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As soon as people drop the reins on government, government will leash the people.

James Bovard

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James Bovard
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 22
Author
Journalist
Writer
Ames
Iowa
Government
People
Leash
Leashes
Reins
Drop
Soon

More quotes by James Bovard

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The more government dependents, the more likely that democracy will become a conspiracy against self-reliance.
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The first step in saving our liberty is to realize how much we have already lost, how we lost it, and how we will continue to lose it unless fundamental political changes occur.
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Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
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The more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes.
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Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer's patients, telling them anything that will keep them subdued. It doesn't matter what untruths the people are fed because they will not long remember. But in politics, forgotten falsehoods almost guarantee new treachery.
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It is one of the great tragedies of the US, that most learn most of what they know about the government from the government.
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Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision.
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Once freedom is equated with a certain material standard of living, confiscation becomes the path to liberation.
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The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command. Are these the things that liberty is made of? Somebody else's money and an endless list of Thou Shalt Nots?
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As we learned from the Clinton administration and much of the media, a machine gun in the hands of a federal agent is now a symbol of benevolence and concern for a child's well-being.
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Today's citizen is obliged to find his freedom only in the narrow ruts pre-approved by his bureaucratic overlords. Risk-free liberty is the ideal of the Welfare State: citizens are permitted only liberties which have been declawed, defanged, neutered, certified and wrapped in benevolent restrictions.
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The key question for many voters is: How much is the candidate offering for my vote?
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The more people expect from government, the more biased they become against limiting government power.
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It is important to recognize and politics positive thinking is often the slaves' virtue - something that people do to con themselves about the burden and change being placed upon them.
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Well, one of the first things is to restore the rule of law, to place the government back under the cage of law. Another thing is to stop falling for the myth of democracy.
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The Federal Government is exploiting public fear to redefine the relationship between the rulers and the American people.
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If an election is simply a one-day snapshot of transient mass delusions, then this is not a very noble form of government.
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How many McDonald's gift certificates would it take to sway a lot of Americans to pledge to never publicly criticize the U.S, President?
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It is absurd to expect governments to descend gradually, step-by-step into barbarism - as if there was a train schedule to political hell and people could get off at any stop along the way.
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Governments and citizens blend together only in the imaginations of political theorists. Government is, and always will be, an alien power over private citizens. There is no magic in a ballot box that makes government any less coercive.
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