A Bridge Between the Left and Right

Bush Government 'Out of Control'

By Chuck Baldwin
The Covenant News ~ November 22, 2002

Back in August, columnist Paul Craig Roberts asked the question, "Is a vote for Republicans a vote for a police state?" The answer seems to be a resounding yes! The Bush administration seems determined to turn our country into the most elaborate and sophisticated police state ever devised.

Things are so bad that outgoing house majority leader Dick Armey said that under Bush the federal government is "out of control." In fact, the conservative congressman is reported to be seriously considering taking a position with the ACLU in order to help fight the federal government's usurpation of constitutionally protected liberties. Does that mean one must leave the Republican Party in order to fight for liberty? Maybe so.

[...]  The tyrannical tendencies of old King George III of England cannot hold a candle to the Machiavellian machinations of King George XLIII of the United States. Unfortunately, there are few Paul Reveres around to sound an alarm. Unless contemporary patriots act quickly, Republicans, not Democrats, will be the ones that ultimately dismantle our constitution and trample our liberties.

The article quote above was published in Covenant News, a very conservative, Christian website.  Between it, William Saffire's recent editorial on the Total Information Awareness program, Bob Barr and Dick Armey being willing to work with the ACLU and a few other such incidents, I am beginning to see small, but potentially significant, signs of hope. 

George Bush has counted on a considerable amount of support from conservatives and the Religious Right, but it appears that at least some of the leaders among those groups are not only concerned about the direction that George Bush and his administration are taking this country in, but are also willing to stand up and say "Enough!".  Critics on the left have been expressing concern for most of Bush's term, and now critics from the right are joining them.

Part of me is still a bit unsure about Bob Barr (in particular) and Dick Armey working with the ACLU, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.  Not because I agree with either of them on much, but because of what it represents -- left and right setting aside some significant differences to work together and face this current threat that exist within our own government.

I don't expect conservatives and liberals to forget about their differences.  We still need to have debates on abortion, gun-control, the separation of church and state and taxation, for example, but right now we need even more to put those debates on hold so that we can stand united and tell the Bush administration that we're not going to just sit by and let them take away the very things that make America what it is. We need to preserve the very liberties that allow us to have all those other debates.