Crux of the Issue

I heard an interview on PBS last night whereby Senator John Cornyn tried to defend Bush's illegal spying. He was "debating" Russ Feingold. Today, there's a quote from that interveiw on Political Wire:

“None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead.”

-- Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), quoted by The Hill.

“Give me liberty or give me death.”

-- Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), responding to Cornyn with the quote made famous by Patrick Henry during the American Revolution.

Now tell me.

Doesn't that just get to the crux of the matter? Bush and his supporters see their lily-white asses as the single most important thing in the whole wide world. More important than country. More important than ideals. More important than the Constitution.

Let's just suppose for a moment, just a moment, that there really is a serious threat. Mind you, I'm not convinced there is any larger threat now than there's ever been and that you are in far more danger getting into your car than from al Qaeda. But, Ok, suppose there is a real threat as envisioned by the fear-mongering Bush. The way I learned it, Americans should be willing to die for their beliefs. When there were real threats, i.e. World War II, the sacrifice of death was not only expected, but sought when necessary.

Mind you. I don't want to die in a terrorist attack. No one does. But do I want to sell out this greatest of human government experiments called the United States of America because a very few religious fanatics are willing to die for their belief? I got news for Bin Laden. I'm just as willing to make sacrifices, yes including my own life, if necessary to show these bastards that the Constitutions means something important. If the battlefield is on civilian turf. So be it.

It's incredibly ironic to me that the GOP, the party of "patriots", advance an argument that is in actuality quite cowardly. Unfortunately, they have a lot of equally cowardly voters behind them who have forgotten what it means to have something more important than your personal well-being.

And Bin Laden is counting on it.