Why shouldn't those " abridgements " ( since WHEN are we granted life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness AND silk stockings, nylon, and roastbeef three times a week ? ) have been instituted, during WAR TIME, when the " boys " needed those things ? Did Abigale Adams have a hissy fit, when she couldn't get needles anbd pins ? No, she wasn't happy about it, but she understood. Paper drives, the saving of fats and tinfoil, for the war effort, during WW I, WW II, and Korea, wasn't a hardship and NO abridgement of anyone's " rights "!
You bet the American populace has been " dumbed down "; you're a primary example !
Perhaps I should have been more clear; the abridgements that concern me most aren't the ones involving economic goods (although attacks on economic freedom are no small matter since that freedom derives from the fundamental right to property--and thus life, since one has ownership over oneself). I was really thinking about the way in which it becomes much easier for the government to charge people with "sedition" and toss people in jail merely for non-violently stating a dissenting opinion in public (as FDR did to Lawrence Dennis, Lincoln with "Copperhead" politicians and newspaper editors in the North, etc).