Freedom is under assault, and has been for a while. The United States went through a lot in the past eight years — the excesses of the Patriot Act; the intrusion of the federal government into local schools; state decisions on marijuana, end-of-life choices, and state marriage law; the biggest expansion of entitlements in 40 years; a law to sharply restrict core political speech; the steady accumulation of power in the executive branch and in the person of the president. The centralization of power is continuing in the Obama years.