As a classical liberal who believes that authoritarianism in the state has wrought the worst genocide in recent history, I actually support most of the ACLU's platform. I believe capital punishment should be outlawed due to the barbaric use of the practice in other nations, I believe in equal rights for minorities of all types, and I believe that we should stop using "enhanced interrogation" techniques (even though the people it was used on were pieces of shit). That's why I was mildly ecstatic in seeing that the ACLU launched the ACLU Blog of Rights (h/t Jules Crittenden).
Unfortunately, the blog is shameless political pandering to the left, as the initial guest post is from Glenn Greenwald, who's only concern is to make the Bush Administration look bad as evidenced by the title of his post "Growing Responsibility of the Bush Torture Regime". The outrage over waterboarding by the netroots conveniently came about after the media started realizing the surge strategy in Iraq was effectively reducing violence (around Fall 2007), and outrage at BushCo. was necessary to ensure the Republicans lost the election in 2008. The left has been an echo-chamber stroke fest ever since. While I admire gutter politics and often engage in it, the ACLU bills itself as a non-partisan defenders of civil liberties and should transcend this.
They also seem to be selectively cherry-picking topics, such as discussion of the U.N.'s investigation into racism in the American election. If the ACLU was serious about human rights, they'd be scolding the U.N. for wasting fucking time while there were ongoing humanitarian crises in Burma, China, and South Africa. The ACLU also don't support gun rights as they publicly state. It makes me wonder if they don't support the 3rd amendment, since I could start lounging on people's couches as an uninvited guest. It'd be nice if there was an institution that unconditionally supported all of the Bill of Rights and didn't play politics, because the ACLU just doesn't cut it.
Minuteman Gets Chucked Under the Bus By the ACLU
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