"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty"

The Cato Institute's David Boaz reminds us about another time that a major White House official complained about "un-American" criticism:

At his town meeting in New Hampshire, President Obama urged people not to listen to those who seek to "scare and mislead the American people." Meanwhile, his new White House website "Reality Check"—your tax dollars at work, folks, on political propaganda—warns supporters that "the road ahead will surely reveal more aggressive efforts from defenders of the status quo to confuse and scare Americans with half-truths and outright lies."

I immediately thought of former Attorney General John Ashcroft's notorious declaration in December 2001: "to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."…

But the fact is that the Bush administration's actions after 9/11 really did result in a loss of liberty, and the Obama administration's plans for our health care really should scare Americans. And libertarians have been, and will continue to be, in the forefront of Americans resisting intrusions on liberty by administrations from both parties. They won't be dissuaded by Nixonian claims that dissent and criticism are divisive and damaging to national unity.

Read the rest here. And while you're at it, watch Reason.tv drop a dime on Reason's own Peter Suderman for his use of government figures to "scare Americans" about ObamaCare. (Note: Typo corrected)