'Free' is a relative term in America

By STEVEN GREENHUT
Orange County Register
Jun. 26, 2007

Virtually all Americans love to talk about – nay, boast about – their freedoms. We are the freest nation that has ever graced the planet, people commonly say. One cannot drive along a crowded freeway without seeing scores of bumper stickers bearing the stars and stripes and words such as, "Liberty is not free." All the major presidential candidates from both parties "know" that Osama bin Laden and his bands of suicide attackers are not driven to kill Americans because of our foreign policy or anything we have done (banish that heresy from your ears!), but because they are offended by our freedoms.

Even those of us who dispute the version of the 9/11 events encapsulated in the previous sentence understand that America was founded on some pretty amazing principles. The idea of individual freedom is not common over time. The history of mankind is a history of tribalism, violence, war, pillage, enslavement, dictatorship, totalitarianism, mass murder and social experiments in which the government has supreme power.

America's founding ideas were beautifully detailed in 1776 with the release of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it."

That's radical stuff, a call to revolution against a government that imposed unjust tax burdens, trampled on the rights of individuals, abused its power, and went far beyond the core mission of protecting the life, liberty and property of its citizens. One of the main complaints was that the king "has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and to eat out their Substance."

It's at this point that the discussion usually ends. Most people nod in agreement about the importance of the Declaration, content with the sense that we are free Americans, who can live as we choose without suffering under the thumb of oppressive government. Our leaders echo that view. In one typical 30-minute talk given by President George W. Bush, he used the word "freedom" 37 times and the word "liberty" 18 times. Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton used the word "freedom" 29 times and the word "liberty" 13 times in a recent talk she gave. We all are in agreement. We are a free people and that's the end of that.

Clearly, by comparison with most countries, Americans do pretty well. There's no Gestapo, dictator or prison camps for dissidents. There's talk of building a wall at the border, but to keep people from coming in, not to keep them from getting out. Still, I think Americans would benefit from thinking more closely about the state of our liberty. Every few years, I write a column that updates the erosion of our freedoms. It mostly deals with simple, everyday stuff, but it's rather telling. Here is my latest installment:

If I want to build a new house, I need to petition any number of government agencies and commissions, and can build only what they allow. Those agencies decide not only if my project conforms to some basic, easily understood rules, but whether it conforms to their own preferences regarding style, color, historical influences, size, number of stories, and so forth. If I ever want to add on or improve that house, I must wait until a government inspector approves it. If I am a developer, and want to build a larger number of properties on a site, I must fight for years to get approvals – and usually the final project will bear little resemblance in style or design to my original vision.

If I want to start a new business, I not only will have to pay a large portion of any earnings to the government, but I must first get all the necessary approvals from myriad governments. I must pay my employees a minimum rate determined by the government. They may only work the number of hours set by the government. If it's a restaurant or business that serves the public, I must get a conditional-use permit – a long list of conditions that micromanage exactly how I run the place, from the hours to the number of tables, based on the whims of the commissioners who must approve the business.

The government can, at any time, take my home or business and give it to someone else if officials, for any reason, prefer the new use to my use. The government can, at its discretion, steal all the value from my property by declaring it a wetland or by finding on it some "endangered" rodent or other species. No compensation need be paid as long as I still have any use of the land.

The government's officers can launch a "no-knock" raid of my home (if they get a tip about, say, a drug deal) and can shoot and kill me if they say that they viewed me as a threat. Abusive federal agents or local police officers can, by law in California, keep all their disciplinary records secret. Those same agents can arrest me and throw me in jail for decades for possessing those "drugs" that the government determines to be illegal. Meanwhile, the government maintains files on all my personal and financial data and will use them to assure that I pay the amount of taxes the government determines that I must pay.

If I refuse to pay the full amount, I will become a ward of one of the biggest growth industries in the country: the government-run prison system. I am free to pay about half of all my earnings to the government, which will use those taxes to erect a multitude of offices and pay its workers salaries and benefits that are far more than most of us will ever earn. The government's "child protective services" workers are free to take anyone's children away from them based on their discretion. Parents are then forced into a totally secret court system, in which they must prove their innocence rather than having the government being forced to prove guilt.

We are all free to travel where we choose after government agencies search, poke and prod us. We can drive on government roads, pay government tolls, fly out of government-owned airports and pay for government-issued bond debt. We are free to pay for the government schools, which teach our children what the government wants them to learn.

The government can seize our personal property and not give it back even if we are cleared of any crime, and even place us in permanent detention, without any hope of legal representation, if the government determines that we are an enemy combatant. The government can bomb any government it chooses, based on any shoddy pretext (i.e., weapons of mass destruction). We are free to speak and write as we choose as long as the government doesn't decide that we broke campaign-finance laws or engaged in "hate speech."

The 18th century German poet Johann Goethe said: "None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." Am I off-base to wonder whether we are careening down that road?