Deja Vu?
Back in the late 60s/early 70s as the Vietnam War protests grew, there was this vein of rampant paranoia that we used to talk about in those peace-nik circles. We were afraid that we saw a huge government led conspiracy behind every tree and in the middle of every protest. We would joke, although with a sense of fear and a quick look behind us, about the government writing all our names down, tapping our phones, etc. We were sure that the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover was more than capable of that. And with a paranoid like Richard Nixon in the White House, well, anything was possible.

Silly, huh?

Until things began to be made public and we discovered that most of what we feared was really a lot more than just a possibility built in our left-wing brains. It was what was really happening. The Imperial Presidency of Richard Nixon was as scary and potentially destructive to American values as we had accused it of being. Probably more so.

Fortunately, American Democracy prevailed. Congress responded. Laws were passed. Civil liberties were secured. It will never happen again.

• Why then do I have some of those same deeply disturbing feelings running around in my head again?
  
• Why do I have the gut reaction that it may be dangerous just to post something like this on a public blog?
  
• Why am I afraid that criticizing the government may put me on a terrorist watch list for the next time I fly somewhere?

It can't have anything to do with the news, can it?

And don't give me the line that as long as I don't have anything to hide, what difference should it make? Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover, among others, have shown that the line between controlling terrorists and exercising control through fear and terror is a very narrow one indeed. Who knows what some people might feel is un-American and thus worthy of being carefully watched, followed, spied upon? Slippery slopes exist on the right-wing as much as they do on the left.

I am nervous- and deeply concerned over what is happening. It is not a comfortable time for America- and it isn't just from terrorists who want to undo our way of life. They may succeed thanks to our own fears and desires to succeed. We will do all the un-doing ourselves.

Note: Over at the Daily Kos, Hunter had a powerful post yesterday, laying out the four phases of this espionage story. So far.