It is both fitting and ironic that the anniversary of 9/11, the day the government paved the way for the subversion of the Constitution, falls one week before the anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.
All sides are still waging war on our constitutional freedoms, and “we the people” remain the biggest losers.
This year's presidential election is no exception.
Bruce Fein, a former deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, warned in a recent Baltimore Sun article that “in November, Americans will choose between Harris-Waltz and Trump-Vance, but they will not choose between an empire and a republic.”
In other words, rather than representing a substantive choice between freedom and tyranny, the candidates on this year's ballot constitute a cosmetic choice: the outward appearance may be very different, but the substance remains the same.
Whoever wins, the security-military-industrial complex and its bureaucratic partners in the police state and deep state will continue to hold power.
Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris have the best track records when it comes to actually respecting constitutional rights, despite recent repeated rhetoric from both sides about a so-called loyalty to the rule of law.
Indeed, Trump has repeatedly called for invalidating parts of the US Constitution, and both Harris and Trump seem to believe it is dangerous that the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, political expression and protest, can be used to challenge government power.
This goes against everything America's Founding Fathers fought to protect.
The framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that government exists at the behest of the people — to protect, defend, and even enhance our liberties, not to infringe upon them.
Unfortunately, even though the Bill of Rights was created as a way to protect the people from government tyranny, in America today the government doesn't care about freedom and does whatever it wants.
In the 23 years since Congress rammed through the USA PATRIOT Act, a massive 342-page wish list filled with expanded powers for the FBI and CIA in the wake of the so-called 9/11 terrorist attacks, the bill has ballooned to eradicate every significant safeguard against government abuse, corruption and misuse of power.
The Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, violating at least six of the original ten amendments (the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth), and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth as well.
The Patriot Act also redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities, such as protests, demonstrations, and civil disobedience, are now considered potential terrorist acts, making anyone who wants to engage in expressive activity protected by the First Amendment a suspect in the eyes of the surveillance state.
In fact, since 9/11, we have been watched by surveillance cameras, wiretapped by government officials, our belongings searched, our phones tapped, our mail opened, our e-mail monitored, our opinions questioned, our purchases scrutinized (under the USA PATRIOT Act, banks are required to analyze your transactions for suspicious patterns and to see if you are associated with undesirable people), and our actions monitored.
We are also subject to physical searches, full-body scans and confiscation of our electronic devices at airports across the country. We can no longer even buy certain cold medicines at pharmacies because we will be reported to the government and our names will be put on watch lists.
In this way, “we the people” are terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of submission by a government that has no regard for our lives or freedoms.
While the names and faces of the devil have changed over the years (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, viral pandemics, and on and on), the end result remains the same: in the name of so-called national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away, weakened, eroded, reduced, and generally discarded with the assistance of Congress, the White House, and the courts.
A recitation of the Bill of Rights against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset confiscation, eminent domain, over-criminalization, armed surveillance drones, full-body scanners, stop and search, vaccine mandates, and lockdowns (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, and the courts) would of course sound like a paean to lost freedoms, rather than an affirmation of the rights we really have.
What we are left with today is merely a shadow of the powerful document adopted over two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been done to the Bill of Rights.
If it makes sense to talk about lost freedoms, it simply means that our individual liberties have been eviscerated in order to expand government power.
So what's the solution?
It is no coincidence that the Constitution begins with three powerful words: “We the People.”
In other words, it is our job to make sure the government abides by the rules of the Constitution.
The President and anyone else who holds public office should have a working knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and be accountable for upholding their teachings. One way to ensure this is to require government leaders to take a course on the Constitution and pass an extensive exam before taking office.
Some critics argue that a U.S. citizenship test should be required to graduate from high school. Others suggest that it should be a prerequisite for college admission. I would even go so far as to argue that a citizenship test should be required before graduating from elementary school.
Here are some ideas to help you get educated and stand up for your freedoms: When you sign up for a membership with the Rutherford Institute, you'll receive a wallet-sized Bill of Rights card and a Know Your Rights card to use to teach your children about the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.
Creating a healthy, representative government is hard work: it requires citizens to be informed about the issues, understand how their government operates, and be willing to do more than just complain.
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and its fictionalized version, The Erik Blair Diaries, “we the people” have the power to make or break our government.
About John and Nisha Whitehead:
Constitutional lawyer and author John W. Whitehead is founder and director of the Rutherford Institute. His latest books, The Diary of Eric Blair and Battlefield America: The War on Americans, are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at (email protected). Nisha Whitehead is executive director of the Rutherford Institute. Information about the Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
For over 60 years, the John Birch Society has been dedicated to educating voters about the Constitution and the proper role of government. To join, click on the banner below.
