Both liberals and conservatives are convinced that the biggest threat to our freedom and well-being lies with Russia and China. And, well, also the terrorists, Muslims, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, North Koreans, Cubans, Syrians, Vietnamese, communists, Reds, and others.
They are wrong. The biggest threat to our freedom and well-being is our very own federal government, especially the national-security branch of the federal government.
The Framers clearly understood this. That’s why the Constitution strictly limited the powers of federal officials.
Our American ancestors also clearly understood this. That’s why they demanded the enactment of the Bill of Rights. They knew that the federal government would inevitably attract people who would destroy their fundamental, God-given rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. With the Bill of Rights, they wanted to make it clear to all those future little federal power-mongers that they lacked the powers to engage in such destruction.
No Russian and no Chinese has ever infringed upon my freedom. The same holds true for all the other things that scare liberals and conservatives to death (i.e, the terrorists, Muslims, illegal immigrants, drug dealers, Cubans, North Koreans, Vietnamese, commies, Reds, Syrians, etc.)
The same can’t be said, of course, for the federal government. It not only has destroyed our freedom, it has also threatened our economic well-being with its out-of-control federal spending and debt as well as its decades of monetary debauchery. Currently, it is getting us perilously close to life-destroying nuclear war, just as it did back in 1962.
Consider American socialism, which is best manifested by income taxation, Social Security, and Medicare, which are the crown jewels of America’s welfare-state way of life. Operating through the coercive and terrifying apparatus of the IRS, the feds forcibly take money from young people in order to give it to seniors. They say that socialism reflects our collective “care and compassion.” But freedom entails the right to keep everything you earn and decide for yourself what to do with it, with charity being totally voluntary.
Consider the drug war. The feds punish people with criminal prosecution, incarceration, and fines for ingesting unapproved substances. Freedom entails the right to ingest whatever you want to ingest, no matter how harmful.
Consider embargoes and sanctions. The feds punish Americans who travel to unapproved countries or enter into economic transactions with unapproved people. Freedom entails the right to travel wherever you want, associate with whomever you want, and trade with whomever you want.
Consider the federal government’s socialist system of immigration controls. It has brought a police state to the American Southwest. A police state is the opposite of freedom. Freedom entails the right to cross any political border in search of a better life and to enter into mutually beneficial transactions with others.
Consider the federal government’s trade wars and trade restrictions. They prohibit Americans from trading with foreigners. Freedom entails the right to trade with whomever you want.
Consider America’s system of paper money and the Federal Reserve. It has resulted in decades of monetary debauchery that tax people in a fraudulent, surreptitious way. Freedom entails the right to use whatever money you wish to use.
Consider the regulated economy. The minimum wage, for example, has locked countless people out of the labor market, such as black teenagers. Freedom entails the right to enter into any transaction with anyone on any mutually agreeable terms, including wages.
Consider the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. All three wield omnipotent powers, including torture, indefinite detention, mass secret surveillance, and assassination against both Americans and foreigners. No one living under a system of omnipotent government can ever be considered free.
Consider the federal government’s policy of deadly and destructive foreign interventionism. It has produced an endless supply of people who hate Americans, which the feds use as an excuse for destroying our freedom in the name of keeping us “safe and secure.”
What do Russia and China and all those other scary creatures have to do with all this? They provide a convenient way to divert the attention of the American people away from the real threat to their freedom and well-being.
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The Future of Freedom Foundation was founded in 1989 by FFF president Jacob Hornberger with the aim of establishing an educational foundation that would advance an uncompromising case for libertarianism in the context of both foreign and domestic policy. The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance freedom by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government. Visit https://www.fff.org