Lean Left on Bush’s redefinition of liberty:
There has been a lot of criticism, from both the left and the right, of Bush’s posture on civil liberties. To defenders of such liberties, George Bush’s actions*, each day seems to bring new outrages, new reasons to be concerned. But there seems to be little comment on the fact that Bush’s arguments, if they prevail, would radically alter the relationship between citizen and government in the most fundamental manner. Our society works under the assumption that the government derives its power from the consent of the government. The society Bush appears to be creating does not share that basic underpinning. In fact, Bush reverses that equation: people are free only to the extent that the government consents to their freedom.