The Patriot Act and the Politics of Liberty, Part One
Leftists (including the neo-commie Howard Dean) would love to have you believe that the Patriot Act is some sort of Nazi anti-subversion law that blows away the Bill of Rights. I will bet you good money that none of the protesters you hear about have ever read the Patriot Act, nor do they have even a remote clue what it is actually about. Even if they did know what they Patriot Act is about, they have absolutely no conception of individual rights, preventing them from making any kind of informed judgment about whether the Act will take them away. Given that a leftist’s idea of “freedom” is imprisoning gun owners and smokers while letting killers and rapists loose, promoting government-enforced racism, ignoring eco-terrorists, and stealing my money to support lazy-ass moochers, bad art, and “free” speech, I would love to see a law that wipes out the leftist notion of “civil liberties.”
No, the leftists definitely cannot be trusted to understand, much less argue whether the Patriot Act infringes on our “civil liberties.” To understand what infringes on liberty, one must first know what liberty is. Explaining this however, is something that will have to wait till after lunch. Meanwhile, check out the “Preserving Life and Liberty” site the government set up in support of the Act.
Objectivists used to support limited government. Why all the reactionary Republican-loving now? Your support of the Patriot Act is, dare I say it, completely irrational given that you claim to believe in individual rights.
Comment by Randall — 8/20/2003 @ 4:11 am
I guess what confuses me the most Dave is that you have apparently never read a history book, for if you did, you would not trust a politician.
Give me more laws!
Give me more State!
Give me more violence!
Give me more…
Go back and get a BA in History next time, skip the rhetoric in your technocrat classes.
Comment by Tim Swanson — 8/20/2003 @ 12:22 pm
Since when do individualists support a law that allows the State to:
- arbitrarily label a “criminal” an enemy combatant, thus denying him basic rights
- wire tap and invade privacy at will
- imprison suspected criminals indefintely - denying them the right to an attorney
A real advocate of individual liberty utilizes one maxim first: never give the State more power. For the State is the ultimate source of infringement of liberty…not “leftists” nor communists. They need the State’s monopoly on law and force to enstill their values, which you seem to want to do with the Patriot Act.
Moreover, rather than criticizing the movement against the Patriot Act by labelling those who are in it “leftists,” try to _demonstrate_ and _argue_ that the law _isn’t_ a violation of liberty. If Hitler taught that “2+2=4″, would that mathematical fact be false by association?
Reason – humanity’s best tool for deciphering what is good for man – demands that a critical examination of purported facts is the only way to determine whether a thing is right or wrong – not who is for it and what their motivations are. Your “argument” above shows me that you aren’t utilizing your power of reason, and in fact, are subverting it.
Oh, and I am a right-wing nut that hates the Patriot Act…go figure!
Comment by Mike — 8/20/2003 @ 12:39 pm