The Futurist

Patriot Act Renewed by 89-11 Senate Vote. People with Common Sense are Not Surprised

The Senate renewed the Patriot Act by an overwhelming 89-11 margin of votes, including favorable votes from 33 out of 44 Democrats.  Note that the Patriot Act had passed by a 98-1 margin the first time, back in 2001.  Reasonable people would interpret the overwhelming bipartisan support of the Patriot Act, in two instances over four years apart, as evidence that this was never a controversial issue among thinking people.  They would be right.

Yet, there is a lot of noise outside the mainstream about how the Patriot Act is a bad thing.  Let's apply basic logic to deconstruct these arguments for what they really are :

1) "It reduces our civil liberties.."  There are many possible problems that could theoretically occur, just like the US military could theoretically take over the country and enforce a police state, but there has been no example of an abuse actually occuring under the Patriot Act.  Most of the people who claim this are the same people who feel convicted child molestors should not be punished for their 'misunderstood' lifestyles.  Therefore, you can pin them back to the real world :

"Please give me specific examples of liberties you have lost.  No hypotheticals, just actual examples of events that have occured"

Your opponent will have no answer and will seek to hastily change the subject.

2) "The Patriot Act was passed in haste after 9/11.  Most Senators did not read it."  Each Senator has a support staff that summarizes large documents for the Senator.  Some may have skipped over the material, but to suggest that *all* of the 48 Democrats who were part of the 98-1 vote in 2001 in favor neglected to read the summaries provided to them by their staffers, is absurd. 

Even if that were the case, then how does one explain the 89-10 vote to renew the Patriot Act in 2006, over four years after the first vote?  Ask your opponent about this in a way that puts the burden of explanation onto them (which they will hastily retreat from) :

"Why did Senators Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer, Reid, and Obama vote to renew the Patriot Act in 2006, even after years of protests over it?  They had time to think about it, yet it passed 89-10.  Why?"

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Of course, we know that there are two types of people who oppose the Patriot Act :

1) The 'Fashion Sheep' or 'Useful Idiots', who like to be told what to think.  They listen to one statement on television, memorize it, and feel secure that their opinion is a sufficiently informed one. 

2) The 'Fanatical Anti-Americans', the fifth-columnists who view America as a force of evil, and truly are rooting for the terrorists. 

Opposing the Iraq War can be a reasonable position for a patriotic American to take, if that person offers alternative, practical suggestions on how to aggresively fight terrorists.  But, if you find someone who opposes both the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, yet offers no alternative suggestions on how to fight the terrorists, then it is logical to conclude that some of these people are part of group 2), and are not actually on America's side.  Normal Americans wrongly give these fifth-column fanatics too much of a benefit of doubt, and fail to judge them by their actions while assuming that they value their own lives more than their hatred of America.  They do not, and are more than willing to die in the process of obstructing any efforts to fight terrorism. 

This fifth column comprises 8-10% of the US population, and we cannot win the War on Terror until we recognize and thwart this internal enemy.  The Patriot Act is a strong tool to do this, as it is a lightning rod by which many anti-Americans expose themselves. 

More on the opposition of the Patriot Act as a barometer for Anti-Americanism is here.

If you seek to genuinely learn about the PATRIOT Act, go here.

The comments section here will be entertaining, as fashion sheep will repeat the same points already deconstructed in the article, and will flee when questioned about alternative methods to fight terror.  Enjoy.

Update : This article is criticized on Daily Kos.  Read their views too, but the reply is precisely what is anticipated in the article above, and the author has refused to answer the same two questions when posed to him.  He is proud to be opposed to something that passed 89-11 in the Senate, so clearly lies far outside the mainstream of American society.

Also, this person does not seem to have any interest in actually stopping the operations of terrorists.  I will change my opinion if he condemns the terrorist attacks in New York, London, Madrid, Delhi, Beslan, Bali, Kenya, Tanzania, etc. and offers suggestions on how to prevent such attacks. 

Patriot Act, 9/11, anti-terrorism, anti-Americanism, leftists

An Easy Way to expose concealed Anti-Americanism

There are two superpowers in the world today.  The United States of America, and anti-Americanism.  Anti-Americanism is very powerful, as it is the sordid glue that holds the UN, fifth-column Americans, Euro-socialists, the world's fashion elite, and terrorists together.  It is the invisible force that forces the US to withstand massive double standards that have been there for so long that they are taken for granted.

Interestingly, with the exception of terrorists, such individuals go to great lengths to conceal their anti-Americanism, pretending to stand for 'nonviolence', 'peace', 'equality', the 'world community', etc.  This begs the question of why they don't feel comfortable with declaring their dislike for the US.  Maybe it is due to the guilt of knowing they are being unfair, or guilt that they are opposing a force of liberty and prosperity in the quest to be fashionable.  Maybe it is all this plus juvenile envy of success and power.  In any case, having a strong dislike for America, yet not having the integrity to be honest about one's true feelings, makes such a person easy to defeat through skillful debate.

There are many ways to do this.  Two examples are below.

Option 1 :

While many who say this are merely fashion-parroting sheep rather than committed anti-Americans, if someone you believe to be a genuine anti-American says they oppose the Iraq War because "there were no WMDs" or "Bush lied about WMDs", then you can merely ask :

"So if WMDs were found, would you support the war?"

They can either answer "no", to which you can say "So why do you present the absense of WMDs as your primary objection to the war, if you still would have opposed it anyway?  That appears rather phony on your part."

Or they can answer "yes", to which you can ask them "But Iran and North Korea are openly admitting to the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and are threatening to use them.  By your logic, invading them is fully justified, is it not?" 

They have thus revealed that they merely avoid taking difficult decisions, in order to criticize from hindsight and mask their anti-Americanism in pseudowisdom.  Either way, they are trapped.  This is so simple, yet very effective.  In reality, they oppose any action by the US because they oppose the very ideals of the US.  Yet, they are too ashamed to admit it, and so hide behind phony guises. 

Option 2 :

If you are the one who wants to initiate the debate, you can openly declare that "I feel that America, despite many flaws, has done more to benefit humanity than any other nation existing in the world today."   If your opponent is a secretive anti-American, they may react with sputtering outrage (blowing their cover).  They will point out various acts of evil that America has done (some true, some imagined), but it will become apparent that they are judging America to some utopian standard, rather than in relation to other countries existing in the world today.  To this you can merely reply :

"Which country do you feel has done more for humanity than the US?"

or

"If an Asteroid were on a collision course with the Earth (never mind which country's instruments detected the asteroid), which country would be expected to take the lead in an effort to destroy or deflect the asteroid?"

In either case, the anti-American will be cornered, and seek to change the subject, or become visibly annoyed. 

Expose their anti-Americanism, and you will gain a greater understanding of this shadowy second superpower. 

Prediction : Anti-Americanism will become more pervasive and tightly unified, with many Western anti-Americans moving from merely condoning the activities terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, to engaging in covert yet active support of such groups. 

Update : Read the comments section.  Many fashion-parroting anti-Americans have come by, have been posed simple questions about their principles, and have fled without answering, for fear of revealing their anti-Americanism.  It is quite entertaining.