“Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. – Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837

Americans this month won a badly-needed victory in preserving their liberty under the U.S. Constitution.  

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, confirmed under direct questioning during our House Homeland Security Committee hearings* that she has ordered the retraction of the controversial DHS report alerting our sheriffs and police chiefs to be on the lookout for “potential terrorists”. 

This is the report that listed as “potential terrorists” those Americans who support the Second Amendment, the right to life, low taxes and a balanced budget, states rights, U.S. sovereignty, and amazingly, even those who simply hold a futurist theological view of the Bible’s Book of Revelation. It then included veterans, for no other reason than that they possess military skills and knowledge. 

This was the reason I went to the House floor and demanded the Secretary's resignation. This is the reason I wrote a letter to President Obama asking for her dismissal, a letter co-signed by 13 fellow House Members

And thanks to the support of millions of Americans around the country in calling, faxing, writing, and protesting against this effort to place politically-conservative Americans under police surveillance, we were able to kill this awful report.

Defenders of the Administration contend this was all just a big misunderstanding and mistake, the report should not have been released, and according to Secretary Napolitano herself under questioning, it would not have been approved had it gone through proper channels.

All of that together is a little hard to believe, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume it is true, and that this entire uproar was caused by a few left-wing petty bureaucrats at DHS who snuck this report out to the nation’s law enforcement chiefs as a backhanded slap to conservatives.

Then it still needed to be attacked with gusto by every freedom-loving person in America. When we turn our backs on affronts to liberty like this, we give a green light to all who truly desire to steal our constitutional freedoms. If they see no reaction to a slap like this, they are emboldened to actually proceed with their plans.

What is probably closer to the truth about this report is that it was a probe of the strength of our defenses for our liberties.

From the hate crimes legislation that passed the House that seek to stifle free speech and worship, to the seizure of individual investments under the auto industry takeover (click here for the video), to dictating product and marketing decisions of not just the auto industry, but banking and insurance as well, the federal government is moving as never before to curtail individual rights and the free market. Be assured that every move is carefully tested in the media and polling before moving forward. 

This is not the only victory we have won this year. The proposal to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections was met with such opposition that is has been dropped for now, at least in its original form.

Now is not the time to remain quiet if you feel your rights are being challenged. But understand that like so many conservatives you have seen vilified in the press over recent months, there will likely be a personal cost for having done so. Opponents will scour you in the press if they can, bloggers will call you Attila the Hun for objecting to their statist vision for America.

But that’s a small and very affordable price to pay for defending freedom. Sometimes we win a particular battle as we have for now on the DHS “extremist” report. Sometimes we don’t. But by the fact that we fight every time our rights are threatened means we will win the war.   

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* You can watch a replay of those hearings on the 31^st District Website at www.house.gov/carter by clicking on the YouTube link on the home page, then scroll down to the thumbnail of Janet Napolitano in the column – fittingly - on the left.