Civil Liberties
http://www.badnarik.org/Issues/CivilLiberties.php
The erosion of our civil liberties since 9/11 does not represent a new phenomenon. It represents an acceleration of long-existing trends. As president, my goal will be to to reverse those trends and to restore, respect and enforce the Bill of Rights.
In crafting the Bill of Rights, the framers were careful to acknowledgeâ??implicitly and explicitlyâ??two key truths:
The first is that government does not grant rightsâ??it acknowledges them. They exist independently of government. They're part of who and what we are. And, as Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence, the only legitimate function of government is to secure them.
The second is that government is a servant to whom we delegate powers, not a master who dispenses privileges. The Constitution carefully enumerates the powers we, the people, delegate to our governmentâ??and it specifically denies that government any powers not so delegated. Our rights lie beyond the pale of that delegation. They are sacrosanct. Any government which infringes upon them is engaged in an intolerable usurpation.
The history of our nation is the story of a government constantly attempting to outgrow the Constitutional box we put it in and of a people struggling to stuff it back into that box. Sadly, government has grown so far beyond its Constitutional bounds that we can barely see the box any more.
How did that happen? A little at a time. There's always someone who would have us trade a little liberty for a little securityâ??a "reasonable gun control" law here, a "War on Drugs" there ... before you know it, it all adds up. What it adds up to is the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI spying on library patrons and hundreds, maybe even thousands of prisoners held without charge, counsel or even public acknowledgement that they've been "detained."
How do we fix it? By being just as uncompromising in our defense of liberty as our enemies are in their attacks upon it. Let us take our cue from Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
As your president, I will act in accordance with my oath to the Constitution of the United Statesâ??all_ of it, with special emphasis on the Bill of Rights. I will veto legislation which in any way infringes upon those rights. I will shut down any agency or activity in the executive branch which has, as its mission, the infringement of those rights. And I will direct the Attorney General and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to aggressively prosecute, under USC Title 18, Sections 241 and 242, any government employee who violates those rights.
I'm Michael Badnarik, Libertarian for President. I ask the tough questionsâ??to give you answers that really work!
