The Threat To America

In 1972 a scandal involving wire tapping and secret surveillance brought down the Nixon administration. It led to a president resigning in disgrace and seven indictments for the burglary of the Demoncratic Party National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Nixon was ultimately seen as a conniving politicians who showed one face to the public but had a darker, more sinister side that came out in political strategy sessions. Thanks to the effort of diligent reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, the scandal was exposed to the public and denounced by all facets of America.

But Nixon now looks like a piker compared to George Bush.

News revealed yesterday says that Bush signed a wavier allowing secret service to wiretap and intercept communications from any American without the need to show cause to a judge and receive approval from the courts.

My initial question is how can a president sign a wavier disallowing our constitutional rights? We are granted the right to be secure in our homes. Specifically, the 4th amendment says:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Certainly our private conversations and communications would fall under such a broad category. How can we be secure in our homes when big brother is listening in on everything we say and do?

Now certainly that's an overstatement. I would wager most of us have not been subjected to the scrutiny of the US government but if the possibility remains that our rights might be infringed on then our security is not only threatened but denied.

There are several ironies here. The first being that Bob Woodward, who was such a rebel during the Nixon years, has become an insider at the White House and reportedly is sympathetic to the president's decisions. Had anyone offered excuses for Nixon, Woodward would have been the first to repudiate them.

The president has overstepped his bounds. He has encroached upon the civil rights of every American. He desperately needs to learn that his first duty is not to "protect us" from outside attacks but to secure us from internal abuses by defending and upholding the constitution of the United States. That was his oath. That was his duty.

That being said, I fear few Americans will see the magnitude of his transgression. Too many people, still caught up in the idea that terrorism is bad and we are the ultimate good, will excuse the transgressions away with the thought that: "Well, our government wouldn't target anyone but the bad guys and why should they be protected?" They'll go with the baseless argument that anyone with nothing to hide shouldn't object. It will take months if not years for national outrage over this to grow. I hope I'm wrong but somehow I think I'm not.

This is the ultimate victory by the terrorists. Our constitution has been subverted. Our freedoms diminished. By attempting to "defend" against the physical attack we are changing, possibly forever, the face of our democratic republic.

I will say a prayer tonight that Americans will not accept this.