It is one of history’s great tragedies that American conservatism, born in part in resistance to Soviet torture, should end by endorsing it in America, by Americans. And not just endorsing it, but brandishing the use of it as a tool to gain re-election and maintain power. If there is a conservative soul, and I believe there is, the current “conservative” leadership is bent on destroying it. And the resistance must not waver.
Indeed, who would ever have thought that we’d reach a time in American history where torture would be used as a political weapon against those who didn’t want to readily endorse and embrace it. It can’t just be attributed to 911.
Some independent thinking — a willingness to go along with whatever the leader of a party wants — has changed and some values are slipping away. That’s why some traditional conservatives are breaking with the administration because they maintain some values are not expedendable.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.