Since the very foundation of this country the groups that have been most disenfranchised and most often attacked were those who would fight for equality.
Though the abolitionists and the feminists eventually won their battles, the most often attacked political group and those who completely lost their battle in America were those who fought for economic equality.
Socialism and Communism are seen as bad words in today's America and several times during the 20th Century it was seen as completely just to jail someone for their political beliefs and for belonging to a particular party.
During the McCarthy era it was seen as just to exile such people from society entirely.
Even though McCarthyism ended, there is no longer a Socialist party within America and the word seems to exist only as weapon for Conservatives to use against Liberals, the same as calling a Black man a nigger.
Yet this disenfranchisement, this exile, this transformation of a political idea into a naughty word is completely unconstitutional.
Perhaps the first attack on such political movements happened almost as soon as it arrived.
Though not all unions were Socialist in nature, one cannot deny that they were of a similar political theory that the workers should receive fair treatment at the hands of their employers.
Yet, in early union movements the government took up arms and sent troops out to squash strikes.
Perhaps the first time this happened was before the Constitution was even written in the Shay's Rebellion, a group of disenfranchised farmers and war veterans who felt they deserved some role in government and that their treatment was considerably unfair.
Though whether one counts that or not, later incidents in the late 1800's where miners and railroad workers often came close to shutting down their industries in their fight for equality that it was clear that the American military existed not to protect their people, not to fight for freedom, but to fight for the American businessman.
After the Communist revolution in Russia, American business decided to mobilize even further against those who would fight for equality in America.
During this Red Scare, hundreds of leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World were arrested on an open-ended warrant for the sheer purpose of completely destroying the fight for economic equality.
During this same era the Supreme Court ruled it was legal for businesses to utilize Yellow Dog contracts in which workers were bound not to enter into unions, thereby putting them solely at the narcissistic wills of their corrupt employers.
Yet, despite this the socialist movement made a return during the great depression as it became very clear to a large number of Americans that the government truly did support business too much and that far too few people controlled nearly the entire economy.
Fearing the rebellion would grip the nation, many business leaders allowed New Deal legislation to go through.
Much of it helped recover the economy, however there were a few deals that went through that were perhaps more destructive than they were helpful.
Yet, nonetheless this was an era of expanding freedom that we may never see in this country again.
After World War II ended and the cold war began, all those who would fight for economic freedom or use the words Communist and Socialists were seen as merely pawns of the Soviet Empire.
Those who had even touched upon the notion were actively hunted down and persecuted by Senator McCarthy and his cronies.
No recognition was given to any grievances that the lowest economic class in society might have, no word was given to those who would point out the corruption of American business.
American business also got their way on the international scene as well, the American military being blatantly used to fight any country that would be resistant to American trade, would have a remotely leftist government and to directly support corrupt and inhumane dictators across the world who were willing to work with American Business.
This policy continued during the entire cold war.
Yet, despite this history the constitution is very clear on this issue.
Amendment I says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
" By arresting the IWW leaders for their speeches, the Government was quite clearly taking a direct fight against the freedom of speech.
By confiscating, suppressing and destroying Socialist and Communist press, the government was very clearly destroying freedom of the press.
But perhaps most directly, during the McCarthy era when it was seen as a crime to be a Communist, the Congress was very clearly directly involved in preventing people to assemble peacefully.
It is very clear that all this was done with the aim of suppressing and destroying the ability of people to redress the government for grievances.
When one considers that the government also adapted putting the word 'god' on everything it could for the express purpose of attacking the atheist Communists one could well claim they were establishing a government church and preventing the exercise of freedom of religion, thus doing away with every word of the 1st Amendment completely and totally.
If the attack upon the Socialists and Communists was overall a total disregard of the first Amendment, the attacks went even further to discard more than even that.
In both the Red Scare with the arrest of the IWW and the McCarthyism trials the government also threw out another constitutional amendment.
Amendment IV states that "The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
" In both cases open-ended warrants were issued to track down and find all members of an organization or political party with no evidence whatsoever that any particular persons had committed any crimes.
Furthermore, the warrants clearly did not issue the exact places to be searched or the exact people or things to be seized, opening the door for law enforcement to grab anyone or any thing they felt they wanted to.
In many of the cases the attacks went even further than this.
Many of those who were arrested were kept for long periods of time with no charges being filed.
Because no actual crimes were committed, there were no charges they could file.
This was a clear attack upon Amendment VI which promises the right to a speedy and public trial.
In fact, the only reason McCarthyism ever ended was because they began charging military officers and the trials were made public which very quickly demonstrated what mockeries they really were.
Had this never been done, it is possible these trials would continue even today.
In many of these cases where political prisoners were held, Amendment VII was also violated as many of them were given very excessive bails if any at all for having committed no crimes in the first place.
Though one could argue that the government even violated the IX amendment during these cases, the amendment isn't clear enough to be sure.
However, previous rulings by the Supreme Court had already argued that there was a right to privacy, though this was established in favor of businesses.
If paper-people (corporations) enjoyed a right to privacy, then the Communist and Socialist parties did as well and seizing and searching through their lists for anyone who may have ever been remotely involved with them was a clear violation of this right to privacy.
But perhaps moreover, the most inescapable violations aside from the First Amendment lay within the violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Instead of protecting those with certain political and economic views equally under the law, the government made laws to specifically target and attack them.
Without due process the state deprived them of their rights and "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" and certainly the United States went far to deny equal protection of the laws.
By picking out a group and attacking them so vigorously, the American Government demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the Constitution was a mockery, something merely to be enforced or not enforced upon the changing will of those in office.
There are those who would claim America is the freest country in the world, such people can only speak so if they are completely unaware of any countries beyond our borders but the most despotic of all.
Yet, perhaps the last laugh will be with the Socialists and Communists after all.
While such people are spit upon, ridiculed and attacked within the borders of this country, the truth is that America exists now merely on the will of Socialists and Communists overseas.
American is so deeply in debt to Japan (a Socialist country) and China (a Communist country) that if the two were to get on the same page and demand those debts be paid, there wouldn't be a single dollar left in circulation in America.
Should the two countries even so much as choose to no longer support America and to stop lending money, America's over-inflated and over-stretched economy would be very much like a balloon that had been blown up and then released without being tied.
America would go from being the richest country in the world to being one of the poorest with a military and stockpile of weapons it could no longer afford to keep up.
American business has had their way with the people of this country so long that the wealth is highly concentrated in the hands of the super rich while everyone else gets poorer and poorer every year in comparison to inflation, the people cannot even afford to buy American goods made by American workers any longer unless they use credit to do so.
Yet, America has spent so many years demonizing the concepts that could save it that even those who would most benefit from the change in the political climate violently reject the ideas with total ignorance of their true significance.
America chose to discard its constitution in favor of the rich and when it did, it signed its own death certificate.
We are now living in the autumn of the Freedom in America and the winter is approaching fast.
When it hits we will not see freedom's bloom for a very, very long time.