The price for safety is liberty.
This is very unfortunate as the perceived value of safety has been inflated to beond obesity. It seems there is nothing people would not give up for a little piece of safety, be it safety from accidents or terrorists or disease or chaos(sigh) or whatnot.
The more liberty you have to choose your actions, the less "safety" is afforded the rest of society(up to a point, determined by factors like education and social evolution. amongst others). After all, you could choose to drive dangerous cars while under the influence of a drug someone chose to make right? In a society where safety is valued too highly you always see less liberty, both individual and governmental,
being afforded.
Some losses of liberties are more or less accepted, like keeping the noise level down at night when living with other people all around you, because a great many people see how it benefits them in the long run. Not everyone accepts and adheres to the same standards, but each and every last one of us is restraining him/her self to some exstent.
Civil liberties are a little different. The difference is this:
They already ARE at a minimum. Civil liberties are areas where greater society feels the government should not intervene in any but supportive ways. This includes our minimum right to free speech, our minimum right to privacy, our minimum freedom from unjust incarseration, and a good many other things. Giving up ANY ONE of your civil liberties is going below the MINIMUM standard very intelligent and thinking individuals have set and kept, in for instance the american constitution(or norwegian, french, etc). The minimum standard they thought would be needed for a society they would WANT TO LIVE IN.
With that in mind I can't see how ANY politician would argue less civil liberties without having motives of a darker sort than the preservation of a good life.
To me, more freedom is the ultimate answer to last. Freedom of information, of time, of place, of life, of Choice. There is no way around it... every individual needs to have free access to unbiased education at all times if what is really wanted is Freedom, Equality, and the pursuit of happiness for all of society.
Removing civil liberties transfers more power to the ruling body, and to those that run it, thus tipping a balance that has been carefully worked on for as long as humanity has bothered with living in groups.
I personally belive it should never be done. But at the very least, when this unwise thing is done, it should be considered very very carefully by those being ruled. The ruling body should NEVER be able to do it by itself, if that ever happens you liberties will be shown to be what they are: Illusions.