“An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.” — Confucius
When September 11, 2001, happened, I was a police officer and could see the proposed Patriot Act was going to be used by both Republican and Democrat big government tyrants to expand government power to restrict Americans and their Constitutional Rights. The restrictions of our rights began soon after passage of the USA Patriot Act. It came in the design of feel-good words and concepts, caused by fear. It should be called the USA Tyranny Act.
“The Patriot Act vastly expanded our domestic security apparatus and allowed the government to surveil Americans under the guise of combating terrorism. Americans are historically fine with castrating their own civil liberties, because we’d rather feel safe than actually be free, especially . . . our illusory feelings of safety . . . ” — Wajahat Ali
By reading, understanding, and applying what our founders and framers of our designed in the way our government should work and perform; gave us warning signs to look for in the narcissist’s bureaucrats and elected officials.
James Madison gave this warning, “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
The size and scope of the Federal government is supposed to be “few and defined” as James Madison again, describes the role of pluralistic governments and how they are to correspond and check one another. Another way would describe each government from the Federal to the State had boundaries and they could not violate those strict limitations:
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. . . . The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.”
FEAR IS THEIR TOOL OF CHOICE
“Discussing risks or instilling anxiety is effective at changing intentions and behavior, particularly when the behavior provides a solution to the threat,” says Dolores Albarracin, PhD, professor of psychology, business, and medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (1)
The best device and design used by those seeking to take away our freedom and liberties is the Hegelian Dialectic. Which is to create the problem, the reaction, and the solution.
“A large part of politics is getting people to think about things as part of a group,” says Christopher Federico, PhD, professor of political science and psychology at the University of Minnesota. Politicians using this strategy must first show that they (or their party) are best suited to address a specific issue. Once that is established, making people scared about that issue can cause them to seek comfort by joining the ranks of the group perceived as most capable. (1)
In this case, it would be the “group” with the solution, that allowed or caused the problem in the first place to get more power and control.
“The Federal Government is exploiting public fear to redefine the relationship between the rulers and the American people.” — James Bovard
To “redefine”, it is to remove the checks and balances placed on the Federal Government by removing the chains, limitations and boundaries placed on it by the 13 original States and delegates who drafted the document, the Constitution of the United States.
FAST FORWARD TO THE PRESENT
When 9/11 happened, Ron Paul was in Congress, representing Texas in the House of Representatives. He was spot on from issues ranging from A to Z. He was talking about the dangers of the USA Patriot Act then and still does today. The issues and concerns he warned about soon came to pass. Dr. Paul has shown repeatedly his wealth of knowledge and understanding of how things start and how they finish. He has shown repeatedly sound credibility.
In the attached video below, Dr. Paul warns Americans, if the Restrict Act becomes law that it will chip away at the First Amendment.
“Supporters of expanding the Federal Police State have found a new boogie man to scare the people into surrendering their liberty” and will “restrict more than TikTok”. Dr. Paul warns us further that, “What the bill does do is give the Secretary of Commerce power to identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate any risk arising from any covered transaction by any person or with respect to any property that the Secretary of Commerce determines, poses an undue or unacceptable risk and a laundry list of areas.”
“Among those areas are coercive or criminal activities by a foreign adversary that are designed to undermine democratic processes and institutions or steer policy and regulatory decisions in favor of the strategic objectives of a foreign adversary to the detriment of the national security of the United States.”
Dr. Paul goes on to say how the TikTok controversy has “taken attention away from the disturbing Twitter files a release of communication between Twitter employees and governmental agencies. Their communication shows how much government influences big tech companies’ decisions regarding suppressing stories and de-platforming users.”
“If the Restrict Act becomes the Restrict law, any site that refuses to cooperate with future efforts by the US government to suppress certain stories and individuals on social media could find itself accused of working to advance the strategic objectives of a foreign adversary.”
Finally, in his closing remarks, Dr. Paul says, “Like the Patriot Act, the Restrict Act plays on people’s fears to make them silent. While Congress takes away more of their liberty. This bill is blatant violation of the First Amendments that the Founders intended to protect our right to engage in political speech and share political information and opinions with others.”
Please listen to the embedded video of Dr. Paul explaining the issue in more detail. I have found him to be a voice of reason in these confusing times.
