“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.
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As we turn our heads with willful ignorance, the powers that be have begun to strike our true freedoms like a chisel against stone. Piece by piece breaks away, gradually, over time. Not enough to notice at first, but, eventually, it will all crumble. And then, people will say, “I wish we could have stopped it when we had the chance.” 
 
Despotism is government by a singular authority, either a single person or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute power. The word implies tyrannical rule; it suggests a form of government which exercises exacting and near-absolute control over all of its citizens.
 
"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Degrees do not matter... one does not bargain about inches of evil."
---Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
 
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
---Henry Kissinger 
 
"This would be a lot easier if it were a dictatorship, so long as I'm the dictator."
---George W. Bush
 
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth"
---John F. Kennedy