In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical
question with regard to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September
11th era: Is America becoming a police state?
The question is no longer
rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast
approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic
protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001
has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport
to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty. But security and
liberty go hand-in-hand. Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t
understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be
secure. History proves that societies crumble when their governments become
more powerful than the people and private institutions.
Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by
Congress two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state by
imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card. Within two years,
every American will need a “conforming” ID to deal with any federal agency—including TSA at the airport.
Undoubtedly many Americans and
members of Congress don’t believe America is becoming a police state, which is
reasonable enough. They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols of
authoritarianism like military patrols, martial law, and summary executions. But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation for tyranny by
making the public more docile, more accustomed to government bullying, and more
accepting of arbitrary authority- all in the name of security. Our love for
liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our
privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate
inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects
poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American
history, at least in part, is a history of people who don’t like being told what
to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents
to run our lives.
Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11
are used to achieve complacency and obedience, especially when citizens are
deluded into believing they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we
are assured, will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary. Many citizens believe
that once the war on terror is over, restrictions on their liberties will be
reversed. But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy and
no expressly stated final goal. Terrorism will never be eradicated completely;
does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary war powers
indefinitely?
Washington DC provides a vivid
illustration of what our future might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill
encounter police barricades, metal detectors, paramilitary officers carrying
fully automatic rifles, police dogs, ID checks, and vehicle stops. The people
are totally disarmed; only the police and criminals have guns. Surveillance
cameras are everywhere, monitoring street activity, subway travel, parks, and
federal buildings. There's not much evidence of an open society in Washington,
DC, yet most folks do not complain—anything goes if it's for
government-provided safety and security.
After all, proponents argue, the
government is doing all this to catch the bad guys. If you don’t have anything
to hide, they ask, what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I’m afraid of
losing the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear. I’m
afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens to prove their
innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing. Most of all, I’m
afraid of living in a society where a subservient populace surrenders its
liberties to an all-powerful government.
It may be true that average Americans
do not feel intimidated by the encroachment of the police state. Americans
remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances because they have been
deluded into believing total government supervision is necessary and helpful,
and because they still enjoy a high level of material comfort. That tolerance
may wane, however, as our standard of living falls due to spiraling debt,
endless deficit spending at home and abroad, a declining fiat dollar, inflation,
higher interest rates, and failing entitlement programs. At that point
attitudes toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward
authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
Those who believe a police state
can't happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or
not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free
people. END
