The Last Liberty?

This "nationalizing" talk is chilling. It's "Atlas Shrugged" come to life.

The people Rand called "looters" have the momentum right now, sadly. It may get a lot worse before it gets better. What a pity.

Driving is a priviledge, not a right. Remember that falsehood when you can't afford to buy the fuel to go where you want.

Liberty dies when government power is unjustly derived without the consent of the governed.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories." Thomas Jefferson

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Abraham Lincoln

We're letting our great country be whittled away.It looks as if it will be too late by the time people wake up.

Driving is a privilege? So says the state and thereby makes the author's point all the more. To say a person is free, but to restrict their movement seems a bit incongruous to me. I am fully aware of the system that we live under now says that it is a privilege, but that doesn't mean it's not already abridging a fundamental right. Just because it is, doesn't mean it is right.

Unfortunately our elected legislators and President, and the folks that they appoint and confirm, are giving us EXACTLY the governance that the majority of our voting citizenry is demanding. It is no use hoping for the rest of the populace to get off their duff and vote, for they would vote the same way, if not worse. Our society today has settled on two principles that they hold to at all costs. The first is "I want it all, and I want it now." The second is "I refuse to be held responsible for my own or my family's actions, and that includes the responsibility to pick up the tab for what I demand." Until we can turn around society, if we can, and get them to once again take individual responsibility for themselves, we will continue down this path to nanny state Socialism.

I only "hope" the American people will wake up to this slow and growing tyranny!

Even though many people here would never even dream of arming themselves for their defense, that IS THEIR RIGHT>. For those of us who prefer to do so, that is OUR RIGHT. The key word in the 2d Amendment is not "The People" it is "INFRINGED" As so . so many of our "Rights" have been co-opted.
The only "RIGHTS" we really have are those we are willing to "DEFEND"

Imagine it's the 19th century, and some clown tells you you have the right to travel but not by horse-and-wagon or horseback; the latter, he tells you, is a "privilege". You would rightly regard him as a fool.

Cars and trucks have replaced the horse-and-buggy as THE means of travel on the roads. Your tax money is forcibly taken to build a "public" road to permit citizens (including yourself) to travel, yet supposedly only a "privilege" allows you to use it. Many major highways don't allow pedestrians, bicycles or horse-drawn wagons, So you can't exercise your "right" to travel by foot, either!

Some states may have old "driving is a privilege" decisions on their books, but I suspect they would be overturned today. Many are based on a supposed restriction on the right to use public roads for "commerce", but that would sweep up virtually every American driving to work.

Following this line of thinking, a state could revoke the "privilege" to drive from EVERYONE.

Bottom line: ALL rights, including those specified or alluded to in the Bill of Rights and later amendments, have limitations and conditions. States certainly have a "public safety" interest in ensuring that people driving on public roads meet minimum conditions (eyesight, understanding rules of the road etc.) But they don't have the power to restrict a right to the point it becomes impossible to exercise. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to rethink their Constitution, which conveys NO rights whatsover on the government, only powers in support of rights.

Our present state of government is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

My grandfather used to say,
"This country was founded on rights...and it will be those same rights that tear it down."
When I was younger I never comprehended the meaning of those words. As I got older I realized that he had it mostly right, but he left out one important word...."abuse". Its not our rights that will bring us down, but rather the abuse of those rights or even the perception of supposed rights we really dont have.

The elimination of freedom of movement could be the next step in school desegregation as a means of preventing "white flight."