Our Vanishing Liberties

“The Rights of the People”, by David K. Shipler. From the book review in the NYT's book section:

You don’t have to drink your fair-trade coffee out of a “Morning Edition” mug to buy into Shipler’s central claim: Since 9/11, our government has treated the Bill of Rights with about as much reverence as a “Keep Off the Grass” sign.

The book is the first of two volumes on the subject.

I don't know whether to read it or not. I agree with the central premise, that all levels of government have treated the Bill of Rights with the degree of respect better accorded to sayings in fortune cookies. Only I'd date that back at least 40 years, to the Nixonian declaration of a "War on Drugs", and even further, to most of the tenure of J.Edgar Hoover in the FBI. There was a brief expansion of civil rights in the 1960s, but those have been steadily rolled back by the last few Supreme Courts.

The sad thing is that most Americans are fine with that. But that's only to be expected, really. It's been the same pretty much since the third generation of colonists were born here. It's probably worth noting that the driving factor behind this year's "Arab Spring" wasn't initially a yearning for freedom as much as it was disgust at official corruption, of a kleptocratic state.