Text sidebar: according to 5 U.S.C. § 552a, otherwise known as the Privacy Act of 1974 states that United States agencies, including the Executive Office of the President shall: “maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.” The bill was passed as a response for the "need to protect individuals from illegal surveillance and investigation by federal agencies, a need demonstrated by the Watergate Scandal."
has enshrined the idea that records should not be collected on individuals. In Germany, prior to Hitler, a transformation began to take place where members of society were viewed as minderwertig or "worth-less" (Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, p. 38). As people are objectified as worthless they are considered dispensable. Tyrants and dictators fear opposition and consider some people as a "mob"
Video sidebar: Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation,” 22 June 2009, Setauket, N.Y.
and as a security risk to their grasping of power and overreach.
As early as 1921, although Hitler was not appointed Chancellor until 1933, the Nazis identified the Jews as "security risks and useless eaters (Evans, Coming, p. 346)." Paragraph 16 of the Constitution the Nazis intended to put into effect, had the Putsch of 1923 been successful, stated that the Jews would be placed into camps. The Nazis had a penchant for operating in a quasi-legal fashion, and in fact the decisions of the judiciary are important to understand as a force undermining, and not upholding the Weimar Republic (Evans, Coming, pp. 137-138).
As Evans rhetorically asks: "Where the law and its administration were against it (the Republic), what chance did it have? (Evans, Coming, p. 138)."
I would hope that America does not share the fate of Weimar Germany. We need to uphold the principles of the Founders on behalf of the American Republic and its ideals.
The mob is the gang in Washington unable to govern effectively and understand legitimate dissent.
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