Freedom Frauds: Hard Lessons in American Liberty https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Frauds-Lessons-American-Liberty-ebook/dp/B0765D3GJR
James Bovard’s latest book is free on Amazon on December 14 and 15.
Freedom Frauds is the only political book on Amazon that combines hitchhiking, torture, Syria, Afghanistan, police shootings, & Civil War atrocities. It begins with the story of my antiwar awakening from a long bus ride with a down-and-out veteran who never recovered from killing an innocent south Vietnamese girl. Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats have embraced foreign wars on the flimsiest pretexts, usually championed by media coverage that ignores the carnage inflicted on foreign civilians. But the US government remains far more adept at killing foreigners than protecting Americans.
Freedom Frauds also vivifies how the war on terror degenerated into a war on freedom, such as the perversion of drug-war profiles (which allow police to pretend that almost anyone is a suspect who can justifiably be forcibly searched) into catch-all terrorist profiles. Five chapters in the book detail how police forces have been militarized and unleashed across the land by both Republicans and Democrats, and it is only recently that accurate body counts of police victims have been even been tabulated.
The book exposes how politicians and the media have hollowed out our freedom over the past century. The Founding Fathers created a Bill of Rights to restrain government coercion of the American people. But succeeding generations of presidents and congressmen scorned the Constitution and sanctified one precedent after another to subjugate citizens to Washington. After 9/11, President George W. Bush accelerated the hollowing out of freedom, epitomized by his embrace of torture methods pioneered by the Soviet Union. President Barack Obama, despite his pious rhetoric, piled on new pretexts to unleash bureaucrats and penalize anyone who failed to kowtow to the latest health care and other decrees.
Many of the worst federal abuses have long since become hallowed. The names and parties of the predators change, but many of the anti-freedom scams are the same. Attorney Generals Jeff Session, Eric Holder, and John Ashcroft have far more in common with each other than any resemblance to James Madison. Presidents Trump, Obama, and Bush are peas in a pod compared to Thomas Jefferson.
Freedom Frauds contains ample comic relief, including the story of how Bovard learned how to shovel while working for the Virginia Highway Department, the true facts behind his expulsion from the Supreme Court for laughing at the drug war, and his run-in with police while searching for a donut store.
Despite the anti-Washington backlash in the 2016 election, it remains "business as usual" for the vast majority of federal agencies and policies. And, as comedian Lily Tomlin declared, "No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” But as long as there is a cadre of Americans who continue to supremely value their own freedom and independence, there is hope for reversing the onslaught of Leviathan.
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