How bad do things have to get before you do something? Do they have to take away all your property? Do they have to license every activity that you want to engage in? Do they have to start throwing you on cattle cars before you say "now wait a minute, I don't think this is a good idea." How long is it going to be before you finally resist and say "No, I will not comply. Period!" Ask yourself now because sooner or later you are going to come to that line, and when they cross it, you're going to say well now cross this line; ok now cross that line; ok now cross this line. Pretty soon you're in a corner. Sooner or later you've got to stand your ground whether anybody else does or not. That is what liberty is all about. -- Michael Badnarik

"Sooner or later you've got to stand your ground whether anybody else does or not" ... How bad do things have to get before you stand your ground? When is enough, enough?

The United States is heading straight towards the edge of a cliff, at break-neck speed to boot. The economy is sinking. Millions upon millions are unemployed. Free enterprise has been strangled by regulation. The once "land of the free" now boasts of the largest prison population in the world. The Executive Branch grows more powerful and independent by the day. The federal government (and just about every state and local government too) is swimming in so much red ink that Greece looks financially stable by comparison. We've been at perpetual war since the day I was born (42 years ago). And everyday we wake-up, the government has usurped yet more of our liberty away.

Yet for all this, I see no signs of serious revolt in this country. Quite frankly, I see few (if any) signs that indicate "We the people" even "get it." Why is that? When will enough be enough?

Where did the Tea Party go? Organized out of anger with bank bailouts, auto bailouts, union bailouts, "stimulus" and the like, just a little more than 2 years later is apparently behind TARP boosting politicos like Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich. Yeah, and don't touch medicare, social security, or "defense" spending either. Talk about a revolution that wasn't will never be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah ... This time it's different. This time we really mean business. It's the same tired old story I've been hearing for 42 years.

Congressmen talk about the need to reduce the deficit. Talk is cheap. Voters talk about the need to clean house in Congress. But it never happens. -- Gary North

That's the undeniable truth: "Voters talk about the need to clean house in Congress. But it never happens."

Sometimes I wonder if people are more concerned about the Washington power struggle between Republicans and Democrats than they are about their own lives. Neither party gives a rat's behind about them.

The people's loyalty to the parties is not only inexplicable, it's insulting. Our ancestors fought a revolution for what? Loyalty to a corrupt, overtaxing, overbearing, warmongering leviathan controlled by a two-party den of thieves?

How bad do things have to get? When will enough be enough?

Having its life snuffed out of it in 1913, the Old Republic is dead, and now the social democracy that replaced it is nearing its end game. In the words of Cicero, "democracy becomes mob rule, chaos, and dictatorship."

Go ahead and read Cicero again. I'll wait.

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery. -- Thomas Jefferson

Americans seem to believe partisan bickering is all in politics that matters and loyalty to the Party trumps that old, stinky Declaration. Well, guess what? Your favorite politician has squeezed you for more than any robber baron ever could, and odds are that your local SWAT team will kill you long before any Islamic terrorist ever will. Both the left and right are hammering the final nail in the coffin together.

As long as the US is at war, the American President is a Caesar. He is above the law. The US Justice (sic) Department has ruled this, and Congress and the Courts have accepted it. -- Paul Craig Roberts

When will enough be enough?

• President targets Americans for assassination.
• Courts Overturn 4th Amendment.
• Obama Rolls Back Miranda Rights.
• It Is Official: The US Is a Police State.
• Department of Homeland Security 'Pre-Crime' Scan for 'Malintent'.
• TSA Gestapo Empire.
• TSA "enhanced pat-downs."
• All Americans are suspects.
• Your constitutional rights no longer apply when the United States is "at war" with you.
• Secret Military Tribunals.
• The PATRIOT Act.
• The "Secret" PATRIOT Act.
• The Power to Violate the Constitution.
• Police Drones Spy On U.S. Citizens.
• Killed because he insisted that police comply with the Fourth Amendment and obtain a warrant before entering a person's home.
• Secret Service interrogates Tacoma 7th grader for his Facebook posting.
• Indefinite Detention System.
• Searches and seizures without warrants.
• Homeland Security 'messages' at Walmart, hotels, malls.
• Lawmakers ask FCC, DHS to consider cell phone alert system.
• War on cell phone cameras.
• War on the American people.
• The average American spends more on government than on anything else, including food, clothing and shelter.
• Literally counterfeiting trillions of dollars.
• Crony Capitalism.
• Special Interest "Stimulus."
• Debt. Debt. Debt.
• The New Debtors Prison.
• Unlimited Presidential War Powers.
• Unprecedented presidential power to launch attacks anywhere in the world.
• Your "Police At The Jefferson Memorial" Video Of The Day.
• Obama's War on Whistle-Blowers.

Does any of the above sound like what our ancestors fought for? Does any of it sound like liberty? Independence? Freedom?

Or does it sound more like your worst Cold War nightmare? Because that is what America has become.

How bad do things have to get?

Is the Libyan war legal? Was Bin Laden's killing legal? Is it legal for the president of the United States to target an American citizen for assassination? Were those "enhanced interrogation techniques" legal? These are all questions raised in recent weeks. Each seems to call out for debate, for answers. Or does it?

My answer is this: they are irrelevant. Think of them as twentieth-century questions that don't begin to come to grips with twenty-first century American realities. In fact, think of them, and the very idea of a nation based on the rule of law, as a reflection of nostalgia for, or sentimentality about, a long-lost republic. At least in terms of what used to be called "foreign policy," and more recently "national security," the United States is now a post-legal society. (And you could certainly include in this mix the too-big-to-jail financial and corporate elite.) -- Tom Engelhardt

When will enough be enough?

How Bad Do Things Have To Get? is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog