--all Democrats--and that's only about 70 years.

If you want to put President Bush's unauthorized wiretaps into proper perspective, you must go back to another Republican war-time president, over 140 years ago. In the introduction to "The Real Lincoln: A New

Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda and an Unnecessary War," pages 5 and 6, author Thomas J. DiLorenzo writes how Lincoln "had to destroy constitutional liberty in order to save it."

"Quite a few Lincoln scholars have labeled Lincoln a 'dictator' for launching a military invasion without the consent of Congress; suspending habeas corpus;imprisoning thousands of Northern citizens without

trial for merely opposing his policies; censoring all telegraph communication and imprisoning dozens of opposition newspaper publishers; nationalizing the railroads; using Federal troops to interfere with

elections; confiscating firearms; and deporting an opposition member of Congress, Clement L.Vallandigham, after he opposed Lincoln's income tax proposal during a Democratic Party rally in Ohio."

And the beat goes on. Such antics seem to just "come" with big government. Still, my grandmother used to say "the proof is in the pudding." Lincoln, they say, "saved the Union"--and, oh yes,emancipated millions of slaves--and all it took was a four-year war that killed 620,000 Americans.

In Bush's case, there have been no more terrorist attacks on American soil in the four and a half years since 9-11, and the number of dead U.S. service men and women is about 2,200. You Democrats need to stop whining and realize that "the fleas come with the dog."

What's a few lost civil liberties for a few Americans, when it means the rest of us can go about our lives with confidence and peace of mind?