Here’s something that pisses me off:

Government at all levels, with the blessing of the Supreme Court, is stripping the American citizen of all his rights. Gone. We are on a direct trajectory toward collectivism. Individualism is dead. Property rights are dead. Your rights to your own body, your own health, and your own habits are dead. The Second, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth amendments are in peril. The First isn’t exactly thriving.

And you wanna’ know what the talk of the town the last two weeks has been?

What Dick Durbin said, and whether he should be spanked for it. And what Karl Rove said, and whether he should be spanked for it.

That’s what talking heads have deemed important. Meanwhile, as we’re all passionately debating who ought to apologize to whom, government is stealing our freedom.

The attitude on both sides of the aisle is that the ultimate principle is, simply, getting your guy in power. Donkeys and elephants above all else. The Elite Left’s reaction to Raich and to Kelo has been abominable, and a wholesale selling out of traditional leftist principles. Why’d they do it? Because someday, the donkeys might run this country again. And when/if they do, they want an all-powerful federal government at their disposal.

And what of the right? The Bush administration sided with the leftist justices on Raich. And had the Bush administration filed a brief in Kelo, it would have filed it in opposition to the homeowners. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that our president himself abused eminent domain to make room the baseball stadium the state of Texas gave him. Shortly before he became governor. But that doesn’t matter. A conservative activist told me recently that he sort of sympathized with medical marijuana patients but that frankly, he was okay with Raich, because he didn’t want the give those hippies any victories (his words). He also conceded that the only guiding principle in his political activism is to “help my team move the ball down the field.”

The sports analogy is apt. Political activism is about for your favorite team. Nothing more. The actual consequences are the same no matter who wins — more government, more collectivism, fewer individual rights, less freedom. The last ten years have proven that. The last four have emphatically driven it home.

Browse the comments threads to the Kelo posts at Kos or Atrios. Note how much more outraged the commenters are than the pundits. Commenters at these sites are rank and filers. They’re the conscience of the left. Principle still matters to them. That’s why they’re generally outraged by Kelo. And it’s why they’re shocked to find themselves on the same side as Thomas, Rhenquist, and O’Connor — three figures the Elite Left have misled them into believing are evil concentrate.

Wake the hell up, people. What’s happening to this country is beyond politics. Once you’re stipped of your individual rights, it doesn’t really matter whose favorite team is in office.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2005 at 10:03 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.