<p>DRJ4,</p>
<p>I tend to be wary of state power, probably stemming from my area of study and my experiences with more “active” states.</p>
<p>However, inasmuch as I can argue from a purely domestic perspective, I’m all in favor of erring on the side of liberty, even in wartime. That, as far as I can surmise from my readings of the Founders, was to be the core philosophy of the state, through thick and thin. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be willing to beef up security when need be. But we shouldn’t do it lightly. We should always be hesistant to give up even the most minor of liberties, and even more critical of the state when those former liberties become tools of the state.</p>
<p>I am, first and foremost, a believer that the greatest threat to our individual liberties (not our lives, mind you) is the state. Although I do believe that a very credible threat exists out there, I believe that if we give up our liberties as a people, then they’ve won by default anyway, and we have nothing to fight for.</p>
<p>I don’t fight (in my very limited capacity as a scholar) and remain vigilant as an American for the US government. I fight and remain vigilant for my own security as an American. And they are, if we are to believe much American thought, mutually independent in many cases.</p>