Kerby Anderson

Earlier this month, I talked about how many liberal progressives complained that Alan Dershowitz had changed. Actually, they are the ones who have changed. In a recent op-ed, Dershowitz explains about how the ACLU has abandoned its original mission. He should know, since he served on the national board in the early days of his career. He writes, “The director of the American Civil Liberties Union has now acknowledged what should have been obvious to everybody over the past several years: The ACLU is no longer a neutral defender of everyone’s civil liberties.” I am not sure how neutral the ACLU always was in the past, but I will concede the point to him. He says that they used a key test back in those days that he calls “the shoe on the other foot” test. In other words, “Would you vote the same way if the shoe were on the other foot?” He concludes that now “the ACLU wears only one shoe, and it is on the left foot. Its color is blue.” The organization now seems only interested in taking cases and supporting policies that promote progressive ideas and the Democrat Party. Some of us can remember when the ACLU would occasionally take a very controversial high-profile case. They might defend the rights of neo-Nazis or Klan members to march. An article in the New Yorkersays, “The ACLU is getting involved in elections—and reinventing itself for the Trump era.” Not only is it getting involved in election campaigns, but it plans to spend $25 million on races and ballot initiatives. This is quite a change for a group that used to be called nonpartisan. Frankly, the ACLU has been a left-leaning organization since its founding, but it at least tried to occasionally play both sides of the civil liberties question. That is no longer the case, as it is now injecting itself and its ideology into American politics. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.