U.S. Senator Joe Manchin: Get Rid of Due Process

Turn off “House of Cards.” It’s happening for real.

“Due process is what’s killing us right now,” said Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Morning Joe June 16 in pushing for a bill to use secret watch lists to deny Americans civil rights. In place of due process, Manchin proposes a five-year suspension of civil rights and surveillance when the FBI fails to find anything wrong after “suspicion” arises … just to be safe, of course (via Stephen Green at Instapundit):

MANCHIN: Really, the firewall we have right now is due process. It’s all due process. So we can all say we want the same thing, but how do we get there? If a person is on a terrorist watch list, like the gentleman, the shooter in Orlando? He was twice by the FBI — we were briefed yesterday about what happened — but that young man was brought in twice. They did everything they could. The FBI did everything they were supposed to do. But there was no way to keep him on the nix list or keep him off the gun-buy list, there was no way to do that.

So can’t we say that if a person’s under suspicion there should be a five-year period of time that we have to see if good behavior, if this person continues the same traits? Maybe we can come to that type of an agreement, but due process is what’s killing us right now.

We live in amazing times. If you say even something slightly critical about Islam, or question the wisdom of indiscriminately letting Muslims into America, you’re immediately branded a hater, a racist and practically a criminal.

Yet if you’re a U.S. Senator suggesting we do away with due process – the very basis of a rights-respecting, limited form of government – then you’re greeted with a yawn, if not applaluse.

“Due process? What’s that. Sure, we can get rid of that. It’s just some silly legal principle. Whatever works when it comes to fighting terrorism.”

Madness.

Why is the first and only response to terrorism always to eradicate individual rights? Repeal (or ignore) the Second Amendment. Repeal (or ignore) the First Amendment. Now let’s get rid of due process. All in the name of defeating terrorism.

At the time of the American Revolution, did the colonists remove the British by installing a dictatorship? Or did they simply drive the British out by force?

Did the Allied powers in World War II get rid of the Japanese and the Nazis by installing a dictatorship? Or by using every bit of force and power we had to defeat them?

We have become a self-hating country. If Muslims attack us in our own country, we don’t blame it on the ideas and the people who attack us. (“Oh, no. Never, ever insult Islam.”) Instead, we blame it on ourselves. “We’re too free. If we were less free, there would be no problem.”

If freedom—the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, due process—are all so expendable, then why is terrorism such a threat? Why not give these Islmaic terrorists what they want, which is nothing more than Sharia law or some other form of dictatorship? If liberty and rights no longer matter, then why justify suspending the Constitution in the name of preserving freedom?

I am so sick of the victims being blamed for terrorism. And instead of going after the countries, governments and gangs responsible for these attacks, we go after our own citizens.

Does anyone even know—or care—what due process is? Due process, according to one definition, is the legal requirement that the government must respect all legal rights that are owed to a person. In the U.S., this means the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Due process protects the individual person from the law’s arbitrary use, when it’s convenient for power-lusting politicians (of which there are many at present.)

Due process refers to our individual rights. It’s everything.

It’s the thing which prevents the government from arbitrarily entering our homes, at any time for any reason, and doing whatever the hell it pleases. It’s the basis not only for the American Constitution, but for the whole rule of law going back at least to the Magna Carta.

The only way to defeat evil and terror is to rebuild our military and find the strongest and most efficient way to annihilate our enemies.

Tragically, we will not do that. We stand by helplessly while Muslim barbarians systematically destroy us, throwing up our hands in despair and claiming there’s nothing we can do. This sets the stage for power hungry politicians to violate our rights even more, until there’s nothing left for terrorists to take away from us.

If we stay on our current course, America’s headstone will not read, “Destroyed by terrorism.” It will read, “America: Self-Created, Self-Destroyed.”