President Bush has recently been compared with President Lincoln by Karl Rove, among others, suggesting that when Mr. Bush broke the law by wiretapping American citizens without a warrant, torturing suspects, etc. he was just doing what Lincoln did, what was needed to keep the country together in a time of war.

I don't think the Lincoln comparison is valid AT ALL. The civil war started as Lincoln was elected President, he didn't elect to start it, as Bush did with Iraq (note, I think the war in Afghanistan was justified, and should have remained the focus, instead of starting the war in Iraq, which has resulted in the continuing problems in Afghanistan). As such, Lincoln's restrictions on civil liberties were in response to a very specific and identifiable national threat. I don't mean to make light of 9/11, but it was not an attack strong enough to split our country or overthrow our government, no terrorist attack has that power. The proper response to terrorism is concerted police action on substantiated intelligence. Torture does not lead to substantiated intelligence, it leads to lies in an attempt to stop the torture, therefore Bush's retraction of basic civil liberties was unnecessary and unconstitutional. Our government is founded on the belief that certain rights are inalienable, these rights are laid out in the Bill of Rights to protect citizens from the government. When citizens accept the withdrawal of our basic rights we allow our government to abuse the very people it was meant to protect.


A second matter, an e-mail is flying around the conservative blogosphere discussing Barack Obama's lack of an American flag pin, and suggests that this makes him unpatriotic.

The attack on Obama regarding his patriotism is an ad-hominem attack that is without merit. No US Senator should be accused of unpatriotic behavior when they are representing their constituents and following the law. Real unpatriotic behavior is that which overturns the protections we have from our government and undermines the basic rights of the citizens of this country.

Whats really shameful is to send our troops to die in a war that was optional. Military intervention should be the last option, not the first. With inspectors on the ground in Iraq saying that Weapons didn't exist Bush went in anyway, and substantiated those reports. Why should our troops be sent to die because Bush couldn't accept that his assumptions were wrong (even when presented with solid evidence to the contrary)? That is true unpatriotic behavior. Obama's pin shows his disgust for fake patriots and fake patriotism that is common in politics. It is a refreshing change to have a politician try to speak with actions instead of using our powerful national symbols to elicit a false response from the electorate.

Another ad-hominem attack in the media right now is that on McCain. I completely disagree with the tone that argument has had as well. Whether or not he had an affair with that lobbyist doesn't matter. It is, however, surprising that he is so friendly with lobbyists when he is one of the Senators leading up lobbying reform.

The difference between Democrats and Republicans

Sure there are many policy differences, but there is a fundamental difference in approach to politics between Democrats and Republicans. Retired General Wesley Clark summed it up succinctly in a recent interview with David Corn:

"Democrats," he complained, "fall in love. Republicans fall in line."

Why is this such a distinction? When the Bush administration started moving to do things that weren't in our country's best interest (Iraq War (no point and waste of American lives and money), Patriot Act (loss of civil liberties), torture of detainees (aside from being morally reprehensible, it puts Americans at risk of the same treatment), detainment without due process, etc. Wow, what a long list! Anyway, as the Bush administration started doing these things, Republicans fell into line and accepted them as necessary and critisized all who didn't as "unpatriotic". Compare this to the Clinton Administration. Bill Clinton's crime bill was widely critisized by Democrats for its expansion of the federal death penalty. He was also critizised by Democrats for his affair with Monica Lewinski, taking part in the war in Kosovo, and several of his pardons.

What we need is an electorate that stands up to its leaders and speaks truth to power. Right now this is the Democrats.