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Don’t Trade Real Liberty for Phony Security - Ron Paul

Posted by freedomforall 1 year, 11 months ago to Politics
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Excerpt:
"Authoritarian politicians wasted no time using the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, to justify new infringements on liberty. Just days after the Buffalo shooting, the US House of Representatives passed a law creating new domestic terrorism offices in the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

This is a step toward achieving the longstanding goal of many progressives of focusing the national security state on “domestic terrorists” and “right-wing extremists.” Supporters of these efforts have used the Buffalo shooter’s mention of “replacement theory” in his “manifesto” to attack prominent conservative commentators, most notably Tucker Carlson. Carlson and others are accused of spreading the replacement conspiracy theory because they have pointed out that the Left has for years celebrated the coming “replacement” of the white majority population. The goal is to stigmatize, intimidate, and even criminalize those expressing views or facts that contradict the cultural Marxists or the Democrat party establishment.

Painting the Buffalo shooter as a conservative requires ignoring his self-description as an environmental-fascist and his disdain for “Fox News conservatism.” The mainstream media also ignores the shooter’s use of the same neo-Nazi symbol used by the Ukrainian Azov brigade. This may be because they do not want the American people to realize their tax dollars are supporting actual Nazis in Ukraine.

The push to use the police state against “right-wing extremists” is supported by many progressives who (correctly) oppose the national security state’s civil liberties abuses of Muslim and other minorities. Conversely, many conservatives who have defended all infringements on liberty done in the name of the “global war on terror,” (correctly) oppose federal crackdown on “right wing extremists.”

Both sides fail to realize that a violation of any individual’s liberty is a threat to everyone’s liberty.

The massacre of 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde Texas was followed by calls for expanded gun controls from President Biden and other prominent politicians. Among the proposals floated are a renewed push for federal Red Flag laws. Red Flag laws allow law enforcement to take someone’s guns without due process based on a mere allegation that an individual poses a risk of violent behavior. Despite being unconstitutional, easily abused, and ineffective at stopping violent crime, Red Flag laws enjoy broad bipartisan support. For example, former President Donald Trump endorsed a policy of “take the gun first, worry about due process later.”

If Congress was serious about protecting liberty and security, they would pass Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie’s legislation repealing the “Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.” This poorly worded law leaves children defenseless against mass shooters who are not dissuaded from their evil intentions by “Gun-Free Zone” signs. Video showing the Uvalde police not only standing around outside the school, but tasering parents who were trying to protect their children reinforces the importance of allowing school personnel to protect themselves and their students by carrying firearms.

Expanding the police state to “monitor” right-wing extremism and giving the government new powers to deny law-abiding individuals access to firearms make us less safe and less free. Instead of allowing politicians to use mass shootings as an excuse to further expand their powers, we must insist they repeal all federal laws that trade real liberty for phony security starting with the USA FREEDOM Acts (previously known as the USA PATRIOT Act) and the so-called Safe and Gun Free Schools Act."
SOURCE URL: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2022/may/30/don-t-trade-real-liberty-for-phony-security/


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  • Posted by mccannon01 1 year, 11 months ago
    I've come to realize "right-wing extremist" and similar phrases are Neo Communist speak whose express purpose is to intimidate anyone who opposes their Marxist agenda. Maybe it's time to push back with phrases like "Nancy Pelosi, left wing extremist; Chuck Shumer, left wing extremist; AOC, far left extremist", and others. Why should the left wing extremists be the only ones to play in that sandbox?
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  • Posted by Joseph23006 1 year, 11 months ago
    In our country Liberty and Security are bound together, inseparable. Ben Franklin using a slightly different word for Security, Safety, put it best. Those who would give up Liberty to purchase a little Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety!" In other words the cost of the Safety sought may eventually impinge on some Liberty that may have been taken for granted until it was no longer there.
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  • Posted by Ben_C 1 year, 10 months ago
    The "what happened" and "how it happened" have been thoroughly investigated. The "why it happened" - has been conveniently ignored. Until the causes are defined little progress will be made in minimizing any occurrences. But then, no one has accused Congress of being very bright. My view is that most in Congress are dumb as a box of rocks. .
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  • Posted by term2 1 year, 10 months ago
    I am so DONE with our current government. I just would prefer it go away. Not going to happen, though. No wonder people go GALT
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 1 year, 11 months ago
    Sen McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover are about to reemerge and persecute the precisely opposite group ... because government power ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS seeks more power and they destruction of individualists.
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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 1 year, 11 months ago
    There are 3 rules:
    1) Never let a crisis go to waste
    2) Turn ANYTHING you can into a Crisis
    3) Vilification and Threats Work, so USE THEM
    The 3rd rule shuts down the debate.
    It also can be used to de-platform people who can make good arguments.
    To OTHER us...

    I long for the days where even my father, who dropped out of High School, had more basic sense than these College Graduates could ever possess. Taught to believe things, based on how they would feel, IF they were true. Wow.

    We have fallen.

    We are not the great city on the hill...

    We are the appetizers being served to Nero...
    Just days before Rome Fell...

    I admire Nero. He went out singing!
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  • Posted by $ gharkness 1 year, 10 months ago
    I've noticed that in all the MSM discussion of the past several days where the narrative is "changing," to put it kindly, the mention of tasing parents is COMPLETELY absent.
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