Ratchet

I don't think it surprises anyone when I say that I'm pro-gun rights.  But you can't be for the 2nd Amendment if you're not just as strongly for the other amendments.  I don't agree with the anti-gun bloggers and activists, but I will do nothing to stop them from making their arguments and I will resist those who try to shut them up.  I have a visceral dislike for those who prey on our society, but I am even more opposed to those who would deny them proper legal representation, a fair trial, or have them convicted on evidence gained through illegal means.  I have a lot of respect for law enforcement, but I have nothing but contempt for those who use their power as a policeman to abuse other citizens.  I have my own religion, and I don't agree with the tenets and practices of some other religions, but I'm not going to try to impose my faith on someone else or prevent them from exercising their own faith so long as they don't hurt someone else.

Our country was created when a group of people took the stand that their rights as Englishmen were being violated by a distant monarch.  They believed that each of us is endowed at birth with several rights.  A condition of ratifying the Constitution was that amendments to it that restrict the ability of the government to infringe on those rights be ratified along with it.  The Constitution doesn't grant us any rights; it just lists out those things with which the government may never interfere.

Over the past 100 years or so, those rights have been chipped at by those who believe they are doing good.  Honestly, they usually do it because we clamor for them to do something for us.  Each time we go to the government for a solution, we ratchet down our freedoms a little more.

1917:

"We're at war!  Bolsheviks are taking over Russia!  We have to keep foreigners and malcontents from endangering our American way of life!  Do something!"

Click - Espionage Act of 1917
Click - Putting Bolsheviks and anti-war activists in jail

1920:

"People are getting drunk and causing misery in our nation!  Do something!"

Click - 18th Amendment

1932:

"25 percent of us are unemployed!  People are hungry!  The nation is tottering on the edge of revolution!  Do something!"

Click - Commerce Clause abuse

1934:

"Gangsters are using guns to commit crimes!  Do something!"

Click - NFA 34

1941: 

"We're at war!  There are a lot of immigrants in the country that come from our enemies!  Do something!"

Click - Internment of citizens of Japanese, Italian and German descent

1968:

"People are assassinating political leaders!  Anyone can get a gun wherever they want!  We don't feel safe!  Do something!"

Click - GCA 68

1972:

"Hippies are getting high!  The fabric of society is tearing!   Do something!"

Click - Drug laws and the War on Drugs

1986: - 

"People are still buying machine guns in this day and age!  Do something!"

Click - Hughes Amerndment



1986


"Gangs are selling a new form of cocaine to poor people!  I don't like that!  It should be illegaler than selling me that powder form that I like to use on weekends!  Do something!"

Click - Crack Cocaine Laws


1994:

"Criminals are using scary looking guns to kill people!  Innocent children are dieing in the street!  Do something!"

Click - Brady Bill

1990's


"People are saying or writing things that offend me or piss me off!  Do something!"

Click - Hate speech codes

1996


"People are exercising the fair use part of copyright!  I'm not making money off of it!  Do something!"

Click - DMCA

2001:

"We're at war!  We need new security organizations to make us safe!  We have to give our police new powers so that they can fight terrorism!  Do something!"

Click - PATRIOT Act

2005:


"Those people are living on land that I want so that I can make money!  They're standing in the way of progress!  Do something!"

Click - Kelo v. City of New London

2010:

"People don't have health insurance and the cost of getting health care is rising!  I don't want to take the steps to make it more affordable because those would be hard!  I don't want to pay for it myself! Do something!"

Click - Obamacare

2012:

"People are still using the Internet to exercise the fair use part of copyright!  I'm still not making as much money as I want to!  Do something!"

Click - PIPA and SOPA

Every one of those clicks is a part of our birthright being locked down so that we can't exercise it, and I'm only hitting the ones that are at the top of my mind at the moment.  There are many more, and we are locking ourselves down so well that demanding that we be left alone to exercise our rights gets us labelled as dangerous.  Each and every one of them happened because a significant portion of our population demanded that the government do something to make their lives better.  They do it out of want or fear, but rarely think about the consequences of their demands.  Now their unintended consequences are killing our republic.  Each time the government provides or restricts something, it becomes easier for something new to be done that restricts our rights.

In a way, we're a bunch of frogs that have been demanding that someone turn up the heat under our pot of water every so often, and now we're almost boiled.

What we need to do is get back to basics in our nation.  We need to all sit down, look at the Constitution, including those parts we don't care for, and start yanking the leash of government to get it out of those parts of our lives in which it has no business.  We need to stop looking at the government as the provider of solutions, and start accepting that life is hard and that we have to take care of ourselves.