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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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James Bovard
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 22
Author
Journalist
Writer
Ames
Iowa
Else
List
Government
Lists
Penalize
Made
Command
Confiscate
Things
Endless
Redistribute
Thou
Nots
Somebody
Prohibit
Liberty
Regulate
Money
Shalt

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The more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes.
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The more government dependents, the more likely that democracy will become a conspiracy against self-reliance.
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Some of the folks on both sides might be sincere, but it does seem as if it is only the opposition that cares about the Bill of Rights most of the time.
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As soon as people drop the reins on government, government will leash the people.
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Dependency is the highest political good - at least for politicians. Since the 1930s, politicians have striven to leave no vote unbought.
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The more people expect from government, the more biased they become against limiting government power.
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Foreign aid breeds kleptocracies, or governments of thieves.
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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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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.
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Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision.
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Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends.
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Not only has the number of government employees multiplied in recent decades, but the rise of government unions further stacks the political odds against private citizens.
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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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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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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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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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The key question for many voters is: How much is the candidate offering for my vote?
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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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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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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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