Forum Post: The State of Liberty in America

The world is a cruel place Mr. poorconservative. There is nothing fair about it. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The wealthy can buy politicians to insure and increase their wealth and the politicians go right along with them to get their share of the action. The wealth of many senators increases while in office by a factor of 3, 4, sometimes 5 times their actual salary. Where does this money come from? Lobbyists write laws actually create legislation which is put before our congress the peoples branch by the way. Many politicians may be fooled, still others bought and the few that still have integrity are ignored. The pharmaceutical companies alone have more lobbyists in Washington than there are members of congress. In 2010 there were 12,964 lobbyists in Washington. In that same year those same lobbyists gave over 3 billion dollars to various campaigns and institutions to "influence" our democracy.

The Supreme Court the last bastion of freedom for the American people came up with new rules to decide a Presidential Election in direct disregard for the will of the American people. Never mind that there were allegations of fraud, or that the candidates brother was the governor of the state where the incident took place. Nevermind the will of the people.

Upon election the new president appointed a new Chief Justice to the Supreme Court. With a new 5-4 conservative majority. This new court has turned back the clock on civil liberties, segregation.

With the stroke of a pen that court decided that corporations were people and that the money that they give to our leaders to influence our democracy is a form of constitutionally protected speech. Over and over again proving itself not to be the protector of Americans and their liberties. But the protector of big business and the defender of the federal government.

We disregard our constitution and the very spirit of this nation. By using our military to kill an American Citizen abroad without access to the legal system.

Apparently American citizens may now be executed by the president through the means of the military without ever having been convicted of a crime. I am sure that ANWAR AL-AWLAKI was a terrorist. I am sure he was a very dangerous man. But I am also sure that he was an American citizen and he was declared guilty and executed by our government without ever standing trial for any crime.

What kind of precedent are we sending? The War on Terror is no doubt important and we must protect ourselves and defend ourselves as a nation.

But if we become the very thing we are fighting in the process where is the victory? American citizens can now be detained as enemy combatants by the very word of the president or attorney general. In total disregard for Habeaus Corpus, being denied access to the legal system, one of the most basic rights granted to every citizen.

The government can spy on us without a warrant. There is a case this year before the Supreme Court where the FBI put a GPS device on a drug dealers car without a warrant which led to his arrest. Where has the right to privacy gone? How did this case even make it this far? Just because someone is a drug dealer doesn't mean they aren't protected by the same constitution that we are.

The most egregious affront on our liberties was passed in the form of the Patriot Act just shortly after 9/11. Many in congress admitted that they never even read the thing.

Our constitution says that only the Senate has the power to declare war, yet for decades the executive has been allowed to blatantly disregard the Constitution which is explicit in requiring a formal declaration to enter into war.

Declaring war is the most serious and costly tax that falls on the American People for it is a tax on our very lives. And that tax I can assure you falls almost exclusively on the poor and middle class.

Our rights are derived not from the government but from the consent of the governed. But somehow our government has fallen under the impression that these rights are negotiable, that these rights are optional, that our constitution is a rough guide.

Our constitution is the supreme law of this land. It has guided us for over 200 hundred years. Brave men and women throughout our history have given their lives in the defense of it. They fought not for our government. They fought for that document. For that beacon of liberty which guarantees to every American equal protection under the law, the right to a speedy trial, the right not to incriminate one's self, the freedom of speech, the press, petition and assembly and the right to be secure in ones possessions.

We are here today begging the American people to stand up with us and with one united voice say that this is America and we are a nation of laws, the most paramount of which is our constitution. And we will no longer accept the systematic erosion of our liberties. We are a free people and we will never accept the heavy yolk of tyranny. We will not be oppressed by this system because it was designed that such action does not and will never be within the law.