We have reached a sad point in history at which  Americans freedom is not being threatened from outside, but rather from  our own government and the politicians who run it. Yes, there are many  around the world, whether they be terrorists or nations who harbor them,  who would do us harm if given the opportunity, and who would love to  rob us of our liberties. But with a national defense that represents  almost half the entire worlds military spending, we are well-equipped  to deal with those external threats.
 What we are failing to deal with is the fact that Congress and the  past several Presidents have systematically done to freedom and liberty  what no foreign enemy could do. If another nation robbed us of hundreds  of billions of dollars of wealth, it would be an outrage we would not  tolerate. Yet, we have watched helplessly as the politicians and the  Federal Reserve have done precisely the same thing by racking up  trillions in debt, devaluing our currency with wrong-headed monetary  policies, and placed our dollars on the verge of collapse.
 If a foreign aggressor threatened to take away our rights to  privacy, due process under the Constitution, or the fundamental  liberties granted in the Bill of Rights, it would be an act of war. Yet,  we need the governments permission and must endure its probing to  board an airplane, we can be stopped and frisked for simply walking down  the street in New York, and we have government drones flying over farms  in the Midwest to make sure manure is being disposed of legally.
 We can be detained indefinitely by our own government under the  guise of protecting us. Our cell phones and internet can be monitored.  And even our reading habits can be examined at our public libraries.
 If Iran actually acted to do those things to us, we would be  launching missiles in an instant. But, in reality, Iran nor any other  foreign aggressor has done anything to us  and probably cant  to  rival the loss of freedom and rights we are suffering at the hands of  Washington, D.C.
 To a former Republican, the sad irony of these realities is that it  is impossible to lay the blame for the destruction of our liberties on  one of the two major parties more than the other. They are equally  guilty, and equally willing to continue to spend, tax and legislate  freedom into oblivion.