Liberty Takes Flight

It is hard to believe nowadays, but the words libertarian and liberal both have roots in the word liberty. 

Roger Cohen is the rare American liberal who still stands up for our constitutionally protected rights, while casting a jaundiced eye on the government that is supposed to protect them.

Mr. Cohen has written an excellent article criticizing airport security, big government, and the damage they are doing to our society.  All excerpts are from his NY Times article, The Real Threat to America.

Like most of us, he doesn't see government as evil, but more as a blundering behemoth that tramples our rights while trying to "save" us.

He also displays an understanding of human nature that our founders displayed when they crafted our divided and limited government...

Give a bureaucrat a big stick and a big budget, allow said bureaucrat to trade in the limitless currency of human anxiety, and the masses will soon be intimidated by the Department of Fear.

More ominously for America, even to those of us who think the fascism charge is thrown around a little too loosely...

Lavrenti Beria, Stalin’s notorious secret police chief, once said, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.” The T.S.A. seems to operate on the basis of an adapted maxim: “Show me the security check and I’ll find you the excuse.”

Cohen understands where the strength of America lies:

America is a nation of openness, boldness and risk-taking. Close this nation, cow it, constrict it and you unravel its magic.

To those on the left who scream about conservatives not caring when it was Bush trampling our liberties, I concede the point.  But we conservatives are waking up now; the very illiberal "liberals" are falling asleep.

The lefties won't listen to conservatives or libertarians, but I pray they listen to Roger Cohen.

NY Times - Roger Cohen, The Real Threat to America