LightningGoats on Nostr: nostr:note1g7unemk0xu3xal7leqjn2q2flmegvpflckeq8q8fx77vtj488yzsqfvvpu
quoting note1g7u…vvpuThe Wars on Drugs and Terror: A Bipartisan Assault on Constitutional Rights
For decades, the United States has waged two relentless and far-reaching campaigns—the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. While both were framed as efforts to protect the American people, they instead served as tools for expanding government power at the cost of civil liberties. From mass surveillance to extrajudicial killings, these wars eroded the very freedoms they claimed to defend. Both Democratic and Republican administrations fueled these efforts, making them bipartisan crusades against abstract enemies—drugs and terror—while primarily targeting American citizens.
The War on Drugs: A Crackdown on Civil Liberties
A War Waged Against Americans
Unlike conventional wars, the War on Drugs was never about fighting a foreign adversary—it was a war against American citizens. Disproportionately affecting marginalized communities, it led to mass incarceration, voter suppression, and economic devastation.
A Bipartisan Project
The War on Drugs began under President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s and was aggressively expanded by President Ronald Reagan with widespread bipartisan support. Later, Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill ramped up incarceration rates, and successive administrations—George W. Bush and Barack Obama—continued these policies, solidifying a punitive approach to drug use rather than a rehabilitative one.
Fourth Amendment Erosion: Warrantless Searches and Seizures
The aggressive tactics of the War on Drugs significantly weakened Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures:
Terry v. Ohio (1968) legitimized stop-and-frisk policies, which disproportionately targeted Black and Latino individuals.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 escalated the use of no-knock raids, frequently resulting in injuries and fatalities of innocent civilians.
Civil asset forfeiture laws, strengthened under the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, allowed police to seize property without a conviction, often leaving citizens without legal recourse.
Mandatory Minimums and Mass Incarceration
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 introduced mandatory minimum sentences, stripping judges of discretion and imposing excessively long sentences for minor offenses.
The disparity in crack vs. powder cocaine sentencing (100:1 ratio) disproportionately affected Black communities (Kimbrough v. United States, 2007).
The “three strikes” laws exacerbated mass incarceration, further violating Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Disenfranchisement and Racial Profiling
The Controlled Substances Act (1970) led to systemic racial profiling, particularly through controversial policing strategies like New York’s Stop-and-Frisk policy (Floyd v. City of New York, 2013).
Felony disenfranchisement laws stripped voting rights from millions, disproportionately affecting African Americans and violating Fourteenth Amendment protections.
The War on Terror: Endless War, Boundless Surveillance
A War Without an End
Launched after 9/11, the War on Terror became a perpetual conflict, with no clear victory or defined enemy. President George W. Bush initiated it, but it was dramatically expanded under Barack Obama, with continued support from Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Extrajudicial Killings of U.S. Citizens
Perhaps the most shocking abuse of power in the War on Terror was the targeted killing of American citizens without due process:
In 2011, President Barack Obama authorized a drone strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen living in Yemen. Weeks later, his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was also killed in a separate strike, despite having no ties to terrorism.
Al-Awlaki v. Obama (2010) challenged the government's authority to execute U.S. citizens without trial, but the case was dismissed.
The 2013 drone strike on Jude Kenan Mohammad, another American citizen in Pakistan, further exposed the extent of executive overreach.
Mass Surveillance and Fourth Amendment Violations
The War on Terror gave rise to the most intrusive surveillance programs in history:
The USA PATRIOT Act (2001) empowered the government to conduct warrantless wiretaps and bulk data collection.
The NSA’s PRISM program (exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013) revealed widespread, unconstitutional surveillance on U.S. citizens.
Carpenter v. United States (2018) ruled that the collection of cellphone location data without a warrant was unconstitutional, signaling a rare judicial check on surveillance powers.
Torture and the Erosion of Human Rights
The CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs), including waterboarding and sleep deprivation, was widely condemned as torture.
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (2014) detailed abuses in CIA black sites, confirming violations of Eighth Amendment protections.
The extraordinary rendition program sent detainees to foreign countries where they were tortured beyond U.S. jurisdiction.
A Legacy of Constitutional Decay
The Wars on Drugs and Terror rewrote the relationship between the government and its citizens, shifting power dramatically in favor of the state. These bipartisan campaigns, waged against nebulous enemies, justified expanding surveillance, militarizing law enforcement, increasing executive power, and undermining due process.
Will these powers ever be relinquished?
The government rarely surrenders power once acquired. Despite temporary rollbacks and judicial pushback, the mechanisms of mass surveillance, civil asset forfeiture, and extrajudicial killings remain intact. Without public resistance, these unconstitutional practices will persist under future administrations, regardless of political affiliation.