Blowin' in the wind

Civil liberties and even the rule of law appear to be increasingly under attack these days. Paul Krugman does a good job of pulling together a number of disparate examples and showing the ways that they show the increasing power of extremism in our society -- the rest of us seem to scuttle out of its way, motivated by either misguided tolerance or simple fear. But as he points out,

nobody wants to talk about the threat posed by those whose beliefs include contempt for democracy itself.

And this is increasingly what we see, as the President's aides declare him above the law, the legislature expresses scorn for our constitutional balance of powers, religious leaders condone assassination, and judges, lawyers, and citizens who find themselves in the news suddenly need professional security protection. I wish I were seeing more outrage from the silent moderate majority...

(via Medley)