Time to pick a side

Well, the Republicans have decided that torture is great. Apparently the National Council of Churches is almost alone in asserting otherwise, that to torture someone is an inherently immoral act. Where are the Democrats in all this? Surely they don't believe in an unrestrained monarchy, which appears to be Bush doctrine, but hiding behind McCain's skirts didn't pan out as hoped. They need to take a moral stance against torture before this package of bills gets rammed down their throats under the rubric of national security. Greg Saunders suggests this:

“Senators McCain and Graham may have sold out on this issue, but the Democratic party still believes that torture is torture, no matter what the President may choose to call it. We in the Democratic party aren’t willing to sacrifice our humanity in order to protect our way of life, because to do so would destroy the moral foundation upon which this great nation was founded. The inhuman treatment of suspects by this administration is deplorable and if Senator McCain is no longer opposed to torture, then we’ll have to continue this fight without him.”

I'd go further than "aren’t willing to sacrifice our humanity in order to protect our way of life," to say that if we sacrifice our humanity, then our "way of life" goes with it -- what America has always seen itself as standing for is proved to be a lie, and even our fundamental rights and values are undermined. We dare not take the first such step, lest we give away the freedoms and ideals our forebearers worked so hard for, lest we declare that indeed the terrorists have reordered our priorities and brought about our downfall.