The big schism on DU appears to be over exactly what we objected to about Bush

[Jack Rabbit]

89. I was on DU when the DLC crowd tried to bully us into supporting the War against Iraq

It's really not true that DU didn't have people who swallowed Bush's lies and supported his pointless war then. What they were most afraid of was that Democrats who opposed the war would look unpatriotic. They cared more about the lies the Bushies would tell about Democrats telling the truth than they were about telling the truth themselves.

Supporters of the war ended up looking foolish. A lot of them just disappeared once it became obvious that Saddam had no WMDs. Some were very persistent and backed Lieberman for President in 2004 and didn't go away until Democratic voters in Connecticut rejected Lieberman in the 2006 Senate primary.

I'm hearing the same steer manure from the people arguing for the national security state here today. "Get in line or the Republicans are going to win." They will only if the Democrats don't propose anything better than a kinder, gentler national security state. Democrats don't make as good fascists as Dick Cheney or the Tea Party do.

I voted for Obama because I expected him to dismantle the national security state. He promised transparency, which to me means tearing down the opaque walls between us and the national security apparatus. Just saying that there are safeguards an oversights in place that weren't there before is insufficient. We cannot have transparency and secret laws or secret courts. President Obama has not delivered on his promise.

The national security state cannot protect America. The national security state is antithetical to America. The national security state is destroying the village in order to save it.