Fear and Loathing in the US of A - Part I

I was sitting on the toilet recently, thinking to myself, "Self, why are you so afraid for the future of our country? Won't things just go on and prevail the way they always have? Why do you worry so much about our government, our citizens, and our future?"
I was pushing really hard for an answer... Straining to find some reason behind my worries... And out it came.

It is true that throughout our history there have always been right-leaning leaders with extremely conservative agendas, just as it is true that there have been left-leaning leaders with more liberal or progressive agendas. As a nation, we've always been on a political pendulum, changing directions from one generation to the next. The question is: What has changed, or has anything changed?
Will this simply be a phase in our political climate? A quarter moon crossing the sky one night... a half moon crossing the same sky some nights later?
I hope to God this is true.
But I do know why I fear the path our country is currently on...
The truth is, today's right-wing conservative leaders really are a new breed of political animal... and they're working to rein in decades of human progress...

The "War on Terror"...?
There always have and always will be terrorists. There is no such thing as "winning" a war on terror. Rumsfeld himself has stated that he believes the "war on terror" (I shall continue to use quotation marks because I think the term itself is almost as big a joke as the "war on drugs") may last up to 100 years (a number he surely found somewhere up his ass).
For as long as we exist on this planet, there will be individuals from other parts of the world that will hate the United States, and will be willing to give their own lives so long as they take some of us with them.
For as long as our country's foreign policies work to exert our will upon other nations, there will be those who fight against that will.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not sympathizing with those who wish to kill innocent Americans. I believe these murderers must be dealt with... But to slap a patriotic label on it... "The War on Terror"... and to breed fear into the hearts and minds of Americans as a means to chip away at our constitutional rights of privacy, is just wrong. Our current administration as well as many members of Congress are committing a kind of psychological attack on its own citizens. Just think of the "USA Patriot Act". The Administration used a campaign of post-911 fear to get this unconstitutional document passed into law. After all, what congressional representative would want to be known as the one who voted against something named the "USA Patriot Act"?
-And what about these secret (and explicitly illegal) wiretaps the president authorized? Bush's argument is that the Constitution grants the commander-in-chief the right to do what is necessary to protect the American public. While this is true, it is a HUGE stretch to say that the president can go above the law and above the courts any time he sees fit.
I'd love to be able to break the law and then claim some vague interpretation of the constitution as my defense.

To be continued...