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This piece, written during the Bush administration, captures the public’s early awareness of government overreach following 9/11. It warns of constitutional dismantlement, bipartisan complicity, unchecked power, and the rise of surveillance and control masquerading as national security. Despite the writer's prior Republican alignment, they call for a rebalancing of power, urging citizens to prioritize nation over party. It’s a timestamp of the awakening that many were beginning to have—an early fracture in trust that parallels the deeper national fractures of the 2020s.