"I almost feel I don't know these people anymore."

Via Michael Berube and the immediate world comes this post from Mark Earnest, a conservative blogger who hasn't let his love for George W. Bush in his cowboy drag blind him to how profoundly un-conservative spying on American citizens is:

Now before you start to think I'm channeling the spirit of Michael Moore, let's talk about where I am coming from. In the 90's I became much more politically aware, and found myself quite on the conservative side of things. I listened to Rush, Quinn, and disliked Clinton. My views today are still very much the same. During that era I feared the growing power of government, the massive amounts of executive orders Clinton was signing, eroding the Constitution, and even giving FEMA the power to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law without congressional oversight. I saw Waco and learned how dangerous and out of control a power hungry government can be, especially when faced with discontents. In some of the more extreme right wing circles it was felt that massive resistance (even armed resistance) might soon be necessary to defend our liberties and rights from an increasingly out of control government.

Then 9/11 happened.

All of the right wing talk show hosts, all of the pundits, people I knew in the conservative community, all seemed to turn on a dime. I almost feel I don't know these people anymore. It seems now they feel government cannot have nearly enough power. Secret courts, secret warrants, secret prisons, suspect torture, massive data gathering on all aspects of US citizens including medical records, library records, and financial records are all wonderful things.

[snip]

People who once proudly quoted Franklin's "Those who give up essential liberty for a little safety deserve neither" now cheerlead the executive branch on in removing any judicial oversight, congressional oversight, and in fact ANY oversight (as most of these laws are secret) from the land. Far from the transparent government the founders imagined, we are now entering a system where laws are kept secret, prosecutions are kept secret, and national security is a password to removing any and all liberty that stands in the way of anything government wishes to do.

Conservatives can't have it both ways. They want to give lip service to less government, but because of the Personality Cult of Bush and their ongoing fear of another 9/11 attack, they want to blind themselves to the Stalinist tactics that this Administration is implementing. I disagree with Earnest that the Clinton Administration was out to consolidate absolute dictatorial power in the executive branch, but I'll give him props for at least recognizing just how antithetical to conservative philosophy this Administration's so-called anti-terror tactics are.