MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR:
FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH – AWAY FROM OUR SHORES

In his state of the union address, President Bush proclaimed, “freedom is on the march.” I agree with that statement. The problem is, it seems to me, judging from the President’s speech, that freedom is be on the march away from here!

In his speech, the President boldly asserted, “every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer.” If that is so, then the opposite must also be true – every retreat from freedom makes our country less safe? On that assumption, I shudder for the security of our nation.

Freedom of speech is one of our most cherished liberties and, in my view, the cornerstone of democracy. When an invited guest sitting respectfully in the gallery of the United States House of Representative can be arrested and charged with a crime because she is wearing a blouse which reads, “2245 Dead. How Many More?” and a congressman’s spouse can be expelled from the chamber for wearing a shirt containing the message, “Support the Troops,” freedom is on the march -- away from here.

When the President spends more than twice as much time in his speech seeking to justify his abandonment of the principles embodied in the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution, which assures citizens freedom from warrantless seaches and seizures, than he devotes to offering victims of the Katrina disaster freedom from the suffering and homelessness and joblessness they have endured, freedom is on the march. It’s in retreat.

And whatever else anyone may say about the virtues or dangers of the so-called Patriot Act, whose expansion and blanket extension the President called for in his address, you will never hear anyone seriously argue that its Orwellian features are examples of enlargement of basic freedoms. On the contrary, the Patriot Act is the embodiment of the notion that the best way to increase security is to decrease individual liberty. Reauthorization of some of its provisions may be necessary and maybe even acceptable, but by any measure, the Patriot Act, pushed by the President in his “freedom is on the march” speech is not an example of freedom enlarged, it’s an indication that freedom is in decline in this nation.

And show me any opinion, article, or speech ever given by either of the President’s Supreme Court designatees (Roberts or Alito), who he extolled during his speech, which evidences any admiration for the principles embodied in the Bill of Rights. With those two justices on the Court, freedom is on the march – out of here!

Alexander Hamilton wrote with great prescience in the Federalist No. 8, “Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they, at length, become willing to run the risk of being less free.”

The President’s state of the union speech proved Hamilton to be a seer.

Freedom is in jeopardy in other important respects. A nation where bills are drafted by lobbyists, provisions are inserted into legislation in the middle of the night, and legislators are effectively purchased (or at least access to them acquired) by obscene campaign contributions from wealthy benefactors with substantial business interests at stake, treads dangerously close to forfeiting its right to call itself a “democracy” at all. The fundamental right of a “free” people to govern themselves through chosen representatives beholding only to them – the core “freedom” of our form of government – is in retreat – on the march – away from our shores.

When the President calls for obligating future generations, without their approval, to repayment of crushing national debt to finance permanent extension of huge tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans, freedom to determine and control one’s own destiny is seriously at risk. It’s on the march, all right – in the wrong direction.

The enactments called for by the President in response to “the enemies of freedom,” betrayed a woeful disregard of Alexander Hamilton’s admonition. They also ignore the brilliant insight of that great philosopher, Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and they are us.”

Gerry Birnberg
Chair, Harris County Democratic Party
February 1, 2006

Archive of Gerry Birnberg's Messages

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