shakran

From the 50's until the cold war ended, we vehemently opposed communism. It eroded the freedoms of its people, and its government officials want nothing more than personal power, we said as Joe McCarthy ruined countless lives with trumped up communism charges in a bid for personal power.

We were angry that people living in communist-controlled countries such as Russia, China, and half of Vietnam found their freedoms diminishing. They weren't allowed the freedom of choice - they had to do what the leaders of their government told them. Personal liberties were cast aside in favor of the security of the state (the KGB could yank you off the street for breathing if they wanted, for example), and there were hundreds of laws banning practices that couldn't possibly do anyone any harm.

We hated that system of government, yet we have become it. The Department of Homeland Security can restrict your freedom to travel by putting you on a no-fly list for dubious reasons - for example, your credit rating can effect your ranking in the no-fly system.

We have a shadowy leader who rarely speaks to us, and when he does his messages are calculated to be unclear and imprecise so we don't really know what's going on. Shades of Lenin.

We have a government who continually rules by fear. "Let us take your freedoms away from you or the terrorists will come get us." To keep us in line, they cleverly invented a terrorist threat level, aka the National Mood Ring, which they artificially elevate whenever they feel the masses need a fresh hit of fear lest they begin to think the administration is doing wrong. Orwell was dead-on accurate in 1984. He just messed up the timing by a couple of decades.

And today President Bush, who secured his presidency with the help of judges who were loosely interpreting constitutional law with regard to elections, came out in full support of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage - saying he's tired of judges loosely interpreting constitutional law when they allow gay marriages to proceed.

He has lied to us repeatedly. There are no WMD's. Sadaam did not send terrorists after us. The CIA did not make an intelligence gaffe with regard to WMD's. The job market has not improved over what it was when he seized power (the "fastest job growth rate in decades" is deliberately misleading. i.e. if we have 1000 jobs and add 10 jobs, we have a small growth rate. If we had 1000 jobs, then cut it to 10 jobs, and then add 10 jobs, it's a huge growth rate, but a net loss of 980 jobs. NOT an improvement).

He uses insinuation, vague half-truths, and flat out lies to justify his actions, which have not only brought us to the worst level of personal freedom in recent memory, but have also made the United States a pariah on the international relations scene.

In short, our government today is doing pretty much what communist dictatorships did during the cold war.

So why is it that we hated communism so much?

Check the mirror, United States. The enemy lies within.