Posted on 10/13/2021 4:55:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
The COVID crystal ball is murky. Will it clear or darken further?
In what seems like a lifetime ago, elected officials were selling two weeks of economic and social sacrifice as the price to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Today, more than a year-and-a-half later, there remain cities and states in which citizens need permission from the powers that be, in the form of vaccines and masks, to do everything from eating in a restaurant to keeping one’s job.
The extremes to which local, state, and federal authorities have gone to exercise their newfound COVID “emergency powers,” is no surprise to anyone familiar with the way modern government works. Still, the speed by which America turned from a quasi-free society to one reflecting a patchwork of punitive policies, rules, and mandates, caught all but the most cynical critics of government power off-guard. Even private-sector requirements come with tightly wound strings trailing back to the White House.
Of course, consistent with the universal law that “no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse,” it could be worse. We could be Australia.
Whereas here in the United States enforcement of COVID regulations has been mostly reactive, authorities in Australia have been far more aggressive. Aussie police cars and officers in battle gear roam the streets and sidewalks of the country’s cities, on the lookout for unmasked senior citizens, who then are wrestled to the ground and forced to mask-up before being arrested.
Videos of such brutality from countries like Russia and China, are unsurprising, but in Australia – a western-style society with a long history of democratic norms? It was unthinkable – until it wasn’t.
The question is, if it can happen in the Land Down Under, can it happen here?
Thankfully, at least for now, the roadblocks to despotic rule constructed two-and-one-third centuries ago by our Founders, have kept us safe from the COVID tyranny we are witnessing in Australia and elsewhere around the globe. But for how long will these defenses hold? How strong is our Bill of Rights, the primary shield against totally unchecked government power?
The genius of our written Constitution is that the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights are explicit, thereby allowing for strong legal challenges to government overreach. This was clear early in the COVID pandemic when governments attempted to close gun stores and to restrict the right of people to travel freely from one state to another. These legal opportunities, however, are not available to our less-fortunate friends in Australia.
While successful outcomes to such court challenges are by no means guaranteed, the right and the ability to bring credible, constitutionally based challenges does provide a meaningful (and peaceable) playing field that can be the difference between living in tyranny or civil war.
The concept of federalism woven into our system of government provides an additional level of protection against COVID-based abuse by the federal government. State governors not enamored of the Biden Administration’s mandate-heavy, one-size-fits-all approach possess a degree of freedom and flexibility not enjoyed by their counterparts in Australia and other western countries. Florida and Texas, and many other “Red” states where citizens have elected governors more conservative and libertarian-minded than Joe Biden, have proven the worth of the dual-sovereignty model bequeathed to us by our Founders.
Then there is the Second Amendment, which allows for an armed citizenry and serves as a natural hedge against tyranny unrestrained by the democratic process alone. While it is unrealistic to suggest militias with small arms could stand a chance against the full might of the U.S. military, the real point is that the Second Amendment ensures that the road to tyranny would not be without painful, ruinous speedbumps. No such impediments exist in Australia, which years ago cracked down hard on the private ownership of firearms.
Still, it remains to be seen whether these vital safeguards will continue to withstand the constant pressure by “progressives” in Washington, DC, and in state capitols from California to New York, to force everyone into surrendering their remaining vestiges of individual liberty in the name of “safety.” This is the real questions voters should bear in mind as they vote next year and two years thereafter.
Is Australia’s nightmare our future?
If these tactics and actions were brought to the US, you would start seeing ambushes used against the authoritarians.
Most of the Sheeple are like frogs in a pot of water on the stove.
The key for the Socialists is to do what they did in Australia: Get rid of civilian ownership of guns, first. Then the rest comes easily.
History shows prison...er...ah, “quarantine” camps can be and have been done.
The Jews into the Camps courtesy the Nazi’s (gold teeth can be recycled and some of the best soap was made from.....).
The Urgurs (sp?) into the Camps courtesy the CCP (Hey! Organ harvesting is big business$$$).
Australia started as a prison camp and now is returning to its roots (as we enter the gates singing Hotel California).
USA...well, the Dems and RINO’s consider Trump voters subhumans, deplorables, irredeemables anyway....nobody gonna miss them.
And Bill Gates,etc want a major population reduction anyway (so why the program to finance the massive invasion of illegals...when they are most all the barrel scrapings of est. 180 nations stampeding thru the southern border? No “best and brightest” there. Do the oligarchs of America really need that many to mow lawns and do the laundry?
Australian police show up the doorstep to question about protest social media posts
https://rumble.com/vnk6gn-australian-police-show-up-the-doorstep-to-question-him-about-his-social-med.html
That certainly is the goal.
btw, in history, has there EVER been a case where, when the people with the power of Government that disarmed the populace, failed to do mass murder and/or enslavement later on?
Wolves don’t like sheep with teeth do they?
Australia and New Zealand have been the western world’s test bed for socialist takeovers….starting with Gun Control in 1996. Plato’s Republic is being implemented there. It comes here next
Well said.
In answer to your question, I think the elites see themselves at the top of a pyramid. America’s is out of shape, and they are widening the base while they kill off those in the middle.
bump
yes.
I think you can blame the people, too. These nations are like New York City. They think that they can abandon all personal responsibility for their own safety to their police. The pampered animals in a menagerie, they are protected from the lions in their midst by those they hired.
Now, they find themselves in the helplessness they created, and the zoo keepers don’t like them, either.
If you have Netflix, watch the entire Rake series.
It is a comical glimpse of Australian reality
Not until they disarm law abiding citizens like they did in Australia
Yeh, the author of the article made the below comment.
“ While it is unrealistic to suggest militias with small arms could stand a chance against the full might of the U.S. military, the real point is that the Second Amendment ensures that the road to tyranny would not be without painful, ruinous speedbumps. ”
What the author didn’t comprehend in his hypothesis is the political bent of the rank and file military which is conservative, especially in the elite combat units. So, at least to me, it’s problematic whether they would act on their family, friends, other like-minded individuals.
Great post. Imposing totalitarian rule these days generally requires only one thing with two elements: (A) a docile population that (B) lives in urbanized areas. Usually these two things go hand-in-hand. You just don’t find independent, free-thinking people in cities.
Yep. Australia step one a few years ago was to get rid of the guns. Good luck with that in the united states. We have a slightly different constitution. We also have a hell of a lot of guns out there.
That was some amazing chit right there. In the US you can simply follow the advice of the experts. That is, I have nothing to say without an attorney present.
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