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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.

James Bovard

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James Bovard
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 22
Author
Journalist
Writer
Ames
Iowa
State
Narrow
Restrictions
Freedom
Citizen
Benevolent
Free
Ideal
Approved
States
Welfare
Restriction
Overlords
Today
Ideals
Permitted
Neutered
Find
Citizens
Wrapped
Certified
Risk
Liberties
Bureaucratic
Liberty
Obliged
Ruts

More quotes by James Bovard

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Government aid programs have been endlessly expanded, and the government has sought to maximize the number of people willing to accept handouts..... Roughly half of all Americans are dependent on the government, either for handouts, pensions, or paychecks.
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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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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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American democracy is capsizing as a result of the vast increase in the number of government dependents and government employees.
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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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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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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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If so many Americans are looking for the government to save them, then it is hard to have a dignified search for a shepherd in chief.
James Bovard
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Throughout history, politicians have used other people's property to buy themselves power. That is the primary achievement of the welfare state.
James Bovard
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The more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes.
James Bovard
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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.
James Bovard
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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.
James Bovard
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Foreign aid breeds kleptocracies, or governments of thieves.
James Bovard
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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?
James Bovard
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There is no safe political refuge for those afraid to take responsibility for their own lives.
James Bovard
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The more government dependents, the more likely that democracy will become a conspiracy against self-reliance.
James Bovard
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Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard
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There has been so much power concentrated. There is no leash on that power anymore and Americans face the situation that this power is getting momentum with each passing year with each presidency.
James Bovard
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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.
James Bovard