Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Bush Helps ACLU

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Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)

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Bush Helps ACLU

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Posted on: May 17, 2008 9:16 AM, by Ed Brayton

Indirectly, at least. It turns out that ACLU membership has doubled since Bush took office, obviously a response to the increasing threat to our civil liberties.

"I think it's very much a reflection of the fact that there was a very aggressive assault on civil liberties," said ACLU national deputy executive director Dorothy Ehrlich. "Over the past seven years, many Americans felt their own cherished values were under attack, and they didn't want to sit by."
The ACLU counted about 250,000 members in the final year of Bill Clinton's presidency. Today, the organization has about 500,000 card-carriers, 2,500 of them in Utah.

Every cloud has a silver lining, I suppose.

Comments

Not that it makes Bush look any better, but if people had been paying attention, the ACLU would have grown this much during the Clinton administration, too.

Posted by: James Hanley | May 17, 2008 10:01 AM

I can believe The Cheny and Bush Three Dungeon Theocrats have had that effect: Back when the side-kick to a chimp was president, his attorney general (cannot recall the name) said something along the lines "only criminals are tried[? arrested?]" when so infuriated me then--and despite my bad memory still does so now--I joined the ACLU. I have vague recollections of reports of an increase in ACLU membership around that time for (presumably) similar reasons; i.e., I was one of many.
I let my membership lapse when I finally left the States a few years later.

Posted by: blf | May 17, 2008 10:20 AM

I believe it. I joined the ACLU in 2003 and have given the ACLU quite a bit of money over the last several years. Every time I read an article about Bush that really infuriates me (about once a week) I'm tempted to send them a check. I've managed to restrain myself to quarterly donations!

Posted by: Jennifer | May 17, 2008 10:28 AM

blf:

I believe you're thinking of Meese's infamous quote -- to excerpt the relevant paragraph from the article:

None of Mr. Meese's attempts at scholarship achieve the eloquence of his unguarded response when an interviewer asked, Why shouldn't people have the protections of the Miranda warnings? ''Suspects who are innocent of crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.''

Documented in the article here.

Or maybe it was some other outrage -- there are always so many to choose from.

Posted by: wk | May 17, 2008 2:36 PM

I agree with James Hanley, Clinton was no great civil libertarian.

I suspect that the thing that really has people scared under Dubya is his blatant disregard of the constitution in all respects, not just the rights of citizens.

Posted by: BaldApe | May 17, 2008 2:51 PM

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4249/1/1?TopicID=1

Dawn Johnsen, former acting head of the OLC, testified that a contributing factor in the failure to provide the president with accurate legal advice is the failure to make such advice public. "OLC has been terribly wrong to withhold the content of much of its advice from Congress and the public -- particularly when advising the executive branch that in essence it could act contrary to federal statutory constraints."

It's things like this that make even social conservatives favor the return of "law" to the rule of law. Go ACLU.

Posted by: rpenner | May 17, 2008 3:19 PM

Jennifer et al:
I just came back from the bi-monthly meeting of the Board of this State's Chapter of the ACLU.
We still need money. There are continuing issues at all levels of government that we are battling.
Please, join the ACLU. And, if you can afford it, make an additional small contribution.

Posted by: Karl | May 17, 2008 5:20 PM