How Close Did We Come

How far down the road to this did the USA travel in the past eight years?

Probably farther than most people think or would like to believe. Remember a government that:

• Stole an election
• Routinely and brazenly lied to its population to further its ideology
• Used fear unashamedly to cling to power and further its agenda
• Spied on its own people
• Publicly branded dissent as treason and hounded critics as traitors
• Assumed powers of arrest and detention without habeas corpus
• Tortured prisoners
• Invoked religious tenants as drivers of policy

Not possible you say?

Most Americans take our freedoms for granted. We cannot imagine our government, a body empowered by us to defend our freedoms, could possibly act in a way that would jeopardise them. The idea that the abuses most Americans associate with third-world regimes would happen in America seems outlandish. But they did.

Thankfully, America remains pretty good at self correcting. The country is beginning to get back on track. Nonetheless, it will always amaze me that those claiming to speak for freedom (teabaggers -- sorry, tea-partiers, Glen Beck, Limbaugh and the rest) continue to vociferously cheerlead for those who have done the most to steal those freedoms from us.

And remember, Dick Cheney is still watching you!