Projection: It's Not Just a River in Egypt

The new DHS/FBI report identifying conservatives as the new domestic security threat offers a window into the liberal soul. Reading it, one becomes easily convinced that much of the stated Democrat fear of the expansion of police power in response to the 9/11 attacks was a classic case of projection: the attribution of their own ethic of power to their Republican adversaries. In this instance, Democrats feared that power given to a Republican government to combat terrorism would be used against themselves precisely because Democrats would use it thus against Republicans.

The flip side is . . . that this reality should of necessity be a factor in Republican national security policy. Whatever our enthusiasm for combatting terrorism, we must remember that we will not always wield the power we give the state, and what the inevitable Democrat administration will do with it.