It’s no secret that these are odd times in American politics. Just how odd is being revealed in Congress right now, as a “fantasy coalition” of Democratic liberals and Republican libertarians — something we wished for just the other day — is showing signs of developing. In a blog item on Friday, I reported that congressional leaders Harry Reid and John Boehner had agreed on a renewal of the odious Patriot Act. At the time, I wrote that “It will be interesting to see how far congress members’ love of individual freedom and civil liberties goes. Enough to bring together Tea Party libertarians and the more liberal-leaning Democrats in a ‘strange bedfellows’ coalition?”
Today, as TalkingPointsMemo reports, Vermont liberal Sen. Patrick Leahy and Kentucky libertarian Rand Paul are joining forces to introduce an amendment to the Patriot Act that would phase out some of the worst parts of the law. The Leahy-Paul amendment would let National Security Letters (NSLs) expire at the end of 2013. NSLs are a type of subpoena used by the federal government, which demands that particular organizations or people turn over various records and data such as credit card transactions, phone calls, e-mail addresses, etc. Under the Patriot Act, the government doesn’t need to show probable cause for the NSL, and there is no judicial oversight of the process. If you history buffs out there think this sounds a little like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, apartheid-era South Africa, or recent Egyptian policy, you’re right.
Leahy and Paul’s amendment would also mandate that the Justice Dept. audit the issuance of NSLs, and would expand public reporting on the use of NSLs. As TPM reports, Rand Paul said, “We were so frightened after 9/11 that we readily gave up these freedoms. Not only would I let these expire, but I think we should sunset the entire Patriot Act.”
Nitpickers will say Leahy and Paul could have gone farther and dumped other appalling features of the Patriot Act, but I welcome this move by progressives and libertarians to find common ground on a particular issue. Like we said Friday, if this kind of coalition could be nurtured and grown, “it could lead to other interesting Tea Party/Progressive coalitions, including getting us the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
This article appears in May 24-30, 2011.
It the Supreme Court wasn’t as partisan as the Congress, the USAPatriot Act would have been ruled unconstitutional years ago.
Rand Paul voted against cloture altogether and tried to present all sorts of amendments to repeal everything he could. The one with Leahy was only one. He filibustered. And Reid broke his word to hear amendments with a procedural ploy that pulls an end run on representative government.
Thanks for the article. For information on Liberals and Libertarians worldwide, see http://www.Libertarian-International.org the Libertarian International Organization.
I don’t see what is partisan about the SC. They’re allied to the one party, the gov’t power party. You can’t seriously use the Constitution as cover if you support the welfare state associated with the left or the warfare state associated with the right. Most of what has been passed in the last 100 years is unconstitutional. This country took a bullet to the brain around 1913 and has staggered forward to this point, but not much longer.
We need to see more of Libertarians working with the two major parties; we Libertarians tend to be a mix of liberalism and conservatism due to our primary goal being the greatest amount of liberty for the people.
We will side with the conservatives to ensure gun rights and criminal prosecution, while siding with the liberals on civil rights issues; security is always secondary to freedom for us.
We look forward to a day when our rights are the most important thing in each and every person’s mind; when being an American means being free!
Virgil
http://evolvenow-alp.blogspot.com/
heres to hoping