If there's a silver lining to the Patriot Act - the bill Congress hastily passed in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - it's that the bill has inspired a lot of true American patriots to act.
The bill, which broadly increased government police powers in ways that easily could undermine your, our and anyone's civil liberties, has reminded many Americans across the political spectrum that “My government, right or wrong” isn't the same as patriotism. The patriots who founded this country and wrote our Constitution and Bill of Rights would have scoffed at the Bush administration's assurances - essentially, “You can trust the government.”
Opposition to the Patriot Act focuses mostly on provisions that allow the government unreasonable search and seizure powers without sufficient oversight, safeguards or accountability. Opposition has bogged down efforts in Congress to reauthorize the act, key provisions of which are scheduled to expire at the end of December. The House of Representatives and Senate have approved separate reauthorization bills, but the conference committee assigned to reconcile differences between versions of the bill reached an impasse shortly before Thanksgiving. Working out a compromise leads the list of things Congressional leaders hope to do between now and the end of the month.
We have a better idea: Let the act expire.
Truth be told, Congress passed the Patriot Act in a simplistic show of action shortly after al-Qaida operatives hijacked jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania. Far more useful action came a bit later with the overthrow of Afghanistan's al-Qaida-aiding Taliban regime. The Patriot Act strengthened the already sweeping police powers of government agencies while failing to maintain safeguards ensuring those powers can't be abused. The Bush administration trusts itself to fairly and correctly balance your rights against the legitimate needs of national security. That trust is misplaced, however. History - some of it fairly recent - provides ample examples of the government abusing people's rights, even before passage of the Patriot Act. The government had all the powers it needed to investigate suspected terrorists before Congress passed the Patriot Act. Indeed, among the lessons learned in the wake of Sept. 11 is that the government has greater power to collect information on people than it does to competently analyze and act on that information.
Rather than just tweak the worst-offending provisions of the act using compromise provisions, let them expire. Ditch the whole law. If law enforcement powers need revision in the face of evolving threats to public safety, then let's put Congress to work on a better counter-terrorism law, one that's thoughtfully drafted and openly debated. Only this time, spare us the rhetorical flourish. Dump the misnomer, “Patriot Act,” for a more accurate label: “The Expanded Police Powers Act of 2006.”
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