A General Question about Freedom
 

I'm looking for some opinions....

What could the government take away from us that would put our freedom in jeopardy? (deliberately or through unintended legal side effects). Please assume that we're under a period of peace.

Do you mean what they could take away or what excuse they could use to do that?

What they could take away varies alot, the obvious stuff, unconditional freedom of peach, privicy - or a right to it (that FBI heat scanner type thing comes to mind), Freedom of association, freedom of the press is a biggie controlling the mouthpiece is a bigstep towards controling the proles.

How? The usual, 'its for the kids', 'common decency', general media whitewash "only evil hackers want encryption/internet privicy", "having no privicy makes it easier to catch criminals", calling on common fears or ideals would be another major one.

Enough for now

Just read the news; they're working on it. Right to privacy is #1 on the list right now (this includes but is not limited to Fourth and Fifth amendment rights), with the various trial-related rights strong contenders for #2 (and if you are a non-citizen, they jump to #1). On separate fronts -- copyright and national security -- they've been working on freedom of speech and of the press. Of course gun rights are always a favorite to take away, but they seem to be avoiding those at the moment (after one aborted attempt), probably because gun-rights supporters include a lot of "my country right or wrong" patriots, and the last thing the govt wants to do is alienate them now.