{"id":20982,"date":"2024-10-28T20:46:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T00:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=20982"},"modified":"2024-10-28T20:46:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T00:46:47","slug":"tyranny-via-freedom-from-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/28\/tyranny-via-freedom-from-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyranny via “Freedom from Fear”"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 25, 2024\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tyranny via \u201cFreedom From Fear\u201d<\/a><\/h1>\n

James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"The Democratic Party is championing Kamala Harris as a born-again champion of freedom.\u00a0 Earlier this year, Democrats shifted their rhetorical focus from democracy to freedom, hoping the latter term would rev up more voters. \u201cFreedom from fear\u201d has become one of the top pledges of the Harris campaign.<\/p>\n

Politicians routinely portray \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d as a notch above the initial freedoms buttressed by the Bill of Rights. While presidents have defined \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d differently, the common thread is that it requires unleashing government agents.\u00a0 Reviewing almost a century of bipartisan bait-and-switches provides good cause to doubt the latest geyser of promises on freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom from fear\u201d first entered the American political pantheon thanks to a January 1941 speech by President Franklin Roosevelt. In that State of the Union address, he promised citizens freedom of speech and freedom of worship \u2013 two cornerstones of the First Amendment \u2013 and then added \u201cfreedom from want\u201d and \u201cfreedom from fear.\u201d FDR\u2019s revised freedoms did not include freedom to dissent, since he said the government would need to take care of the \u201cfew slackers or trouble makers in our midst.\u201d Nor did FDR\u2019s improved freedoms include the freedom not be rounded up for concentration camps, as FDR ordered for Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. Three years later, FDR amended his definition of freedom by championing a Universal Conscription Act to entitle government to the forced labor of any citizen.<\/p>\n

Richard Nixon, in his acceptance speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention, promised, \u201cWe shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear<\/a> in the world.\u201d\u00a0 Nixon asserted: \u201cThe first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence, and that right must be guaranteed in this country.\u201d But with the Nixon scorecard, government violence didn\u2019t count.\u00a0 He perpetuated the war in Vietnam, resulting in another 20,000 American soldiers pointlessly dying.\u00a0\u00a0 On the home front, he created the Drug Enforcement Administration and appointed the nation\u2019s first drug czar.\u00a0 The FBI perpetuated its COINTELPRO program, carrying out \u201ca secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order<\/a>,\u201d as a 1976 Senate report noted.<\/p>\n

President George H.W. Bush told the National Baptist Convention on September 8, 1989: \u201cToday freedom from fear . . . means freedom from drugs.\u201d \u00a0To boost public fear, a DEA informant arranged for a knucklehead to sell crack cocain<\/a>e to an undercover narc in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Bush invoked the sell a few days later to justify a national crackdown. Bush informed the American Legion: \u201cToday I want to focus on one of those freedoms: freedom from fear\u2014the fear of war abroad, the fear of drugs and crime at home. To win that freedom, to build a better and safer life, will require the bravery and sacrifice that Americans have shown before and must again.\u201d Foremost among the sacrifices that Bush demanded was that of traditional liberties. His administration vastly expanded federal power to arbitrarily seize Americans\u2019 property and increased the role of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. In a 1992 speech dedicating a new DEA office building, Bush declared, \u201cI am delighted to be here to salute the greatest freedom fighters any nation could have, people who provide freedom from violence and freedom from drugs and freedom from fear.\u201d \u00a0The DEA\u2019s own crime sprees, corruption, and violence were not permitted to impede Bush\u2019s rhetorical victory lap.<\/p>\n

On May 12, 1994, President Bill Clinton declared: \u201cFreedom from violence and freedom from fear are essential to maintaining not only personal freedom but a sense of community in this country.\u00a0 Clinton banned so-called assault weapons and sought to ban 35 million semi-automatic firearms. Gun bans in response to high crime rates mean closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. \u00a0Citizens would presumedly have nothing to fear after they were forced to abjectly depend on government officials for their own survival.\u00a0 During Clinton\u2019s first term, public housing authorities began mass warrantless searches of apartments to confiscate guns and other banned items. Clinton slammed a federal court ruling blocking the unconstitutional raids. When he visited the Chicago housing projects, Clinton declared, \u201cThe most important freedom we have in this country is the freedom from fear. And if people aren\u2019t free from fear, they are not free.\u201d175<\/sup> In Clinton\u2019s view, public housing residents had no right to fear the federally-funded housing police storming into their apartments<\/p>\n

In February 1996, Clinton, seeking conservative support for his reelection campaign, endorsed forcing children to wear uniforms at public schools. Clinton justified the fashion dictate: \u201cEvery one of us has an obligation to work together, to give our children freedom from fear and the freedom to learn.\u201d But, if mandatory uniforms were the key to ending violence, Postal Service employees would have a lower homicide rate.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, repeatedly promised voters \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d via crackdowns on crime. How did Dole intend to provide \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d? By proclaiming that \u201cwe must . . . untie the hands of the police.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Dole did not specify exactly how many no-knock raids would be necessary to restore domestic tranquility.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush, like his father, alternated promises of \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d with shameless fearmongering. <\/strong>Prior to Election Day 2004, the Bush administration continually issued terror attack warnings based on flimsy or no evidence.\u00a0 <\/strong>The New York Times derided the Bush administration in late October for having \u201cturned the business of keeping Americans informed about the threat of terrorism into a politically scripted series of color-coded scare sessions.\u201d\u00a0 Yet each time a terror alert was issued, the president\u2019s approval rating rose temporarily by roughly three percent, according to a Cornell University study.\u00a0 The Cornell study found a \u201chalo effect\u201d: the more terrorists who wanted to attack America, the better job Bush was supposedly doing. People who saw terrorism as the biggest issue in the 2004 election voted for Bush by a 6-to-1 margin.<\/p>\n

The most memorable Bush campaign ad, released a few weeks before the election, opened in a thick forest, with shadows and hazy shots complementing the foreboding music. After vilifying Democratic candidate John Kerry, the ad showed a pack of wolves reclining in a clearing. The voiceover concluded \u201cAnd weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm\u201d as the wolves began jumping up and running toward the camera.\u00a0 At the end of the ad, the president appeared and announced: \u201cI\u2019m George W. Bush and I approve this message.\u201d One liberal cynic suggested that the ad\u2019s message was that voters would be eaten by wolves if Kerry won. Pat Wendland, the manager of Wolves Offered Life and Friendship, a Colorado wolf refuge, Colorado, complained: \u201cThe comparison to terrorists was insulting. We have worked for years, teaching people that Little Red Riding Hood lied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s campaign to terrify voters into granting him four more years to rule America and much of the world did not deter him from announcing a few months later in his 2005 State of the Union<\/a> address: \u201cWe will pass along to our children all the freedoms we enjoy, and chief among them is freedom from fear.\u201d This was back when the mainstream media was continuing to hail Bush as a visionary idealist, prior to the collapse of his credibility on the Iraq war, torture, and other debacles.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden milked \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d in a Pennsylvania speech earlier this year on the third anniversary of January 6. \u00a0Biden planned to turn the November election into a referendum on Adolf Hitler, accusing Donald Trump of \u201cechoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.\u201d Biden spent half an hour fearmongering and then closed by promising \u201cfreedom from fear.\u201d This was the famous Biden two-step<\/a>\u2014demagoguing to his heart\u2019s content and then closing with schmaltzy uplift lines, entitling the media to re-christen him as an idealist.<\/p>\n

Biden did not survive the Democrats\u2019 version of the \u201cNight of the Long Knives\u201d and Vice President Kamala Harris was designated the party\u2019s presidential flagbearer.\u00a0 Harris painted with an even broader brush than most politicians. At a Juneteenth Concert this summer, she condemned Republicans for a \u201ca full-on attack\u201d on \u201cthe freedom from fear of bigotry and hate.\u201d Harris implied that politicians could wave a psychological magic wand to banish any bias in perpetuity.\u00a0\u00a0 How can anyone have \u201cfreedom from fear of bigotry\u201d unless politicians perpetually control everyone\u2019s thoughts?<\/p>\n

In August, the Democratic National Convention whooped up freedom in ways that would qualify as \u201cauthentic frontier gibberish,\u201d as the 1974 movie Blazing Saddles would say.\u00a0 A campaign video promised \u201cfreedom from control, freedom from extremism and fear.\u201d \u00a0So Americans won\u2019t have true freedom until politicians forcibly suppress any idea they label as immoderate? The Democratic Party platform warned: \u201cReproductive freedom, freedom from hate, freedom from fear, the freedom to control our own destinies and more are all on the line in this election.\u201d But the whole point of politics nowadays is to preempt individuals from controlling their own destinies. Regardless, a Time magazine headline hailed \u201cHow Kamala Harris Took \u2018Freedom\u2019 Back from the GOP.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom from fear\u201d is the ultimate political blank check. The more people government frightens, the more legitimate dictatorial policies become. \u00a0\u00a0Pledging \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d entitles politicians to seize power over anything that frightens anyone. Giving politicians more power based on people\u2019s fears is like giving firemen pay raises based on how many false alarms they report.<\/p>\n

Politicians\u2019 promises of \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d imply that freedom properly understood is a risk-free, worry-free condition. It is the type of promise that a mother would make to a young child. \u00a0New Mexico Gov. Michelle Grisham epitomized that mindset when she proclaimed at the Democratic National Convention: \u201cWe need a president who can be Consoler-in-Chief. We need a president capable of holding us in a great big hug.\u201d\u00a0 And continuing to hold us until we formally become psychological wards of the State?<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom from fear\u201d offers freedom from everything except the government. Anyone who sounds the alarm about excessive government power will automatically be guilty of subverting freedom from fear.\u00a0 Presumably, the fewer inviolable rights the citizen has, the better government will treat him. But as John Locke warned more than 300 years ago, \u201cI have no reason to suppose, that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why not simply offer voters \u201cfreedom from the Constitution\u201d? \u00a0\u201cFreedom from fear\u201d means security via mass delusions about the nature of political power. Painting the motto \u201cfreedom from fear\u201d on shackles won\u2019t make them easier to bear.\u00a0 Perhaps our ruling class should be honest and replace the Bill of Rights with a new motto: \u201cPolitical buncombe will make you free.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Libertarian Institute published an earlier version of this piece.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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James Bovard<\/em><\/strong> is the author of <\/em>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>The Bush Betrayal<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>Terrorism and Tyranny<\/em><\/a>. His latest book is Last Rights: the Death of American Liberty<\/a>. Bovard is on the USA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is at <\/em>www.jimbovard.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 25, 2024 Tyranny via \u201cFreedom From Fear\u201d James Bovard The Democratic Party is championing Kamala Harris as a born-again champion of freedom.\u00a0 Earlier this year, Democrats shifted their rhetorical focus from democracy to freedom, hoping the latter term would rev up more voters. \u201cFreedom from fear\u201d has become one of the top pledges of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2124,10,51,451,4394,2317,27],"class_list":["post-20982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biden","tag-bush","tag-clinton","tag-constitution","tag-fdr-freedom","tag-fear","tag-lying"],"yoast_head":"\nTyranny via "Freedom from Fear" - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tyranny results from craven "freedom from fear" power grabs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/28\/tyranny-via-freedom-from-fear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tyranny via "Freedom from Fear" - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20983,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982\/revisions\/20983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}