Author’s note: this work in progress began while Barack Obama was still in office. Now Trump is out and Joe Biden sits on his Oval Office throne and signs orders while Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats take away our freedoms one by one.
This post is frequently updated as our freedoms and liberties are stripped away by Democrats and authoritarian big government. Here is the newest content:
September 27, 2022: freedom from hunger starts with freedom from the Biden economy.
September 24, 2022: Freedom is what Democrats allow you to do.
August 26, 2022: Making America great means reclaiming our fundamental freedoms.
How many American freedoms have disappeared since 2009 while the Democratic Party used our representative government against us? The Recovery Act handed Americans a massive deficit as record unemployment persisted, stripping millions of their freedom from want. Strong rhetoric and a pledge from Republicans to repeal Obamacare went nowhere, leaving our freedom of choice for our health care to the government. Tax rates have gone up for middle class and wealthy taxpayers alike. Threats from nuclear proliferation and violence against Americans have escalated. How did the country respond? We put the same man back in the White House and kept Democrats in charge of the Senate.
American freedoms are not confined to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Not all of our freedoms and rights are spelled out in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We expect the freedom to educate our kids with our tax dollars as we see fit. The right to choose our health care provider is something many will kiss goodbye as employers drop health insurance plans because of Obamacare.
We expect the freedom from harm, a not unreasonable demand, given the amount we pay for defense. Franklin Roosevelt has been used as a Democratic excuse for whacking the 22nd Amendment.¹ Did Democrats forget that freedom from fear was one of his fundamental four freedoms? We lost that one, too, holding ourselves powerless in the face of a nuclear North Korea, threats of a nuclear Iran, and the killing of Americans in the Muslim world.
Knee-jerk partisanship does not imply vision.
Barack Obama is no FDR. One wonders if he could articulate four freedoms he would guarantee to Americans. He is no Ronald Reagan or JFK, either. Regardless of your partisan leanings, there is no vision in this White House. Instead, we have knee-jerk partisanship masquerading as a long-range plan.
In the wake of an ugly December 2010 congressional spending battle and the shootings that injured Gabrielle Giffords, Democrats tried to stifle freedom of speech by demanding that political rhetoric be toned down (see: Arizona Tragedy: Only Fools Make Sense of Crazy), threatening a constitutional guarantee and another of FDR’s four freedoms while they blamed partisanship for bloodshed. Will the newest government tyranny come as an overreaching effort to control guns and violence in our society?
This is what government tyranny does to our freedoms.
We lost our freedom for our kids to participate in an education system that uses public money to nurture learning. Instead, Democrats subordinated children’s needs to spending on pensions and benefits for teachers, appeasing unions, and making sure that resources are spread thin enough to provide free education for the children of illegal immigrants.
We lost our freedom to protect our democracy when the government decided that states should be sued for checking identification to determine whether citizens or illegals were entering our voting booths (see: Seven Reasons to Endorse the Idea of Illegal Immigrants Voting).
We lost our freedom to choose our health care system by putting the government in the driver’s seat. At least when the private sector determined our health care costs we had the freedom to say no. Now we have threats of fines and penalties.
We lost our freedom from unreasonable taxation as demands to tax the wealthy turned into a tax increase on everyone. What makes the Obama tax rates so unreasonable? Not only are they based on the lie of no middle class tax hike, the money will be spent as quickly as it is collected.
We lost our freedom to decide what our kids eat in school as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act imposed the government’s views on childhood nutrition, baiting school districts with education funds.
Many Americans are still searching for their freedom from want, another of FDR’s four freedoms, as the president and his advisers demonstrate their appalling ignorance of how capitalism works and what makes a free market economy prosper.
Nuclear legislation is government tyranny, too.
No, not nuclear as in North Korea and Iran. Nuclear as in blowing up the barn to let the horse out.
In the predictable partisan aftermath of the Newtown tragedy there has been some heavy maneuvering by the White House. When you hear phrases like “serious and complex”² coming out of Washington, you can bet we are headed for trouble. What started as calls for an assault weapons ban has turned into this:
If we’re going to change things, it’s going to take a wave of Americans — mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, pastors, law enforcement, mental health professionals — and, yes, gun owners — standing up and saying ‘enough’ on behalf of our kids.”³
A White House blog post talks about Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius getting in on the action, about community organizations, business owners, medical groups, and the entertainment and video game industries.4 Democrats are likely swooning at the thought of the grants and giveaways this opportunity presents, all in the name of saving children whose future is already on shaky ground, thanks to the spending cuts that will fall by the wayside as Congress diverts the nation’s attention with a hot button issue like gun control. Like prosperity, it could be a long time before the freedoms Democrats have taken away return. If they ever get their hands on the 22nd Amendment, those American freedoms will be gone for good.
UPDATE February 11, 2018: your rights and freedoms four years later.
Five years have passed since this post was published. Republicans think they are in charge, but little has changed. In fact, the rights and freedoms we fought to preserve while Obama was president are in greater jeopardy that ever.
These are some of things tyranny from the Democratic left brought us since Trump took over:
1.Democrats shut down the government on behalf of the same illegal immigrants they didn’t start on a path to citizenship even when they had a congressional majority.
2.The LGBT community forced a Supreme Court case over whether a small business can refuse to bake a cake.
3. Republican voters are vilified for the choice they made at the polls. Even members of their own party made the shrewd calculation that political fortune is better served by siding with the opposition and refusing to support Trump.
Think Graham, Flake, McCain, and a host of others. Then think about the fundamental pillar of our democracy that Democrats claim is about to go under: the right to vote for the candidate of our choice.
4. We lost the freedom to afford health care. Insurance premiums are so expensive and insurers so scarce that being protected from the catastrophe of an uninsured major illness is more dangerous for many than taking a chance.
Republicans had a hand in this. They promised better and delivered nothing except a repeal of the insurance mandate that further destabilized the market.
5. We allowed a rash of assault and harassment accusations from liberal Hollywood to deny reasonable doubt, the presumption of innocence, and ultimately due process rights to the accused despite the passage of years and the fortunes made by accusers who hitched their careers to power players who create fame.
This trend swept over the rest of the nation and recently took down White House aide Rob Porter. In our Democratically-moderated liberal society an accusation proves guilt.
6. College campuses increasingly deny freedom of speech to anyone endorsing right of center beliefs. A rally for the right means angry protest, violence, disruption, and arrests under the presumption that only liberal beliefs are acceptable.
7. Your money still isn’t yours and a tax break isn’t a tax break if Americans who pay the most get one too. Republicans put some money back in your pocket so you can decide how to spend it. There is nothing that speaks to freedom like being able to decide what to do with what you work so hard to earn.
UPDATE June 24, 2018: freedom to choose your beliefs is gone, too
An absolutely appalling news story about Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders circulated yesterday after she was kicked out of a restaurant in Virginia on Friday. There is no need to elaborate on the details. The message is clear: believe what Democrats want you to believe, or get out.
The left is winning the war of words and with that victory one our fundamental freedoms is gone: the freedom to choose your political beliefs.
Fortunately most of us don’t stand out because of what we believe, though you may find yourself whispering in public places when the discussion turns to current events or politics. The left uses the symbolism of Nazi Germany against the Trump administration. Now we need to consider how long it will be before businesses start to ban conservative talk or we find signs in windows that Republicans are not welcome.
When a baker refused to bake a cake for a gay couple he was sued. When a Republican entered a restaurant she was kicked out. Does that tell you anything about where our freedoms are headed?
UPDATE July 22, 2018: freedoms taken away by liberal federal judiciary
This post is about freedoms for Americans but these aren’t the only freedoms we need to worry about. At some point giving freedoms to others impinges on our own liberties as citizens of a sovereign nation.
What would liberal Democrats do without California judges?
Federal judges in California blocked joint Trump administration-Justice Department policies on sanctuary cities, border trespassers, and flight security.
Earlier this month Judge John Mendez stomped down on policies designed to limit California’s sanctuary laws. According to The Hill, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra saw this as a boon to citizens’ security.
Meanwhile, ICE sweeps across the nation argue otherwise as the agency rounds up criminal illegal immigrants Democrats pretend don’t exist.
Last week it was a San Diego judge who refused to allow the deportation of migrant families recently taken into custody, separated, and reunited. Last year is was Trump’s “Muslim ban.” In January it was his plan to halt DACA amnesty.
You get the idea. One judge in a state that makes a point of being liberal beyond reason and intelligence has the right to enforce California law and politics across the country. That changes how your state and local governments enforce the law and empowers cities like Chicago that already have sanctuary policies to protect criminals.
America is a sovereign nation. That is changing. Taxpaying citizens are forced to take in anyone from anywhere at any time because it suits the whims of one man or woman in one state that repeatedly thumbs its nose at anything vaguely representing conservative policy. When that happens we lose our freedom and as everyone knows, when the government gives something away it is very difficult to take it back.
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Wow, the RWNJ is strong with this one.
I’m listening, John.
Obama signed a bill to allow the media to profess false narratives for the peoples ow good HR4310
freedom from harm is not a reasonable freedom. Freedom from unjust aggression is reasonable, and the primary reason for government.
Thanks for your remarks, Ed. Interesting how some of what’s happening now at the hands of government could be considered unjust aggression, like the searches they conducted in Rhode Island looking for New Yorkers. It’s difficult to know where to draw the line between government overreach and the public interest, but that was quite a line to cross.
Obama is tearing our nation apart. and he is banking on the ignorant that don’t pay attention. obama has a shady past and i am not convinced that he is a true citizen of the united states. If you vote democrat you are voting to end america as a freedom country. Obama is taking it all away and people are not paying attention. when it’s gone and you are under the control of a dictator you will wish you had paid attention. but this country has been under attack before obama but now it’s speeded up so much it will be a miracle if we can keep it
We’ll find out next week how well people are paying attention, won’t we, Sandy? I agree, it’s pretty amazing that no matter how bad things are or how misguided the actions of public officials, they still manage to convince people to support what they do. Watch what happens in the Illinois governor’s race next week. If Pat Quinn wins, it’s a pretty good sign that we are truly lost.
People do not understand how the Democrats and the Obama administration are slowly strangling the very freedoms that the Revolution was fought for. The facts are clear when you see the Constitution being trampled on by Obama, and then realize that he could not pass a gun owner background check, which is why he has sealed “ALL” of his records.
If congress were to pass any new legislation on background checking it must include the requirement that “ALL” politicians running for public office must “PASS” those requirements or be disqualified.
As it stands right now, Obama could not ” PASS” a standard FBI check from the details that were written in his book, which is why his certification was challenged. The judges that had cases before them refused to hear the arguments and thusly dismissed those cases. What gutless wonders we have in the justice system including the Supreme Court.