Likening today’s political environment to the days of Communist red scares, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday cautioned against “over-simplistic rhetoric” and “superficial appeals,” a veiled swipe at Republican candidates.
Johnson made the remarks at the Green Foundation Lecture at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, addressing issues related to terrorism, immigration, and the U.S. response to last year’s Ebola outbreak.
It was the same forum where Winston Churchill in 1946 coined the term “Iron Curtain” to refer to nations dominated by the Soviet Union. Johnson recalled his grandfather’s experience as a president of a historically black college in the 1950s, forced to testify before lawmakers who accused his university of harboring communists on their faculty.
Johnson used lessons from that experience to warn that irresponsible decision-making and over-heated discourse by today’s public officials can lead to “fear, hate, suspicion, prejudice and government over-reach.”
In particular, he cited the evolving threat of terrorism.
“In this environment, the first impulse may be to suspect all Muslims living among us in this country are potential terrorists,” Johnson said.
Johnson admitted to almost surrendering to those impulses himself last year, in reaction to the Ebola outbreak.
“I will admit that my first reaction was to limit the issuance of travel visas from West Africa to the United States,” he said.
But Johnson emphasized his agency’s goal of “striking a balance between basic, physical security and the law, the liberties and the values we cherish as Americans.”
To accomplish this, some risk must exist, Johnson said.
“I can guarantee you a commercial air flight perfectly free from the risk of terrorist attack, but all the passengers will be forced to wear nothing but hospital-like paper smocks, and not be allowed any luggage, food or the ability to get up from their seats,” he said.
Noting his department’s potential reach across the country with more than 22 components and the authority to spend about $60 billion a year, Johnson said there are many ways in which Homeland Security could insert itself into people’s lives in the name of national safety. But it’s not his intention to impose as much security as his resources could muster.
“We can erect more walls, install more screening devices and make everybody suspicious of each other, but we should not do so at the cost of who we are as a nation of people who cherish our privacy, our religions, our freedom to speak, travel and associate and who celebrate our diversity and immigrant heritage,” Johnson said.
