On December 18 2007 16:01 fight_or_flight wrote:
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama:
“The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security.”
This just really bothers me. This isn't the mindset I'd like in the senate.
There is a difference between 'protecting our nation's security', and allowing the government to temporarily revoke our constitutional rights whenever they feel like it, so long as they claim they are fighting terrorism. I'm not going to try to debate you in your own blog, because I think you are just informing us of what's going on, but I just want to clear up the other side if at all possible. A lot of people think that the Patriot act and several things like it, and probably this too, are part of a larger 'conspiracy' to strengthen the federal government.
Both sides make sense to me, which is why I am so politically confused right now.
On the one hand, it is much easier for a strong government to repel threats and deal with things like terrorism, but, on the other hand, it is also much easier for a strong government to 'silence' all opposition, domestic or otherwise.