Politics: National Insecurity

Politics


I remember, back in the late sixties and early seventies, a great many people, mostly of the younger (then) generation, used to answer the phone with "Fuck Hoover...hello?"

This was because the FBI, under the direction of the mad transvestite closet dwelling Hoover, had a habit of collecting information on anyone and everyone who was deemed a "threat" to society. This included people such as John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, including politicians, journalists, activists, hippies, and yes....you and me. At the heart of this campaign of information gathering and dossier building was the use of illegal surveillance and wiretapping. Lists of enemies were compiled and actions taken to "neutralize" the suspected threats. Even the President of the United States was not above using these same methods in his relentless pursuit of his political "enemies". The Watergate scandal of the Nixon whitehouse was a fine example of this misuse of power.

Well it seems that happy days are here again. The present administration has determined that, in order to root out "enemies", it is necessary and proper to invade the privacy of any and every American citizen. Without warrant or remit, the security agencies are going about this nefarious business and collecting phone data on millions of innocent people.

We should not seem so surprised that the president has put his office, and himself, above the law. He is acting in the interests of "national security", which in political terms is tantamount to carte blanche to commit any crime without fear of punishment. His office does not have to explain itself to Congress, as if they would have the temerity to make such an unpatriotic demand of a "wartime" president!

The mere fact that America does have enemies in the world, and I am not one of them, is no excuse for the rapid erosion of basic civil rights. Today the security services are using precedent setting methodologies to pursue potential threats to the nation. They have the advantage of technology that Hoover could only dream of, and the potential for misuse and abuse of that technology by unscrupulous and corrupt individuals or groups is also greatly enhanced.

Without proper and legal oversight, this power is a greater threat to America than any mad suicide bomber could ever be. By ignoring or disregarding the system of checks and balances that was written into the Constitution, and thereby invalidating that document, this present administration has itself become the greatest threat to democracy that we have ever faced...and shame on Congress and the Supreme Court for letting slip the reins that were carefully placed in the worthy hands of those trusted institutions by the founders of this delicate republic!



"This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."
Benjamin Franklin