By now, most of us know about the domestic surviellance program being conducted under Bush's Republican leadership. Listening to the testimony of Attorney General Gonzoles before the Senate, I am sure that the AG has failed to convince very many of the Senators that the warantless program is Constitutional. So far, most Americans have trusted this program, and trusted it's neccessity to keep them safe. The response from the conservative base has been something to the effect of, "I have nothing to hide, so I don't mind if the Bush Administration does spy on me. I'm not one of the terrorists they are looking for."
When we hear this, we are outraged. "How can these people say this while their Liberty is strangled?!?" we ask oursleves. The answer? We need to tie this to an issue of concern to the conservative base
While I am also not worried about being the subject of a wiretap, I am worried about the dangerous precident set by this program. The issue at hand-- the one that progressives must drive home is not the wiretapping, but the warants. Patriotic Americans should have nothing to hide from the government, if it is truly trying to protect its citizens. The worry should come from the damage that is being done to the Constitution by the Bush Party's program. By putting the fourth amendment on the chopping block, Bush's leadership threatens to corrupt and slaughter Liberty on the whole. The bleeding to death of our Constitution starts with the neglect for a single amendment.
Most progressives are worried that this will lead to the dismembering of the first amendment and I agree. I also fear that we are ignoring other dangers, and in so doing are ignoring potential allies in our struggle to keep our Constitution and Liberty alive. Here, I am speaking of those who strongly support the second amendment.
The first amendment has long been the cause of liberal groups like the ACLU and MoveOn.org, and this is a vital part of our Constitution. However, the base of the conservative movement, which has largely supported the Right-Wing-Agenda of Bush and his party leadership is adamantly in favor of protecting the second amendment. This issue strikes at the core of the Republican party's voter support.
Within today's Democratic Party, there is great diversity of oppinion about issues of gun control and firearm safety regulations. Most of us think it is reasonable to have some form of gun-ownership (it is, after all, protected by the Constitution along with religion and free speech, and personal privacy/security). The danger for gun owners is that when a leader or a party leads an attack on one part of the Bill of Rights, our Liberty and the Constitution on the whole is weakened. Just as it is no far cry for the first amendment to be threatened, the second amendment is not safe either.
We need to write to our leadership, and media outlets to show our concern for this, stressing our desire to cooperate on this issue that threatens the issues of Liberty that are as important to conservatives as to liberals.
With Republicans in control of every branch of government, we need to illicit the suport of voters and do what we can to undermine the Republican base. By pushing the issue in this way, we can do this while winning people to our cause.