George Bush’s Worst Decision

During the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency America changed significantly. Conservatives claim economic policies worked, but many were inherited from Bill Clinton. They claim the representation of smaller government fueled the economic boom of the aughts, but the truth is the largest expansion of government services and spending took place, until President Obama exponentially eclipsed those figures, and America’s civil liberties were willfully eroded. Repeatedly I have written about exchanging our liberties for the perception of safety, but no president did more to change our view of the world than “W” in the months and years following September 11th, 2001.

Congress immediately started working on the Patriot Act after the September 11th attacks. Even government marketing proponents make it hard to argue because it would make one “unpatriotic” to disagree. Among the worst elements of the Patriot Act that stole liberties was Title II, covering surveillance procedures. Although one could hope the original intent was to provide additional surveillance on enemies of the United States, the enhancements contained within this statute expanded the scope and availability of wiretapping and surveillance orders. Subpoenas delivered to internet service providers were expanded to include not only “the name, address, local and long distance telephone toll billing records, telephone number or other subscriber number or identity, and length of service of a subscriber” but also session times and durations, types of services used, communication device address information, payment method and bank account and credit card numbers.

Several other sections of the Patriot Act, Title III, anti-money-laundering to prevent terrorism, and Title IV, border security, have changed our daily lives. When dealing with any financial institution we must provide proof of American citizenship to open an account. Cash transactions in excess of $10,000 must be reported, and all brokers and bankers are trained to spy on you – ordered to report any odd patterns in financial transactions. Border security has limited our ability to take a weekend jaunt to the Bahamas, requiring a passport to return to our own country.

Finally, the most notorious provision in the Patriot Act is Title VIII, the Terrorism Criminal Law. It redefined the term “domestic terrorism” to broadly include mass destruction as well as assassination or kidnapping as a terrorist activity. The definition includes activities intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion,” or are undertaken “to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping” while in the jurisdiction of the United States. On one hand, under the guise of the attacks of September 11th, the provision arguably makes sense to allow prosecution of the foreign terrorists. However, a dramatic shift has recently taken place by the current party in power to invoke the elements of this section and call into question the activities of Americans peacefully protesting and asserting their First Amendment rights to free speech. Both Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and former President Bill Clinton have referred to citizens engaging in tax protests, arguing against health care, or disagreeing with the current administration as domestic terrorists.

Our government is asserting power it was never intended to have and I believe the Founding Fathers would be appalled at the efforts currently underway. It appears George Bush’s legacy is shrouded in reigning in the citizens of the United States, to control them and create an environment focused on monitoring and surveillance. The First Amendment is no longer about freedom of speech, to willfully speak, but containment of speech within the bounds of the Patriot Act.