Sunday on The Chris Matthews Show, during the “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” segment, Reihan Salam of National Review said “Conservative backlash against the TSA is just part of a huge revival of civl liberties talk on the right. We’re going to see more of it in the next couple of years.”
First, all civil liberties talk is good civil liberties talk, and I’m happy to see it regardless of its point of origin on the political spectrum. Second, the support of conservatives shouldn’t be considered unusual; in the UK, for example, among the staunchest advocates of civil liberties are the Tories in the House of Commons, like David Davis, and many members of the House of Lords. It’s a naturally libertarian, small government position.
But what seems bizarre to me is the right’s willingness to take or abandon any position, as long as they can continue to batter the left over the head. Over the last decade, any Democrat who expressed reservations about the Patriot Act or who questioned waterboarding was considered soft on terrorism; now, enduring a body scan or a pat down is a civil liberties issue.
It happens over and over again. Obama pushes through Romney care; he gets labeled a socialist. He pushes for a START treaty that has been backed by Henry Kissinger, James Baker, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and other Republicans. But Senator Jon Kyl puts the brakes on it for no damn good reason, and Obama is considered soft on Russia. Bush passes TARP, and Obama gets blamed for the bailout. Doesn’t anybody keep score?
The worst part concerns regulating the economy. The Republicans want to continue the Bush taxcuts, but they’re the ones who are deficit hawks. And the Republicans are the ones who oppose meaningful regulation, and they’re the ones who are supposed to be conservative.
More and more, I take the most cynical view: politics is a business wholly owned and operated by liars, and the ones who are most successful are the ones who tell the most lies and the biggest lies, and then who lie about the lying.