The Senate is taking an important vote on FISA this week, a vote that is it is critical to restoring our civil liberties.
Senator Russ Feingold’s statement touches on the key points:
"We must not provide overly broad and unnecessary powers that infringe on the rights and privacy of law-abiding Americans, especially to an administration that has proven it cannot be trusted. If the final bill produced by the Senate doesn’t protect the privacy of law abiding Americans or if it includes immunity for telecom companies, I will strongly oppose it and will vote against cutting off debate on it."
Our system of checks and balances was designed to eliminate the possibility that a leader could infringe on the rights of our citizens, as the current Bush Administration has attempted to do. I’m proud to see Democrats standing strong on FISA by protecting us against unlawful, warrantless wiretaps and refusing immunity to those who participated in illegal spying on American citizens. Our court system works! Our system of separation of powers works! I trust deeply in these foundations upon which our nation was founded; the Bush Administration has pushed us too close to crossing a dangerous line with their unprecedented power grabs.
It’s obvious that George Bush and his enablers in Congress; including my incumbent opponent Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-09) have attempted to use fear to their political advantage in expanding the case for unprecedented executive powers:
Richard A. Clarke former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council in an opinion this week:
Setting a standard in fear-mongering
"For this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise. With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional protections. I spent most of my career in government fighting to protect this country in order to defend these very rights. "
I find the Bush / Myrick fear tactics despicable, and look forward to being part of a larger, stronger Democratic majority that will restore courage and transparency to our political process.
Clark further comments:
It is no surprise that in one of Bush's last acts of relevance; he once again played the fear card. While he has failed in spreading democracy, stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better off than when he took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully perpetuating fear for political gain.
Terrorism expert Brian Jenkins weighs in on this tactic here:
"In the war on terrorism 'we have to have a better understanding of what we're up against.' Demonizing terrorists as 'wicked and evil' plays into their hands, while learning about 'their quantifiable goals and understandable motives' demystifies them.
"Knowledge, he says, is the antidote to anxiety."
Terrorists "win" if we allow them to disrupt the principles this nation was founded on; they "win" if we are so fearful that we are willing to spy on our own people, and run roughshod over our own laws.
My opponent, Rep. Sue Myrick has mastered the art of using the "fear card"; watch her on the floor of the House here:
Upon watching this, I confess to wondering if at this point she is actually buying into her own rhetoric. It’s a worrisome thought; Sue Myrick’s reliance on fear to dictate policy threatens our very democracy. We must move beyond fear to address the issues our nation is facing with courage and conviction. Our nation has survived many attempts to promote fear over principle, from McCarthyism to Nixonian tactics, and each time the basis of our civil liberties has served us well and averted a constitutional crisis.
We must stand strong and say NO to warantless spying on American citizens; No to immunity for telecom companies that broke the law to do so!
Together we the people will restore our nation’s principals of protecting our civil liberties and strengthening our system of checks and balances.
Cheers,
Harry
Learn more about my campaign at Harry Taylor for Congress
Contribute Act Blue