GOP Governor Chris Christie is no Friend of Liberty

Republican presidential candidate hopefuls are one after the other stupidly sabotaging their otherwise excellent chances of helping the Party win back the executive office by steadfastly keeping to their statist ways, and attempting to stifle the rising voices of reason within the ranks.

New Jersey GOP governor, Chris Christie, for example, is proving to be no exception. He’s now showing off his true statist politician U.S. government authoritarian colors -- another candidate who is no friend of liberty -- by taking a peremptory shot at Sen. Rand Paul and the libertarian wing of his Party.   

Christie, and many others of his ilk, are falling all over themselves lately trying to support and justify the National Security Agency's (NSA) massive unconstitutional surveillance programs directed against innocent American citizens. They’re the ones who’ve been screaming for the blood of Edward Snowden for having the courage and integrity to expose his own government’s wrongdoing. 

During a panel discussion in Colorado recently, hosted by the Republican Governors Association, he excoriated what he calls the "strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties," suggesting that people like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky explain their positions to families of September 11 victims.

“As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought,” Christie declared. “You can name any one of them that’s engaged in this … I want them to come to New Jersey and sit across from the widows and the orphans and have that conversation. … I’m very nervous about the direction this is moving in.”

In other words, Christie is unabashedly saying that the September 11, 2001 terror attack and the subsequent War on Terrorism justifies the federal government in trashing the entire Bill of Rights for all Americans; that those proponents of liberty, such as Sen. Paul and many others, have no right to complain.

Like all the other statist politicians in America, Christie deems libertarian concerns over our loss of freedoms and privacy as "esoteric." “President Obama has done nothing to change the policies of the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. And I mean practically nothing,” says Christie. “And you know why? Cause they work.”

“If Governor Christie believes the constitutional rights and the privacy of all Americans is ‘esoteric,’ he either needs a new dictionary or he needs to talk to more Americans, because a great number of them are concerned about the dramatic overreach of our government in recent years,” a senior adviser to Sen. Paul retorted. Fighting terrorism "can and must be done in keeping with our Constitution"

“Chris Christie thinks freedom is dangerous. What's dangerous is a foreign policy that borrows from China to pay people who burn our flag in Egypt,” Sen. Paul remarked in a Facebook post, in which he called Christie: “Obama’s favorite Republican,” and wondered if he also approves of sending weapons to “al Qaeda allies” in Syria.

“Christie worries about the dangers of freedom. I worry about the danger of losing that freedom,” read a post on Paul’s official Twitter account. “Spying without warrants is unconstitutional."

Rep. Peter King (R) of New York, a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and another veteran statist foreign policy hawk, said he “isn’t saying no” to a potential presidential run in part because “when I see people like Rand Paul talking about drones killing people out to get a cup of coffee, I don't want that to be the face of the national Republican Party."

On the bright side, the House took up an amendment to the bill funding the Department of Defense from Rep. Justin Amash (R) of Michigan, a House libertarian. His amendment would have defunded a National Security Agency program started in the Bush administration that collects Americans’ phone records. Though it failed, a total of 94 Republicans, joined by a majority of Democrats, deemed the “wing nut coalition” by House statist war hawks, voted against them and for the bill.

Libertarians might be dismissively called the “wing nut coalition” by statist war mongers and lovers of authoritarian government like Peter King and Chris Christie, but make no mistake about it; the voices of dissent against the tide of unconstitutional government conduct in America are growing and the politicians are starting to show their true colors.

GOP Gov. Chris Christie, for one, is clearly no friend of liberty.