Oversight
Trump Is Turning the Enemies of Civil Liberties Into Liberal Heroes
In going after the most egregious violators of American freedoms, the president has forced pundits to rush to their defense
The CIA’s approval rating among Democrats is sky-high. Former FBI and Justice Department officials are being showered with donations on GoFundMe. And now George W. Bush — the president who signed the Patriot Act, opened Guantanamo, started the Iraq War, and warrantlessly wiretapped Americans — is a viral sensation being portrayed as our country’s most lovable grandpa.
Everyone expected Trump to be a nightmare for Americans’ civil liberties. But very few could have guessed the strange way this nightmare would manifest itself over the past 18 months. Of course, Trump has used his executive power to implement countless cruel and rights-violating policies. But he has also, with an assist from a frenzied media, turned many of the individuals and agencies responsible for creating our unaccountable national security apparatus into folk heroes at the same time.
It’s an infuriating and depressing state of affairs for civil liberties advocates, many of whom have fought the CIA, FBI, and Justice Department in the past two presidential…
