Can we be secure and free?

Has the war on terror breathed new life into the forces of authoritarianism in America? Americans seem to have settled into a debate between the advocates of liberty on one hand and the defenders of security on the other. What is novel and distinctive about this debate, namely that the current war effort has run headlong into a heightened commitment in American politics to procedural protections of the individual in the courtroom and in dealings with the police. This due process revolution has produced a new understanding of individual liberty, one which has greatly influenced today's debate. But perhaps just as important, the public debate is also energized and directed to an important degree by partisan political considerations, and has become polarized along more or less predictable party lines, tapping into a legacy of politicization of civil liberties. The debate needs to be demoralized.