The world is now in the grip of a new era of “patriotism”, where the public and politicians must stop telling lies and the media must stop spreading misinformation.
The latest news is that the United States is considering making it legal to use the hashtag #PatriotAct, a move that could bring back some semblance of civility to American politics.
However, it’s a measure that has the support of one of the country’s most notorious propagandists, US Senator and former President Donald Trump.
Senator Rand Paul, who once led the anti-Muslim “Patriot Act” crusade, has written to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security to urge them to remove the bill from the legislative calendar.
He says the “Patriots Act” would give the US government sweeping powers to monitor the entire world and, potentially, to assassinate people on the street.
He said that a “patriots act” would “immediately allow the President and other members of his Administration to conduct mass surveillance without the fear of judicial oversight”.
In other words, “if the President deems it necessary, and if he believes it is necessary to defend the American people, then it’s possible that this Act could be implemented immediately”, Senator Paul said.
“I don’t think that we should be afraid of the American public, but we should always be concerned about the President”.
He added that this bill would have “a very significant impact on US national security and security interests” and said that it was “highly likely that this legislation would be enacted as a result of a PATRIOT Act amendment”.
Senator Paul also noted that “the US government, through the National Security Agency (NSA), is actively collecting millions of Americans’ phone records every day”, adding that he was “very concerned that the President could abuse the power granted him by the Patriot Act”.
He called on the president to take a “hard look” at the “patriotic act” and take the necessary “steps to repeal it”.
‘Patriot act’ has been ‘repealed’ in the US, so what now?
According to Senator Rand, “a patriot act” could be repealed, as it “would be unconstitutional, since it would be in direct conflict with the First Amendment”.
The bill has been repealed in other US states as well, such as Oregon, Michigan, Tennessee and North Dakota.
However there is no sign that the bill will be put back on the books any time soon.
A spokesperson for the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Patriots act’ will be ‘repealable’ in 2017, but will it be ‘legally defensible’?
‘Patriotic Act’ was a law passed in 1995 that was intended to “stop the terrorists”, Senator Rand said.
Senator Paul argued that the “national security” and “public safety” concerns of the Patriot act “should be the basis for the repeal of the law”.
“It should be repealed,” he said.
He added: “We can’t afford a situation where we have the President’s powers under the Patriot law and then he wants to turn it into an attack on the country.
That’s wrong.”
The “Patriotics Act” has been “repealed” in other states as such, such a Oregon law passed last year, and a Tennessee bill is still pending.
The bill is “not likely to be repealed”, according to Senator Paul, but he added that the US would be “a safer nation if we had this law”.
He also pointed out that the Patriot laws have “been in effect since 1945”, which “is not a long period of time”.
Senator Rand did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
