by
Glenn Greenwald
05/08/2006
Glenn Greenwald was not a political man.
Not liberal, not conservative. Politicians
were all the same and it didn’t matter
which party was in power. Extremists on
both ends canceled each other out, and the
United States would essentially remain
forever centrist. Or so he thought.
Then came September 11, 2001.
Greenwald’s disinterest in politics was
replaced by patriotism, and he supported
the war in Afghanistan. He also gave
President Bush the benefit of the doubt
over his decision to invade Iraq. But, as
he saw Americans and others being
disappeared, jailed and tortured, without
charges or legal representation, he began
to worry. And when he learned his
president had seized the power to spy on
American citizens on American soil,
without the oversight required by law, he
could stand no more. At the heart of these
actions, Greenwald saw unprecedented and
extremist theories of presidential power,
theories that flout the Constitution and
make President Bush accountable to no one,
and no law.
How Would a Patriot Act? is one man’s
story of being galvanized into action to
defend America’s founding principles,
and a reasoned argument for what must be
done. Greenwald’s penetrating words
should inspire a nation to defend the
Constitution from a president who secretly
bestowed upon himself the powers of a
monarch. If we are to remain a
constitutional republic, Greenwald writes,
we cannot abide radical theories of
executive power, which are transforming
the very core of our national character,
and moving us from democracy toward
despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is
the crisis all Americans—liberals and
conservatives--now face.
In the spirit of the colonists who once
mustered the strength to denounce a king,
Greenwald invites us to consider: How
would a patriot act today?
