Conservatives in no win situation...

Conservatives Are Squirming

by David Franke

There’s a lot of squirming going on among conservative "neocons." (I take a broad view and count as a neocon everyone who supports the American Empire and the Patriot Act, and who supported the Iraq War from the beginning – in other words, almost all "conservatives" today.)

They are caught between a rock and a hard place:

(1) If they support Edward Snowden, they are supporting someone who has exposed the true nature of the surveillance state that they have built and supported from day 1. Also, how can they support Snowden and not Wikileaks and Bradley Manning? Oh, they can spin distinctions, but it’s awkward.

(2) On the other hand, if they do not support Snowden, it’s final proof that they don’t give a damn about Americans’ civil liberties, the Constitution, and limited government. In other words, they have junked the reasons for being a conservative in the first place. (Granted, we already knew their true colors, but this brings it out in the open once and for all.)

This is no problem for Karl Rove, to no surprise. At least give him credit for being an open fascist, and defending the government’s surveillance programs, which, after all, he (as Bush’s brain) helped to start. If there were any justice, he and Dick Cheney, along with Bush and Obama, would be expelled to Guantanamo, all sharing a cell together, with no air conditioning, and forced to sleep naked like Manning ("for their own protection, so they don’t commit suicide").

What I am most concerned about is the lack of public outcry from Congress. Who besides Senators Rand Paul and Ron Wyden have you heard from? I fear that most Americans will continue to sleep-walk, more concerned about their reality shows; the press will become concerned for a while, then turn back to inane topics of greater public interest in the pursuit of "ratings"; and Congress will continue to stalemate, with Republicans blaming Democrats and Democrats blaming Republicans for "excesses," not the core powers government has assumed.

The result: There will be no serious repeal of the Patriot Act and the government’s powers. And if that happens, we are indeed Germany post-1933 (when the Enabling Act gave Hitler the power to make laws without consulting the Reichstag).

Link:
http://lewrockwell.com/franke/franke28.1.html