Government is a threat. Sound crazy? It didn’t to the founders of our country who, after witnessing the ostensibly-republican government of Britain’s despotism toward them, crafted a government for the new United States of America that would have strictly limited and broadly distributed powers and authorities. They saw government un-checked as a threat to liberty and did everything they could to ensure that our government would always answer to ‘we the people.’
It turns out, however, that the founders and I are preaching to the choir these days. Amid the Great Awakening in America going on now, CNN reports that 56 percent of Americans now rightfully view the government as a potential threat to our civil liberties. Broken down ideologically, strong majorities of both Republicans and independents (70 percent and 63 percent, respectively) see the government as a threat. 37 percent of Democrats are also mistrustful of the government.
I’m cautiously optimistic that the people of this great country are finally waking up.