Image via WikipediaRead related » CIA Predator versus ACLU Subpoena: Warfare and Lawfare in the War on Terror
[This related article is recommended in its entirety.]
“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) […] questions the president's right to sanction a Predator attack on an American citizen. The fact [that] Awlaki is voluntarily engaged in hostilities against the U.S. under the aegis of an enemy power gives the ACLU little pause. One hyperbolic ACLU lawyer claims Obama is "imposing the death penalty without trial." The claim is sophistry masquerading as sophistication. If all the world were a courtroom, where the decisive weapons are precedent, persuasive arguments and subpoenas, the ACLU might have a case -- if Awlaki's father has legal standing, which is doubtful. Earth, however, is populated by people who have profound disagreements over values that undergird the most basic laws. The civilized are willing to negotiate those disagreements. Barbarians like Awlaki are different. They will murder Molly Norrises en masse to impose their will. The barbarians are outlaws.” [emphasis added]
— Austin Bay, 2010/11/10 (townhall.com)
The ACLU's stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". A noble cause, indeed. As such, the organization tends to focus its activities in support of the Bill of Rights, that portion of the Constitution (its first ten Amendments) that was co-ratified with its main Sections, ostensibly to protect Americans from the tyranny of the majority. A very noble cause, in principle.
Unfortunately, human endeavor in the real world (as opposed to the lefty unicorn world) has a strong tendency to devolve principle into zealotry. And so the ACLU has devolved into a zoo of zealots, whose proactive stance is indistinguishable from a collective tyranny of the leftist minority.
Everyone, with the exception of the self-righteous elitists, can agree that tyranny is bad. I submit, however, that the tyranny of the minority is worse than that of the majority, and worst of all is the tyranny of an oligarchy or of an individual tyrant.
It is all well and good to defend the rights of the accused, for instance, for it is well known that significant numbers of accused can be, and frequently are, found to be not guilty. But when the rights of the accused are defended to the exclusion of the rights of the aggrieved, there results de facto tyranny of the minority, AKA the ACLU.
Post 1,478 A Clue for the ACLU
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