How to tell if you are in a tyrannical police state

[Lobotomy Boy]

The nice thing about democracies and republics is that citizens can take back that power by participating at the ballot box. This method is both cheaper and easier than the more traditional methods throughout history if only people will use it instead of sit bac and complain.

This assumes that we have a legitimate candidate to vote for. In this last election we had a choice between Bush and Kerry. To me that was no choice at all. I couldn't in good conscience vote for either one of them. If I had been forced to, I believe I would have voted for Kerry because I had already come to the conclusion that Bush was a dangerous despot. But I couldn't vote for Kerry so I voted for Badnarik. In hindsight it appears that perhaps I should have selected what I truly believe was the lesser of two evils.

 

[Michigander]

Badnarik is as far LEFT as Bush is far RIGHT.

Not hardly in either case!

 

[72Rover]

Choices

This assumes that we have a legitimate candidate to vote for. In this last election we had a choice between Bush and Kerry.... In hindsight it appears that perhaps I should have selected what I truly believe was the lesser of two evils.

Sadly, all too true....

I have voted in every election since '72 (Soon after the '68 election, the voting age was dropped to 18, so I got gyped out of one.) In all those elections, I have only voted FOR an individual once. (John Anderson in '80.) Every other vote has been against one chap and for lesser of two perceived evils.

I can remember campaigning for Barry Goldwater, arguable the 'father' of the modern, neo-con movement. If he was around today, he'd be a *Democrat*....

Cheers

 

[Zundfolge]

Badnarik is as far LEFT as Bush is far RIGHT.

One way we are easily controlled is with simple Left vs. Right political thinking.

The big lie is that there are only two sides of every issue, left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal, Us vs. Them.

Looking at politics two dimensionally is as deadly as looking at air to air combat two dimensionally.


Politics is at least three dimensional ... http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

 

[spartacus2002]

One way we are easily controlled is with simple Left vs. Right political thinking.

The big lie is that there are only two sides of every issue, left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal, Us vs. Them.

Looking at politics two dimensionally is as deadly as looking at air to air combat two dimensionally.

True. Instead of the Ds and Rs being on either end of a rope playing tug-of-war, in actuality they are holding hands and merrily skipping together towards a police state.

 

[Herself]

Badnarik is as far LEFT as Bush is far RIGHT.

Not hardly in either case!

Portait of a supposed hardly-leftwinger:
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2004/tle279-20040711.html

Now don't you wish you'd voted for him? (Maybe you don't. That's okay. Vote for the candidate who best suits you).

--Herself

 

[yonderway]

This assumes that we have a legitimate candidate to vote for. In this last election we had a choice between Bush and Kerry.

Untrue. There were about 5 or 6 candidates for president on my ballot.

 

[JohnKSa]

There were about 5 or 6 candidates for president on my ballot.

You can also write in anyone you want to--but they won't win either. There have been only two REAL presidential candidates in every race so far in your lifetime and that will almost certainly hold true for the rest of your lifetime as well.

 

[rock jock]

I love these posts that mention Badnarik. I have heard him speak and the guy is a loon.

On topic, I thin it depends on your POV. Texas is not nearly a police state, but California..............................

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

One way we are easily controlled is with simple Left vs. Right political thinking.

The big lie is that there are only two sides of every issue, left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal, Us vs. Them.

Looking at politics two dimensionally is as deadly as looking at air to air combat two dimensionally.

I've long maintained that if there is a clear division, it's not between liberal and conservative but between liberty and tyranny. In the past couple of weeks it's becoming increasingly clear which side of that divide people are coming down on.

 

[TallPine]

I love these posts that mention Badnarik. I have heard him speak and the guy is a loon.

And that makes him different from Kerry/Bush how....?

 

[Attala_County]

I would say about 6-20 yrs. till we have a police state.

 

[Michigander]

My comment about Badnarik being as left as Bush was right was a tongue-in-cheek reply to a previous post (that has apparently since been deleted or revised) in which someone said Badnarik was "so far left."

As for us vs. them, that is exactly what it is. Anyone who doesn't see that has their head in the sand. It is us, the people who believe in the Constitution vs. them, primarily in the government, and the ignorant masses who keep re-electing that government, who either despise, ignore, or are ignorant of the Constitution.

The sad part is, there are way too many of "us" who also fall into the category of "masses who keep re-electing that government."

 

[joab]

Portait of a supposed hardly-leftwinger:

Now don't you wish you'd voted for him?

 

[Henry Bowman]

I've long maintained that if there is a clear division, it's not between liberal and conservative but between liberty and tyranny.

And that often correlates to rural vs. urban. In a democracy, the urban numbers dominate and control. In a republic, the inalienable rights of a minority are protected. But that assumes that the Constitution is respected and followed.

 

[R.H. Lee]

Exactly. A democracy is tyranny of the majority; it's like two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for supper. A Constitutional Republic OTOH is governed by the rule of law and inherent individual rights that cannot be compromised on the whim of whatever majority prevails at any given time.

 

[Otherguy Overby]

Left v right

I've a problem. I can't for the life of me see/think George Bush is right wing. He's pretty far left of center and the only people to the left of bush are the majority of the democratic party and the moon bats. Much of the Republican party is well to the right of Bush. Sheesh, Zell Miller is a light year to the right of Bush and he's my opinion of middle of the road.

In this day and age it seems the voting public mostly wants commie handouts and feel good policy which tends to rule out their voting for anything coming from the true right. They just can't say no to spending someone else's money.

If someone wants government programs and handouts, they just want someone else (armed government) to pick your pockets. It's for the children...

[/end rant]

 

[veloce851]

More like "California State Line". New Jersey doesn't have state border checkpoints... CA does.

I'm curious where this checkpoint is at, and how old it is.
Google Earth varies on the age of image.

 

[Old Dog]

I'm curious where this checkpoint is at, and how old it is.

I think the poster was referring to the "Agricultural Inspection Stations" one must pass through after entering California from the Oregon, Nevada and Arizona state lines ... Only other "checkpoint" I know of (besides the border crossing stations to Mexico) is the Border Patrol check station at San Onofre on I-5 northbound ...

 

[Herself]

(photo of John Kerry queasily clutching a fancy shotgun omitted for brevity)

Let's see: shotgun snob, whose quoted pronouncements on hunting make it clear that he doesn't have even Clue One about the subject, let alone self-defense vs. a Texan only too happy to be photgraphed lugging around an Evil Black Gun or a nice, concealable handgun. Not really the same, is it?

Kerry was geeking for votes. If there had been a biting-the-heads-off-chickens segment of the electoratre he needed to win over, he would have tried that, too.

Badnarik, like him or loathe him, is an actual gun guy. He shoots. He likes guns. He understands the natural right to self defense. There are plenty of areas where J. Average HighRoader might not agree with him (and why should you?) but on guns, he actually gets it.

--Herself

 

[joab]

Let's see: shotgun snob, whose quoted pronouncements on hunting make it clear that he doesn't have even Clue One about the subject, let alone self-defense vs. a Texan only too happy to be photgraphed lugging around an Evil Black Gun or a nice, concealable handgun. Not really the same, is it?

Texans lie just like blue bloods do, whether they're mugging for the camera with a shotgun or a handgun

The day my vote is swayed by a publicity photo for any candidate, I'll quit voting

 

[Walter]

How to tell if you are in a tyrannical police state

Try crossing our international border, north or south, with a legally
owned handgun. You will see the workings of a "tyrannical police
state" up close and personal.
My opinion.

Walter

 

[david_the_greek]

thankful

wow I was really begining to get worried that I was the only one in this country who was concerned. I don't know what I would do if i didn't have this site to vent/observe on. Plus its helping me get my very first self bought pistol. Such a service to the people and it asks for nothing in return. I wish everything was this good

 

[oldfart]

How to tell if we're living in a police state, eh?

Well, for starters, very few of us would even realize it. Our 'frogs' would have been cooked so slowly we'd never even have noticed the increasingly higher temperatures. Still, some would notice and a few of them would try to do something about it. Of course they'd either be ridiculed, discredited or crushed long before they had a chance to draw an audience. Any who might have had their personal 'line in the sand' violated and then taken action in an attempt to correct that infringement would simply be eliminated and their reputations destroyed with "new information" about their personal lives. Charges of child molestation or racism are always good ways to turn people away from an erstwhile leader and justify his/her death.

But, supposing we were in a position to see things objectively, what should we look for?

The weather has been really crummy lately and I seem to have screwed up my back, so I was sitting around reading today. I had a copy of "Revolt in 2100," by Robert Heinlein on the shelf, so I picked it up. For those of you who may not have read it, the story concerns a revolution against a religious tyranny. Heinlein, a pretty smart guy, wrote "...secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy . . . censorship. When any government, or any Church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything-- you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

Never mind all the people who've been killed amid charges they had sex with children or they were white supremacists or drug dealers-- we've heard all those stories before. Instead, consider secret courts that can issue secret warrants for secret searches. Consider secret "requests" for medical records, e-mail records, even library records and the fact that those who have been forced to fill those "requests" are forbidden to tell the person who is the object of the inquiry.

All in the name of security... a noble, dare I say a "holy" cause?

Not only is our frog cooked but I think our goose is too.

 

[Old Dog]

Instead, consider secret courts that can issue secret warrants for secret searches. Consider secret "requests" for medical records, e-mail records, even library records and the fact that those who have been forced to fill those "requests" are forbidden to tell the person who is the object of the inquiry.

In a real police state ... no one ever finds out that this sort of thing is being done, nor would every single media outlet and journalist in a police state be allowed to report on this happening. Nor would citizens be allowed to freely debate over the government's actions on an internet forum.

So, if you're trying to say WE are living in a tyrannical police state in the U.S., I say "nay."