The new Democratic line

Today the Democratic National Committee had some shills out in Harvard Square, and I went up to one of them to talk to him. (Uncharacteristic of me, I know.) I asked him, in a reasonable tone, why I should support a candidate who favors shielding companies that conspired with the government to break laws from legal liability. He asked if I had had my rights violated; I told him the government violates my rights in numerous ways. Specifically with regard to the actions the Bush administration has undertaken, though, I said there's been so much secrecy that people can't know what has been done to them or why. I mentioned that I have cut back on my flying because of what people have to experience routinely, and that a friend who sharply criticized a member of Congress to his face, and has been hassled in airports ever since. His response was that people aren't being arrested for their political views. He obviously wasn't comfortable about that position; it may have been the line he was told to take.

This response was remarkably similar to one reported on Universal Hub a little over a week ago. A DNC shill in Central Square asked Jay Levitt, "Does it really affect you personally?" The difference is that that person didn't even know about the immunity issue. But both responded the same way: We need national security. You don't have to worry personally about it.

This looks like the new line from the Democrats. Their outrage at abuse of Presidential power has vanished now that their candidate is favored in the polls. Whether this comes from explicit coaching or from tacit agreement, I don't know. I believe that the anger they've expressed at Bush in the past is real, but it isn't principled anger. It's the anger a Red Sox fan feels when the umpire makes a call that favors the Yankees.

When Clinton was in the White House, a favorite epithet of the left against conservatives and libertarians was "anti-government." We haven't heard that much during the Bush years, as the Democrats found religion in civil liberties. But if Obama wins, there's little doubt they'll drag it out again.