Losing America

Peter Kirsanow * National Review

How much more will Americans take?

The “fundamental transformation” of America proceeds apace. The erosion of our freedoms and traditions, once incremental and barely perceptible, accelerates daily.

Armies of bureaucrats commanded by political ideologues remarkable mainly for their galactic incompetence intrude on ever more aspects of our lives — aspects both large and small. They tell us what light bulbs we’re allowed to use and how much water we may flush. They stick swabs in our mouths to collect our DNA and order us to buy health insurance we don’t want. They can seize our land if they think they know how to use it better, or stop us from using our land because a favored amphibian might live there too.

We obediently take off our belts and shoes, shuffle silently into plastic cubicles and stand meekly by as our toddlers and grandmothers are patted and groped by drones of the state. Rarely does anyone peep. Not long ago a tiny mayor wouldn’t dare tell eight New Yorkers — let alone 8 million — how much soda they’re allowed to drink. No more.

Now an administration that may have used the IRS to punish its opponents, disclose confidential information, and suppress dissent assures us we needn’t be concerned that the same IRS is on the cusp of having access to every single intimate detail of our medical lives. And it doesn’t stop even at medical information. We learn they may have been harvesting all of our phone records, our e-mail traffic, our video chats, our transaction histories — even though they have not a shred of evidence we’ve done the slightest thing wrong.

continue article at National Review:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/350588/losing-america-peter-kirsanow