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Contingency Plans
by A.X. Perez
perez180ehs -+at+- hotmail.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

On Page One of the 29 December 2008 El Paso Times (possibly one of the most intellectually and politically lightweight papers of all time) there was an article regarding a war college report on the risks of civil unrest due to the current economic crisis. Considering the source my attention was aroused.

Of course the military is not supposed to involve itself in civilian affairs in all but the direst emergencies (and American troops were not operating in Cambodia and Laos before Spring 1970. Like the CIA Spook told the Buddhist monk, "We're not really here. This isn't really happening."). However I can see our beloved media talking heads talking up a school yard scuffle into the biggest insurrection since Lenin and Company took over the Russian government.

Over the next four years we will see if Mr. Obama, his handlers, followers, and successors are looking for a pretext to use military or police force to seize permanent control of the nation or if they are at least trying to use the power they currently enjoy to protect the American people's freedom.

Getting rid of a boatload of domestic surveillance laws and executive orders is a necessary first step to demonstrating the benevolence of their intentions. This is a no-brainer since a lot of the votes Obama and his followers received were votes against these policies, Baby Bush for promoting them, and the Republicans in Congress who supported them ( Though please note the Democrats have done nothing to correct these policies even though they have controlled Congress since 2007.).

The second step is to not pass all those gun control (more correctly victim disarmament) laws sitting in many liberal (and some conservative) briefcases. Passage of these laws would signal to too many people that the current administration intends to rule by force, not consent, and that future administrations would be trapped into rule by the same method.

Currently those who seek to expand the power of the state have political control of this nation. It is up to them to demonstrate that they will use this power to protect our rights, not suppress them. They must prove that they are not asking us to give up fundamental liberty in exchange for temporary security, then leaving us with neither.

In three weeks or so we will begin to weigh and measure Mr. Obama and his supporters in Congress. Given the beliefs of most readers of TLE the majority of readers of this article will almost certainly find them wanting. However, there is a difference between failing because of the flaws inherent in leftist ideology even when applied with the greatest regard for liberty and failing because they acted on a hatred and fear of other people's freedom (and of course a multitude of points between these extremes). Let us see where Mr. Obama and his supporters in office land.

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