Ben Franklin said it first, and the words may becoming home to roost.
On edit, thanks to CrackpotAmerica's thread the actual quote is: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x229254If this "administration" successfully convinces the majority of Americans that they should willingly give up the rights that we have fought and died for so often for the perceived security of being safe from any nut case that takes it upon himself to commit an act of terror, America will most surely die an early death. We already live in a nation with one of the highest per capita populations in prison known to history. MOstly people of color, the poor and the disenfranchised. This isn't good enough, so Guantanamos are being run worldwide to circumvent constitutional rights. We are already a fearful society and Bushco works hard at increasing the "fright threshold" as they bombard us daily with news of an invisible enemy with no country, face or identity.
It's the perfect enemy for the military industrial complex.
The war against thought, individuality and creativity has been waged since the fundamentalist inspired administration first took power. Everything is sold as black or white with no room for shades of grey. We are being told that it's good to question, but to question in a time of "war" is to undermine our troops and any chance of victory. The "us or them" mentality is pitched with the strange caveat of "them is who we say it is."
Bit by bit, Bushco has been chipping at our credulity in fashion of no WMD, Osama doesn't matter, voting fraud, warrantless searches and invasions of privacy are good for America... The sheer number of laws broken and rights violated have not allowed any serious investigation or attention of any one topic.
Is it a new tactic? Break so many laws that no one can keep up with them? It seems to be working.
America is giving this administration its freedoms.
This administration will take them.
They don't "hate us for our freedom," They covet our freedoms and want them all for themselves and no one else.
If Democrats don't buck up and take back a significant number of seats in both houses quickly, I'm afraid that Bush may succeed in destroying what's left of a once great nation.
God help us all.