The executive director of the ACLU, speaking for many on the left and among Americans who generally favor the Democratic Party, began an important talk last week saying, “I’m going to start provocatively … I’m disgusted with this president.”
Why? “It’s 18 months and, if not now, when? … Guantanamo is still not closed. Military commissions are still a mess. The administration still uses state secrets to shield themselves from litigation. There’s no prosecution for criminal acts of the Bush administration. Surveillance powers put in place under the Patriot Act have been renewed. If there has been change in the civil liberties context, I frankly don’t see it.”
It is crucial that Americans unblinded by partisanship recognize the abject failure of this administration to do anything on the civil liberties front other than cement and expand upon Bush power grabs.
cross-posted from Campaign for Liberty
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