The Priority of Civil Liberties

“On December 17th, MoveOn members began 2 days of voting to decide our top goals for 2009. Each member was able to vote for 3 goals. Here are the final results, with the percentage of members who included each goal in their top 3.”
6. Restore civil liberties 16.8%
7. Hold the Bush Administration accountable 15.2%
8. Gay rights/LGBT equality 8.6%
- Ranking of each of these topics in a survey of MoveOn .Orgs members of the top ten goals for 2009. (Complete results can be found at http://www.pol.moveon.org/2009/agenda/results/results2.html).

Disappointment.

That is what I felt when I read the results of MoveOn.org’s member survey of what its top three goals for 2009 should be. It is hard to argue with the survey’s response that the number one goal in 2009 should be providing universal health care or that fixing the economy should be number two. What is disappointing, is undoing the damage done by the Bush administration to the constitution and the guarantee of rights for our fellow citizens ranked so low.

If only 16.8% of MoveOn ’s membership say a goal for 2009 should be to restore the civil liberties that Bush has abridged, and only 15.2% think holding the Bush administration accountable should be a goal, then what priority do these goals have for the rest of the country?

In the campaign Obama did not speak out heavily against the abridgement of our freedoms by the Bush/Cheney administration. Even now there is very little discussion on the fate of government eavesdropping or rendition programs. In addition there is a noticeable silence among other establishment politician on holding any Bush administration members to account, either legally or morally, for their actions.

The press has spent more time discussing Obama’s workout schedule then the report released December 11, by Carl Levin and the Armed Service Committee linking Bush and the White House to the torture of prisoners. (http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=305735 – this link also contains a pdf of the complete report). This story came and went with little or no notice.

Imagine.

A major Senate committee links the President to decisions that lead to torturing detainees held without trial, counsel or legal protection – and hardly anyone notices. (See Glen Greenwald: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/15/rumsfeld/).

If only 8.6% of MoveOn’s membership name LGBT rights a top priority, Obama can safely assume that more centrist or conservative groups would hold LGBT rights as an even lower priority. No wonder he feels safe in starting the new administration receiving a blessing from someone who helped voters revoke a minority group’s rights that had been guaranteed by the California constitution.

Bush changed the country in ways we couldn’t image when he took office 8 years ago. If one measures a President’s effectiveness by the impact he has on the character and dialog of the country, Bush ’43 will go down as one of history’s most effective Presidents.

In a Bush led US, the government can now declare anyone a threat to national security, lock them up without a lawyer and without showing them the evidence used to support the accusation against them. Then if it chooses the Government can torture a confession from the suspect. If the torture gets to be too much of an effort the Government can do the American thing and outsource it to other countries.

When I was growing up the fact that these acts were illegal was used to illustrate the limits on our Government that guaranteed our citizens’ rights. We were told this is why the United States was different and made our country a beacon to the rest of the world. Throughout the 20th Century we believed that to preserve these rights we had to stand up and fight totalitarianism in all its forms.

The incoming administration has said little about restoring these limits on the government and preserving our rights and freedoms. The press has also shown little interest reporting what the Bush administration has done to our freedoms and holding its members accountable.

Now one of the most venerable voices from the activist left does not see working for the restoration and preservation of its citizen’s civil rights as a major goal for the new year. If we do not hold Bush accountable, who will hold Obama to account? How will we ensure that Obama will not simply continue these same abuses?

I agree health care is major issue that has to be addressed for both the physical and economic health of the country. But ensuring all our citizens have their rights guaranteed and holding the Government accountable when those rights are abridged is just as vital to the health and character of this country. Otherwise little separates us from countries that provide universal health care while spying on its citizens and curtailing their freedoms.