Back when the Soviet Union still existed, I always assumed that its government kept the people in check through force, while the citizens themselves wanted nothing more than to live in freedom. I am now pretty sure that's a naive view of life in the former Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's main tool to keep citizents in line was most likely fear. And not fear of the government, but fear of the outside. Why do I think that? Because that's what is happening to the US right now. We are discovering that our government, and our president, has done so many things that we would normally be shocked to discover. And we accept those things because we believe, by doing them, the government is keeping us safe.
The price for our freedom is the opposite of safety. What we now know the US government has been doing to "keep Americans safe" is unacceptable for any reason, and especially for any reasons of safety. It doesn't matter if terrorists plant nukes underneath our cities. We still cannot allow the government to torture, imprison, and spy on us.
Perhaps some people think that America will cease to exist when there are no more Americans. I think America ceases to exist when there is no more freedom. I'm worried that our freedom is almost gone already.
Somewhere along the way, our government forgot that it was supposed to guarantee our freedom, and started guaranteeing our safety instead. It is a terrible choice, I admit. But in a choice between safety and freedom, we must always choose freedom, or we are no longer Americans.