Are citizens of the United States getting tired of their govt. using "crises" as "opportunity" for power grabs?

Not like this is new, Gold. For example, the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. The Federal government, at the urging of Alexander Hamilton, imposed a tax on whiskey distillers. The tax favored large distillers, who paid a flat rate, vs. small distillers, who paid by the barrel. Our first president, the belove George Washington, was one of those large distillers who benefited from the structure of the tax. The tax was supposedly created to raise money to pay off the Revolutionary War debt, but it was justified at the time as a tax on evil, a clic example of the "sin tax" we still have on alcohol and tobacco. Grain farmers in Pennsylvania who suffered from the lost market created by the tax started a series of violent protests. Washington called up and organized the armed state militias of PA and VA under federal command, including Washington himself, to stop the protests, imposing martial law on the region. So, we can all think this gov't tendency is new, to use crisis as a power grab. We can blame it on Bush, blame it on Obama. But even our founding fathers were no less guilty. Political power corrupts. The result of the martial law in 1794? No one was hurt, a few fines were levied, the Federalists lost power over time to the Democrat-Republicans, and the tax was repealed a few years later under the first Democratic president, Thomas Jefferson. That's why people eligible to vote need to pay attention and vote the s out of office when **** goes down that we don't like. It's not like something in human nature is suddenly going to change, and politicians aren't going to use crisis to grab power. But the good news is the power of the vote is still with the people and it works. So don't complain. Just pay attention and vote.