General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Don't care what Rahm thinks. :) But IMHO, Trump will run Ivanka for president [View all]Anatos
(179 posts)if the people wetting their trousers are the ones willing to give the government power to stop terrorist attacks, or the ones that aren't. If you think it is a clear call, then you've already given up all your (intellectual) liberty for security (the security of self-righteousness and false phantoms). It is not "perceived security" we gain by this measure, as it is not comforting to me to know it may be necessary. It is real security: the government has the legal procedures in place to immediately prevent a terrorist from triggering an attack.
I don't mind people who are willing to trade their own security for a bit of liberty (particularly when it is only liberty-in-principle). But when they are willing to trade other people's security for their own liberty (because the thought of the government being capable of countermanding individual liberty drives them nuts, just like it does the zero tax people) then I get a bit uncomfortable. Since this follows due process of law, there can't be anything in this legislation to erode your freedoms. Freedoms aren't metaphors, they are the actual ability to walk down the street, not only free from the fear of government agents, but free from the fear of terrorist attacks.
I know handwaving that fear of terrorism (no less real and no less valid, despite all the factoids you can throw at it, than your own fear of tyranny) is stylish these days. And, yeah, if you're really sure that all the terrorism is because we are oppressing the world's poor and the US Government has no legitimacy, but you still want to believe in the ideals on which that Government was founded, I can see someone thinking they have a better idea of what preserves, protects, and defends the Constitution than the Commander-In-Chief does. But the hundreds of people killed in London and Madrid and Mumbai are ample evidence that your belief that terrorism is "cockamamie bullshit" is, well, cockamamie bullshit.
Regardless, the issue is not whether this law is a good thing, but whether engaging in "protest votes" is a good thing.