You can't live in a constitutional republic if you allow the government to act like a police state.
You can't claim to value freedom if you allow the government to operate like a dictatorship.
You can't expect to have your rights respected if you allow the government to treat whomever it pleases with disrespect and an utter disregard for the rule of law.
If you're tempted to justify these draconian measures for whatever reason for the sake of health concerns, the economy, or national security beware: there's always a boomerang effect.
Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now, rest assured, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides to set its sights on you.
The war on drugs turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with SWAT teams and militarized police. The war on terror turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with warrantless surveillance and indefinite detention for those who dare to disagree.
The war on immigration turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with roving government agents demanding "papers, please."
This war on COVID-19 is turning out to be yet another war on the American people, waged with all of the surveillance weaponry and tracking mechanisms at the government's disposal. You see, when you talk about empowering government agents to screen the populace in order to control and prevent spread of this virus, what you're really talking about is creating a society in which ID cards, round ups, checkpoints and detention centers become routine weapons used by the government to control and suppress the populace, no matter the threat.
No one is safe.
No one is immune.
And as I illustrate in my new novel, The Erick Blair Diaries, no one gets spared the anguish, fear and heartache of living in a police state.
That's the message being broadcast 24/7 with every new piece of government propaganda, every new law that criminalizes otherwise lawful activity, every new policeman on the beat, every new surveillance camera casting a watchful eye, every sensationalist news story that titillates and distracts, every new prison or detention center built to house troublemakers and other undesirables, every new court ruling that gives government agents a green light to strip and steal and rape and ravage the citizenry, every school that opts to indoctrinate rather than educate, and every new justification for why Americans should comply with the government's attempts to trample the Constitution underfoot.
Yes, COVID-19 has taken a significant toll on the nation emotionally, physically, and economically, but there are still greater dangers on the horizon.
As long as "we the people" continue to allow the government to trample our rights in the so-called name of national security, things will get worse, not better.
It's already worse.
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