'Worst Bush-era policies' becoming the 'new normal': ACLU

reply to post by harrytuttle

Can't disagree with that one bit.

But in our defense, the people who played us were pretty smart about it. Divide and conquer and then lie and get people fighting about the lies while they did what they wanted.

They just had us negate ourselves, and we did a pretty damn good job of it. Hell, we're still doing it.

reply to post by ~Lucidity

Excellent points. Another thing is incrementalism. While Bush made the most changes the fastest, but he was by no means the first President to do so. Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, they all have been instruments of slowly building the police state we are seeing emerge all around us. Obama is not the first, and most certainly will not be the last president who will aid in the normalization of the police state.

[edit on 30-7-2010 by harrytuttle]

reply to post by ~Lucidity

It really seems the parties and ideologies spend most of their time bickering and so little time doing anything. There is no more calm, logical, and rational discussion; no communication; no compromise; no civility.

Obviously I wasn't there but it seems the same words could be used to describe the situation in 1861, which, as I recall, didn't turn out too well.

I don't know if we can turn it around. Most likely we passed the point of no return a long time ago. One can hope but I don't have much faith in humanity any more.

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

I've been voting for over 40 years, and I don't remember it getting this bad until the Clinton years...and it's been progressively going downhill since.

Thats because you dont change political systems by voting.

You have 40 years of experience. You should have realized a while back that the state of the country has NOTHING to do with who people voted for.

Dont take responsibility for it either, because you never had any chance to change the outcome. What you are looking at today is where we have been heading for decades now. And it will be even worse in the future.

But I actually have hope for 2012. I know it sounds strange, but I have a strong intuition that things will change dramatically after that. We will see if Im right.


[edit on 30-7-2010 by Copernicus]

reply to post by TheLoony

I was only referring to the past 40 years. It's gotten exponentially WORSE now with all the freaking bickering going on online too between one set of falsely empowered extremist idiots and another who have no qualms about lying, vilifying, slandering people, and preying on people's fears and emotions in this "war" they think they're in with each other. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. They make us all look like flaming idiots, and I resent that...a LOT.


[edit on 7/30/2010 by ~Lucidity]

reply to post by Copernicus

Thanks.


[edit on 7/30/2010 by ~Lucidity]

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
reply to post by Copernicus

 

Oh geez. I KNOW that. Let me rephrase that for you.

I've been following politics closely for over 40 years...how's that?

I rephrased my post slightly, I realized it sounded a bit like a personal attack. It wasnt meant to be one.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
You gotta hand it to Dubya - who else could have shredded the Constitution while most of the American public cheered him on?

Since media consolidation back in the 80's the American public has had increasingly less real news and more distraction/propaganda spoon fed to them.

It looks like the boogeyman of "terrorism" was frightening enough to allow our rights to be so horribly abrogated. What this implies about the child-like mentality of most Americans goes without saying.

Hell, some news organizations aren't even trying to not appear biased and lay down a heavy dose of fear-mongering in place of actual facts and real news.

It's to the point where most people aren't looking for news, just validation of their ill-placed anger and the implementation of new fears to justice it.

All of this distracts them from the wealthy 1% and their stranglehold over them.

They'd rather be concerned over the truly meaningless welfare bums as opposed to the Defense Departments recent inability to account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion of our tax dollars that they undoubtedly fed to the corporate cronies wrecking our lives.

Aren't they still looking for the $2.3 trillion of OUR money that Rumsfeld said they couldn't track??!



Yeah..."Welfare Mothers" and the "Lazy Poor" are the real drain on the American society.
Keep up the good brainwashing FOX!



The Bush administration really set us all back with their terrible policies then shifted blame to the new guy.

Like zombies the public went along with it.

- Lee

reply to post by Copernicus

Thanks. Appreciate that.

IS that what they call the NWO now, the new normal?
ITs interesting too see, how bush was/kinda is runing things like communist russia and the ghestoppo in nazi germany, agiasnst its own civilians* is thei any more proof we are are doomed to be slaves in a facist corporate world sooner or later? geesh! read what bush started here, and what obama is carrying out*

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
Outstanding thread, Lucidity. I have been noticing more and more over recent days that I find myself aligned with the ACLU.

Once a target for my contempt and disgust, I am starting to see them as the last best hope to save our nation. A team of lawyers fighting the corporate dragon using its own weapon of fire: law.

We will see. If not, that is just that much closer we are to being left with violence as an only solution. I am a pacifist. I hope to never see that day.

It is really good to hear you say that, seriously.

It eases my mind to hear of people changing their minds when presented with reality/facts rather than propaganda. I'm not sure if you're a supporter of him or not, but the kind of disinformation Glenn Beck puts out about organizations like the ACLU is pure poison. I've been following the ACLU since I was a teenager (which was during the Bush years) and I became very interested in politics, civil liberties, and all such issues. The ACLU has been VERY consistent in sticking up for the civil liberties of EVERYONE (no matter their race, religion, politics, etc.). They really do make an awesome effort to be objective and non-partisan. However, the ACLU has been turned into a partisan issue simply because left-wingers seem to support the ACLU more than right-wingers, AND Republicans have been the greater evil (and Democrats the lesser evil) of the stripping of our civil liberties. However, both parties are complicit in the system of budding quasi-tyranny, as I'm sure we all agree here.

I really don't mean to patronize you, man, but you get a solid e-handshake from me for changing your mind about the ACLU.

reply to post by NoHierarchy

He got respect from me too in a U2U conversation we had about this. They're really all we have to protect our civil liberties, and yes they do get vilified and they have been ever since this internal pundit or whatever you want to call it war started.

Everyone's civil liberties. And they're really a team of some very solid, dedicated, and upstanding people, in general of course because we know no one is perfect. They did a really good job on this report.

It's pretty funny, because GB carried this meme over from his old-school ways, and doesn't seem to even GET what he's saying in his new skin. Just one of the many "tells."

Here's how other media outlets are reporting this story...gotta love some of the variations on the headlines. I particularly giggled at the one about him following Bush on fighting terror.

Washington Times: ACLU slams Obama's security policies

New American: ACLU: Obama’s “New Normal” Is Bush’s Old One

Canada Views: Obama Administration In Danger Of Establishing “New Normal” With Worst Bush-Era Policies, Says ACLU

US Politics: Obama's security stands raise eyebrows to his left

NewsMax: ACLU: Obama Following Bush on Fighting Terror