Glenn Greenwald has a brilliant post today on the topic of Obama's retreating to Bush/Cheney tactics in dealing with terrorists, from backing away to trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, to Democrats' threatening to cut off funding for civilian trials for terrorists in favor of military commissions or indefinite detention. Jesus, I nearly gagged reading that back to myself. All this under a Democratic, "centrist" president. Money quote:
The express policies of the right-wing Ronald Reagan — “applying the rule of law to terrorists”; delegitimizing Terrorists by treating them as “criminals”; and compelling the criminal prosecution of those who authorize torture — are now considered on the Leftist fringe. Merely advocating what Reagan explicitly adopted as his policy — “to use democracy’s most potent tool, the rule of law against” Terrorists — is now the exclusive province of civil liberties extremists. In those rare cases when Obama does what Reagan’s policy demanded in all instances and what even Bush did at times — namely, trials and due process for accused Terrorists — he is attacked as being “Soft on Terror” by Democrats and Republicans alike. And the mere notion that we should prosecute torturers (as Reagan bound the U.S. to do) — or even hold them accountable in ways short of criminal proceedings — is now the hallmark of a Far Leftist Purist.
Chris Buckley, son of the original conservative, is a heretic for voting for Obama, while Obama, himself a liberal/centrist/pragmatist, is a Communist/Socialist/Stalinish/Nazi traitor against the Republic.
I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, so send this post to your conservative friends. Watch the spinning ensue.
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