With the brouhaha over the Yoo torture memos, I feel like saying a few thing.
First of all, if a government relies on the the fear of the people to expand its power, it will try and keep the people afraid. If the only time the people are willing to tolerate arbitrary executive power is when they are afraid, then the executive is going to keep the people afraid. Really goddamn obvious. Basic economics, you get what you incentivize, we have incentivized a fearful populace. Regardless, lets pretend that handing the executive unchecked power to ignore Habeas, spy on everyone, and torture whenever they feel like it actually prevents, rather than encourages, terror attacks.
Lets say I hand you 17 coins, you have to flip them all, and if they all land heads up (1 in 131072 chance), you will die in a terrorist attack. Unless, that is, you allow the state to have virtually unlimited powers of surveilance, the power to disappear people at will, completely disregard the Constitution and rule of law, torture, etc. Give the state that power and you don’t have to flip those coins. How about it? Undermine hundreds and hundreds of years of liberty’s progress to avoid a .001% chance of dieing in a terrorist attack. You have to abandon the bloody MAGNA CARTA, but those 17 coins might land heads up. Do we have a deal?
If so, get the hell out of my country. If you are such a coward that a .001% chance of death from a terrorist is worse than tyranny, leave here. If you would rather your child spend a lifetime being endlessly watched, at danger from being disappeared and tortured, than have a .001% or whatever chance to die from a terror attack, then you are unfit to be a parent. This means you, Senator Roberts, leave here, you are not enough of a grown-up to handle living in America. All you “conservatives” who ignore the wisdom of Lord Action, Ben Franklin and Patrick Henry, go live elsewhere, I’m sure the Chinese Communist Party needs some more English speakers to help maintain the Great Firewall of China. Freedom is rare enough in the world, you can find somewhere else to live. And when you die of a heart attack after hearing a noise underneath your bed, I hope you go to heaven just long enough for Washington to spit on you through his false teeth.
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