>here in the States
>there are more and more "conservatives" (self-described) who are speaking
>out against capital punishment, the Drug War, roving wiretaps, domestic
>spying, etc. I've made the point several times on this list that the All
>Evil Justice Scalia is perhaps the sturdiest defender of Fourth Amendment
>rights now sitting on the bench. The Dems, I'm sorry to say, are for the
>most part in favor of police state measures, especially in support of their
>Holy Drug War.
The idea that the establishment ELECTED conservatives (as opposed to a few pundits and the occasional oddball like the New Mexico GOP Governor) are better on search and seizure or anything to do with the war on drugs is ridiculous. Sure, most Dems suck on the issue as well, but the only serious, sustained opposition to mounting sentences, "truth in sentencing" and the tightening of parole has been progressive Democrats.
Dennis Perrin made the ridiculous statement that "the All Evil Justice Scalia is perhaps the sturdiest defender of Fourth Amendment rights now sitting on the bench."
No sooner uttered than contradicted in the most spectacular way by yesterday's decision on random roadblocks to use drug sniffing dogs to arrest folks with drugs in their cars. The Supreme Court actually ruled the right way on this one, 6-3.
And who were the three dissenters, upholding the right to stop any car for no purpose other than to sniff for drugs? Rehnquist, Thomas and yes Scalia. The All Evil Scalia stepped up to bat for the forces of fascism.
If you want to point to an interesting conservative divergence on this issue, point to the fact that the Supreme Court majority was endorsing libertarian Judge Richard Posner's argument striking down the roadblock searches. Posner is Justin's and my favorite conservative judge (true Justin?) and in many ways, as a practical jurist, is not that conservative but a pragmatist in the philosophical sense that trumps his specific ideology. In the broadest sense, the drug war is starting to be eroded by a creeping pragmatism that sees its increasing futility and uselessness, with some judges on the front lines increasingly dissenting from the insanity that the legislators have sent to them.
But the hard * elected and appointed * ideologues of the Right - ie. conservative legislators passing truth in sentencing and the judges like Scalia who keep endorsing their insanity - are still the prime villians. Pointing to a few contrarian pundits is not very useful in reflecting the organized Right's position on the war on drugs. It may show leaking on the edges, but the organized political opposition to the war on drugs is from the leftwing of the Democratic Party. They don't always have a majority to push reforms - although the initiative passed in California is a good start - but they have restrained appointing the worst judges and made modest reforms in the right direction.
This bizarre tendency by some leftists to celebrate a few rightwing pundits who come out correctly on issues, while ignoring the roughly one-third to one-half of elected Democrats who struggle every day for every issue we care about, is sometimes completely incomprehensible to me. You don't have to agree with their strategy of working within the Democratic Party, but to deny their existence while praising fascists like Scalia just leaves me speechless. I don't full understand the political and psychological reasons for this phenomenon, but it is truly bizarre and distressing.
-- Nathan Newman