The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good

This video pretty much encapsulates all the feelings I have at the purity bloggers on this site who claim that donating money won't matter since Obama is bound to win in November, or that Obama is worse than John McCain, or that this specific hill is the one that Obama should die on. Or, even that elections don't matter in the face of this single specific issue.

Let me make it clear: I disagree with the civil immunity provision in the FISA bill, but the bill itself is not bad. It restores the authority of the FISA court by:

Mandating that in order to conduct surveillance of any U.S. citizen, the government must obtain an individual warrant from the FISA Court. This bill also clarifies that FISA and Title III of the criminal code are the exclusive means by which the government may conduct surveillance on U.S. soil – thus stopping any President from invoking executive power to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans. The bill also requires the government to establish guidelines to ensure Americans are not the subject of surveillance through reverse targeting.

Some on this site are claiming that this bill allows President Bush to continue his warrantless wiretaps. This bill does not do that--in fact, it requires him to go to the FISA court to approve his wiretap requests. It restores the authority back to the FISA court in this case.

Also, this bill requires the Inspector Generals of several agencies, the DOJ, the NSA, the DNI, and DOD to do a review of the past warrantless wiretap program instituted by President Bush, thus the claims that the warrantless wiretap program will not be investigated are false:

Requires the Inspectors General (IG) of DOJ, DNI, NSA, and DOD to conduct a comprehensive review of the President’s warrantless surveillance program and provide those reviews to the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.

Also, another point is that although this bill requires that telecommunication companies provide proof in district courts in cases of civil liability, this bill does not rule out criminal prosecutions, and even goes on further to make this point:

That no government official is given immunity for breaking the law.

I am in favor of the amendments proposed by Senators Feingold, and Dodd, and I ask that efforts be focused on supporting these amendments to the FISA bill, rather than solely focused on Senator Obama. It's important to contact ALL Senators on the Hill to support these amendments.

Is this the single issue that I'm going to ask Obama to die on a hill for? No. Is this going to stop me from voting or donating or volunteering to the Obama campaign? No. Is this going to make me cry like a baby on several blogs, talking about an anti-Obama effort on his own website? No, because I know that elections matter, and I'm not going to make Obama dance over hot coals for my own pique. There is constructive action, and then there's destructive action, and I'm seeing it on this site when they threaten to hold donations, or threaten to sit out the election. That's not constructive action.

As famed professor Theda Skocpol puts it this way at Talking Points Memo:

It is fine that Obama supporters can organize around issues -- and I hope the same thing happens with universal health care. But, really, this arcane matter is a massive distraction from the fundamental questions of social equity and economic security/opportunity for most Americans that this election MUST be about if progressives are to win. This is the kind of issue that elite newspapers like to write about, but it will not fly in middle America, or could even be used against Obama were he to go along with opposing the legislation. He won't. In fact, his ability to let supporters speak out and then proceed as he intends probably makes him look strong and able to withstand pressure. So, fine, let this happen, but enough about it on this site. TPM needs to focus on fundamentals, because the rest of the media won't.
Posted by Theda Skocpol
July 3, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink

And, you know, it's fun spending one's energy attacking John McCain, like I did in these diaries below:

John McCain Associates With Terrorist Sympathizers
John McCain Supports The Draft For World War Three!
Want To Talk To John McCain Today?
John McCain's Advisor, Karl Rove, Is Behind The Coming 527s
Obama Camp Responds To McCain Gaffe On Iraq
How To Attack John McCain
In Ohio, McCain Lays Out His Presidency

Ah, that feels so good, attacking John McCain. How many of you reading this diary are going to hold John McCain accountable for his MANY flip-flops? Now, let's go and be PRODUCTIVE by actually winning this fucking election, m'k?