In the recent GOP debate held in South Carolina, we saw a few interesting events. The one I found most disturbing was Governor Romney’s answer to the question:
“When President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law, he enacted a provision allowing him to indefinitely detain American citizens in U.S. Military custody. … Governor Romney, as president, would you have signed the National Defense Act as written?”
Romney replied, without hesitation that he would have and that he believes that it is “appropriate in our nation to have the capacity to detain people who are threats to this country, who are members of Al-Qaeda….”
He went on to acknowledge that this power could be abused, but that he would not abuse it and does not believe that President Obama will abuse it.
Well, that’s comforting. Our current president, supposedly, will not abuse it and neither will one of the presidential candidates. What about after that? I was sort of hoping that America would still be around after that. We cannot give away rights like Habeas Corpus and simply trust that they will come back. Nor can we give such powers to a government that has shown itself to have little, or no regard for the Constitution.
It is appalling that a presidential candidate, claiming to be conservative, can tell the American people that Indefinite Detention is “appropriate.” First Romneycare and now this. Aside from the fiscal policy that we are all assured is conservative, what has he done to show us that he isn’t as much of a nightmare as Obama?
