The End of the Republic

by

        M. Richard Maxson

      The events of 9/11 will most likely be remembered by future historians as the end of the Republic. First the terrorists attacked us—and then, in the name of national security, we began to attack ourselves. We enacted The Patriot Act, a dagger to the heart of the Constitution in a country where it was already struggling for breath. Ever since Congress, on a fully bipartisan basis, enacted the Patriot Act six weeks after the attacks on 9/11, we have lived in a surveillance state where the Constitutional guarantees are over-ridden in the name of national security. This special, unconstitutional law designed for an apparent emergency, has become a permanent addition. The government’s technology now monitor all of our electronic devices, listen to our phone calls, and read our emails and text messages. Secret courts that do the bidding of those who have agendas that would not be legal in a proper court. Once-rare applications for surveillance warrants to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have multiplied many times in relative peacetime and have almost nothing to do with combating terrorism. It does have to do with Deep State politics.

      The Patriot Act was supposedly designed to fight the unique problem of terrorism. It quickly morphed into a mechanism by which the state keeps constant tabs on law-abiding Americans with different political views other than their own and those who ask the wrong kinds of questions about what is actually happening in public.

      What we have is a surveillance state controlled by the national security crowd pandering to the wishes of the un-elected elite and when you couple that with an executive branch willing to weaponize its mountains of information against its perceived political enemies, and the country has got a frightening problem it’s our hands. Act contrary to those in power and have your life disrupted forever...or worse. If you are passionate about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I believe there is no higher priority than addressing this danger.

      Throughout human history, the deterioration of freedom has been accompanied by oppression, corruption and enslavement. The suggestion to curtail some freedoms in the name of “saving our democracy”, is reminiscent of tyrants such as Stalin, Hitler and Mao. It doesn't matter what rights you have under the Constitution of the United States, if the government can punish you for exercising those rights such as having an opposing view. And it doesn't matter what limits the Constitution puts on government officials' power, if they can exceed those limits without any adverse consequences.

       The Constitution cannot protect you, if you don't protect the Constitution with your votes against anyone who violates it. Those government officials who want more power are not going to stop unless they get stopped. As long as millions of Americans vote on the basis of who gives them free stuff, look for their freedom -- and all our freedom -- to be eroded away, bit by bit. Our children and grandchildren may yet come to see the Constitution as just some quaint words from the past that people once took seriously. Some of yours already do.