February 18, 2006
The New American Police State
By Richard Reeves
NEW YORK -- "When I saw that the neoconservative response
to 9/11 was to turn a stateless war against terrorism into military
attacks on Muslim states, I realized that the Bush administration
was committing a strategic blunder with open-ended disastrous
consequences for the United States that, in the end, would destroy
Bush, the Republican Party and the conservative movement."
I agree with
that, but I didn't write it. No liberal did.
The author
is Paul Craig Roberts, one of the creators and champions of "supply-side
economics," the great conservative cause of the early 1980s.
As a Wall Street Journal editorial writer and then assistant
secretary of the treasury under President Reagan, Roberts was
a true believer and an effective advocate. His political stance
is pretty well summed up in the title of his newest book: "The
Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are
Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice."
Roberts is
a syndicated columnist now, an honorable profession, and a fellow
at the Hoover Institution, a temple of talented political thinkers
devoted to all the Right things, beginning with Reaganism. His
essay, "My Epiphany: From Reaganaut to Anti-War Radical,"
is, as they say these days, sweeping the Internet. (You can read
the text on VDARE.com, the Web site of the Lexington Institute.)
Roberts begins
by emphasizing that he does not believe he is betraying old friends
or old causes, saying that he never considered himself a slave
to party or ideology. Apparently not. He has been writing strong
stuff:
"Americans
have forgotten what it takes to remain free. Instead, every
ideology, every group is determined to use government to advance
its agenda. ... The United States is undergoing a coup against
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and democracy itself. The
'liberal press' has been co-opted. ... Media concentration permitted
in the 1990s has put news and opinion in the hands of a few
corporate executives who do not dare risk their broadcasting
licenses by getting on the wrong side of government, or their
advertising revenues by becoming 'controversial.'"
He talks
of "years of illegal spying" giving the White House
the power of "blackmail" over media and political opposition.
I might not use the same words, but I do believe that we, the
people, are in jeopardy: New spying and eavesdropping technologies
and their delighted abuse by intelligence-gathering organizations
and their political masters are turning the United States into
an emerging police state.
"Homeland
Security and the Patriot Act are not our protectors," he
adds. "Americans need to understand that many interests are
using the 'war on terror' to achieve their agendas. The Federalist
Society is using the war on terror to achieve its agenda of concentrating
power in the executive and packing the Supreme Court to this effect.
The neoconservatives are using the war to achieve their agenda
of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East. Police agencies are using
the war to make themselves less accountable. Republicans are using
the war to achieve one-party rule ..."
"Debate
is dead," Roberts concludes. "One certainty prevails.
Bush is committing America to a path of violence and coercion,
and he is getting away with it."
I asked Roberts
what has been the reaction since these words were published 10
days ago.
"I have
had thousands of e-mails, about 99.9 percent favorable, full of
praise from Democrats and Republicans alike," he answered.
"They say the country is desperate for a straight talker.
... People want to hear more. People want me to run for the Senate
or for president."
I, for one,
would consider voting for him, though I would hope he will finally
give up on supply-side theory.
Copyright
2006 Universal Press Syndicate
