Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Honestly I think both sides are over reacting.
I don?t go about my life in fear of another terrorist attack, nor have I ever been in fear of a terrorist attack. As OrByte pointed out I am more likely to die in a car crash than from terrorism, but I still hop in my car every day and drive off with a smile on my face.
I also don?t go about my life worried that big brother is watching me or that the government is taking away my civil liberties. Yes they have made some mistakes, keeping Padilla without charging him etc, but over all I think they are doing their best to balance the job of protecting the country without intruding upon our rights.
Do you realize that our government?s social liberal programs have a FAR greater effect on our lives than ANY post 9-11 anti-terrorism policy? 20% of my paycheck goes to the Federal government in one form or another. Of this money over half of it goes to social entitlement programs such Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That means 10% of my working life is spent just to support our government?s social programs.
Now compare that to the amount of impact the Patriot Act, the NSA wire tap program or the swift program have on our daily lives and get back to me.
Interesting point. I appreciate you addressing it in a civil manner. I think we differ in two specific areas. As far as civil liberties are concerned, I think they are too easy to erode unless we are constantly vigilant. If we silently compromise on this liberty and sacrifice a bit on that liberty, it becomes easier and easier to take more and more of them away. In short, it is the slippery slope.
With respect to "PATRIOT" specifically, I've asked several times for any supporters to explain what, specifically, it allows law enforcement to do that they couldn't already do with appropriate court oversight, in many cases retroactively? It's never been answered with facts and specifics, just a lot of true believers insisting we need it to fight terrorism or we're all going to die! (Or something like that.) I'm a strong supporter of law and order, but I also recognize we need checks and balances. The fatal problem with "PATRIOT" is it eliminates many of those checks and balances.
Re. taxes, we have a fundamental difference in beliefs that we will never reconcile. Personally, I think the problem is people look at their gross and think it's all their money, then cry because their take-home glass is only 70% full. I don't. I look at my take-home glass as 100% full (and hundreds-fold bigger than most of the world) and am happy as a clam. The taxes taken from my gross are meaningless numbers. It was never my money in the first place. It's just the overhead cost of living in a country that offers such extraordinary opportunities for success. Do I want my taxes to go down? Sure ... as long as we continue to provide the government services I believe are crucial to a first-world country. I like my money as much as the next guy, but I feel an incredibly rich civilization such as ours cannot in good conscience fail to take care of the poor and the helpless. The bottom line is we can afford it, even if it means I have to reduce my luxury indulgences by 10%. (But that discussion really belongs in another thread.)