Two quotes:
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" Santayana
“And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.” ORAC / Niemöller
The trampling of US constitutional rights that has occurred since September 11, 2001 is exactly what the authors of the US constitution feared most:
Good men trying to do justifiable things in the name of honorable ends which lead to a temporary and subsequently permanent expansion of federal authority and limitations on individual rights and liberties.
Those men, in 1787, anticipated the moral dilemmas so carefully described in this forum and thousands of publications. How do we protect US citizens while ensuring the continuation of liberty and freedom?
The answer, clearly stated with no ambiguity, in the Bill of Rights, is that NO US citizen may be deprived of their life, liberty, or property absent due process. The Bill of Rights contains NO exceptions.
The Bill of Rights was an addition to the original constitution which had to be added to gain public support and ratification of the constitution. The first United States citizens refused to approve the original constitution without the added protections of the Bill of Rights.
The United States has survived through several times of stress without abrogation of the Bill of Rights and those rights should not now be “avoided” or eliminated in the name of “protecting US citizens.”
We need to re-read the original debates regarding constitutional ratification and see that the topic being discussed here is exactly what the Bill of Rights authors most feared.
History - it can teach a lot!