By Adam LoBelia
If you believe Republican talking points then you must think we are living in the most dangerous times this country’s known. Forget a civil war, two world wars and a nuclear-backed enemy. President Bush insists our newest paranoia, Islamic terrorists, who are less organized and less powerful than past enemies, pose the greatest threat to western civilization ever.
Instead of fearing terrorists, consider these three problems that should make Americans pause:
1. The War on Terror: We’re losing it. Global terrorism has not lowered since invading Iraq. What started as a justifiable action in Afghanistan has turned into a botched conflict, only increasing anti-American sentiment in the region. Bush insists we must trust him to perform wiretaps without our knowledge against people we don’t know, while our government secretly arrests people and holds them without trial. It is considered dangerous for Americans to know why people are being arrested. No fear, Big Brother Bush is here.
2. The Federal Government: The Founding Fathers understood centralized power was the biggest threat to the people, so they created one of the most frustrated forms of democracy known to man. This apparatus has been slowly dismantled, and while many presidents played a role in weakening the system of checks and balances, none has done so quite as flagrantly as Bush.
In addition, the fiscal policy of this administration is rediculous. Lowering taxes helps economic prosperity. But you cannot lower taxes and then engage in ridiculously expensive projects, such as warfare and entitlements. No country can maintain this. Sadly, many Americans do not seem to grasp that while they have a limited amount of money to spend, the government has unlimited credit. This administration has foisted an economic destiny that is anything but liberating and fair.
Less apparent, but just as dangerous, is the erosions under this administration can easily be furthered by the next administration, regardless of who wins the 2008 election. Imagine an endlessly growing state, soon to be completed with reinforcing laws and no means of stopping it. Didn’t we fight a war to break free from something like this? No, not quite. England was a lot more transparent and fair than what we’re heading toward.
3. Division: America is in danger of vanishing into a morass of tribalism that rivals the Balkans in intensity, though thankfully not in ferocity, yet. There are Red states and Blue states that happen to exist in a land called “America,” but they seem to have less and less in common each day.
Divide and conquer is what our government worried about the Communists doing to us. Yet, turn on the television and you’ll hear reasons to hate Californians or North Carolinians with the fury of a thousand suns. Both parties freely engage in the practice, but Republicans have turned the practice into a matter of political survival. What began as the “Southern Strategy,” has turned into “LOL, San Francisco.”
If this keeps up, then who’s to say it’ll stop? Where is it written that America has to be a functioning democracy forever?
Fear the terrorists Americans are told, but the most a terrorist can do is kill me; they can’t tell me what to say, what to do, what to wear, or what to worship. I don’t allow them that power and they can’t take it from me. But my own government can, and it certainly looks like it wants to.
Living in a free society means you may be killed by your enemies. That’s the price of freedom. This attitude exists in Israel, which has a real problem with terrorists. Every citizen of Israel understands they’re on front lines at all times, and you don’t see their government wiretapping ordinary people, or harassing their own citizens or throwing trial by jury out the window.
If the Israelis can do it, why can’t we? If this doesn’t stop soon, it’ll be a moot point. And you don’t want to know a world where American liberties are a moot point.