"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself..." The only thing we have to fear is ourselves.

by: wvblueguy

Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 20:46:42 PM EDT

Everything I see and hear tonight regarding the capitulation of our majority party in the House of Representatives and the presumptive Democratic party nominee for President leads me to believe that neither have faith in the American people and our Constitution.  Fear, terror, protecting our country all seem to have been the watch words of the administration and Republicans since September 11th.  Now the Democratic led House and Barack Obama have joined George Bush in making sure that an unconstitutional law that immunizes criminal acts by politicians and corporations is sold to the American people. Done in order to delude us into believing that they are actually doing something to protect us from those who would do harm to us unless we give up more of our constitutional rights.

Lets turn back the pages to World War II for a minute and realize that our country bravely fought a war on two huge fronts as millions of our citizens  turned out to serve a just cause... no fear on their part, and we won the war in 4 years.  President Roosevelt led the country not with  the words of terror and fear but by asking people to do their part and defeat a recognizable and very evil foe.

More below the fold.

After World War II we lived through the Korean War and Vietnam.  Both part of the greater cold war between our country and the Soviet Union. A major part of the rational of the cold war was fear of the Soviet Union and the dreaded communists.  Slowly but surely fear crept back into our lives with concerns about a potential nuclear holocaust, but also fear of communists or socialists both at home and abroad. I very clearly remember what happened to so many good folks whose lives were destroyed by the likes of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the vile Senator Joseph McCarthy.  Neighbors were scared of neighbors and fear that our government had been infiltrated by communists.  Some of the laws instituted in those days are still evident today as archaic loyalty oath requirements are still in place in such liberal haunts as California.

This bad bill passed today by the House that has been luke warmly supported by Barack Obama reminds me so much of the kind of mindless overreaction that took place in the fifties.  Just like the loyalty oaths of the fifties the passage of this FISA Bill will likely result in parts of it being carried well into the future after it sunsets in 2012.  I am in a quandary as I watch so many that I had faith in show not bravery but cowardice in voting for this bill.

There is little hope that Barack Obama will  use his new stature as leader of the Democratic Party to kill this terrible piece of legislation in the Senate, and there is little chance that anyone will put a hold on the bill or attempt a futile filibuster to stop it in the Senate. We will hopefully see our Senator Robert Byrd vote against this.  We already know where Senator Jay Rockefeller stands.

We can still let the Democrats who voted for this execrable piece of legislation know how we feel by clicking here, and contributing to the ActBlue fund created by Glen Greenwald and Jane Hamsher to let folks like Steny Hoyer know how a significant part of his party as well as the people of the United States feel about giving immunity to criminals in the name of fighting terror.

Glen Greenwald's outstanding analysis of this whole debacle can be read by clicking here.