If Daniel Henninger is right that today's spate
of political scandals and widespread distrust of government create "The
Sum of All Fears" environment for a public backlash, it means that we
have come full circle to the mindset of our republic's founders who also
believed that government was the greatest threat to personal rights and
freedom (Wonder
Land, June 13). That is why they rebelled against British rule and
then designed a convoluted and potentially gridlocked system of checks
and balances to handcuff inevitable panderers, populists and
power-mongers. The ruling elite in Washington have been filing through
those handcuffs for decades, and their freedom from constraints, as the
founders recognized, is a grave threat to our liberty.
Mr. Henninger is concerned that the public backlash from many conservatives and libertarians may stop programs such as the NSA's data-mining, and "that would be the one protecting us all from homicidal Islamist bombers." Maybe it would help if President Obama held a news conference and told us point-blank that the NSA surveillance is protecting us all from Islamist bombers. He will not and cannot do that because he has told us that there are no homicidal Islamist bombers, just some angry criminals, some of whom happen to be Muslim and happen to be homicidal bombers.
As long as President Obama and his team weave, duck and feint on issues of national security, the sum of all fears will continue to mount and will be fully justified.
Jim Mitchell
Williamsburg, Va.
Daniel Henninger offers "a partial list of political groups," all tea-party related, that were allegedly subjected to improper targeting by the IRS. Of these groups, Mr. Henninger says: "Their purpose was to do politics. For that, their government hit them hard."
No wonder people from around the world continue to flock to this country for refuge from government tyranny. In some places, when a government "hits you hard" you wind up dead, wounded or imprisoned. Here, apparently, it qualifies as government oppression when federal employees question whether groups whose "purpose was to do politics" qualify for tax exemptions under a law requiring that they be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare."
Howard T. Anderson
Chevy Chase, Md.
Mr. Henninger is concerned that the public backlash from many conservatives and libertarians may stop programs such as the NSA's data-mining, and "that would be the one protecting us all from homicidal Islamist bombers." Maybe it would help if President Obama held a news conference and told us point-blank that the NSA surveillance is protecting us all from Islamist bombers. He will not and cannot do that because he has told us that there are no homicidal Islamist bombers, just some angry criminals, some of whom happen to be Muslim and happen to be homicidal bombers.
As long as President Obama and his team weave, duck and feint on issues of national security, the sum of all fears will continue to mount and will be fully justified.
Jim Mitchell
Williamsburg, Va.
Daniel Henninger offers "a partial list of political groups," all tea-party related, that were allegedly subjected to improper targeting by the IRS. Of these groups, Mr. Henninger says: "Their purpose was to do politics. For that, their government hit them hard."
No wonder people from around the world continue to flock to this country for refuge from government tyranny. In some places, when a government "hits you hard" you wind up dead, wounded or imprisoned. Here, apparently, it qualifies as government oppression when federal employees question whether groups whose "purpose was to do politics" qualify for tax exemptions under a law requiring that they be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare."
Howard T. Anderson
Chevy Chase, Md.
A version of this article appeared June 22,
2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with
the headline: Smart People Reserve Their Fears for Important Threats.
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