I just have to step in here. I think the "threat" perceived from the ACLU has been overblown for some time now. But I don't deny that political correctness is a bullshit means of shutting up those you don't want to listen to. I realize that the university scene might be more contentious on this than life outside academia, but I just haven't seen evidence that the ACLU's legal maneuvering has ever lived up to image of the terrible specter the American Right has raised -- with David Horowitz being perhaps the most offensively overblown of the bloviators.
In the last eight years, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the threat to American free speech and civil liberty has come from the Right. Oh, they didn't start if perhaps; it was a natural response to 9/11. But their politicians deliberately exploited it, some actually believing it, but many just seeing a perfect justification for power.
Threats from authoritarian sources in America have come from both Left and Right at different times. It's like a game of whack-a-mole -- hit one anti-liberty mole back into its hole and another pops up elsewhere.
But this "fact" that the ACLU and its "like" are the prime threat, and that they're fellow travelers for extreme Islam -- it's so easy to levy these charges, but what's the evidence? And please bear in mind that most court cases usually don't represent the culture's view, and they rarely cause the earth-shattering realignment of society that the media tends to imply. The activities of the Bush Administration, however, have done grievous harm. And Bush may not be authentically Right, but the Right in this country whole-heartedly claimed and embraced him -- up until they couldn't even convince themselves any longer that he wasn't a loser. Only now do we begin to see the op-eds about how he was never really conservative anyway.
no subject
In the last eight years, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the threat to American free speech and civil liberty has come from the Right. Oh, they didn't start if perhaps; it was a natural response to 9/11. But their politicians deliberately exploited it, some actually believing it, but many just seeing a perfect justification for power.
Threats from authoritarian sources in America have come from both Left and Right at different times. It's like a game of whack-a-mole -- hit one anti-liberty mole back into its hole and another pops up elsewhere.
But this "fact" that the ACLU and its "like" are the prime threat, and that they're fellow travelers for extreme Islam -- it's so easy to levy these charges, but what's the evidence? And please bear in mind that most court cases usually don't represent the culture's view, and they rarely cause the earth-shattering realignment of society that the media tends to imply. The activities of the Bush Administration, however, have done grievous harm. And Bush may not be authentically Right, but the Right in this country whole-heartedly claimed and embraced him -- up until they couldn't even convince themselves any longer that he wasn't a loser. Only now do we begin to see the op-eds about how he was never really conservative anyway.