Liberals, Conservatives and Those Airport Screenings

Drudge has been after this for months, and now not only cable news but the mainstream media have noticed the very intrusive searches that the Transportation Security Agency has been doing at airports.

But what about liberal and conservative reactions?

Conservatives have been up in arms, while the reaction of liberals has been much more muted, if not downright supportive.

Here’s the irony: liberals were apoplectic about security measures early in the Bush Administration. The Patriot Act, warrant-less wiretapping of foreign phone numbers associated with terrorism, searches of computers of suspected terrorists — all these were condemned as invasions of privacy.

And of course conservatives supported Bush.

So what is going on here? Is it as simple as whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat? That’s part of it.

But the key factor is that conservatives are protective of ordinary, law-abiding U.S. citizens. And liberals are protective of politically correct victim groups.

On 9/11, Muslims ceased to be evil fundamentalist oppressors of women, and became victims of American imperialism.

So we get 75 year-old grandmothers sexually molested in airports.