Sorry I waited a week to log back on to FR... It's become so partisan (republican) here that I don't freep as much as I used to. Your post was sure worth coming back for.
Libertarian sentiment was much more prevalent here when it was boy clinton & his dirtbag minions pissing on the Constitution. Bush could probably rename Guantanamo Bay Auschwitz, start running DU'ers up through the chimneys by the thousands, and the harshest rebuke he'd get here would be "as long as the attorney general says it passes Constitutional muster, it's the price we pay for living in the freest, greatest, kindest, most powerful nation the world has ever seen".
Your description of yourself as a "white haired old geezer" means you're older than my 41 years, and have seen a lot more of the steady erosion of liberty this country has seen, on it's journey from Constitutional Republic to today's "democracy" - the current socialist welfare/police state. That must account for your passionate criticism of the absurd "security" measures taken since 9/11. Pity the fools who think the gov't protects the nation by strip-searching grandmothers while thousands illegally cross the southern border each and every day!
As for myself, having seen less of this nation's past greatness, and having experienced only the more rapid slide towards ruin that's occured since the '60's, I am pretty much resigned to the fate that seems destined for us - decline, despotism and destruction. I'll whine about it, but I can't seem to get too worked up about what seems to be fait accompli.
In closing, another "well done" for your post. The Neimoller and Franklin quotations are two of my favorites. Right up there with "give me liberty or give me death" (Henry),"peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none" (Jefferson), and perhaps the most clairvoyant, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship (Tyler).
Funny how men, centuries dead, could see so clearly the mistakes we're making, warn us of the consequences, and be so completely ignored.
You wrote:
"I am pretty much resigned to the fate that seems destined for us - decline, despotism and destruction. I'll whine about it, but I can't seem to get too worked up about what seems to be fait accompli."
There is a much better answer than giving up our freedoms.
Go on the offensive; EXTERNAL to the U.S.
Make the terrorists, and those who aid, abet, comfort,
support, supply, and harbor them...
pay with their lives. No terrorists, no terrorism.