Guest Post: The Slow Bus to Totalitarianism

This is a guest post by A.J. E.

“This new TSA business that Obama’s allowing is terrible! I hope the new congress can do something about it.”

As much as I would otherwise agree with this statement uttered by a friend in conversation, it contains an implicit fallacy.

That fallacy is that the invasion of our liberty began in 2009, which is quite evidentially false. Liberty has been chipped away in America for many years, far longer than I have lived. Whether it be in the form of military conscription (legalized slavery,) the removal of posse comitatus and the writ of habeus corpus or the removal of first, second, fourth, and tenth amendment protections, America has not fallen so far in a day.

This incremental approach to tyranny is quite visible, especially in light of the amazing Declaration of Independance which gives us a glimpse of the grievances that caused the colonies to revolt against Britain.

Many of these grievances have strikingly modern similarities.

“He (the King) has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

This is very much like the bureaucracy that we are afflicted with today, and such offices and unelected bureaucrats have increased with the aid of both parties. Just the agencies and departments beginning with the letter “A” fill an entire page.

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our legislatures.”

The Posse Comitatus act is all but a dead letter, so replete with exceptions it doesn’t bear much concern. There is even a military theater command for North America, (I hadn’t realized there was war in North America or the United States, but indeed the global war on “terror” and drugs crosses all boundaries and jurisdictions. At least of those weaker than the federal government.) They explain a few of those

Also of note is the disarming of law-abiding citizens by the federal government. The U.S. Marshalls, the National guard and local police, which are all but co-opted by the federal government and militarized by the same, engaged in the disarmament of law-abiding citizens in New Orleans.

I know, we can’t let a good crisis go to waste.

“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:…
–For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent”

Few would question the resemblance of this claim to modern events. Taxes, both direct, indirect and inflationary have been levied on us apart from the consent of the taxed. Most deadly and surreptitious of them all is the inflation tax. More people are coming to understand that the devaluation of our currency is a tax on all those that hold that currency, much like diluting a fluid to make it go farther. The one measuring out the dilution is the one who profits from it. Those who held a fixed amount of dollars in an account since 1913 have lost over 94% of the value that their medium of exchange once held. The trend has shown no indication of reversal.

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury,
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences…”

This is one where the modern similarities might seem to diminish for some. Quite the contrary, for the precedent has already been set which encouraged Barack Obama to maintain a hit list of American citizens that he deems guilty. “Strong evidence,” apparently, is needed. Whatever that means.

This may not bother some so long as such hits are carried out on foreigners with Muslim names, but the Declaration of Independence is at odds with such an idea, as said below:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

Note that these rights are not said to be granted only to American citizens, but that “all men are created equal” and are endowed by their Creator with these rights.

This also means that our rulers are not above the rest, though they often seem so when not campaigning.

Interestingly enough, most of the senators and representatives responsible for the agency now demanding un-Constitutional searches of fliers do not have to submit to such indignities.

These indignities, along with the bureaucracy propagating them were not created yesterday and have been pushed by both wings of our one-party State.

It’s been interesting to look back on the political stumping and screeching of the various politicians as the Democrats decried the beefed-up TSA and the Patriot Act, but upon the election of the Holy One, Barack Obama, these became “terror-fighting” and “necessary” things for safety’s sake. Meanwhile the Republicans and Republican-melded elements of the tea-party movement are decrying them suddenly as a form of “Obama’s tyranny.”

The truth of Vladimir Lenin’s statement, that “Politics is a question of who does what to whom,” shines clearly.

No, to get in the fight to reclaim our liberty against intrusion by the State we must ignore the false dichotomy of the modern right-left politik and attend to the protection of rights from both, any, and all political power-mongers who might remove these protections or ignore their defense.

The invasion of our rights was not begun yesterday, in 2009 or even 2001. Neither can we depend on either political party to protect our rights. We must take on the responsibility to protect those rights ourselves, and withdrawing our consent from such establishments of the State is a great way to start.

It’s important to know the nature and identity of the oppression, and that it often comes draped with a flag and carrying a cross.

Check out A.J.’s blog at woodscraps.blogspot.com

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