Whatever Happened to Civil Liberties?

Matt Welch | August 28, 2008

Words and phrases not found in the 94-page Democratic Party Platform:

drug war
war on drugs
Fourth Amendment
gambling
poker
marijuana
cocaine

Well, they might not want to talk about crack, but they're all fired up about what they'll "crack down" on:

we will crack down on speculators who are driving up prices

beyond the natural market rate. [...]

we will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders and invest in financial literacy. [...]

We will crack down on predatory lenders and make it easier for low-income families to buy homes. [ed note: nice twofer!] [...]

We will...crack down on [poppy] trafficking and corruption [in Afghanistan]. [...]

[We will] crack down on cross-border insurgents [between Afghanistan and Pakistan]. [...]

And we need to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. [...]

we will crack down on men who avoid child support payments and ensure those payments go directly to families instead of bureaucracies.

Was it that long ago that at least some Democrats cared about the horrific consequences of the Democratic Leadership Council's tough-on-crime wave of the 1990s? Well, at least they're taking a bold stand on the death penalty:

We believe that the death penalty must not be arbitrary.

Comments

|8.28.08 @ 1:43PM|#

Words and phrases not found in the 94-page Democratic Party Platform:

drug war
war on drugs
Fourth Amendment
gambling
poker
marijuana
cocaine

So that means when it comes to drugs and gambling, they're good with the way things are now.

Fred|8.28.08 @ 1:44PM|#

I can't wait to see the bureaucracy trying to figure out the "natural market rate" is without using the market. I guess "predatory" lenders were doing the DNC's job for them lending to poor people.

|8.28.08 @ 1:47PM|#

I guess that liberty thingee just doesn't sell. I'm going to that a gander at the platform and see if there is anything of substance I agree with.

|8.28.08 @ 1:48PM|#

Crack is whack.

|8.28.08 @ 1:51PM|#

I think they think "crack down" makes them sound tough. But all it does is make them sound like they really like a certain XBox 360 game.

|8.28.08 @ 1:55PM|#

"We will reverse the policy of cutting resources for the brave men and women who protect our communities every day. At a time when our nation's officers are being asked both to provide traditional law enforcement services and to help protect the homeland,
taking police off of the street is neither tough nor smart; we reject this disastrous approach. We support and will restore funding to our courageous police officers and will ensure that they are equipped with the best technology, equipment, and innovative strategies to prevent and fight crimes."

That's a relief. I was afraid they might be thinking of completely wasting my tax money. (does that even need a sarcasm tag?)

|8.28.08 @ 1:57PM|#

I've been saying this all week. There are few practical differences between Republican paternalism and Democrat nannyism. Both treat us like wayward children who need to be directed by a wise and caring government. The notion that they are semi-libertarians who want to give us more personal freedoms comes from a naive reading of the Nolan Chart.

|8.28.08 @ 2:39PM|#

Fron the Demoratic Party platform

We will devote $50 billion to jumpstarting the economy, helping economic growth, and preventing another one million jobs from being lost.

50x10^9/1x10^6 = 50x10^3. $50,000 per job. What a friggin deal!

We will automatically enroll every worker in a workplace pension plan that can be carried from job to job and we will match savings for working families who need the help.

GWB wanted to allow workers to that "can be carried from job to job" thing with part of their social security (the original government retirement plan) paymens taxes. That went down in flames as I recall. The new idea, a retirement program that our magnanimous overlords will "automatically enroll every worker in".

I can't go any farther without a stiff drink.

|8.28.08 @ 3:08PM|#

We will automatically enroll every worker in a workplace pension plan that can be carried from job to job and we will match savings for working families who need the help.

Jesus Christ on a moped. What's that gonna cost?

|8.28.08 @ 3:16PM|#

@R C Dean,

Don't worry about it. We'll just charge it on Barack's Platinum Hope® Visa™. Then we'll all dance around beneath rainbows as unicorns prance around in the vast fields and happy little gnomes come bearing gifts of love and understanding.

duster|8.28.08 @ 4:30PM|#

Politicians are generally pretty heavy 'crack' users.

|8.28.08 @ 6:48PM|#

And we need to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Socialist who hate brown people is redundant.

hey joe why does your party hate brown people?