This diary was inspired by my reading of another diary earlier today, one entitled St. Paddy's Parade Turns Ugly in Colorado Springs - a chilling account of police brutality with the aim of suppressing dissent in the place that author Robert Lanham calls the "Evangelical Vatican," Colorado Springs. Reading it, my initial thought and my comment was, essentially, sue the bastards. That then made me want to post this diary.
I have long been aware of the ACLU, and was particularly aware of it back when Poppy Bush, in a McCarthyistic manner, tried to smear Dukakis as a "card carrying member." Earlier on, while in high school, I remember watching Martin Ritt's film The Front, which starred Woody Allen as a bookie pretending to be a writer so as to front for his writer friends, all of whom were blacklisted under McCarthyism in the 1950s by those in power. This was a remarkable, explicitly political film which both entertained and educated me, and showed me an ugly side to American history. I only joined the ACLU, though, after watching this current administration, the worst in U.S. history in my opinion, aided and abetted by the worst congress in history, assault the constitution. Apparently, I was not the only one to do so. While I probably should have joined much earlier, I now plan to remain a "card carrying member" for the rest of my life, having seen what power unchecked is capable of.
Here is a bit of history. The ACLU was formed in 1920, during the earliest "red scares."
ACLU mini history
Roger Nash Baldwin became head of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) in 1917. An independent outgrowth of the American Union Against Militarism, the Bureau opposed American intervention in World War I. The NCLB provided legal advice and aid for conscientious objectors and those being prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 or the Sedition Act of 1918. In 1920, the NCLB changed its name to the American Civil Liberties Union, with Baldwin continuing as its director. Helen Keller, Jeannette Rankin, Jane Addams, Crystal Eastman and Albert DeSilver, along with other former members of the NCLB, assisted Baldwin with the founding of the ACLU.
In the year of its birth the ACLU was formed to protect aliens threatened with deportation, along with U.S. nationals threatened with criminal charges by U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer for their communist or socialist activities and agendas. It also opposed attacks on the rights of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and other labor unions to meet and organize.
In 1940, the ACLU formally barred communists from leadership or staff positions, and would take the position that it did not want communists as members either. The board declared that it was "inappropriate for any person to serve on the governing committees of the Union or its staff, who is a member of any political organization which supports totalitarian dictatorship in any country, or who by his public declarations indicates his support of such a principle."The purge, which was led by Baldwin, himself a former supporter of Communism, began with the ouster of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a member of both the Communist Party of the USA and the IWW.
In the 1988 presidential election, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush called then-Governor Michael Dukakis a "card-carrying member of the ACLU," which Dukakis proudly acknowledged. The phrase now serves as part of a jocular recruitment slogan for the ACLU.
The September 11, 2001 attacks and the ensuing debate regarding the proper balance of civil liberties and security including the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act led to a 20% increase in membership between August 2001 and December 2002, when total enrollment reached 330,000. The growth continued, and in August 2004, ACLU membership was at 400,000.
The ACLU has, over the years, fought for church-state separation,such as by taking on Tennessee's anti-evolution law in a famous court test, the "Scopes monkey" trial of 1925, and it did so much later on while taking on creationists in Arkansas. It has fought against school segregation and bans on interracial marriage. It has fought for constitutional right of privacy extended to women seeking abortions. It has helped to check otherwise unchecked administrative power, such as by challenging government spying in the NSA warrantless surveillance program. It has has been a vocal opponent of the various forms of the USA PATRIOT Acts, recognizing these as a threat to the U.S. Bill of Rights. And it has fought for the rights of Americans to dissent without the consequence of violence and repression by the state and the powers that be.
While the actions (e.g. defending Oliver North, defending white supremacists rights to free speech, not supporting gun control efforts, etc.) of the ACLU have not been without controversy on the left, it is interesting that most of the criticism of this organization have come from the right wing, such as by both Bush administrations and their spoorters and apologists.
I remember, though, when the GOP was in NYC back in the summer of 2004 for its convention. I remember how the administration used fear mongering to try to discourage protesters from showing up to express their opposition; it didn't work. But I also remember witnessing blatant acts of constitutional violations by the NYC police, and thinking that the police resembled a gestapo. Thankfully for me, I was not among those swept up by the police and held in detention in disgusting conditions in "Guantanamo on the Hudson." Most of those arrested were then summarily released, with no charges brought. RNC Mass Defense - a collaboration of the New York People's Law Collective, the National Lawyers Guild, and the New York Civil Liberties Union - worked to provide free legal support for all protesters.
So, the question I ask of the Kos community is this. Are you a card carrying member of the ACLU? If not, why not?