In light of the "kicking them when they're down" theory of politics, I think Dave Neiwert hits the nail in the head with
these two lines:
Conservatives like to pretend that there is no general "right to privacy" because those words don't appear in the Constitution.
So maybe it's time for the American public -- which does believe it has such a right -- to end the discussion once and for all and put them in.
With all the current talk about Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and gay marriage, I think it is now time for us to retake control of the debate and start asking our Republican friends why they would be against a constitutional right to privacy.
The Radical Right was very calculated in the 2004 elections, putting anti-gay marriage amendments in state ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments. There is no doubt that that had a hand in delivering the Presidential Election to Bush.
So I think it is time that we start laying down the grassroots effort to build towards a national constitutional amendment for an explicitly stated right to privacy, at the state levels. Dave continues in the same article:
I've had to satisfy myself with arguing, ardently, for Democrats and progressives to drop all this talk about a "right to choose" and start talking about a "right to privacy," because that is what is really at stake with the ascendancy of so-called "strict constructionists" to the federal bench under the Bush regime.
...Fortunately, during the recent Senate hearings on John Roberts' appointment to the Supreme Court, the right to privacy indeed came rushing to the fore as a significant point. Rather predicatbly, right-wing propagandists like Rich Lowry weighed in pre-emptively on Roberts' behalf, arguing that because the Constitution doesn't explicitly list a general right to privacy, it doesn't exist.
*snip
Indeed, the right to privacy is generally recognized as one of those unenumerated rights inherent in the Ninth Amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
And as Jeralyn at TalkLeft noted back in 2002, the Ninth Amendment rights widely recognized by jurists over the years have included not just the right to privacy but also the right to self-defense, which in my mind provides a more powerful bulwark in defense of private gun ownership than does the Second Amendment.
**snip*
I think it's pretty clear that the coming Supreme Court lineup -- and particularly the Robert court -- is going to bring an end to Americans' general right to privacy.
Progressives would be smart to begin preparing against that eventuality now. As Sasha notes, it will be fun watching conservatives tie themselves up in knots explaining to Americans why they don't have a general right to privacy. But even more important, it is the kind of campaign around which a positive, forward-thinking progressive agenda can gain traction.
Dave's article provides a ton of links for you to review when you have the time (he is SO good with that). But overall, Dave highlights something that we all should be seriously considering. There is a sea change happening right now in American politics, and it is tilting a little bit away from the rightward drift we had been experiencing for quite some time. All you have to do is look at the recent Dover, PA school board elections to get a sense of where things are going. If the people in that heavily conservative district voted out the entire, not some but entire, cabal of right-wing nutjobs that were pushing Intelligent Design, one cannot help but feel that a slow awakening is taking place in this country. We, as progressives longing for change that will protect and elevate our citizenry and basic American and human rights, would be stupid to not begin pursuing such measures at the local and state levels.
I say local and state because as of right now, a national right to privacy constitutional amendment would die. It's not that more than a 1/3rd of Americans oppose such a right, but we still live in this age of terrorism and right-wing ideology that still reigns supreme despite it's slow and painful downward spiral. It will be just as hard if not impossible to establish such a constitutional amendment when a gay-marriage ban amendment can't get passed despite a majority of Americans not feeling comfortable about the concept.
Therefore, to build toward a national concensus that American citizens do have a right to privacy, we need to start where the Right began their gay marriage ban quest: at the state level. I'm urging people to begin the petitions and necessary steps to put these initiatives and amendments on the ballots in each state of this country. A successful movement doesn't begin from the top down, but from the bottom up, and by the time we have enough Senators, Representatives, and state legislatures who can approve a national amendment, we will already have enough states and polls that shows that the majority of Americans approve of a right to privacy outside of the government.
Now, wherever we do this, we will attract the nutjobs who will do whatever it takes, in the name of fighting terrorism and even God, to stop ordinary Americans from having such a right. However, not only do I believe that they are in the minority, but their wingnuttery will be on full display for all to see, and by then, people will have grown increasingly tired of their hateful and divisive tongue, something the general public is already feeling today.
We should fight Alito to the end, but at the same time, we should not be so narrow-minded and -sighted as our opponents are on various issues. The High Court is not the end-all be-all of all liberties and rights. The Right saw that with the homosexual issue, and took it to the state constitutions to get what they wanted. We should do the same as we fight to preserve Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, and other such privacy-based cases.
The Right keeps on saying that there is no "right to privacy" in our Constitution; let's begin the steps to shut that talking point down, forever!