“This is about honest government. This is about preserving our civil liberties. This is about separation of church and state. This is about competence. Anyone that doesn’t have grave doubts about this administration after these past six years is not interested in anything but power.

This is a defining moment in American history. Which way are we going to go? Are we going to let our fear of terrorism turn us into something our forefathers would not recognize? Or will we come to our senses and realize that we have faced much more dangerous threats in the past and we survived without giving up all of our civil liberties?

Which side of history will you be on?”
—Proud Liberal, comment on Balloon Juice

“Our most formidable weapon is not our military strength, but rather our democratic ideals… It therefore seems oxymoronic that we would embrace a strategy that requires that we toss aside that strength in order to engage in a conflict on the terms we claim to abhor from our perceived enemies.”
—Byron Williams, “What is the Real Strength of the United States”

This argument centers around the basic question of whether our legacy is that of our democratic ideals and sense of justice, or if we will follow the trajectory of all empires. These arguments seem more powerful to me because they are couched in moral terms, not just practical ones.

“Ensuring torture is totally banned under American law is a touchstone issue that defines our very civilization, to include its continued embrace of Englightenment values, a belief in progress in the face of adversity, and ensuring that our most odious enemies are not successful in having us sully our human rights leadership, one so hard earned through the Cold War.”
—Greg Djerejian, Neoconservative, “Has Waterboarding been banned?”