Where Have All The Liberties Gone?
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Riddle me this - why are so many Americans, so willing to sit and watch the government use faux crises to trample on the Constitution and deny people their civil liberties?1 Or at least deny people they disagree with their civil liberties.
Since 1918 there have been six separate “crises” when Americans have allowed, and often encouraged the government to deny people their civil liberties. These “crises” lasted anywhere from three years to several decades, with two of them ongoing today. Though the specifics differ, they all have three things in common. First, the “threats” used to justify denying people their civil liberties are greatly exaggerated or completely fabricated. Second, no one has gone to jail for intentionally denying Americans their rights. Third, these crises always broaden the scope of governmental authority and narrow the scope of our civil liberties.
After thinking about this epiphany, I decided to write about the different crises, alas, it’s too much for a single article, so you get a series of seven…lucky you. The first six articles will discuss each crisis and the affects it had on our country. In the final article, I’ll discuss the common thread running through these ‘crises’ and the cumulative damage they’ve had on our country. The series will be:
First Red Scare, 1918-1920.
During this scare the government, with a willing assist from the media, constantly harped about the dangers “radicals” posed. “Radicals” was pretty much defined as communists, anarchist, socialists, and their sympathizers. Of course, the government and media screamed from every microphone, magazine, and newspaper that the worst radicals were the communists, who were behind everything bad. Strikes? They weren’t due to sweat shops and low pay, but instead to communists infiltrating the union leadership. Race riots? You guessed it, they weren’t due to racist policies and often violent acts targeting Blacks, but due to communist agitation among the Black community. Civil protests? Yep, they couldn’t be due to disagreement with government policy or laws, so of course it had to be communist agitation.
As a result of this imaginary communist threat, Attorney General Palmer and his right hand man - young J. Edgar Hoover - orchestrated two brutal raids resulting in the illegal and unconstitutional arrest of between 5,000 and 10,000 people…all for the crime of expressing disfavored views.2 Civil rights violations included denial of free speech, right of association, and right to legal council. Just for good measure the government was happy to also violate the 4th, 5th and 8th Amendments by engaging in warrantless searches, imposing excessive bail, and dispensing cruel and unusual punishment.
When public opinion turned against these raids, our government officials were content to just move along and let their unconstitutional acts fade into history. No one was held accountable. To the contrary, J. Edgar Hoover, who was neck deep in this muck, went on to become the Director of the FBI. What could go wrong?
Internment of Japanese Americans, 1942-1945
December 7, 1941 - twenty-one years after the end of the First Red Scare - Pearl Harbor was attacked. President. Roosevelt (D), again with the willing assistance of the media, ordered the Internment of Japanese Americans.3 This blatantly unconstitutional act was upheld by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), a travesty that was finally overturned by Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. ___ (2018).4
Again, not a single person was held accountable for this tragedy that treated Americans known to be loyal, or at the very least not a threat, as throw away citizens because of unfounded fears, and I strongly suspect more than a little racism.
The Second Red Scare, 1947-1957
Two years after the unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans, government officials, again with the enthusiastic help of the media, whipped up the Second Red Scare. Unlike the First, this encore didn’t rely on brutal raids and deportations. Instead, it used federal, state, and local committees to identify and denounce communists and their sympathizers. Those who were publicly denounced lost their reputation, their job, and became an unemployable social outcast. Evidence of communist affiliation was optional.
Though Sen. McCarthy (R-WI) is the face of these witch hunts, he was only one of many. Hoover and his FBI played a central part as did President Truman (D). Further, a large number of federal and state legislators enthusiastically enacted laws unconstitutionally revoking the civil liberties of Americans. Some states went further and made being a member of the Communist Party a crime. And of course there was the army of informants who were willing to dime out their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and in some cases family.
FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program, 1956-1971
The government and media hadn’t even finished ruining the lives of thousands of Americans in the name of rooting out communists when Hoover launched the infamous Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), purportedly to counter what the government, media, and Hoover saw as widespread movements agitating for dangerous social changes.
COINTELPRO was an unconstitutional clandestine program of surveilling, disrupting, and ruining the lives of U.S. citizens who took part in subversive activities such as the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War protests, the Free Speech movement, the New Left, and the most dangerous of all…the Women’s Liberation Movement. All in an attempt to deny these ‘subversives’ their free speech and other civil liberties.
Though COINTELPRO was a secret operation, there were more than a few red flags indicating the FBI was engaging in illegal and unconstitutional acts. However instead of investigating, our elected officials responsible for oversight of the FBI either condoned the unconstitutional acts or ignored the red flags. The media was no better. They blindly accepted whatever the FBI told them, in spite of the abundance of information indicating the FBI was being less than truthful.
After COINTELPRO was exposed, the Senate established the Church Committee. To be fair, this committee conducted a thorough investigation into the unconstitutional acts of the FBI, CIA, and even the IRS. However, this investigation has done little if any thing to reign in the unconstitutional acts of our government.
PATRIOT Act 2001-Present.
Following the 9/11, 2001 terrorist attacks we rushed to sacrifice our civil liberties on the altar of safety. In October 2001 the Senate and House passed the PATRIOT Act. While much of the PATRIOT Act is reasonable and constitutional, sections 215 and 702 are neither, at least in my opinion.5 At the very least they have been used by the NSA, CIA, and FBI to deny Americans their civil liberties. The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee University notes that under the PATRIOT Act:
Law enforcement agencies are empowered with the means to conduct secret searches, surveillance of telephone and Internet communications, and acquisition of individuals’ private records (including medical and student records) without probable cause for the purpose of intelligence-gathering. One example of the federal government’s extensive reach involved its controversial seizure of telephone and cell phone records from telephone companies without being required to show reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
In short, under the PATROIT Act every electronic communication that passes through, or originates within, the U.S. is subject to interception and review without having to obtain a warrant. Everything…emails, telephone calls, video chats, text messages, SMS messages, websites, computer chat boxes, even the entire archives of email inboxes.
The American Cultural Scare, 2000-Present
In the early 1990s a new movement was emerging from our universities that demanded fundamental change to literally all aspects of society. As this movement gained traction it spread from university campuses to society, government, and the media. Eventually. this movement transitioned to what can only be referred to as the ‘Woke Ideology.’ With its transformation to an ideology, its proponents transitioned from engaging in speech to intimidation, and the Social Justice Warriors (SJW) were born. The purpose of the SJW was simple, combat the threat of “wrong-think” by denouncing and intimidating those who expressed opinions deemed to be in conflict with the tenants of Wokeism.
By the end of 2000 the SJW had achieved some notable victories in denying 1st Amendment rights to those they denounced as engaging in wrong-think. However, this was merely a warmup. Soon the federal government, many state governments, most of the media, our universities, numerous corporations, some labor unions, financial institutions, big tech, and social media professed their acceptance of Woke Ideology. With all the fervor of Mao’s Red Guards, the SJW and their new found allies embarked on a quest to purge society of those accused of wrong-think. Eerily similar to the Second Red Scare, this crisis relied on the power of the government and media combined with the intolerant within our society to “cancel” those accused of not being woke enough.
At a minimum, canceling people goes far beyond denying them their civil liberties but also includes ruining their reputations, banning them from social media, chasing them off university campuses, doxxing them, swatting them, demonetizing their social media channels, de-platforming their blogs, and restricting their access to financial services. Getting them fired from their jobs is also considered a noble goal.
To paraphrase President Obama: The 50s called and wants its McCarthyism back.
The Wrap Up
The last article will be my thoughts on how these crises have a common thread, and how their cumulative damage has harmed our country. Spoiler alert, the real threat to our democracy is the erosion of our civil liberties, not the use of them.
I plan on publishing at least one article a week, two if I have the time. I’ll add a link at the bottom of this article to future articles in this series.
One final note. Because this is more or less an outline, I left out details and citations. Both will be included in the series.
*Subtitle is a quote from B. Franklin, Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. II, pp. 99-100.
Links to articles in this series:
As Fear Increases, Civil Liberties Decrease (1 of 7): The First Red Scare 1918-1921.
Internment of Japanese Americans: As Fear Increases, Civil Liberties Decrease (2 of 7).
For the purposes of this series I use the terms “Constitutional rights” and “civil liberties” interchangeably.
Ackerman, Kenneth D., YOUNG J. EDGAR: Hoover and the Red Scare, 1919-1920 (p. 6). Viral History Press LLC. Kindle Edition.
National Archives, Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942), https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066
Technically Trump v. Hawaii did not overturn Korematsu because Korematsu was not properly before the court. However, Justice Roberts’ majority opinion left no doubt that Korematsu is no longer good law.