America’s 2016 Presidential election is only three days away and early voting has already closed in Texas. But in my Dallas neighborhood the only political sign for blocks in any direction is the one in my front yard. You’d think Gary Johnson was unopposed, when he’s only polling 6%.
He’s not my ideal candidate, but he seems to be a respectful, honest, reasonable person—which is more than I can say for Trump or Clinton. The deafening silence from my neighbors’ yards confirms my neighbors agree, these are two of the most dislikable and repugnant candidates nominated by either party in decades, whose supporters embrace them with the enthusiasm of a patient accepting chemotherapy.
The fact one of them will be elected is a punch in the gut—and another call to action, one I must not ignore or minimize as I have the many calls before. There are many reasons for my inaction. I have a life, and it is a busy one, with many obligations pulling me in different directions. And to be fair, I take action as a citizen from time to time.
But still, I am ashamed it has taken me so long to commit to this.
I was raised Republican, and I voted for every Republican Presidential candidate through George W. Bush in 2000, when I still believed our Republic was strong and our country lived up to its self-image. I admit, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Oklahoma City, Rodney King, O.J., and more than anything the staggering violence and corruption of the misnamed “war on drugs” weighed increasingly on me over the course of the 1990s, heavily informed by my time as a student, and then a teacher, of economic history and theory. Partly it was growing up and learning to recognize, and then believe, my own conscience; partly it was the world not working the way I thought it ought, that caused me to question much of what I had always believed about my country. To be sure, in his first few months in office, “W” worked hard to alienate me by disregarding his commitments to small government and individual choice. But I still recognized an incremental, continuous path of personal development.
The first call was the federal government’s wholesale sacrifice of every libertarian value in the wake of the 9-11 tragedy. It knocked my worldview off its axis; and I knew my perspective had been fundamentally changed. I was stunned when the so-called “P.A.T.R.I.O.T.” act passed. I remember President Bush vowing, and Congress enthusiastically applauding, that we could not let the terrorists win by forsaking our democratic principles. Right before they shrugged off everything I thought we all believed in, so casually, and summoned a regime I could hardly recognize as American: Deprivation of counsel. Monitoring communications. Secret tribunals. Secret detentions. Even secret police. I don’t think the government ever actually told us they were going to start torturing people—but in retrospect, how naïve was it not to realize that torture—and that other hallmark of police states, spying and informing—was an inevitable consequence of secret, extrajudicial action?
The second call came in 2008 when I made my first trip to the People’s Republic of China. I felt some trepidation beforehand about voluntarily entering a country that had—and still has—the most prolific mass murderer in history on every unit of its currency. And I recalled that when I traveled to Mexico in 1973, the sight of policemen with assault rifles and attack dogs had chilled me. I remembered when I entered the Soviet Union in 1983, the hand of the state was so heavy it seemed to squeeze the very air from my lungs, and I found myself moving furtively in my own hotel room. But when I entered the PRC in 2008… I didn’t feel anything. And then I understood the terrible truth: I didn’t notice any difference, because It felt pretty much like America. By then, I took it for granted that in my country:
- The government listened to phone calls and tracked Internet usage.
- “Code enforcement officers” cruse neighborhoods writing tickets, putting up signs, and interfering with property owners’ enjoyment of their land.
- The state and federal government exhort the citizens to obey and inform on lighted traffic signs, fliers, and so-called “public service” messages.
- People could be disappeared from American streets into black sites without any government accountability.
- The Supreme Court said it was okay for police to trespass on a private yard, climb up on a private fence, and peer through cracks in blinds to see what people are doing in their own homes.
- Helicopters fly overhead, and unmarked cars drive the streets, using infrared and other penetrating sensors to monitor us in our beds, backyards, and basements.
- There are so many laws on the books micro-managing our lives that police can intimidate almost anyone at any time; and many police consider it normal and appropriate to use these laws to scare people into informing.
- The state fingerprints and investigates citizens before they’re allowed to work, in many professions or at all, and even before they may drive.
- Citizens may be stopped and asked for papers without individual justification at random roadblocks and before entering many public places.
- Thousands of Americans are strip-searched and cavity-searched before trial, even when arrested on thin or minor charges.
- Militarized police units routinely break into American homes without knocking or warning, even homes with young children present, and at all hours.
- American police kill citizens at rates hundreds of times higher than those of other developed democracies like the United Kingdom.
- America locks up more of its own citizens than any country on Earth except Iran, North Korea, and… you guessed it… the People’s Republic of China.
(first posted on Medium 6 November 2016)
