Now that Donald Trump is President of the United States some of my Democratic Party political friends have suddenly woken up to the horrors that have continued from the Barack Obama administration. This past year, Democratic leaders have put forth their political theater shenanigans by displaying feigned outrage over government spending, loss of freedoms, and loss of privacy protections for their American brethren. Where were you over the last several years? Why did you not voice this outrage while your party leader was our President?
Most Dems remained silent as Obama’s administration bombed the hell out of various countries around the world, killing and maiming countless innocent lives. Most Democrats remained silent as their leaders have caused our nation to rack up crippling debt and our privacy protections have eroded. Most Democrats championed Obama when he simply wrote a “memo” which they thought was going to end the “War on Drugs.” Obama could have easily gone much farther to end the pain, suffering, and increased the freedom of millions of Americas by truly ending the “War on Drugs” but stood by as its Commander in Chief.
For the few that remained vigilant, I applaud you. For those who ignored the travesties, I welcome you to the Libertarian mission to maximize the freedom of Americans and hope you are not just acting because someone you dislike or hate is occupying the White House. As a Libertarian, it does not matter to me if a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian is our president. If freedoms are lost, then we cannot stand by and let them be taken. We must fight back regardless of our political affiliation, regardless of which “team” has control of Congress. If you are sick of the political theater put on by your political party, perhaps it is time to change your voter registration to Libertarian and vote for Libertarian Party candidates. It is within the Libertarian Party where you will find the true #Resistance movement.
So, pardon me if I seem a bit cynical by this most recent statement from our Democratic Party leaders who have recently “discovered” the abuses of our federal government on innocent Americans. You see, all of Florida is within a 100-mile immigration inspection zone. There was an incident last week in Fort Lauderdale which got nationwide attention and properly enraged many Americans. It involves innocent Americans being questioned on a bus about their citizenship by federal authorities. But this has been going on for years — literally. Started in 2006 as a small program, it ballooned over the Obama administration. Not only have federal officers been boarding buses and trains en masse we now have “do nothing” immigration checkpoints well over 50 miles inside our borders. Libertarians have been voicing our opposition to this practice for years which fell on deaf ears.
This week, Ted Deutch and a long list of Dems issued the following statement:
“We were appalled to see U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents abusing their mandate and authority to arbitrarily board a bus to demand that all passengers produce identification and documentation.
“We support strengthening our border protections against external threats and bolstering our officials in their work to keep Americans safe. However, arbitrary and disruptive enforcement actions like this do not make our communities safer. Rather, they waste taxpayer resources, cruelly dehumanize people who have not committed any crimes, and erode our fundamental rights. Identification is not required to ride a bus from one Florida city to another.
“While the law gives U.S. CBP officials the authority to conduct transportation checks within a reasonable distance from the border, this event and others like it across the country show that Congress must conduct a comprehensive review of what ‘reasonable distance’ means. The 100-mile border zone established by U.S. regulations arbitrarily extends CBP jurisdiction and undercuts the rights for citizens and legal residents to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. In Florida, this arbitrary zone puts everyone in the state under constant threat of stops, interrogations, and searches without even the most basic due process protections.
“We regret that visitors to Fort Lauderdale were subjected to this raid, and will work together to push for reasonable limits on border agent authority that protect our civil liberties.”
