Vote Freedom First?

Have you ever driven around and seen the guys driving pickup trucks with "Vote Freedom First" bumperstickers? Apparently that motto only applies to gun control these days. Amid President Bush's warrentless wiretaps and the so-called "Patriot Act," it seems like conservatives are eager for us to give up our freedoms for the sake of the "war on terror." Newt Gingrich is the latest in this lineup -- arguing that freedom of speech must give way to fighting terrorism. "We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade." Apparently, we need a "different set of rules" to prevent terrorists using the Internet.

This is a pretty scary road that the right is going down -- while they look to Reagan and Goldwater as their predecessors, they've abandoned their legacies. As Reagan once said, "You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down— up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order— or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course." Who's leading us to the downward slope now?