Every American president has faced the same central questions: What is the appropriate relationship between security and liberty? When should the scales tip one way or the other? We have never found a universal answer, which says as much about the enormous challenge our elected leaders accept as it does about who we are and what we value.
Presidents often do what they insist needs to be done to protect their people ”” and gamble that they’ll be forgiven for the inevitable erosion of rights. Congress and the public typically fall in line, particularly in the post-9/11 world. And the nation moves on until the next situation flares.
In general, both presidents and their people inherently believe in America’s ability to remain true to its identity and not let others define it, as long as it abides by the country’s founding principles. The trouble, or perhaps the gift, is that the framers of our Constitution made sure to include leeway in the ability for leaders to tip the security-vs.-liberty scales when the situation demands.
I’d say it differently: “America is a Nation of Increasingly Conflicting Values”