AN OPEN LETTER TO SEN. BARACK OBAMA REGARDING THE FISA BILL:
Dear Sen. Obama:
Once again, History has handed you a unique and unparalleled opportunity. In the upcoming Senate vote on the seriously flawed FISA compromise, instead of letting the Republicans box you in to a losing choice, to either vote "Yes", and disappoint your base on the seminal Civil Liberties vote of the 21st Century, or "No" and be branded "Soft on Terrorism" for the duration of the campaign, you have the power to take the initiative, and redefine this moment on your own terms.
The issue of protecting the Fourth Amendment, and, by extention, the entire Bill of Rights, from over-acquisitive intelligence agencies and the national security state is one which crosses philosophical lines. Properly framed, many Americans, on the Right, Left, and Center, share the conviction that no cicumstance we have yet seen would justify an abrogation of our Constitutional Rights, our national heritage. - more -
Be the Man who Stands Up on Principle, to Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States, Against ALL Enemies, Foreign and Domestic.
This is your Frank Capra moment. Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Take the floor of the United States Senate, live on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and CSPAN, and streaming live across the Web, and filibuster the FISA bill, until the Telco Immunity component, and all provisions which authorize covert, warrantless domestic surveillance on American citizens - are jettisoned from the bill, and replaced by a reputable, public, ironclad process for the protection of Americans' Constitutional Rights. Keep the floor until it happens.
Your base will not let any Democrat in the Senate vote to shut you up with cloture, and Democratic FISA supporters dont have the guts to even try. Republicans dont have the votes.
You need to frame the issue as you speak to it, in that most important speech of your entire life, which the whole world will be watching, LIVE. You can take the framing away from Bush and McCain, and rise to the occasion; BE that Historic Constitutional Scholar you've had inside you, since your days as a Professor of Constitutional Law in the classroom.
Allowing al Queda to push us into warrantless wiretapping and secret courts in the shadows is the equivalent of allowing Bin Laden to "Car Bomb the Constitution", to blow up something fundamental to the American Way-of-Life, in ways that no airline hijackers or suicide bomber could ever touch. We cannot remove the Constitution from between the public and the darker recesses of their government. The Founders put those Rights in place for just exactly this scenario. That's the ticket. That's the MEME. That meme will win converts, including lots of very conservative 'Constitutionalist' Republicans, who distrust the intelligence community as much as they do al Queda.
You will receive unbroken coverage on all broadcast media as you do this. More people will be glued to their televisions for this than any event since Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. For hours, you can lecture the Senate, the Administration, the Electorate, and the entire Planet about the American Constitution and Bill of Rights; about where we've gone wrong, and why it must STOP, about how vital it is to stand up, even when its unpopular, and speak out for Liberty. Your words will embolden champions of freedom, living under oppressive regimes the world over. Democrats in Zimbabwe, in Burma, in Russia, in China, in Bolivia, in Cuba, and, yes, in Kenya, will draw strength from your words and your courage. They will learn about our tradition of Constitutionally Limited Government, that Constitutions must trump the power of any transient political forces of the moment, that governments must be of Laws, not of Men, that our Rights come from God, not governments. Proclaim for the peoples of the Earth that - as Benjamin Franklin implored - we do not, must not, should not "give up our Liberty for Security, for soon we shall have neither Liberty nor Security". Tell them, Brother. Testify.
No one else can do this. No one else in American history could EVER have done this. It is a moment, and a context, like no other. It is Martin Luther King, Jr., it is Nelson Mandela, it is An Sang Su Chi, it is Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn, all rolled into one; it is what Thomas Jefferson would be doing right now, if he were a United States Senator today.
I dont need to lay out all of the rhetorical possibilities...the inspiration, the drama, the humor, the conviction, the case law, the precedents, the civics, the hopes, the fears, the scolding, and the tears that such an 'Obamathon' on the floor of the U.S. Senate could become; if you are reading this, you've already imagined all that. Our existing President has represented America to the world with the likes of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Prison Ships, and the coddling of dictators from Sudan, to Saudi Arabia, to China, to Pakistan, to Burma. We are better than that. That is not our America. Be the Man who gives us back our America, by representing the best of it to The World. This has been the 'Zen' of your entire campaign; well, here's your chance.
They said that Barry Goldwater's problem in 1964 was that 'he'd rather be right than president', but his convictions changed the world, and 16 years later overturned the entire political establishment of both parties. This FISA issue can be such a 'trajectory changer', it will put the Constitution front and center in American political dialog in a way that it has never been before in modern history. This is not like battles over 'states rights' of previous eras; not about how one interprets this or that provision, its about something more fundamental: whether the government itself is actually bound to obey that Constitution. Your Oath of Office already settled that issue, your filibuster over FISA would merely be reminding your colleagues of that fact.
You would not make the case in a weak or timid manner. No matter what 15 seconds of it found their way onto the evening news, it would not be 'out of context'. It would be impossible for anyone in the media to treat this as anything other than a genuine pivotal event in the nation's history. Any attempt to paint you as 'soft on terrorism' would fall flat; you would have raised issues so much larger than 'what paper trail the bureaucracy uses' in its electronic surveillance. The other side is going to come at you from that angle anyway; that will be how they make you "scary". Standing up as everyman's Advocate for the Constitution, against the likes of the CIA, NSA, DHS, etc. turns you from 'boogeyman' into 'Champion'.
Even people who disagree with you will admire your courage in doing this. Nobody will miss the fact that it IS risking your election to the presidency on a matter of principle, and so it would be. On the other hand, when is the last time an American presidential candidate got distracted by something as esoteric as principle?
As another diarist on DKos has illustrated, this FISA vote is a political trap set for you. You can either fall into it, voting Yes or No, with substantial political consequences in either direction, or you can Abstain or simply be Absent - as John McCain so disingenuously did on the new G.I. Bill - OR, you can rise to the occasion, seize the moment, and stand the Establishment (of both parties) on its ear.
My personal concern about the FISA bill has to do with the future evolution of the digital environment, and how much more pervasive the same unrestrained domestic surveillance will become in the future, as our daily lives continue to migrate more and more into cyberspace. FISA was written 30 years ago, in 1978, and did not anticipate the ubiquitous digital technologies of the modern era; that sophisticated wireless computer-phones would be in all our pockets, on our person, everywhere, 'Always-On', 24/7.
After this bill passes, FISA may well sit on the shelf for another 30 years, unrevised, as accelerating technology further transforms the very essence of what it means to be human. The world of 2038 is one of Brain/Computer Interfaces, RFID Chip Implants, and the fusion of Consumer Elecronics with the Human Mind. You do not want to be the one who sat by, and failed to insert the Constitution between that future - which is inevitable - and today's buraucracy with its proclivity for unchecked intrusion into the lives of innocent citizens.
To understand this Future Shock over FISA a bit more, please read Ray Kurzweil's 2005 NYT Bestseller: "The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology". Read it on the Senate floor, aloud. Its 672 pages should help pass the time.
Best wishes, Senator, on your decision as to how to handle the upcoming vote. I dont envy you the position that the White House and Senate Democrats have placed you in on this issue. "When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade..."
Respectfully Yours,
Dave
A Virginia-Primary-Crossover
"Republican for Obama"
BREAKING: Right now (Monday Afternoon 6/23/3pm EDT), the very first thing that Sen. Reid did for the week, when the Senate convened a few minutes ago was to introduce a Cloture Motion to cut off any debate on H.6034, the FISA compromise bill. A quorum call is presently underway, leading to a vote on his motion. Apparently, they are scared of a filibuster more than anything. Sen. Specter is now speaking on the FISA bill, while the quorum is assembled.