Many Americans do love their police state

January 5, 12:38 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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Why do so many Americans love
being bossed around?

Scattered through the comments to yesterday's column about a Customs and Border Patrol stop of a passenger train that never crossed the boundaries of the United States are little gems of the sort that I've come to dread and anticipate in equal parts: praise for the government for behaving in an arbitrary and heavy-handed manner. Unfortunately, all too many of our friends, neighbors and relations have come to relish acting like bit players in a bad Cold War film. They're more than happy to bow down to the nearest uniform so long as somebody assures them it will "keep us safe" -- from whom, it doesn't matter, though it's certainly not from overbearing authorities.

From a single day's tally of comments, I count four of ten favoring the train stop. There's one "the law is the law" -- as if that's not the case in every country where the authorities step beyond decent bounds.

I find one whine about "liberals," although that might change in a  year or two since liberals and conservatives are engaging in one of their ritualistic swap-of-roles between powers-that-be and opposition. (Whoever is in charge always says the other side are terrible cry-babies).

And there are two -- count 'em -- renderings of "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Really? So the founders were a bunch of paranoids when they wrote the Fourth Amendment? Or did they maybe have a clue that arbitrary power is, itself, something to fear. That principle still applies, In 1989, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Supreme Court:

"An essential purpose of a warrant requirement is to protect privacy interests by assuring citizens subject to a search or seizure that such intrusions are not the random or arbitrary acts of government agents."

But my favorite bit of comment wisdom says:

"Are our personal freedoms so dear to us that we would sacrifice our own national security and bring about our demise as a country because a limited few do not think it fair that they should be questioned about what they did when they left our country?"

Leave aside that the train didn't coss the border. Forget that, if our demise as a country will be brought about by questioning the actions of government agents claiming to act in the name of national security, then the United States should have flopped on its back and expired about the time that Thomas Jefferson called bullsh-t on the Alien and Sedition Acts. Let me answer that tendentious question: Yes, our personal freedoms are so dear to me that i'm willing to "sacrifice our own national security" -- at least, I'm willing to snort at claims that our security is dependent on sacrificing freedom.

I'm sure I'm invoking some annex to Godwin's Law by doing so, but I'm going to quote Benjamin Franklin anyway:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The whole justification for a political system -- especially for the U.S. political system -- is the degree to which it can go about its business without violating individual rights. If a government can't function within the constraints of a free society, then it's time to hit the reset button and start over again.

I'm aware that some of our politicians think that worrying about our protections against tax-funded officials constitutes an "irrational fear of government." The problem with that a-historical view is that the very government in which these politicians serve seems dedicated to regularly demonstrating just how rational such fears really are. That so many Americans agree with the self-serving politicians is a sad sign of just how deep-seated worship of power and deference to authority are in so many people. They really are willing to trade away an always-shaky legacy of personal liberty and responsibility for the hope that the occasional slap and kick is a sign that Big Brother loves them and is ever-watchful.

If you're one of those folks who really believes that some of our freedom has to be surrendered for the exigencies of the latest crisis in a series of crises that all seem to call for more government power, let me close with a final quote for you, this one from Sam Adams:

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom — go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com