A number of conservative activists including Bruce Fein, Bob Barr, David Keene, and Richard Viguery, recently announced the formation of the American Freedom Agenda (AFA) to restore "the Constitution's checks and balances." Why should Democrats care about the activities of these conservatives? Check out the list of goals from the American Freedom Agenda and you will see that they are issues that Democrats can lead the way on just as much as Republicans.
Here is the ten point plan of the American Freedom Agenda:
- Prohibit military commissions whose verdicts are suspect except in places of active hostilities where a battlefield tribunal is necessary to obtain fresh testimony or to prevent anarchy;
- Prohibit the use of secret evidence or evidence obtained by torture or coercion in military or civilian tribunals;
- Prohibit the detention of American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants without proof of criminal activity on the President’s say-so;
- Restore habeas corpus for alleged alien enemy combatants, i.e., non-citizens who have allegedly participated in active hostilities against the United States, to protect the innocent;
- Prohibit the National Security Agency from intercepting phone conversations or emails or breaking and entering homes on the President’s say-so in violation of federal law;
- Empower the House of Representatives and the Senate collectively to challenge in the Supreme Court the constitutionality of signing statements that declare the intent of the President to disregard duly enacted provisions of bills he has signed into law because he maintains they are unconstitutional;
- Prohibit the executive from invoking the state secrets privilege to deny justice to victims of constitutional violations perpetrated by government officers or agents; and, establish legislative-executive committees in the House and Senate to adjudicate the withholding of information from Congress based on executive privilege that obstructs oversight and government in the sunshine;
- Prohibit the President from kidnapping, detaining, and torturing persons abroad in collaboration with foreign governments;
- Amend the Espionage Act to permit journalists to report on classified national security matters without fear of prosecution; and;
- Prohibit the listing of individuals or organizations with a presence in the United States as global terrorists or global terrorist organizations based on secret evidence.
These are issues supported by a former associate deputy attorney general under Reagan, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, and a former Georgia Republican who was heavily involved in the impeachment of President Clinton. Yet these are all issues that Democrats can and should also agree and campaign on. So far, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is the only 2008 candidate to sign their 2008 pledge promising to implement these policies if elected. But given that these are issues that Democrats care about too, why shouldn't we encourage Democratic candidates to sign the pledge as well? I doubt that many Republican candidates other than Ron Paul will sign the pledge. By stepping up, Democratic candidates will show that we are the party that upholds and defends the Constitution.