It seems to me that if conservatives really cared or really understood what they were standing against when they drag out Soviet imagery at teabag parties, they would also care very much about placing checks on the government’s power over life and death by promoting the use of an independent judiciary for criminal trials. Specifically they should advocate using jury trials in federal court to try alleged terrorists or grant them access to the rights stipulated by things like the Geneva Convention.
You don’t have to reach my conclusion (that military tribunals for alleged criminals are wrong) to realize that this is a major gap in the conservative narrative, which now has become “We don’t trust government to do anything because that leads to gulags”.
Ducks and Economics 