Watching the movie, Heat, I was struck by this line from the Jon Voight character: "It's a free country, brother." Struck because I would hear that expression often when I was young but hadn't heard it voiced in years.
Yep! It's been many, many decades since that was a 100% valid statement.
Individuals have been subjected to ever increasing numbers of quietly draconian laws that eat away at individual freedom & liberty for a long time.
However, beginning with RICO, the growth in these laws has accelerated enormously.....particularly since 1994 when the Republocrats gained controlled of congress.
Truth be told, excluding the frenzy of the final unstoppable rush into tyranny that began last January, the most massive increases in the number of these specious laws occurred primarily under the GOP-controlled Congresses of the 90's and 2000's.