Republicans are playing Democrats like a fiddle

[cheapdate]

90. Many people here on DU who you and others claim "accept" surveillance,

Patriot Act FISA provisions, continuation of massive NSA data mining, and all of the rest -- don't "accept" it at all, not in the sense of the word as you're using it, which implies agreement with and support of these activities. Speaking for myself, and I'm sure for many others who have made the arguments better and more clearly than I can, I would make immediate and drastic changes to the law if it was within my power to do so. The existing laws are too vague, too secretive, and too broad.

I agree strongly with the ACLU and others that the laws governing surveillance and the collection of telephone and communication data desparately need to be revised and updated to protect privacy and to ensure that legitimate law enforcement needs are limited to persons actually and demonstrably implicated in criminal activity.

I will support every responsible effort to challenge these laws and policies.

But I will not engage in the sort of self-destructive and ineffective campaign of condemning in the harshest language possible, president Obama and anyone who stands with him in respectful disagreement over this issue.

In March of this year, the Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs standing to challenge the FISA amendments in a case brought by the ACLU, Clapper v. Amnesty International. The court split 5-4 along conservative-liberal lines. Surely we can all agree that keeping the presidency out of Republican hands is vitally important to the makeup of the Supreme Court.

If these laws are not repealed or drastically rewritten, there could come a time when respectful disagreement and conventional action to bring change are no longer a workable strategy. But that time is not now. The dire scenarios for what is POSSIBLE remain just that -- future possibilities. And I say that with complete recognition that these possibilities are real, serious, and credible.

Undermining the leader of the Democratic Party is in my view one of the best strategies to guarantee that these possibilities will come true under a Republican president with a unified Republican congress.

I don't believe that people here on DU are really divided on the issue of the importance of the Fourth Amendment and other civil liberties. I think that the appearance of a divide is false.