Actually, Rat, each one of those presidents tolerated a great deal of “this sort of treachery” before, during and after their respective wars. Those notorious instances when they failed to do so turned out to be blots on their otherwise sterling reputations.
These measures were judged as “blots” by liberals in academia, especially those “thinkers” who view every bit of history through the prism of the “Marxist dialectic” that has been metastasizing through higher education for 40+ years.
Lincoln’s activities against the Copperheads, Wilson’s Committee on Public Information, Roosevelt’s various crackdowns, the pursuit of Communists through McCarthy and HUAC, and Nixon’s efforts to undo radicals and traitors (who, tragically, undid him through many of the same traitorous elements in our midst now)-—all of these were admirable, effective and pragmatic. By shutting down the Times (and why not CBS and one of the more TreasonRat blogs as well?)
American Conservatism believes in minimalist government, but not to the point of letting internal and external enemies work together to destroy the Republic. To that end, few things would warm my heart more than to see the Times shut, its assets seized, and the slimebags who edit and write it left to rot in the pokey.
Is this a muscular approach? You bet it is. But we are way overdue for smackdown of the psychopathology of liberalism, a condition that has robbed us of common sense and the instinct for national self-preservation. Bush’s continued acquiescence to liberalism — as seen in the debate over illegals — proves how far out of balance things have gotten.