Quote:
Originally posted by theking
I will read the material but not now as I am busy. I am sure that I will find parts that bother me, but over all I do not think that the government is about taking everyones rights away and becoming a dictatorship. What I do think is we are at war at this very moment against terrorists that would harm the country and its people. This war is just as real as any conflict that we have engaged in. The Administration stated from the beginning that the war could last years, as many as ten years. Just today I heard two Senators state that the war will last 20-30 years. I personally think that it may very well be forever. I personally believe that the government is trying to put in place tools that will help them prosecute the war on terrorists and are not about persecuting or prosecuting the American people per se. Will certain powers be abused, probably, but we have checks and balances that will smooth out the rough edges over time. It really does not make a lot of difference what is enacted by the Congress as the Supreme Court is the ultimate abritrator about what is constitutional and what is not. I am not alarmed and I do not believe the sky is falling.
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When we survey the history of America, we find that the government has historically done exactly that - consistently erode our individual rights and liberties. The America of 1776, 1876, 1976 and today were each very different place vis a vis freedom. In the old west, the local sherrif kept basic law and order in the town. Other than a few very basic laws, you were pretty much free to do whatever the hell you pleased. If you wanted to smoke opium in the center of town, you could do that. Life was not like the movie Tombstone or other westerns that completely exaggerate the amount of violence and gunplay in society. Shoot-outs were relatively rare.
Fast-forward to today and there a billion and one little laws that have been passed by local, state and federal governments. They even have laws that dictate that you can lose your job if you comment on your co-workers fine looking ass or tell an off-color joke. Laws like that would have been completely unthinkable just 40 years ago. If you proposed "sexual harrasment" laws in the 1950s in order to "protect" people, the general poplulation would have laughed their asses off. "You mean laws like the commies have? No thanks!".
We are more micro-managed today by the forces of government than ever before. If you transplanted a man from 1876 in to today's America he would probably die of shock from all the constraints placed on his life by the "authorities". And we haven't seen anything yet...
The world ten or twenty years from now will be as different as 1876 compared to 2003. Governments all throughout history have always tried (and succeeded) in gaining ever more greater levels of control over their poplulace. It is the (unfortuante) natural progression of societies. America has been the standout in world history. Only time will tell whether they remain so or not.