As elections go, this year's is not too exciting. New Jersey and Virginia are electing governors. In Aurora, Colorado, where I live, we are choosing city council and school board members, as well as voting on some initiatives and referenda.

Perhaps this lack of electoral excitement is a good thing. With all the promises that elected things are making in the wake of September 11, can you imagine what they would promise in an even numbered year? And can you imagine how ready millions of people would be to fall for these promises? It boggles the mind. (Can anything other than the mind be boggled?)

40 years ago, John F. Kennedy implored us to, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." In 2001, when people are more eager than ever to relinquish their freedoms to have a false sense of security, people need to consider the following paraphrase of the 1961 inaugural address: "Ask not what your government can do for you. Ask what your government can do to you."

Every step away from freedom, no matter how small, is a step in the direction of tyranny. Prior to September 11, America was already as socialistic as many of the European countries we deride as socialist. We just do socialism under the guise of "liberalism." When conservatives take office, the only thing they seem to want to "conserve" is the edifice that liberals have erected. They never undo what liberals have wrought; they just tighten the statist vise grip slightly more slowly. Rank and file conservatives scream bloody murder when liberals want to take away our freedoms, but kiss the feet of conservative politicians when they do likewise. As a result, the United States is basically a Sweden with missiles. God knows what measure of tyranny we will accept in the name of offsetting another September 11.

Do you want to live in a country where the government provides security and which has never been the object of a terrorist attack? Let me describe life in such a country, i.e. the People's Republic of China. This is a country where the state is there to feed you, house you, clothe you, employ you, medicate you, educate you, and to fulfill all your other needs, from cradle to grave.

In order for America to resemble Communist China, we would have to do the following. We would have to cut every paycheck by 90 percent; we would have to get rid of 60 percent of our television sets, 83 percent of our radios, and 98 percent of our motor vehicles; we would have to throw away 80 percent of our cell phones and 85 percent of our conventional telephones; we would have to unplug 97 percent of our internet connections; we would have to cut our electrical generating capacity by 93 percent; we would have to dismantle 99 percent of our petroleum pipelines; we would have to tear up 93 percent of our railways and 95 percent of our highways; we would have to multiply our illiteracy rate by a factor of 6 and our infant mortality rate by a factor of 4. (1)

Has the recession cost you your job? If America resembled Communist China, there would be plenty of work for you -- we would have to send 134 million people back to the farms. In America, only 2 percent of the people work on the farms. In China half of the population works on farms and they still cannot feed their people. America is the world's number one food exporter and we still have so much food here at home that overeating is a major problem.

If you did not like security ChiCom style, and you decided to say something about it, a storm trooper with a machine gun would knock on your door at 3 a.m., and point you in the direction of the nearest box car, which would whisk you away to "camp" for a little attitude enhancement.

But aren't China's problems the result of overpopulation? Guess which country has the lowest population density in the Far East, as well as the greatest abundance of natural resources. If you guessed Red China, you win dinner for one at Burgerama.

But haven't the ChiComs solved the inequality problem? In America, the top ten percent of the population controls 30.5 percent of the wealth. In Red China, the top ten percent of the population controls 30.4 percent of the wealth. Was it worth those tens of millions of deaths?

But hasn't China solved the drug problem? Even if they have, problem-solving ChiCom style ought to make you squirm. Consider their methods of "solving" the Christianity "problem."

But don't a lot of totalitarian countries have low crime rates? Well, in such societies, the state defines crime to conform to the state's agenda. By their definition, what happens in the death camps does not constitute a crime. If the government does something, no matter how hideous, it is not a crime. What happened at Auschwitz was legal in Nazi Germany. The slaughter of 14 million Ukrainians was legal under Stalin. The Taliban undoubtedly omit their treatment of women from any crime statistics they might keep.

Russia and China may never have been on the receiving end of a September 11 style terrorist attack. However, life under such regimes may be likened to one perpetual terrorist attack. Rudy Rummel, a professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii, has made the following point:

"{During the 20th century} …170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners."

A rogue government poses a far greater danger to its people than do terrorists. Whereas the death toll on September 11 can be expressed in four digits, the body counts of Stalin and Mao Zedong must be expressed in eight digits. Take the September 11 body count (about 5500), multiply it by itself, and then multiply that number by five, and you still do not come close to the body count as a result of rogue governments in the twentieth century.

The next time someone entices you to have your government do something for you, ask him what your government intends to do to you in return. No matter how high-minded the supposed intentions of your government, the perils you invite by trusting it without thinking are absolutely gruesome.

(1) Source: The CIA World FactBook. For information on automobile ownership, my source was InfoNation. (Back)

Freely Speaking: Speeches and Essays by Doug Newman

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