... that I am the most reactionary, least liberal person in my class - at least when it comes to politics. Yesterday, my professor took a group of us out to dinner. The subject of conversation included, among other things: why Bush should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, why Joe Lieberman deserved to be shot (I kid you not!) for campaigning for John McCain, and prosecuting the President and Vice President for War Crimes.
These people are CRAZY.
Now if I didn't have a brief due soon, I'd blog about my views on the War on Terror, but ... that may have to wait. A quick summary, though: the zealous warhawks who want to deny all process to detainees are crazy, but so are the zealous "rights"-people who want to undermine the government's well-intentioned efforts to keep our country safe. The former respect the rule of law too little - even openly flaunting in the face of the Constitution. The latter respect the necessities of war - or quasi-war - time too little.
My general view - which runs counter to all of my other views on Respecting the Rule of Law - is ... if you're going to do something illegal to protect the country, don't let anyone find out.
It's horribly unprincipled, but I value my safety just as much as any other person. Any thoughts, XY?
(XY edit): Well I can't say that I'm surprised. Your Law School is incredibly liberal and far far far left. It seems to me that these `debates' always lose sight of the fact that Bush was trying to do what he thought was right. Obviously things didn't work out as anyone would have liked, but I don't think it's right to doubt his intentions. No, he's not the devil. Yes, he thought what he was doing would make the world safer for Americans. At the same time, saying that Lieberman should be shot because he endorsed McCain...and you wonder why a lot of people just view the Dems as elitists who don't understand the concerns of average Americans and don't feel they can communicate with them.
That said, Obama does represent a great chance to bridge a lot of these problems. He needs to govern from the center and rein in the far left elements of the party (people who make statements like this). So far his appointments to his cabinet seem to be accomplishing just that. There are a lot of things that everyone agrees need to be fixed - don't polarize the reforms with borderline offensive rhetoric. It will be a very successful presidency if the far left and the far right are disappointed.
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