Article: Why Aren't The Candidates Talking About Our Civil Liberties?

Odd, maybe a little paranoid, or just come right out and tell me that I’ve been reading into what this administration has done to the Constitution and our civil liberties and then tell me I’m right on the money. I watched Bill Clinton on Larry King last night. He had a lot to say, but none of what needed to be said. He talked about the war, he talked about the other candidates and of course, he talked about his new book and Hillary. I still like Bill Clinton, I wish he had talked about the very thing that most Americans fear: the loss of our rights under the Constitution.

The War, Larry Craig, and everything else in-between is fodder for discussion in this nation. What’s not however, is the way that the Constitution has been usurped by the Patriot Act. The basic liberties that Americans have always expected and enjoyed have been replaced by a document that gives the Federal Government far more power than the framers of our constitution had envisioned. The people, consistently frightened by a plethora of “terrorist attacks” that have never come, have given this administration far more power than any preceding it.

Nobody is talking about the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that gives the green light to “interrogations” to the point of organ failure, and the Insurrection Act (revamped) that gives the Federal Government control of the States National Guards for “police duties” in violation of Posse Comitatus. Nobody is talking about the new FISA Act that lets the Government tap our phones and read our e-mails.

Some people are reporting that the government has set up “free speech zones”: walled areas away from Bush and Cheney and no MSM coverage, far away from where they might be speaking. I don’t know about you, but I find this behavior by the government against the 1st Amendment. Why are all the Presidential Candidates not talking about this?

Where is John Edwards on the new powers of the Federal Government? Is he another that can’t wait to occupy “The Unitary Presidency” or does he want to scrap all of the underpinnings of a de-facto dictatorship, which, in reality is where we are headed unless we can turn these laws around. Remember that the citizens of this country are not the ones that must be muzzled and watched. Yet, every time the Federal Government enacts another law to fight this “war on terror” our basic liberties and freedoms are eroded. We have to have passports to go to Mexico and Canada. They want us to carry “Real-ID” that has all our information and is tied into a central database and quite possibly contain an RFID chip so they can tell where you are at all times. Is this something out of a science fiction book or what?

So where are all of our “Defenders of the Constitution”? The only one I hear raising hell is Ron Paul. How about you John Edwards, why is the government watching the people instead of watching for “the bad guys”? Are you and Biden and Obama and the rest comfortable with the status quo? You can bet Mike Gravel isn’t happy about it, but the MSM won’t give him a chance to express it. Dennis Kucinich should start making some noise about our civil liberties being expunged if he want’s to make a dent in the polls.

People are scared. They are scared and also becoming angrier by the day. People can only be afraid for so long. It’s the old “flight or fight” response. After the fear comes anger. You can feel it in conversations with ordinary Americans you talk to on the street. One of the biggest comments I hear is “Why are they doing this to us? I’m not al Qeada!” Why indeed is the operative question of the day, why indeed?

This is the way I see it.