Chuck Baldwin on Assaults on Personal Liberties
I frequently disagree with Chuck Baldwin, and am disturbed when I see the forest of American flags that appear frequently around his church. I live near enough that I drive by that church frequently. But in this article he is absolutely on target.
One of my great hopes for the Obama administration was an improvement in our foreign policy, less dependence on the use of force overseas (especially an end to the Iraq war), and greater support for certain civil liberties. The Republicans always seem to be after one set of our liberties, while the Democrats go after another. I hoped that perhaps we would improve just by shifting the sets. Of course we’re in real trouble when some liberty becomes the target of both parties, as is too frequently the case.
In particular, I would mention warrantless wiretapping, on which then Senator Obama himself flipped during the campaign, and which should be blamed both on the Republican administration for proposing and carrying it out, and on the Democrats in congress for failing to blow the whistle and work effectively against it.
The people who can truly call a Republican administration to task are the conservatives; those who can call a Democratic administration to task are the liberals, and libertarians can get in there in both cases. We’d better get to it!
Yes, but…
Spes mea in Deo est.
Given his background there is no logical reason to think that the current occupant of the white house will in any way act with integrity regarding personal rights. Given that he now has a rubberstamp legislature, it is not possible that personal constitutional rights will not be at least severely damaged.
He flipped on warrantless wiretaps? Why would anyone be surprised. As a liberal democrat he has not ever demonstrated a significant commitment to constitutional principle. Of greater concern that when he flipped on wiretaps is when he will flop on protecting specific individual civil rights constitutionally protected in the Bill of Rights. The idea that liberal democrats will hold him to account is unfounded. They will obey the first law of politics, “Go along to get along.”