Posted on 12/20/2004 9:42:29 AM PST by jmc813
In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era: Is America becoming a police state?
The question is no longer rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty. But security and liberty go hand-in-hand. Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.
Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by Congress two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card. Within two years, every American will need a “conforming” ID to deal with any federal agency-- including TSA at the airport.
Undoubtedly many Americans and members of Congress don’t believe America is becoming a police state, which is reasonable enough. They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols of authoritarianism like military patrols, martial law, and summary executions. But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation for tyranny by making the public more docile, more accustomed to government bullying, and more accepting of arbitrary authority- all in the name of security. Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part, is a history of people who don’t like being told what to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents to run our lives.
Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11 are used to achieve complacency and obedience, especially when citizens are deluded into believing they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we are assured, will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary. Many citizens believe that once the war on terror is over, restrictions on their liberties will be reversed. But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy and no expressly stated final goal. Terrorism will never be eradicated completely; does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary war powers indefinitely?
Washington DC provides a vivid illustration of what our future might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill encounter police barricades, metal detectors, paramilitary officers carrying fully automatic rifles, police dogs, ID checks, and vehicle stops. The people are totally disarmed; only the police and criminals have guns. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, monitoring street activity, subway travel, parks, and federal buildings. There's not much evidence of an open society in Washington, DC, yet most folks do not complain-- anything goes if it's for government-provided safety and security.
After all, proponents argue, the government is doing all this to catch the bad guys. If you don’t have anything to hide, they ask, what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I’m afraid of losing the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear. I’m afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing. Most of all, I’m afraid of living in a society where a subservient populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.
It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated by the encroachment of the police state. Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances because they have been deluded into believing total government supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy a high level of material comfort. That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad, a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates, and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
Those who believe a police state can't happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.
The Gestapo has yet to raid me.
Uh, most DL's have been "conforming" for decades and it has taken an ID to board a plane for years. As usual, RP manages to make with the rediculous.
Why does Rep. Paul spend his time attacking America instead of her enemies?
Apparently many "Conservatives" on FR have not read "Crisis and Leviathan". Ron Paul has.
Sounds like Ron Paul is off his medication again! what a whack-job!
I don't think overheated rhetoric about a "total police state...fast approaching" is going to win many converts to the libertarian cause.
Trust me. Although I'm not a libertarian, I am very sympathetic to concerns about the leviathan state. If you've got me thinking that libertarians are a bunch of hysterical ninnies, your chances of winning over the general electorate are nil.
Try reasonable argument against policies you oppose, rather than screaming about how metal detectors in government buildings are tools of fascist oppression. You'll get a lot futher.
Ping!
More of the same from our government in the name of "for your protection"... aka - Under OUR control.
Rather than enforce the law, punish or hold accountable the scumbag criminals in our society and throughout the world; continue to devour the personal freedoms enjoyed by law-abiding citizens behind the guise of "for your safety & protection". It's a key element in governments efforts to ultimately control the American populous and expand the Orwellian society those in power (government) salivate after in this country.
An Insidiously ingenious way to destroy freedom. and yes..., it's real!
Ooh, I read that too. But I disagree with Ron Paul on this point. I'd rather be taxed less and physically protected more.
Sorry you didn't like the artticle, Cin.
The added security would be bearable if it was not so hamstrung by political correctness. That is to say, giving old North Dakota grannies the body search in line at the airport, because only one middle eastern man may be checked per plane, according to Mineta's regulations. This stupidity is turning police state powers against all Americans, instead of against the group which contains our terrorist enemies.
You have not dealt with the IRS yet.
Categorically false. First of all, Mineta has no authority over TSA anymore; it's part of Homeland Security now. Second, this was never a real regulation; someone in a Congressional 9/11 hearing said he had "heard" this. He was wrong. I work in Customer Service (and am a Ground Security Coordinator) for an airline, and I can tell you that the secondary searches are not race-based or race-influenced, for better or worse.
The Gestapo in the United States is call the IRS. Wait you will get your turn.
I'd rather be taxed less and physically protected more.
It doesn't work that way. You'll be taxed more, and if you're lucky maybe get a little more physical protection. Not much though, and of course the police will come to clean up the mess and try to catch the perpetrators, but they are extremely unlikely to be around when you need them. If there were enough to increase that chance signifigently, you'd be taxed a heck of a lot more as well.
Ron Paul warns that the government big enough to protect you from evil can also itself become evil.
The only way to rid an organization of corruption is to destroy the organization. However, there are less severe methods of preventing an organization from becoming corrupt.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Benjamin Franklin, dangerous radical
Ron Paul is the Dennis Kucinich of the Republican party.
Well, not according to some here.
There are none so blind as they who will not see.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.