A Question Nobody Thinks to Ask

In April of 1865, a Democrat walked up behind President Abraham Lincoln as the president was enjoying a play and shot him in the back of the head.

I find it amazing that nobody ever asks the question: "How did this guy just walk up to the President of the United States of America and shoot him in the head?" Where was his security? Why wasn't John Wilkes Booth stopped long before he got anywhere near Lincoln?

And the operative word in that last sentence is, "Why?"

In today's world, we tend to see the President as a kind of King. Someone who is surrounded by an entourage and multiple layers of heavily armed security. But that's not how it always was.

At one time in our country's history, the federal government was so inconsequential to the lives of most Americans that nobody would bother assassinating the President. What would be the point? To stop him from signing a treaty or imposing a tariff? Because things like that were the only things that the Federal government was allowed to do back then.

John Wilkes Booth walked up behind Abraham Lincoln and assassinated him because he (Lincoln) had pissed off southern Democrat slaveholders. Not for some grand political statement. He did it because he was pissed off and because he could.

There was no security detail because, until then, it was thought to be unnecessary. The Federal government wasn't something that the vast majority of people ever thought about, because the Federal government had almost zero impact on their lives.

There was no fence around the White House. Families used to picnic on the front lawn. There are stories of people parking their carriages under the White House portico to get out of the rain. A person could walk up to the front door and ask to see the President to petition him on some matter.

Compare that to today: the Federal government has gotten so huge and powerful that State governments are the ones viewed as inconsequential. The states are routinely trampled by the Federal government and rarely fight back because they know that it would be pointless - and that they'd lose the money that the Federal government stole from them and then bribes them with if they were to fight back.

Think about that: compare the fact that no one gave a single shit about the Federal government 150 years ago to the fact that they now control every aspect of your life. From what light bulbs you can use, to what toilet you can use, to regulating the puddle in your back yard.

America isn't dying. America died, slowly, with every regulation and law that has been passed by the Federal government for the past 100 years. It is now America in name only. A shuffling zombie looking for taxes and power instead of brains.