What Goes Around

A new report was released today from the Department of Homeland Security detailing the rise of "rightwing extremist activity". This new report claims that the current political and economic climate is perfect for these groups to grow. It describes these groups as those that:

can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Hate groups of all stripes are constantly under government scrutiny, however, as long as they do nothing illegal they are still protected by the constitution to exist. Just as people have the right to disagree with them and oppose them. Their inclusion in lists such as these is nothing new, but there are two new and disturbing things in this report.

The first is the inclusion of groups such as small government libertarians and even groups that support mainstream Republican issues such as being pro-life or anti-illegal immigration. This is akin to the Alien and Sedition acts under the Adams administration. One of the government's (many) law enforcement arms is essentially being used as a political tool to attack and ostracize people that disagree with the administration. By forcing these groups to the fringe, the government is able to minimize the message of said groups without the effort of debating the merits of their arguments. This tactic is both lazy and dangerous. It stifles debate and attempts to ensure that the people do as the government wishes.

The second is the use of the word extremist. As anyone that has been in the United States for the last 8 years knows that when the government uses the word extremist, it is interchangeable with the word terrorist. With Obama's "new" decision to continue the Patriot Act and the warrantless wiretaps, there is now little question that the ever seeing eye of the Federal Government is going to be fully trained on American Citizens in the United States. There will no longer even be the illusion of the "grey area" in which the government is using extra-constitutional powers to protect us from outside forces. As with all government powers, the DHS and the Patriot Act are expanding.

The irony of all of this is of course the reaction of the partisan cheerleaders. The libertarians and certain others have denounced the Patriot Act and the DHS as dangerous and unconstitutional from the outset. Until recently liberals and democrats also denounced this government power-grab, mainly because they did not like the people implementing it. It was the Republicans and the neo-cons that supported this action and constantly said that "if you have nothing to hide then you shouldn't worry!" Now that the letters have changed and especially since some Republican pet issues have come under attack, the tunes have changed drastically. Democrats are now trying to calm the masses with much the same rhetoric that Republicans used several months ago.

The Republicans have done an especially hard 180 after this report came to light. The outrage and indignation have swept across the internet and the radio (and Fox News). They now sound almost like small government libertarians in their preaching about constitutional bounds and over-extensions of power. It is astounding how quickly they changed their song once the letter after the presidents name changed. They had forgotten the first rule of representational government. The excessive and illegal powers that "your guy" grabs may very well be used against you when the next guy is the other team's. Maybe they will take this as a lesson in the future (doubt it...).