OPINION:
Day by day, tyranny is rising as freedom falls.
The U.S. military is being used to patrol subway stations and police the U.S.-Mexico border, supposedly in the name of national security.
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The financial sector is being used to carry out broad surveillance of Americans’ private financial data, while the entertainment sector is being tapped to inform on video game enthusiasts with a penchant for violent, potentially extremist content, all in an alleged effort to uncover individuals subscribing to anti-government sentiments.
Public and private venues are being equipped with sophisticated surveillance technologies, including biometric and facial recognition software, to track Americans wherever they go and whatever they do. Space satellites with powerful overhead surveillance cameras will render privacy null and void.
This is the state of our nation that no is talking about — not the politicians, not the courts, and not Congress: the government’s power grabs are growing bolder, while the rights of the citizenry continue to be trampled underfoot.
Hitler is hiding in the shadows, while the citizenry — the only ones powerful enough to stem the authoritarian tide that threatens to lay siege to our constitutional republic — remain easily distracted and conveniently diverted by political theatrics and news cycles that change every few days.
This sorry truth has persisted no matter which party has controlled Congress or the White House.
These are dangerous times.
Yet while the presidential candidates talk at length about the dangers posed by the opposition party, the U.S. government still poses the gravest threat to our freedoms and way of life.
Consider for yourself the state of our nation: Americans have little protection against police abuse. Americans are little more than pocketbooks to fund the police state. Americans are no longer innocent until proven guilty. Americans no longer have a right to self-defense. Americans no longer have a right to private property. Americans no longer have a say about what their children are exposed to in school. Americans are powerless in the face of militarized police forces. Americans no longer have a right to bodily integrity. Americans no longer have a right to the expectation of privacy. Americans no longer have a representative government. Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice.
This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past 70-plus years regardless of their political affiliation.
Having allowed the government to expand and exceed our reach, we find ourselves on the losing end of a tug-of-war over control of our country and our lives. And for as long as we let them, government officials will continue to trample on our rights, always justifying their actions as being for the good of the people.
Yet the government can only go as far as “we the people” allow. Therein lies the problem.
We have relinquished control over the most intimate aspects of our lives to government officials who, while they may occupy seats of authority, are neither wiser, smarter, more in tune with our needs, more knowledgeable about our problems, nor more aware of what is really in our best interests.
The government has knocked us off our rightful throne. It has usurped our rightful authority. It has staged the ultimate coup. Its agents no longer even pretend that they answer to “we the people.”
Worst of all, “we the people” have become desensitized to this constant undermining of our freedoms.
We are fast approaching a moment of reckoning where we will be forced to choose between the vision of what America was intended to be (a model for self-governance where power is vested in the people) and the reality of what it has become (a police state where power is vested in the government).
The landscape of our freedoms has changed dramatically from what it once was and will no doubt continue to deteriorate unless Americans can find a way to wrest back control of their government and reclaim their freedoms.
For starters, stop allowing yourself to be distracted and diverted.
Learn your rights.
Stand up for the founding principles.
Make your voice and your vote count for more than just political posturing.
Never cease to vociferously protest the erosion of your freedoms at the local and national level.
Most of all, do these things today.
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Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His latest books “The Erik Blair Diaries” and “Battlefield America: The War on the American People” are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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