Capitalizing on the people's fear, a totalitarian government comes to power that knows all, sees all, controls everything and promises safety and security above all.
As director James McTeighe observed about the tyrannical regime in V for Vendetta, "It really showed what can happen when society is ruled by government, rather than the government being run as a voice of the people. I don't think it's such a big leap to say things like that can happen when leaders stop listening to the people."
The COVID-19 pandemic provided the government with the perfect excuse to lay claim to a long laundry list of terrifying lockdown powers that override the Constitution: the ability to suspend the Constitution, indefinitely detain American citizens, bypass the courts, quarantine whole communities or segments of the population, override the First Amendment by outlawing religious gatherings and assemblies of more than a few people, shut down entire industries and manipulate the economy, muzzle dissidents, reshape financial markets, create a digital currency, determine who should live or die, and impose health mandates on large segments of the population.
"The implications of this are serious. The Framers designed a system of separation of powers to combat government excess and abuse and to curb incompetence. They also believed that, in the absence of an effective separation-of-powers structure, such ills would inevitably follow. Unfortunately power once taken is not easily surrendered."
Unadulterated power in any branch of government is a menace to freedom.
We are viewed as relatively expendable in the eyes of government: faceless numbers of individuals who serve one purpose, which is to keep the government machine running through our labor and our tax dollars.
Most of all, use your power-and there is power in our numbers-to nullify anything and everything the government does that undermines the freedom principles on which this nation was founded.
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