Shortly after the attacks on 911, President Bush announced the new Office of Homeland Security. A good friend of mine was frightened by the potential for this new agency, seeing in it a potential for abuse of freedoms. I didn’t agree because I believed the reports that it was just a reorganization to increase communication among various organizations. We were early in the Bush administration and I, like many Americans, still thought he was a conservative. Besides, we had recently learned of glaring security problems through the attack. As a good American son, I have always been watchful of efforts to overstep by the government so I was put off guard by my trust for an individual. I forgot that the man sitting in the Oval Office is not the measure of our government, because that man will change every four to eight years.

Under George Bush we had an expansion of government beyond the nightmare of any conservative. His Ted Kennedy meets Robert Bork agenda left many confused and weakened his base and party—he is the primary reason we have Obama and the hip-pocket congress. On social issues and the military he was very conservative. I give him credit for preventing attacks after 911 and teaching the world that you could stand in many ways in relation to the US but standing against her was not wise.

Unfortunately, Bush’s expansion of government and runaway spending laid the groundwork for an administration with little respect for liberty and a hatred of capitalism. The Bush administration devised and pushed TARP bailouts, even forcing some banks to take money they didn’t need. This administration abused that leverage to seize an amount of control over the economic sector never seen before. The most recent example of this problem of failing to look long term is Homeland Security. It appears that the office created by Bush to protect the US against terrorists has turned against the most loyal, patriotic Americans among us as potential terrorists. The new profile of a terrorist is not a radicalized cell hidden in a New Jersey mosque or the mountains of Pakistan, but those Americans who are so dangerous as to believe in defending their country, to believe in defending their homes and, most shocking of all, to believe in the defending every American life—even inconvenient ones. The new terrorists for Barack Obama and his Office of Homeland Security are veterans who own guns and are pro-life. This makes sense though; as the bumper sticker reads: “Tyrants prefer unarmed victims.”

An idea for good in the hands of one president can be easily turned against our freedoms by another. Stop looking at any president—conservative, liberal or socialist—as savior and see them as potential oppressors. This was the example of our founders. Even George Washington, father of our country, was distrusted so long as he held that office. The potential for abuse was too great, even under a limited government. It is far greater now under this monstrosity of an expanded government touching all areas of our lives.