Now I know the AFT and FBI have good people in the orginzation.
The same could be also be said about the Gestapo, the SS, the KGB, the Stasi, etc.
When a government becomes invested with more and more power over what they can do, and the more they look upon themselves as the self righteous protectors of a society, the thinner the line becomes between protection and oppression.
A person in a police state or a concentration camp is one of the most protected and secure people you can find.
The path to hell is paved with good intentions. One thing I've noticed amongst 'law enforcement' is the growing self righteous attitude that there can be no wrong in the course of 'doing right'.
It's a human tendency that is as old as time. No one likes to think that they are the 'bad guy' and the extent that they will rationalize and overlook things is really quite titanic. The feeling that they are the 'great and powerful protector' is a sustained high as powerful as any drug.
Yeah, they have families like everyone else, which I hear Feds say about themselves at every opportunity. Himmler and Goebbels were also good family men with many children, men of a legal government who came into ultimate power with the approval of the national legislature on the wings of a 'national emergency'.
As I said, it is a very thin line.
There is a growing gulf between the people and 'law enforcement' as law enforcement attains a growing sense of being a separate social class. This is further reinforced as our anointed 'protectors' are given special perks and privileges above what the regular citizen can obtain, instilling a sense of being 'in charge' of the regular citizen, and just a shade better. To paraphrase 'Animal Farm', "Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others." Examples of this are things like a national CCW, including after they retire.
The USA right now is about 80% of the way into being a full blown police state, especially when you look at the laws passed in the last few years and compare them to the freedoms we've lost with the ever more intense regulation we've been subjected to in increments over the last century, let alone in just the last two generations.
There WILL be another 'terrorist' attack and, like the last one, the main party that benefits will be the fans of ultra-powerful government.
Also like the last attack, it will probably be an isolated event in one corner of a very large nation, but this time it will be the pretext to an even greater clamp down on the entire country. Those doing the 'clamping' will, with no doubt, be utterly self assured in the righteousness of their actions and will be full of patriotic fevor. Many of the people will even support it, for a while at least.
Freedom, once relinquished, can usually only be re-obtained by force. Almost NEVER, EVER does an all powerful government give up power like that without great and tumultuous events. The next 10 years will be a very interesting time in this country.
