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What's In Store For Our Freedoms In 2016? More Of Everything We Don't Want
Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1
In Harold Ramis’ classic 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, TV weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) is forced to live the same day over and over again until he not only gains some insight into his life but changes his priorities. Similarly, as I illustrate in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we in the emerging American police state find ourselves reliving the same set of circumstances over and over again—egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, etc.—although with far fewer moments of comic hilarity.
What remains to be seen is whether 2016 will bring more of the same or whether “we the people” will wake up from our somnambulant states. Indeed, when it comes to civil liberties and freedom, 2015 was far from a banner year.
The following is just a sampling of what we can look forward to repeating if we don’t find some way to push back against the menace of an overreaching, aggressive, invasive, militarized surveillance state.
More surveillance. The surveillance state is alive and well and kicking privacy to shreds in America. Whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, will still be listening in and tracking your behavior. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere. We are now in a state of transition with the police state shifting into high-gear under the auspices of the surveillance state. In such an environment, we are all suspects to be spied on, searched, scanned, frisked, monitored, tracked and treated as if we’re potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other. Even our homes provide little protection against government intrusions. Police agencies, already empowered to crash through your door if they suspect you’re up to no good, now have radars that allow them to “see” through the walls of your home.
More militarized police. Americans will continue to be rendered powerless in the face of militarized police. In early America, government agents were not permitted to enter one’s home without permission or in a deceitful manner. And citizens could resist arrest when a police officer tried to restrain them without proper justification or a warrant. Daring to dispute a warrant with a police official today who is armed with high-tech military weapons would be nothing short of suicidal. Moreover, as police forces across the country continue to be transformed into extensions of the military, Americans are finding their once-peaceful communities transformed into military outposts, complete with tanks, weaponry, and other equipment designed for the battlefield. Having already transformed local police into extensions of the military, now the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the FBI are preparing to turn the nation’s police officers into techno-warriors, complete with iris scanners, body scanners, thermal imaging Doppler radar devices, facial recognition programs, license plate readers, cell phone Stingray devices and so much more.
More police shootings of unarmed citizens. Owing in large part to the militarization of local law enforcement agencies, not a week goes by without more reports of hair-raising incidents by police imbued with a take-no-prisoners attitude and a battlefield approach to the communities in which they serve.
More so-called “terrorist” attacks. Despite the government’s endless propaganda about the threat of terrorism and even in the wake of the shootings in San Bernardino and Paris, statistics show that you are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack. You are 11,000 times more likely to die from an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane. You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than a terrorist attack. You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack. And you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.
More costly wars. The military industrial complex that has advocated that the U.S. remain at war, year after year, is the very entity that will continue to profit the most from America’s expanding military empire. The U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer, with more than 3.2 million employees. Thus far, the U.S. taxpayer has been made to shell out more than $1.6 trillion to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. When you add in our military efforts in Pakistan, as well as the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt, that cost rises to $4.4 trillion.
More attempts by the government to identify, target and punish so-called domestic “extremists.” In much the same way that the USA Patriot Act was used as a front to advance the surveillance state, the government’s anti-extremism program will, in many cases, be utilized to render otherwise lawful, nonviolent activities as potentially extremist. To this end, police will identify, monitor and deter individuals who exhibit, express or engage in anything that could be construed as extremist before they can become actual threats. This is pre-crime on an ideological scale and it’s been a long time coming. Moreover, under the guise of fighting violent extremism “in all of its forms and manifestations” in cities and communities across the world, the Obama administration has agreed to partner with the United Nations to take part in its Strong Cities Network program and hire a domestic extremism czar.
More SWAT team raids. More than 80% of American communities have their own SWAT teams, with more than 80,000 of these paramilitary raids are carried out every year. That translates to more than 200 SWAT team raids every day in which police crash through doors, damage private property, kill citizens, terrorize adults and children alike, kill family pets, assault or shoot anyone that is perceived as threatening—and all in the pursuit of someone merely suspected of a crime, usually some small amount of drugs.
More erosions of private property. Private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family. Likewise, if government officials can fine and arrest you for growing vegetables in your front yard, praying with friends in your living room, installing solar panels on your roof, and raising chickens in your backyard, you’re no longer the owner of your property.
More debt. Currently, the national debt is somewhere in the vicinity of a whopping $18.1 trillion and rising that our government owes to foreign countries, private corporations and its retirement programs. Not only is the U.S. the largest debtor nation in the world, but according to Forbes, “the amount of interest on the national debt is estimated to be accumulating at a rate of over one million dollars per minute.”
More government contractors. Despite all the talk about big and small government, what we have been saddled with is a government that is outsourcing much of its work to high-paid contractors at great expense to the taxpayer and with no competition, little transparency and dubious savings. According to the Washington Post, “By some estimates, there are twice as many people doing government work under contract than there are government workers.” These open-ended contracts, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, “now account for anywhere between one quarter and one half of all federal service contracting.”
More overcriminalization. The government’s tendency towards militarization and overcriminalization, in which routine, everyday behaviors become targets of regulation and prohibition, have resulted in Americans getting arrested for making and selling unpasteurized goat cheese, cultivating certain types of orchids, feeding a whale, holding Bible studies in their homes, and picking their kids up from school.
More strip searches and the denigration of bodily integrity. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to protect the citizenry from being subjected to “unreasonable searches and seizures” by government agents. While the literal purpose of the amendment is to protect our property and our bodies from unwarranted government intrusion, the moral intention behind it is to protect our human dignity. Unfortunately, court rulings undermining the Fourth Amendment and justifying invasive strip searches have left us powerless against police empowered to forcefully draw our blood, forcibly take our DNA, strip search us, and probe us intimately. Accounts are on the rise of individuals—men and women alike—being subjected to what is essentially government-sanctioned rape by police in the course of “routine” traffic stops.
More injustice. Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice. The courts were established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet the courts increasingly march in lockstep with the police state, while concerned themselves primarily with advancing the government’s agenda, no matter how unjust or illegal. As a result, Americans have no protection against police abuse. It is no longer unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. What is increasingly common, however, is the news that the officers involved in these incidents get off with little more than a slap on the hands.
More political spectacles. Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that politics matter, as if there really were a difference between the Republicans and Democrats (there’s not). As if Barack Obama proved to be any different from George W. Bush (he has not). As if Hillary Clinton’s values are any different from Donald Trump’s (with both of them, money talks). As if when we elect a president, we’re getting someone who truly represents “we the people” rather than the corporate state (in fact, in the oligarchy that is the American police state, an elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots). Politics in America is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport, and for many devout Americans, a religion. In other words, it’s a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and fighting over two parties whose priorities are exactly the same.
More drones. As corporations and government agencies alike prepare for their part in the coming drone invasion—it is expected that at least 30,000 drones will occupy U.S. airspace by 2020, ushering in a $30 billion per year industry—it won’t be long before American citizens who will be the target of these devices discover first-hand that drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—come in all shapes and sizes, from nano-sized drones as small as a grain of sand that can do everything from conducting surveillance to detonating explosive charges, to middle-sized copter drones that can deliver pizzas to massive “hunter/killer” Predator warships that unleash firepower from on high.
More dumbed down, locked down public schools. Our schools have become training grounds for compliant citizens. Despite the fact that we spend more than most of the world on education ($115,000 per student), we rank 36th in the world when it comes to math, reading and science, far below most of our Asian counterparts. Even so, we continue to insist on standardized programs such as Common Core, which teach students to be test-takers rather than thinkers. Making matters worse is the heavy police presence in schools, which have become little more than quasi-prisons in which classrooms are locked down and kids as young as age 4 are being handcuffed for “acting up,” subjected to body searches, and suspended for childish behavior.
More ignorance about our rights. Americans know little to nothing about their rights or how the government is supposed to operate. This includes educators and politicians. For example, 27 percent of elected officials cannot name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment, while 54 percent do not know the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war.
More prisons. Our prisons, housing the largest number of inmates in the world and still growing, have become money-making enterprises for private corporations that manage the prisons in exchange for the states agreeing to maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years. And how do you keep the prisons full? By passing laws aimed at increasing the prison population, including the imposition of life sentences on people who commit minor or nonviolent crimes such as siphoning gasoline. Little surprise, then, that the United States has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.
More corruption. If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. This is true, whether you’re talking about taxpayers being forced to fund high-priced weaponry that will be used against us, endless wars that do little for our safety or our freedoms, or bloated government agencies such as the National Security Agency with its secret budgets, covert agendas and clandestine activities. Rubbing salt in the wound, even monetary awards in lawsuits against government officials who are found guilty of wrongdoing are paid by the taxpayer.
More censorship. First Amendment activities are being pummeled, punched, kicked, choked, chained and generally gagged all across the country. The reasons for such censorship vary widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remains the same: the complete eradication of what Benjamin Franklin referred to as the “principal pillar of a free government.” Free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws and a host of other legalistic maladies dreamed up by politicians and prosecutors have conspired to corrode our core freedoms. As a result, we are no longer a nation of constitutional purists for whom the Bill of Rights serves as the ultimate authority. We have litigated and legislated our way into a new governmental framework where the dictates of petty bureaucrats carry greater weight than the inalienable rights of the citizenry.
More fascism. As a Princeton University survey indicates, our elected officials, especially those in the nation’s capital, represent the interests of the rich and powerful rather than the average citizen. We are no longer a representative republic. With Big Business and Big Government having fused into a corporate state, the president and his state counterparts—the governors, have become little more than CEOs of the Corporate State, which day by day is assuming more government control over our lives. Never before have average Americans had so little say in the workings of their government and even less access to their so-called representatives.
More fear. We’re being fed a constant diet of fear, which has resulted in Americans adopting an “us” against “them” mindset that keeps us divided into factions, unable to reach consensus about anything and too distracted to notice the police state closing in on us.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, put it best: “Take alarm,” he warned, “at the first experiment with liberties.” Anyone with even a casual knowledge about current events knows that the first experiment on our freedoms happened long ago. Worse, we have not heeded the warnings of Madison and those like him who understood that if you give the government an inch, they will take a mile. Unfortunately, the government has not only taken a mile, they have taken mile after mile after mile after mile with seemingly no end in sight for their power grabs.
If you’re in the business of making New Year’s resolutions, why not resolve that 2016 will be the year we break the cycle of tyranny and get back on the road to freedom? No matter what the politicians say about the dire state of our nation, you can rest assured that none of the problems that continue to plague our lives and undermine our freedoms will be resolved by our so-called elected representatives in any credible, helpful way in the new year.
“We the people”—the citizenry, not the politicians—are the only ones who have ever been able to enact effective change, and there is a lot that needs to change.
All of the signs point to something nasty up ahead.
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Global war
More "gun control" legislation, FDIC insure that shit.... you better stock up now...
Expect more False Flags.
And the feminazi's will try to take over the White House dungeons, AGAIN.
Sweet:
http://www.thepornster.com/video/270/white-house-dungeon-secrets
Who is John Galt?
the return of the clinton crime syndicate and the mass murderer janet reno.
And you didn't even mention Civil forteiture and several other egegious breaches of civil rights and the Constitution.
The problem is that many of the rights of "We the people" relate to a Constitutional Republic and the US ceased to be that a long time ago. Partly out of apathy and ignornace, upon which tyranny thrives. Ask 100 US citizens "What is a Constitutional Republic and how does it differ from a Democracy?" and my guess is that you would be lucky to get a single correct answer
red team, blue team it doesn't matter....
The battle for the "mind" of the average person is already lost. The question of whether the government should be involed in a given situation or not never comes up- that quaint idea has been lost to antiquity. It's now just down to an idiotic conflict of WHAT the government should do about any given situation. Everything must be either mandated or prohibited by the government.
The individual decisions the government may make matter very little. The invitation (or, more accurately, the demand) that the government be involved in everything is why the battle has already been lost.
There is the physical layer of existence that many people forget exists, when it is the Real Layer. When the invisible [man-made] layer of existence, the human-life power & privilege construct, is perceived as the only one, the mind is not one with the habitat in which it lives - it is lost. Fish out of water.
When you are lost, you find yourself subject to the "laws" of whe{n,re}ver you are lost in. It is imperative to know that those "laws" might not be Real, and "lawmakers" not Real.
Simple concepts that seem all so clear when you THINK...
We need to stand the fuck up for our rights. What the fuck is up with this BS. We need to Galt the fuck up and face whatever comes. It has to be done. No choice.
In addition I would argue that most of the country knows what's going on. They just haven't figured out how to use their own personal power correctly to defeat these cowards.
The individual who understands Liberty, yet succumbs to tyranny, is defined as a "Moral Coward" to quote Rand.
I think most have always "known" what is happening. Its simply a matter choices. When people are faced with choices they almost always choose wrongly because the wrong choice is always the easy choice. Our lives are ruled by convenience. Liberty IS the freedom of choice and as we see our choices becoming more ugly by the day, we come to realize that its has really become no choice at all...death by hanging or death by electrocution....some choice!
To go Galt is the only real choice, and is only really effective if done preemptively, but instead most will wait until they have nothing...nothing to stand upon, nothing to resist with. We will be afforded no Gultch to hide within as we know surveillance is nearly complete. We will have to become self sufficient within our own communities and our quality of life (as measured in things) will be much less. But people were happy...possibly happier, in times without flat screen TV and smart phones.
Only high end shit left on the market . If ya don't have by now to late. Got until spring , early summer at best
More T.V. shows that glorify it.
The commercials for the Military just kill me.
WTF are they fighting and dying and being maimed for?
I don't watch much tv but from what I've seen its mostly navy commercials - that's been the sweetest, safest gig for decades.
That could very well change substantially if and when the real shooting war starts in 2016.
Bringing AIDS to Africa in that commercial so im guessing human experimentation?
And Moar free money for the Banksterz...........
The Kleptoligarchy marches on!
All hail the New Rome!
To work plebeians!
An economic crash would certainly sprinkle a few tablespoons of cayenne onto the pudding. Lower highs since May, looks like we're topping out and rolling over to me, going back more than a year. Stay tuned to this station.
Fed hiked rates what in 04+? Look what happened. Market is going nowhere unless more qe is installed. Smart money got out along time ago, the machines and traders are just buying and selling any dips or rallies on thin volume.
there is absolutely no question that more QE is on the horizon, which remains one of the best stealth transfers of wealth outright to the large banks as exists - and academic economists are dumb enough, or evil enough, to keep assuring the hoi polloi that this is not only good, but the only way to go.
Lets stage a sit-in at the printing rooms... Burn it as they print it.
What's in store? Less Freedom. Count on it. We elect people to take our Rights and Freedoms away.
Rights and Freedom cannot be taken away. You either exercise them in the face of Tyranny or you surrender them to Evil..........
Exercise them in the face of tyranny and you just get your ass shot off. We're not going to win this time. Maybe not ever.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.
That is exactly where I think we are at. Big brother won.
I disagree. I hear a lot of this defeatist talk being thrown around. These guys are glass houses -- no one has really challenged them yet.
Its gonna have to come directly from the people. Each individual finding his/her own power in a sea of ignorance and chaos.
When you stand up to pseudo-liberals (ideologues), even if its just a show of self-confidence, they shrivel up and deflate like baloons.
They are terrified little children. They suffer from adult child syndrome or the disease of codependency.
The best defense is a good offense. I try to be as offensive as possible.
Evidently, your liberals are rather different from the ones I encounter. Not a bit better but much higher level of hostility and agression (Not micro type). I know one in Austin, TX I would love to pound into sand.
That is loser talk. With God anything is possible. Why do you think the commies have tried for decades to eradicate Him from everything? Was it over when the progressives bombed Pearl Harbor?
Fuck off Diaperboy.
Cheer up lads, nature will give out on us before then. If North Korea wasn't receiving all that UN food aid, even Kim Jong-un would run out of subjects to eat.
It is such a shame the NSA won't let me speak my mind. I certainly would like to say a little.
Thank you.
Who cares....Lemmy died.
He is free at last...R.I.P....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcf7DnHi54g
https://youtu.be/y0sik4yZHY8I felt like I lost an Uncle tonight when I heard that Lemmy died.
A time in music and culture we'll probably never see again.
No way - R.I.P. already? Daaamn... Dio and now Lemmy... The sun sets on the great voices of our time.
Long Live Lemmy. The pussies of today can't compare.
Just Cos You Got the Power, that don't mean you got the right.
But ... but ... but ... IMPOSSIBLE!!! I mean, if Lemmy can die, then perhaps, maybe ... Keith Richards is NOT indestructible either!!!
What kind of Satan-Spawn-GM-bio-weapons-grade-space-alien-voodoo-black-magic Cancer could possibly survive Lemmy's alcohol system anyway???? Call the cops! The CIA! The WHO! The biological weapons experts, whoever they are! This shit could be serious!
Let us now have one minute of sil- , I mean, raucous noise, thrash, speed metal in memory of Lemmy. RIP.
Condolences to friends and family, he will be sorely missed.
Wait until their fiat bucks turn to worthless. No more police state to protect the elite.
Hey, it's all fun and games in the USA!
http://www.gyfbin.com/2015/12/tgifv.html
Baseballs? sure, why not. The real fun will be the high speed projectiles.
And more citizens prepping for the climatic showdown. See u there!
Gov need,
See you there, indeed. BT
It is in our hearts. No one is backing down.
the slogan "keep freedom free" is pathetic
one should put "FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM" and carry guns
One awakened and empowered individual is stronger than 1000 Progressive/Communists
only in fiction.
Yeah, the script you've already written for yourself.
it's not a "script" it's math.
Your script seems to be to take offense when someone suggests your facile, Idealistic sloganeering belongs in the realm of fiction rather than the real world.
Your Common Core math is way off. We outnumber them several thousand to one. If they are so fucking tough, why must they ALWAYS disarm their opponent before the fight? Because the thought of a fair fight KEEPS THEM UP AT NIGHT.
And it has worked well for them in the last 70 or so years while liberty, self-determination and our Bill of Rights began disappearing around the same time.
I upvoted you because in reality, they currently hold all the cards and most of the patronage. You are correct and the down votes are deluding themselves.
Orwell was right. He only got the date wrong.
Seeing who won the latest Gallup Poll who is the most admired man, there is no doubt we're screwed.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2015/12/28/obama-...
I find the answer so disgusting, I want to puke. That moron is the worst sort of person and has doomed any professional politicians to the life of a dog catcher.
The answer also convinces me that liberalism truly is an emotional disorder. What were those stupid people thinking? Oh, right, they do not think, they parrot.
But, but, I thought all the wars we're fighting and all the troops overseas are protecting my freedoms.
All you Americans do, is talk talk talk too much! No balls exist between your gelded legs! Stop your infantile snivelling, and get onto your knees! It is, afterall, what you Americans do best!
Lots of truth in that.
Wonder where we would have been if we had a shoot, ask questions later sort of society?
Instead of a Action Jackson society, we have a blame the other team society...
Well, what the hell we s'posed to do, you moron? Stork
Don't worry, or do, depending on which side you are on. Churchill was right about us Americans
This could be the best night of our lives (Patton), but you're gonna let it be the worst (Churchill). 'Oooh Bluto, we're afraid to go with you we might get in trouble. Well not me, I'm not gonna take this!!!!......
Patton's letters to his wife were singularly enlightening. They included observations that he (Patton) felt we had 'fought the wrong people', observations developed after many interactions with his Soviet counterparts. And his observations regarding some of those that so many Allied lives were lost to liberate them were anything but salutary.
And the circumstances of Patton's death - and the the post-war deaths of those who served with him - remain highly suspicious to this day.
I could derive great satisfaction from a physical meeting with you. Oh my, did I commit a micro-agression?
Thanks to ZH for that truly depressing dose of reality.
I'm with anybody on this thread who either has gone Galt, espouses to going Galt or is GALT.
The next time any you encounter any public "official" remember that they work for you, and without you, they'd be out of a job. If they persist in annoying you, you may have to remind them of their public "servant" position.
We all will make choices. You can choose to live on your knees or die on your feet. As the great statesman and one of the Founding Fathers, Ben Franklin, so eloquently put it to his fellow revolutionaries,
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
The World is Safer for Big Government, War and Fiat Money: https://youtu.be/FaO1lTV9LG8
More government forts. Many government office buildings have been turned into forts surrounded with barricades and provided with heavily armed militarized police. Likely just in case the citizens rebel.
Personally, I think the list is silly and much too board. Most people, myself included, only care about a few of the items on it. Calling what we have in the USA "tyranny" is a insult to real tyrants all across the world. There's a reason why so many refugees seek asylum in the USA, and it's not because we're led by an oppressive, militarized fascist regime. Might be time to recalibrate your outrage. Just sayin' ...
Not up on current events much, are ya?
On May 10, 1994 an innocuously named "Combat Arms Survey" was administered to 300 active-duty Marines by a Lt. Cdr. Ernest Guy Cunnignham at the USMC’s Air-Ground Combat Center, Twenty-Nine Palms, California.
What was asked of the Marines was not so innocuous: Would they be willing to swear to a United Nations code of conduct? Would they would fire on Americans who refused to turn over their privately owned weapons to the government? Questions of like kind.
The answers were depressing, and many patriotic Marines and Navy personnel were so upset that a copy of the survey was sent to several media outlets, resulting in a minor firestorm. Cunnigham, no internationalist but a patriot, was himself stunned and horrified with the results: as he put it, "...that 85.3 percent agreed with assigning troops to a mission that violates the Posse Comitatus Act?"
Seeing that the Posse Comitatus Act had been breached nearly a decade before by employing the US military and naval forces in 'drug interdiction efforts' since 1981, this should have come as no surprise. Given the state of public eductaion today as being little more than indoctrination rather than education, this should also not come as a surprise.
All to save the kiddies from drugs, dontchaknow? And to find a new role for the MIC as the Soviet Union fell apart and the First Cold War ended. That's why there was no 'Peace Dividend'
A bogus War on Drugs to support continued military budgets while there's plenty of proof the intel agencies have been importing them into the country for decades. The so-called 'War on Drugs has resulted in militarization of local police forces, switching control via budgetary constraints from local and State to Federal. With the concomitant change in attitudes toward their paymasters, from servant to master.
The Militia Movement of the 1990's was right, after all. They only echoed what Aristotle said: "When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader." Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." And you can't do that without attempting to neutralize those voices that see the approaching tyranny and warn of it.
And for a historical perspective, quotes on tyranny from many who survived it.
Anyone with even a casual knowledge about current events knows that the first experiment on our freedoms happened long ago.
Read William Maclay's Journal. Terminal damage was done to the constitutional design within days of the opening of the first sessions of congress. They never grasped the meaning of the word "no" ... and there were no penalties for them not getting it.
Maclay's journal was not published until about 100 years after he wrote it.
https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwmj.html
For the defeatists who think we could never win...please watch:
https://youtu.be/H6b70TUbdfs
Just don't bet on it. Humans by nature are full of surprises.