Where My Republicans At?

I was reading a comment on Crooks and Liars stating their curiousity where the far-right would land on this issue... meaning, these are the people who fear the power of the government so much they like the NRA to stay armed in case of a too-powerful government. The Republicans were supposed to exist to curb the power/scope of the federal government; they were the libertarians. The Democrats were supposedly the ones who wanted the government involved in all aspects of social life. That has not been the case for some time. The roles are reversed. The Republican Party has become the party of big, all-powerful government in a way that would LBJ blush. This spy story is the ultimate confirmation. Big Brother is very real... and he's a Republican.

This reminded I wanted to post the following letter from the most recent issue of Newsweek (the Bush Bubble issue). The writer was responding to a George Will column in which he complained that campaign-finance laws were a liberal assault on free speech (damn that liberal Sen. McCain!). The writer had some strong feelings on the stupidity of that notion:

"George Will's article 'Free Speech Under Siege' (Dec. 5) reminds me that most conservatives have either lost touch with reality or have become so buried in the right's false rhetoric that they actually believe the propaganda they peddle. He claims liberals have a 'program of extending government supervision of life'. It is what the right has been saying for years, and it is purely misleading. It was the conservatives who tried to decide what was best for Terri Schiavo. It is conservatives who want to tell a woman what to do with her body. It is conservatives who want to tell us who whom we can and can't fall in love with. Then they confuse liberal programs that help people with big government. Will tries to claim that campaign-finance reform - supported by Democrats and Republicans alike - is an attack on free speech. Campaign-finance reform is the last, best hope we have to limit career politicians. Attacks on free speech are more about calling people anti-American who don't agree with the war in Iraq, or limiting the press coverage of fallen soldiers' coming home in coffins."

A-men.