By Tom DeWeese
January 1, 2006 
There is an important lesson that bullies never seem to learn: You can only push people so far before they begin to push back. We are starting to see such a response to Big Brother's assault on American liberties, as average Americans are beginning to push back, and say no.
No issue has grabbed the nation's attention like the invasion of illegal aliens. As hundreds of thousands poured across the U.S. border over the years, changing our culture, affecting our crime rate, and diminishing our standard of living, frustrated Americans were told by government that there was nothing to be done about it.
Suddenly, early in 2005, a determined group of volunteers organized vigils at the hottest spots along the border, photographing and reporting on the highly organized invasion. As the news media began to carry these reports on the nightly news, Americans became incensed. The tide began to turn. Congress has taken action, passing several pieces of legislation aimed at strengthening the border, including larger budgets for the Border Patrol, and fencing. What Congress has not yet done is pass the Bush Administration's scheme for amnesty for these lawbreakers. And, that's another good thing. Americans had enough, and pushed back.
Protection of private property finally hit the front pages in 2005, after blatant theft by government. The local communities' use of eminent domain to take private homes to simply raise tax revenues, or line the pockets of private businesses has caused pain and outrage for several decades. Of course, the use of eminent domain is absolutely essential for the implementation of the U.N.'s Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development.
In a shocking decision by the Supreme Court (Kelo vs New London, CT), such grabs of private property were legalized, setting off a nationwide cry of outrage, and the creation of property rights protection legislation at all levels of government. Property owners are demanding that government protect their rights, and are pushing back.
Also on the private property scene, efforts were launched in Congress in 2005 to "fix" the Endangered Species Act (ESA), perhaps the worst law ever to be enacted in Congress. For more than 30 years, the ESA has been at the root of massive private property invasions, destroying whole industries, like timber and ranching. The ESA has been used by radical environmentalists to destroy the very concept of private property, insisting instead, that government make every decision concerning land use.
Though several members of Congress spoke loudly of "fixing" this sad situation, the original draft legislation carried only an anemic pretense of property rights protection. In response, property rights activists rose up in protest, and managed to force the legislation's authors to add stronger property protections. This effort represented the first time in the long ESA debate, that property rights protection became the focus of the fight, and the first time that radical greens were forced to give ground on the issue. People are tired of taking second place to misplaced radicalism, and are pushing back.
Americans are beginning to understand that there is something very wrong with the United Nations. Sold on an image of being simply a place where nations can come to air their grievances and keep the peace, the U.N. has instead become a scandal-infested hellhole, bent on infecting the world with the disease of global control.
2005 has seen a shift in public opinion against the U.N., and Congress is threatening to withhold U.S. dues payments, unless something is done. Americans like their independence and sovereignty, and are pushing back against the U.N.'s intrusions.
The pubic schools continue to turn out stupid kids, even after billions have been spent on new buildings, higher paid teachers, and federally-dictated curriculum. Parents are beginning to figure out that the main problem is federal meddling, and are demanding a return to local control. Parents are beginning to push back.
Using the excuse of terrorism, the federal government has expanded its power over American civil liberties, using any excuse to look into private documents; invade homes without search warrants; wiretap at will; even setting up a national ID card, which every state will be forced to provide, by the end of next year.
As a result, Congress has taken a surprising turn in refusing to re-authorize the Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress only days after the 9/11 attacks, and was never read by a single member. Free Americans are refusing to quietly give up their personal privacy and liberty, when it has literally no effect on fighting terrorism. Americans are beginning to push back, against those who seek power for power's sake.
Finally, this Christmas, Americans (not just those who consider themselves to be fundamentalist Christians) have had about enough of the multi-cultural claptrap, which dictates that all ideas and beliefs must take precedence over Christian traditions. This year, Americans began to push the bullies aside, and take back Christmas with a defiant shout of "Merry Christmas."
It's encouraging that the spirit of liberty is beginning to reawaken among Americans. It is gratifying to see a unified punch thrown at the bullies. But, Americans beware. The bullies never take a punch lying down. And, Big Brother never sleeps. As Americans take a stand for their liberties, the bullies are already plotting how to redirect our emotions toward very bad, or halfhearted solutions that may, in the end, make things much worse, with greater loss of liberty. In other words, the rhetoric may well be there, but the solutions won't be.
For example, the White House has been severely beaten up on the illegal immigration issue. President Bush has been simply wrong, in trying to appease Mexican President, Vicente Fox's unreasonable demands to allow an open border between our two countries. Bush continues to push for his "guest worker" plan to allow an unknown number of illegal aliens free passage back and forth across the border, for an unknown period of time. It's an amnesty that the country is in no mood to accept.
However, unless Americans stand strong in rejecting such an unworkable scheme, the President will demand, and get it through Congress, as part of a "compromise" solution. That solution would allow millions of undocumented aliens to continue to work and gain American services, while little is known about them, including their whereabouts, and their reasons for being in this country. The only compromise will be that the President gets the plan that he and Fox have wanted all along, while the tough new immigration control legislation that has already passed Congress will be watered down to complete ineffectiveness. The bully wins.
Meanwhile, though the House of Representatives has already passed legislation to overturn parts of the Kelo decision, and punish communities that use eminent domain for private gain, the Senate has not. If it fails to act, the usual Washington game of getting in front of the cameras with tough talk and no action ,will prevail. There will be a perception of action, with no results. Property owners must keep Congress's feet to the fire, and force passage of the Property Rights Protection Act in the Senate. Meanwhile, there must also continue to be an organized effort to pass property rights legislation in every single state.
Unfortunately, the fix is already in for the Endangered Species Act. In spite of the fact that property rights activists fought with determination to guarantee property rights protections, the usual Washington flim-flam was put into high gear. Before the bill, (Representative Richard Pombo's Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act) could be voted on, the Environmental lobby forced amendments, that diluted or deleted, most of the property rights protections, including most of the compensation to property owners who lose their land because an endangered species appears. Yet, the bill was labeled as a property rights reform.
Now the Senate version, introduced by Senators Lincoln Chaffee and Mike Crapo, is even worse. There simply is no property rights language at all in S.2110 (the Collaboration and Recovery of Endangered Species Act.) Yet, the bill is still called "reform," and the news shows are full of debates over how this bill damages the ESA in favor of selfish landowners. Here is a classic case of the bullies grabbing the emotions and rhetoric of those who demand liberty, and turning it into their own vehicle for yet more oppression. Liberty gets the blame, the bullies win the game.
Once again, the Bush Administration is picking up on the American public's anti-U.N. feelings and, pounding its chest in front of the cameras, has many freedom-loving Americans convinced it wants major changes at the world body. If not, says our new Ambassador, John Bolton, we will withhold dues payments. He calls it a "revolution of reform."
American leadership must be very careful what it asks for when calling for reform. That's because "reform" of the United Nations is completely different from the kind Ambassador Bolton is referring to. To the U.N., reform means more power; global governance. U.N. leadership envisions a world, in which there are no borders. There is common currency. There is one standing army. There is one body that speaks for everyone. One set of rules.
Total control brings about total corruption. The U.N. is a criminal enterprise, that no freedom-loving nation should ever be a part of. If the U.S. continues down this dangerous road of "reform," then, once again, the bullies will flip the issue to their own advantage. There's only one way for lovers of freedom to push back, and that's to push us out of the U.N. completely.
One very dark place where the United States finds itself, is membership in the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Complying with UNESCO policy, the U.S. is systematically implementing a federal public school curriculum that is fraught with propaganda, that teaches our children to accept that very same U.N. worldview of "commonism."
Most in Congress fail to see that the reason public education is turning out illiterate children is the direct connection to the implementation of a federally mandated UNESCO curriculum. Instead, Congress responds to parent anger and frustration by implementing more and more of the same.
Parents have a chance to push back in an effective way in the new year, by demanding that Congress enact new legislation called the "Freedom in Education Act," which clearly states that no federal funds will be used to dictate a federal curriculum.
America is certainly in a war with terrorism. We, of course, must take measures to protect ourselves. But, a law that says the government no longer has to comply with established rules that guarantee our liberties is bad law, and must be fixed. Congress has, so far, stood up to these very bad provisions of the Patriot Act. No one has said the whole law needs to be thrown out. But surrendering liberties to government, no matter how unrelated or ineffective in fighting terrorism, is just a bully demanding his way.
Next year's Christmas season will be an interesting one to watch, to see if stores finally drop their opposition to saying "Merry Christmas." If so, Americans will know they successfully stood up to the bullies, and rubbed Christmas snow in their faces.
Now, it's time to stand up to the bullies in government too. Real results,
not meaningless compromise, is the bully's worst enemy. Push back.
Tom DeWeese is the president of the American Policy Center and publisher/editor of "The DeWeese Report," a monthly public affairs newsletter.