The Patriot Act is making a mockery out of the Constitution

In a series of recent news polls two key findings jump out at me.

First, the majority of the nation feels that the controversies are not affecting their view of how President Obama is doing his job. They feel he is right on course steering the ship in the correct manner.

Second, the controversies are important to look into — especially the IRS scandal. The AP problem is understood by most people as a national security issue and Benghazi as a political hack job. (Most Americans polled feel the investigation on the Libyan assault of our consulate should be focused on how to prevent such attacks and how to make our staffs in foreign countries better protected, not who knew what when. The American public can see through the smoke and mirrors in the hearings going on in Washington.)

The thing that concerns me are the AP findings. Yes, I too believe Benghazi needs proper investigating about security issues and that the IRS violated trust with its disclosure and needs to be vetted for proper response from Congress, but to let the AP issue slide says two things to me. A) Americans do not understand the role journalism truly plays in the free flow of information in a democracy and B) most people have acquiesced their rights under the Patriot Act, not understanding just how severe the law is in eroding the “real rights” of each and every American.

Under Bush, the Patriot Act was passed and then renewed under Obama and that law gave and still gives the government immense powers of collecting information for national security reasons – trampling on constitutionally protected rights and privileges. That’s is a euphemism for spying on its citizens. Remember the Soviet Union?  They had such laws.  Nazi Germany, too. Yet, we have rolled over and played dead when it comes to fighting for our rights. You let the government use the Patriot Act once against the NRA and you’ll see just how noisy a minority can get over such acts. We all should be as raucous.

The FBI’s obtaining the phone information of the AP’s reporters amounts to an invasion of privacy. It is an invasion of the trust developed with the First Amendment. It says now, no source can be protected. True, there was a breach of some kind. A breach that said someone in the government leaked information about the CIA’s role in Yemen. And that’s a bad thing. But you don’t run roughshod over the Constitution to fix it. (Oh, you do under the Bush and Obama administrations with the Patriot Act in your back pocket.)

There will come a time in America, and I hope it is not too late, that the citizens of this country will arise and demand our freedoms back. Demand that the lawmakers back down and let the Founding Father’s insight work freely once again in this country.

The Patriot Act was passed by people drenched and repressed in fear. America is supposed to be the home of the brave. We don’t need this law.

The Patriot Act is bad for America.