ACLU gaining allies from unusual places
Posted on 12/02/2002 4:06:19 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
ACLU gaining allies from unusual places
Conservatives flocking to rights group for help protecting liberties
12/02/2002
WASHINGTON - Whether protecting the disenfranchised or standing up for the right to offend, the American Civil Liberties Union has sided with those claiming they were wronged, even if it meant a distinctly minority stand.
But since Sept. 11 and the government's expansive campaign of monitoring and detention, people are turning to the 82-year-old organization to help safeguard their liberties. Among them are conservatives who made the phrase "card-carrying member of the ACLU" a political insult, but who now are signing up.
"Larger numbers of American people have realized that the ACLU is fundamentally a patriotic organization," executive director Anthony Romero said. There are 330,000 dues-paying members, 50,000 of whom joined after the attacks.
The group has been in the thick of challenges to the government's broadening anti-terrorist powers.
Last week, in response to an ACLU lawsuit, the government agreed to tell the group by mid-January which documents it is willing to release about its increased surveillance activities.
Especially notable among the new enthusiasts are conservatives who once thought the ACLU represented everything that was wrong with the left.
"They are very useful and productive force in jurisprudence," said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
Conservatives such as Mr. Hyde are mindful of the history of an organization that was lonely in its defense of positions now accepted as universal: blacks who suffered spurious prosecutions in the 1930s, Japanese interned in the 1940s, books banned as obscene now regarded as part of the literary canon.
Yet the group continues to exasperate some with its uncompromising positions - against a Ten Commandments monument in a Frederick, Md., park, against the government's attempt to get libraries to use computer filters to block sexually explicit material from children, against drug sweeps that it claims are racially motivated.
"This focus on civil liberties post-9-11 has been a wonderful opportunity to reach out to constituencies who would never have thought of the ACLU as their home," said Nadine Strossen, the ACLU's president.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., have said they will consider serving as consultants for the group when they leave Congress next month.
Ms. Strossen says nothing has fundamentally changed.
"One person's stigma is another's badge of honor," she said. "Putting your money where your mouth is means defending those whose views are counter to yours."
Conservatives such as Mr. Hyde are mindful of the history of an organization that was lonely in its defense of positions now accepted as universal: blacks who suffered spurious prosecutions in the 1930s, Japanese interned in the 1940s, books banned as obscene now regarded as part of the literary canon.
Hmm?.... Has the ACLU done anything worthwhile in the last 60 years?
I think the title is wishful thinking by the A/P and/or The Dallas Mourning News.
All excellent questions. But of course, the ACLU caters mostly to LIBERAL causes and other whackos.....
One interesting possibility is that a changing membership (more conservative) might just move the ACLU itself to the right.
A couple of conservatives join and that is considered FLOCKING??
They claim they've added 50K since 9/11/01 and that is a watershed??
How about the ELECTIONS OF 11/05/02, you Associated Press clowns?? How's this for a headline:
AMERICANS FLOCKING TO REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES
That being said, I'm glad they're working with the ACLU. Maybe they can infiltrate it and change it from the inside...though I suspect once they've outlived their usefulness to the liberal elite power structure of the ACLU, Barr and Armey will be tossed out faster than flavorless gum.
That will remain to be seen, I guess. I have my doubts as to the verity of this A/P report. Media bias and all, you know?....
I was suckered into joining the ACLU in my college days. I eternally regret how easily I was fooled. The ACLU picks a token "right wing" case every now and then to feign objectivity. But 99 percent of their "defense" of the Constitution comes from a liberal perspective of what that means. They're one of the groups most responsible for undermining the clear meaning of the Constitution, and ignoring original intent in favor of a "living" document.
They also have a funny way of twisting the second amendment into a right of the government, rather than one of the people.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA........funniest thing I heard all day..... The communist party forced underground.....morphed into the ACLU imo
ROFLMAO!
Fred Barnes predicts that Armey and Barr would bring alot to the table for the ACLU, but the ACLU is so left wing that they will probably kick Armey and Barr out.
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