Yes.
Okay, we haven't transformed ourselves into the Soviet States of America, at least not yet. Hey, the fact that your humble blogger can spam up the Interwebs with his blasphemous rants without having to worry about being hauled off to the gulag by federal agents is a prima facie argument that we do still enjoy some freedoms in this country. But it's equally true that we have become a more authoritarian nation over the course of my lifetime. September 11 may have been the spark that lit the fuse, but the groundwork was laid many years before, and one of the cruel ironies of the present day is that the election of our first African-American President has only seemed to hasten, not slow down, the Republic's rush toward militarism and empire. I know a lot of folks on our side of the ideological aisle haven't wanted to acknowledge this reality because it reflects badly on Team Democrat, and because doing so puts us in league with a bunch of libertarian goldbugs. But given the current composition of our government and courts, which have granted the state ever-more expansive police powers for decades now, in the future we may need to form our political alliances wherever we can find them. Hang together or hang separately, people.
---Baron V
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