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I think that both the liberal and conservative camps are fairly obsolete. I don't expect either political philosophy to survive into the next forty years. I expect that the next real divide will be between more isolationist, libertarian politics and interventionists, both economically and geopolitically. Questions such as whether or not capitalism is good, whether or not absolute equality is desirable, and whether or not socialist programs work are behind us. It is, it is, and they don't. Let's move on.
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agreed
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Related more directly, your rights as an American citizen are still intact. Because elected officials are still accountable to Americans.
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you assume that because I can vote all of my civil liberties are in tact. this is about as reductionistic as possible.
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As for our treatment of the rights of others... those have worsened. I'm all for kicking over dictatorships and imposing democracy on other countries, but it has to be done with a certain amount of patience and restraint.
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well since you know best, lets just impose our will on everyone.
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Bush and his cohorts clearly fucked up Iraq beyond all recognition. They legalized torture, held suspects without charge or access to legal representation, and failed to crack down on human rights abuses within our troops. This was not only evil, but idiotic. It made the situation more dangerous by fueling anti-American resentment, made it harder to establish Democracy, weakened our national reputation, and slandered the principles that 95% of the people serving in our military are fighting for. The next time I hear some dickheaded conservative defend rapists and murderers and call it supporting the troops, they're getting a headbutt to the chest.
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if its happening there, eventually its going to happen here...
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Although it bears repeating that in this our foreign policy isn't particularly more immoral than it has been for decades, it only makes it more obvious. If we really wanted to be a moral country, we'd stop supporting dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and China and other nations, and we'd start supporting freedom across the globe. We'd interfere in Darfur and we'd support Taiwan's formal declarations of independence.
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if we would just stay the fuck out of other countries problems, wed be fine. (with the exception of major human rights violation - in which case the UN should be in charge of the dealing with this issue)