https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/jacob-hornberger/it-could-never-happen-here/

It Could Never Happen Here

By Jacob G. Hornberger

Many Americans remain convinced that tyranny and oppression could never happen here in the United States. We are different from other countries, they say. We are more enlightened. We are exceptional. The United States will always be a free country, no matter what.

Of course, there is always a problem with the meaning of the word “freedom.” It means different things to different people.

For example, today’s Americans feel free because they live under a welfare state, a national-security state, a foreign military empire, a government-managed economy, a paper-money system directed by a central bank, an income tax, a drug war, and an immigration police state.

Yet, our American ancestors prior to 1910 rejected all those things and lived in a society that had none of them. Yet, they were convinced that they were free. I happen to believe that they were right and that today’s Americans have simply deluded themselves into thinking they are free.

But let’s take civil liberties. Many Americans would agree that people who live in a society in which civil liberties are absent cannot possibly be considered to be a free people. That is, many Americans favor the procedural protections found in the Bill of Rights. ......