I would suggest that people encourage Mr. Ashcroft to take a few moments to reacquaint himself with the writings of the likes of James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, all figures of pre-eminent importance in regards to the founding of our republic. This would hopefully help Mr. Ashcroft to renew his appreciation for some of the principles of individual liberty and the purposes of Constitutional safeguards established by this nation’s crafters. These were done in order to offset the abuses of governmental power that inevitably come when too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few, and is no longer accountable to open view of the governed themselves.

In light of this, I believe Mr. Ashcroft’s attempts to circumvent the US Constitution through illegal legislation with the markedly Orwellian title of “Patriot Act” should not be considered acceptable by anyone, least of all by a public servant sworn to protect and defend the US Constitution (and not the privileges and political positions of ones friends and former business associates).

We do not need to turn America into the new Oceania, in perpetual pursuit of the ever-elusive Emmanuel Goldstein, or whatever phantoms he and his fellow Christian Jihaders can exploit in order to cow our nation into submissive fear. This fear can thus be much too easily exploited by those no longer held unaccountable to the will of the people.

As Thomas Paine said, those who wield power who hold themselves accountable to nobody should not be trusted by any body. Ashcroft’s efforts to establish more and more police powers without any direct accountability to the branches of govt. which our Constitution so clearly defines as having authority over, is un-American on the face of it. Such powers that he proposes with “Patriot Act II” (if you thought the first one was a winner, wait till you see the sequel!) are contradictory to the very nature of the republic which he claims to defend. I for one will not personally accept this administration’s efforts to ‘destroy the village of democracy in order to save it’.

So I would suggest he take his modern version of the Alien & Sedition Acts and put it in the File 13 of history where it belongs. This current effort on behalf of Mr. Ashcroft and the administration that he works for will one day be considered as big a blight on our national character as it’s antecedents, such as the Alien & Sedition Acts are considered today).

To paraphrase Bill Maher, perhaps now that Arnold The Terminator is an American public official, we can get him to translate the Patriot Act for us from it’s original German, and then have it shipped off to the leaders of Iran or China where Herr Ashcroft’s efforts would be much more at home and appreciated.

Originally posted November 2003