Which Freedoms Are You Concerned About?

Conservative/Right Wing/Tea Party types have been complaining that their freedoms are being taken away by the government.

They have also been known to evoke the Founding Fathers, and claim that the shape (or size, or power) that the government has achieved has strayed far from the vision of the Founding Fathers.

Well, as to the second of those: We now live in a far larger, more complex, and more diverse society than anyone in the late 18th century could have envisioned. This society confronts us with issues that also could not have been foreseen (pollution, derivative financial instruments--just to name a couple). We need (even if evidently not everyone expects) the government to have some involvement with these problems.

Also part of our federal government is a huge intelligence establishment. There are at least three intelligence agencies, the CIA, FBI, and Defense Intelligence Agency. Not only are these agencies huge, but they are very powerful and--worse--secretive. Their operation is hidden from the public and from scrutiny by the public and even, too often, from scrutiny by Congress. These agencies have abused their power by spying on US citizens on US territory, even citizens who there was no valid reason to suspect of any wrongdoing.

It seems that the conservatives are not concerned about these invasions of their privacy. When they talk invasion of their freedoms, they don't care about their privacy--just as long as they can keep their guns.