Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].
很久以来，美国一直是一个交战的国家，一个致力于占领和征服的军事帝国，以至于我们这个交战国的公民也许忘记了与世界和平相处的和平意味着什么。
Listen: we don’t have to agree about everything. We don’t even have to agree about most things. We don’t have to love each other. We don’t even have to like each other. And we certainly don’t need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote alike or love alike. But if this experiment in freedom is to succeed—and there are some days the
人们准备好了，因为政府 – 国会，特朗普总统，法院和当地警察机构 – 正在开展一项恶魔般的运动，以建立一个以庞大的国家DNA数据库为基础的嫌疑人国家。
As more and more data flows from your body and brain to the smart machines via the biometric sensors, it will become easy for corporations and government agencies to know you, manipulate you, and make decisions on your behalf. Even more importantly, they could decipher the deep mechanisms of all bodies and brains, and thereby gain the power to
政府向退伍军人发动战争的努力，特别是那些反对政府不法行为的人，是彻头彻尾的骇人听闻的。
Not all heroes wear the uniform of war. In the United States, however, we take particular pride in recognizing as heroes those who have served in the military. Yet while we honor our veterans with holidays, parades, discounts at retail stores and restaurants, and endless political rhetoric about their sacrifice and bravery, we do a pitiful job
虽然我们声称重视自由，隐私，个性，平等，多元化，问责制和政府透明度，但我们的行为和我们政府统治者的行为在每一个转折点都与这些大肆吹嘘的原则相抵触。
Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better. I now propose a new, analogous term more
随着美国变得更加两极分化，那些极端派别变得更加激进，不太倾向于倾听 – 甚至允许存在其他观点，我们正在迅速成为一个无法相处的人民。
What a mess. As America has become ever more polarized, and those polarized factions have become more militant and less inclined to listen to—or even allow for the existence of—other viewpoints, we are fast becoming a nation of people who just can’t get along. Here’s the thing: if Americans don’t learn how to get along—at the very least,
正如近年来发生的事件所表明的那样，无论是总统，立法机关还是法院，都不会将我们从扼杀我们的警察国家中解救出来。
For those still deluded enough to believe they’re living the American dream—where the government represents the people, where the people are equal in the eyes of the law, where the courts are arbiters of justice, where the police are keepers of the peace, and where the law is applied equally as a means of protecting the rights of the people—it’s
“当总统这样做时，这意味着它不是非法的。” – 理查德尼克松
Someone needs to alert Donald Trump: there is no “Get Out of Jail Free” card just for being president. According to Trump’s Twitter feed, he believes that he has an absolute right to pardon himself of any crimes for which he might be charged while serving in office. He’s not alone in this imperial belief. Two of Trump’s lawyers have
