McPherson: Hillary Supporters Hate Civil Liberties

It’s nice to get a check-in every now and again, catch a glimpse of the kind of people being considered for high public office – and those who advise them.

A couple of Hillary Clinton’s pals have some downright scary ideas about civil liberties. Haim Saban, a big Hollywood supporter of Clinton’s, thinks law enforcement agencies should keep Muslims under surveillance, for no other reason than their religion. “I’m not suggesting we put Muslims through some kind of a torture room to get them to admit that they are or they’re not terrorists. But I am saying we should have more scrutiny,” he said.

At least torture is off the table.

David Bowers, a member of Clinton’s Virginia Leadership Council, is actually talking about internment camps. He has decided the threat from ISIS is “just as real and serious” as that posed by Japan at the beginning of World War II, and is consequently “reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals.” No subtlety there.

With friends like this, it’s frightening to imagine what a President Clinton might do in a crisis.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), a grandson of Japanese immigrants, sees the writing on the wall. “Can’t believe this needs clarifying,” he tweeted, “but the internment of Japanese-Americans (including my parents) was not a model policy.”

Rep. Takano has a gift for understatement. St. Franklin’s use of internment is an historical embarrassment. A commission appointed by President Carter found that the program was motivated by racism, and ineffectual as a security measure. The US government officially apologized, and the surviving internees were paid reparations.

The Civil Liberties Act, signed into law by President Reagan in 1988, declared that “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership” gave birth to this horrible idea. We suffer from the same maladies today.

Progressives love power. Just give them enough of it, and they honestly believe they can fix anything. The shattered lives left strewn along the way are just so much detritus, barely noticed as we goose step to a perfect world.

From Woodrow Wilson’s Espionage Act right up to Hillary’s heedless helpers, the history of Progressivism is one long stain on the Constitution’s promise of a free and open society.