They will come for the guns last.
Since the fall of the NY World Trade Center, the US has been plunging towards authoritarian control.
No fly list. Enhanced TSA checks. No trial for terrorists.
We all want to feel safe.
The War on Drugs escalated. Patients with chronic pain were sacrificed as doctors were conditioned to be afraid of government oversight. There used to be a patient bill of rights that guaranteed access to appropriate pain medication. That was torn up in the name of fighting addiction. Many doctors gave us prescribing an entire class of drugs with a 100 year successful track record. The rare doctor who will prescribe typically gives one option only. Gone are the days of mutual trust between patient and doctor to fine tune the correct dose of the best medication. Write too many scripts for different pain medicine and the doctor might get tagged by the DEA. Doctors worry more about losing their license than treating pain.
We all want to feel safe.
The conditioning of health care workers served a vital purpose in the larger plan. The government trained doctors to look at a disabled person in pain and tell them they couldn’t help them … even though the tools are available. Persistent patients were labeled drug seekers, further diminishing their ability to get proper treatment in any state – thanks to national tracking databases.
(You do know there are national health tracking databases, right?)
Now doctors are stepping away when it comes to women’s reproductive health care. The doctors are afraid of losing their license and livelihood. Women are DYING from pregnancy complications while doctors consult with hospital administrators and lawyers right now. Other doctors simply close their doors. Pregnant people with cancer are being denied cancer treatment. Once again, doctors are refusing to use the tools they have available because of unjust laws. Because they are afraid.
We all want to feel safe.
Any legal restriction on abortion puts the government in between the doctor and their patient. Laws like this create unnecessary fear, pain, and suffering for everyone.
Those pushing the agenda of control have already said next will be contraceptives and the last of women’s health care. And they will push to make these laws nationwide. It is not about States rights. It’s about more control of the population.
Then gay rights will come upon the chopping block. If they can tell you who you can and cannot love, then you’ve lost complete autonomy.
All the while the right to privacy takes hit after hit after hit after hit. Quietly. We don’t even notice the erosion. Not with all the super cool technology and entertainment we have. We don’t need to understand what “I agree” means when we check the box; we just want to feel safe.
Soon it will be the right to transact. In how many subtle and not so subtle ways is the government already telling you who you cannot do business with? Have you even noticed? When we buy something from a stranger, we want to feel safe.
Throughout it all, the right to protest and gather to speak our free speech, is shrinking to smaller spaces. And when protests are out in the open, they are immediately met with violent opposition from authorities “to restore order.”
We all want to feel safe.
Once the personal rights have been stripped away and privacy is gone, they will ask for your gun. They will have your transaction history. They will know you have one. A knock will come on the door. It will be too late to use it in some grand gesture of protecting yourself from a totalitarian government. How could you stand up in the face of police at your door? Unless you want to die. Most will comply because we all want to feel safe.
It’s not just Republicans. It’s not just Democrats. A small group of Corporatists have taken over both political parties.
For decades politicians have collected corporate sponsors. And our politcal parties have played off of each other, one championing abortion rights and the other gun rights. All the while, neither side actually codifying these rights with clear laws. The 2nd Amendment is fraught with confusion when read in modern times. Abortion was a mystery dealt with by midwives and women when the Constitution was written. Relying on precedent is no longer valid. The Supreme Court has failed us.
We all want to feel safe. But right now I don’t feel safe.
Corporatists filled with greed sickness keep us fighting each other. Playing both sides against the middle. An authoritarian government would be much easier to deal with than a democratic one. Easier to tempt an autocrat with riches than a community with checks and balances to keep greed sickness at bay.
I can see it unfolding, but how do I stop the faceless corporate machine from taking over not just this country, but the whole wide world?
For now, the Republicans are on the fast track to authoritarian rule, fed by their religious zeal. Democrats appear to be on the slower path down that road … make no mistake they are both headed in the same direction. I will support those on the slower path, in the hopes we can change direction.
We must hold those in power accountable and make them codify laws to protect our liberty. Our individual rights along with regulations on corporations are all that stand in the way of the dissolution of our democracy.
We all want to feel safe.