Do you believe the USA is, at the moment, a free country?

[merrimac]

Well?

[Czolgosz]

Yes, the republic still exists...but only a few people reside in it. They must free the rest of us... well ... you. :D

http://www.halfofjess.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/matrix.jpg

[Uriel999]

Fuck no.

[ronpaulitician]

Free-ish. Eh, I'm not indefinitely imprisoned yet.

[eric4186]

things like the Patriot Act and NDAA are concerning for sure and we should be fighting against them, but things haven't gotten close to a tipping point yet. There have been plenty of examples of laws passed in American history that make civil libertarians shriek in horror but we've gotten through them then and hopefully we'll get through these intrusions now.

[Echoes]

Free !!?? Not for nothing, but that's a really stupid question.

[DamianTV]

The outcome of this poll is going to be as lopsided as the poll I started asking if the Government operates an Honest Money System.

[kah13176]

No.

We can't keep what we earn. We aren't allowed to own land.

[BamaAla]

There are varying degrees of "free." I answered no, but there isn't another country I'd rather live in.

[Napolitanic Wars]

There are varying degrees of "free."

Agreed. It's called a slippery slope for a reason.

[PierzStyx]

Can I be disappeared tomorrow? Can my loved ones be murdered in their beds by government agents? Is the privacy of my person protected? Is my property free from government seizure at whim? No. I can be disappeared into a secret prison for being a "threat" to the government. My loved ones can be labeled terrorist suspects and be killed in the name of security. Police officers can search and violate my body at will in search of evidence. TSA agents do the same whenever I travel. I cannot ever own property. Property taxes are rent checks to the government for the right to live on your land. Well "your". Try and not paying your property taxes. See how long you get to keep "your" land. This is to say nothing of governmental power to enter my home search and take my things and never have to tell me, thanks to the Patriot Act.

I have no right to life. The government can kill be whenever it wants by labeling me a "threat". I have no liberty. I can be jailed indefinitely without trial whenever the government feels like it. I have no rights to property. The government will take it if I don't pay for the privilege of being on it. Nothing I have or can gain is protected as mine own, my family is not protected from harm. I have no right to pursuit of happiness. I only have the right to do what the government approves of.

You tell me how COULD this be a free nation? Its all illusionary.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

No.

We can't keep what we earn. We aren't allowed to own land.
^^^ remember, the IRS owns your salary.

[John F Kennedy III]

No. Not even close.

[cindy25]

in 1986 you could:
board an airplane
register to vote
open a bank account (in person or by mail)
buy stocks

all without showing any ID whatsoever.

[Xenophage]

Not free.

But, in terms of relative freeness in the world, it's still near or at the top of the pack.

[RickyJ]

Well?

I got a question for you. Why do you keep asking all these questions on this site dedicated to getting Ron Paul elected that have nothing to do with getting him elected?

There are tons of good forums to ask questions like this on where you could even promote Ron Paul on and possibly win some more supporters for Ron Paul's presidential run.

To answer your question: No, we aren't a free nation and I don't think that needs an explanation.

[Cutlerzzz]

Not free.

But, in terms of relative freeness in the world, it's still near or at the top of the pack.Which says more about how fucked up the rest of the world is than how free we are.

[LibertyEagle]

Guys, please stop it with the F bombs. Over 500,000 people have been directed here, by those superbrochures, to find out more about Ron Paul. Many of these, Christian Republicans. Please do not run them off from here and away from Ron Paul because of profane language.

[pcosmar]

There are varying degrees of "free." I answered no, but there isn't another country I'd rather live in.

No.
Not in my lifetime. And I have watched it get less free over the years. I have observed those "varying degrees" become less and less.

I can trace my ancestry back to the 1600s on this continent. the 1800s in this area.
I have no place to go.

[TheDriver]

Free from what?--smallpox?

We're not free from excessive taxation, I know that!

[Anti Federalist]

Said everything I was going to say except for the 24/7 surveillance grid that we all live under.

Just because it isn't happening to large numbers of people (yet) does not negate the relevant point:

A society that does all these things can, in no way, be considered a "free society".


Can I be disappeared tomorrow? Can my loved ones be murdered in their beds by government agents? Is the privacy of my person protected? Is my property free from government seizure at whim? No. I can be disappeared into a secret prison for being a "threat" to the government. My loved ones can be labeled terrorist suspects and be killed in the name of security. Police officers can search and violate my body at will in search of evidence. TSA agents do the same whenever I travel. I cannot ever own property. Property taxes are rent checks to the government for the right to live on your land. Well "your". Try and not paying your property taxes. See how long you get to keep "your" land. This is to say nothing of governmental power to enter my home search and take my things and never have to tell me, thanks to the Patriot Act.

I have no right to life. The government can kill be whenever it wants by labeling me a "threat". I have no liberty. I can be jailed indefinitely without trial whenever the government feels like it. I have no rights to property. The government will take it if I don't pay for the privilege of being on it. Nothing I have or can gain is protected as mine own, my family is not protected from harm. I have no right to pursuit of happiness. I only have the right to do what the government approves of.

You tell me how COULD this be a free nation? Its all illusionary.

[Krugerrand]

Hard to say 'yes' after reading this:
MA-Library send cops to collect overdue books from 5 year old.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?345333-MA-Library-send-cops-to-collect-overdue-books-from-5-year-old.

[moostraks]

Can I be disappeared tomorrow? Can my loved ones be murdered in their beds by government agents? Is the privacy of my person protected? Is my property free from government seizure at whim? No. I can be disappeared into a secret prison for being a "threat" to the government. My loved ones can be labeled terrorist suspects and be killed in the name of security. Police officers can search and violate my body at will in search of evidence. TSA agents do the same whenever I travel. I cannot ever own property. Property taxes are rent checks to the government for the right to live on your land. Well "your". Try and not paying your property taxes. See how long you get to keep "your" land. This is to say nothing of governmental power to enter my home search and take my things and never have to tell me, thanks to the Patriot Act.

I have no right to life. The government can kill be whenever it wants by labeling me a "threat". I have no liberty. I can be jailed indefinitely without trial whenever the government feels like it. I have no rights to property. The government will take it if I don't pay for the privilege of being on it. Nothing I have or can gain is protected as mine own, my family is not protected from harm. I have no right to pursuit of happiness. I only have the right to do what the government approves of.

You tell me how COULD this be a free nation? Its all illusionary.

Definately this^^^ To which I would add try raising your children outside mainstream values. Try not following mandatory education laws for your area. Or getting the wrong healthcare provider and not abiding by their demands as to what to inject in your children. Try following the government's own recommendations on limiting television with your children or having a stock pile of food in case of natural disasters.

Free...no, I would say not by any legitimate standard.

[Drex]

Can you make " HELL NO " a choice?

[All Ways]

easiest vote ever.

[Jingles]

I'd say absolutely not. Do we have slightly more freedom than some other places in the world? Yes. Does that make us free? No. I am free though. Butler Shaffer talks about freedom being more of a state of mind and the world in of itself having to do more with liberty. I am free, but I do not live in a state of liberty. I think it also kind of depends on the state you live in a bit. Some places are more free than others. That's more speaking in relative terms rather than absolutes. In the absolute sense, no we do not live in a state of liberty. I don't think I ever can say that we do unless that government no longer exists.

Basically the only thing that keeps me from saying we live in a total fascist dictatorship is that we still have some semblance of a chance of changing our government via political action. Also, the internet. If it wasn't for the internet and the freedom of information we have because of it I would say we would would be living in TOTAL tyranny (That is not to say that we don't have quite the authoritarian government. Plus, I'm also in the camp that believes the state by its very existence is an aggression against liberty by that fact that it must use force, theft, and fraud to maintain its existence).

[pcosmar]

A gilded cage,,, is still a cage.

[MrTudo]

There are not varying degrees of being free. There are however varying degrees of tyranny.

You are either free or you are not and the answer to the question is no.

[MJU1983]

I'd say yes and no. Yes, more so than it has been in say...the past 100 years. But no, not in the way the founders had imagined.

[Lucille]

Nope. Especially since CONgress passed, and O Duce signed, the NDAA.

Nothing Outside the State (http://blog.independent.org/2010/03/16/nothing-outside-the-state/)


The areas of life that remain outside the government’s participation, taxation, subsidization, regulation, surveillance, and other intrusion or control have become so few and so trivial that they scarcely merit mention. We verge ever closer upon the condition in which everything that is not prohibited is required. Yet, the average American will declare loudly that he is a free man and that his country is the freest in the world. Thus, in a country where more and more is for the state, where virtually nothing is outside the State, and where, aside from pointless complaints, nothing against the State is permitted, Americans have become ideal fascist citizens. Like the average German during the years that Hitler ruled Germany, most Americans today, inhabiting one of the most pervasively controlled countries in the history of the world, think they are free.

[Wesker1982]

"Suppose it be "the best government freest country on earth", does that prove its own goodness, or only the badness of all other governments countries?"- Lysander Spooner

[RiseAgainst]

If by country you mean national government, your statement is an oxymoron. A system designed to control people through the exercise of violent force can NEVER be free.

If by country you mean a generic geographic region which certain people inhabit, freedom is theoretically achievable, but we are about as far from it today as we ever have been...

[LoneWolf]

Nope. Not even close.