Morning Post: Tyranny edition

The president can now declare you an enemy of the state–even if you are a legal citizen–then cart you off to prison, torture you and lock you up forever without trial or the right to even ask a judge to review your case or allow you to see the evidence against you. This is not a mere moment on the slippery slope to tyranny. It is, as this morning’s NYT editorial calls it: Rushing off a cliff

There is not enough time to fix these bills, especially since the few Republicans who call themselves moderates have been whipped into line, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate seems to have misplaced its spine. If there was ever a moment for a filibuster, this was it.

We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.