Etzioni's 'balance' of liberty and security concerns seems to assume that the administration would play be the rules, even when their every action is shrouded in secrecy. We know, Etzioni should have known, that the present regime has cloaked itself in secrecy for 'national security', and behind that cloak it has engaged in gross violations of the law, and has openly defied the judiciary. It is naive of Etzioni to think that we can have laws that are OK as long as the administration uses them with restraint. When the application of those laws is covered with the veil of secrecy (as is the case with Patriot Act subpoenas), the likelihood of restraint is reduced to zero.
Etzioni seems to have a "can't we all get along" attitude that flies in the face of everything we have seen from the Bush administration. From day one the Bush administration has used secrecy and national security as a smoke-screen for corruption. Worse, the Bush administration has been on a single-minded mission to wrest power from a compliant Congress and from a complicit judiciary. Etzioni is a fool to believe that any part of the Bush administration is interested in the 'restrained' use of new powers.
This is a thoroughly despicable book.
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