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Originally Posted by GhettoDogAllStars
True. However, it's not about suppression by force. Nobody would stand for that. The federal government has slowly taken away liberties since its creation. That is what I would like to see stop.
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I actually think our government provides FAR more liberties than the Founders envisioned. Just to name a few such liberties: (1) freedom for slaves (black people didn't fare to well under our Forefathers); (2) freedom for women (sex discrimination was sanctioned by the government in 1776 and women were treated as property of their husbands); (3) freedom for Native Americans (we haven't given them small pox ridden blankets in a little while); (4) the right to privacy (which, the Supreme Court only recently recognized); (5) substantive due process; (6) free public schooling; (7) social security and medicare; (8) the right to an abortion (regardless of what you think of it, it is a newly recognized constitutional right); (9) far more liberties for the press (read the Alien & Sedition Act); (10) the right not to be imprisoned for failing to pay debts; (11) the right to speech has been broadened in NUMEROUS ways (people used to be imprisoned for speaking out against WWI and the draft, it used to be a criminal offense in some states to distribute a pamphlet showing a woman's thigh, etc); (12) the right to unionize (unions used to be prosecuted under the Sherman Anti-trust Act as illegal conspiracies to restrain trade); (13) the right to workplace safety (see OSHA); and (14) the right for adults between the age of 18 and 21 to vote. Every Amendment to the Constitution (save Prohibition) since the 19th century (13th through 27th)expanded our rights. The list goes on and on.
Or, look at WWII when our government interned Japanese American citizens en masse in internment camps. And that was after a government attacked a military installation, it did not take place after "hidden" terrorists attacked civilian buildings. Can you honestly see our government doing that today? Our government also
summarily executed "enemy combatants" who were U.S. citizens in WWII. Not so today, see the controversy over guys like Jose Padilla.
It is a myth is that we have fewer rights today than we did in 1776. But don't believe me, talk to any constitutional law scholar. The scope of rights provided by the Constitution and by acts of Congress has been consistently broadened.
Our rights have been expanded for many reasons. First, mass media jumps over infringements of civil liberties. Two, people expect a hell of a lot more today out of our government than they did 50, 100, 200 years ago. People think they have an
inherent right to health care, subsidies, social security etc. Three, watchdog groups like the ACLU are fighting the government in court every day. As much as conservatives hate the ACLU, few of them realize that the ACLU is the epitome of a conservative organization.