During a recent visit to campus, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry denounced the erosions of freedom of speech, privacy and other civil liberties allegedly occurring under the Bush administration’s Justice Department. Rising above the typical anti-Patriot Act rant, however, Kerry impressively offered a case in point where an innocent Californian was mysteriously questioned by FBI agents after he spoke out against the Bush administration in a quasi-public place—his local gym.

At face value, this is indeed appalling and a disgrace to the freedoms America stands for. But that’s if we take it at its face value.

Though it would be malapropos for Kerry to seek or present the FBI’s side of the story, it is possible there is an explanation for this incident. However, it is also incumbent upon the FBI to be forthcoming with that explanation, even if it can’t go into specifics (such as identifying whatever secret agents were studying this man’s proclivities).

Despite his ordeal going up against the tyrannical Bush-Ashcroft machine, however, it is not Kerry’s aforementioned victim who sternly warns, “Never, ever go up against any government official alone. They can and will hurt you.” This speaker is not even referring to the Bush administration, but to his experiences being thrice audited by the IRS under Clinton. The fact that fiery investigative journalist Bill O’Reilly openly criticized that administration may or may not be pure coincidence.

Kerry also echoed the accusations that his fellow candidates have leveled at conservative commentators like talk radio guru Rush Limbaugh. In a twist so ironic it was almost humorous, Kerry implicated Rush and his ilk in the malicious intimidation of dissenting thought in America, but vehemently swore that he would not succeed.

Ahem, but whose freedom of speech is being threatened now? Joe American, who feels “intimidated” by Rush’s pontificating, or Rush Limbaugh himself, who is being told by aspiring national leaders that he won’t succeed in the dissemination of his opinion?

In reality, Rush Limbaugh can no more restrict anyone’s dissenting thought than the United Nations could enforce its demands on Saddam Hussein. Rush’s only weapon against so-called dissent is talk — telling dissenters how and why they’re wrong (while citing his every source). The other hard truth that Rush’s detractors would prefer be overlooked is that Rush was not dropped from the sky by a vast right-wing conspiracy into his pre-eminent position on the American airwaves. Quite on the contrary, Rush slowly worked his way up to where he is now — a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “living the American dream.”

But I digress.

Sen. Kerry and the other Democratic candidates cite the chipping away of privacy as one of the Bush administration’s fatal flaws. But while John Ashcroft may have opened your library account to government scrutiny, the privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) opened your entire medical history to the whim of government officials. If your doctor should dare be so noble as to refuse to turn over your private health records, the poor fool can be sent to prison, thereby losing his or her medical license and livelihood. His or her family may also suffer when all his or her hard-earned assets are whisked away by the government as “fines.”

And there’s more. Though billing errors in the bureaucratic web of Medicare are inevitable, doctors whose office commit such crimes (beknownst to the physician or not) may have their office raided Elian Gonzalez-style and their patients’ records seized. Physicians accused of “fraud” are guilty until proven innocent, and “no proof of specific intent to defraud” is required for their conviction. Specific examples of governmental abuse of physicians can be found at the Web site of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, www.aapsonline.org.

Therefore, it strikes a bitterly ironic chord when the Democratic presidential candidates accuse President Bush’s administration of eroding our civil liberties. Leftist elements under the protection of the Clinton administration have been doing it for years. Trampling on the civil liberties of rich doctors doesn’t stir quite as many bleeding hearts as does locking up foreign nationals.

It’s not brain surgery to see where this is going, however. Once the private practice of medicine is fully criminalized, America will have no choice but to adopt a socialized health care system in the spirit of that crux of communism: “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.” After all, medical professionals have an ability to provide health care, and the rest of us have a need to consume it.