Nixonesque Presidency?

Are we tired of the burdens of Liberty and the Constitution?  Jonathan Turley thinks so, and he wrote a strong polemic on the subject that was picked up in the Washington's Blog today.  I'm not buying all the stuff about Obama being the worst of the lot, after all I think George W Bush was worse, but all in all that would be damning with faint praise for Obama.

Here is one highlight from the article that hits home to me.

Nixon was known for his attacks on whistle-blowers. He used the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law. Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined [and see this]. While refusing to prosecute anyone for actual torture, the Obama administration has prosecuted former CIA employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture program.

 I disagree with the premise that "Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law."  He was impeached for involvement in the Watergate break-in, and in my view much of the rest of the assertions in the article about Nixon are an attempt to rewrite history.  George W Bush and Reagan did a lot of the same stuff.

I do agree however that our government (Congress and the Administration alike) has largely abandoned the inconvenient restrictions contained in the Constitution when they would thwart the goals of extremists in both bodies of government.  Come to think of it, I think the Supreme Court did the same in the "Citizen's United" ruling.

All the actors are capitalizing on fear, and using that fear to trample on our civil rights, as well as engage in barbaric excesses of torture and incarceration at Guantanamo.

George Orwell had it right that the rulers need a state of constant war to get everyone to accept breaching our constitution.