Matthew Bracken > Quotes

“America really is two countries today.  One half still loves freedom, and the other half’s already socialist, even if they don’t call it that—yet.  The free half is keeping them from going all the way to having the kind of socialist government they want, but they can’t quite shove us out of the way while we’ve got so many guns.  I think that’s really what all this is about: once they’ve got our guns, they’ll just pass all their damn socialist laws.  They’ll just increase our taxes until we’re like Sweden, and if we don’t like it, tough shit.  Anybody that fights back will get a free ride to a special camp for problem children.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Even in a revolutionary movement, most people are like sheep.  They are naturally afraid, and like sheep, they have to be led.”
― Matthew Bracken, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

“Gun control was never about safety: it was just about taking power away from ordinary Americans,” said Carson.  “It’s to make it safe for the police, in a police state.”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“The normalcy bias can kill you.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology

“But somebody sure as hell’s trying to start a war in this country.  Liberal against conservative, city against country, pro-gun against gun control, pro-government against pro-freedom, black against white against brown, Christian against Muslim…  There’s no other explanation that makes sense.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“National security was invoked so freely that the First Amendment had become an empty promise. ”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“In reality, there was no truly free press in America anymore,”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“a classic example of Robert Heinlein’s famous saying, that an armed society is a polite society. ”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“All of these new “Big Brother” laws had been sold under the guise of combating terrorism and increasing security, but none of them dared to address the specific threat posed by Islamic terror.  Instead, the federal government seemed to prefer to increase security by treating all Americans equally: equally as criminal suspects in a vast open-air penal system.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Hadn’t Jefferson written, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God?”  Hadn’t he also written, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants?”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“If somebody else is feeding you—even if you entered the community or the building of your own free will, even if all the doors and gates are currently open or unlocked—you may already be living in your future prison. All it takes is a change in management to turn your Holiday Inn into San Quentin.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology

“Unknown to the sleeping family, three of their cell phones had been covertly switched on, providing the STU with interior audio listening devices paid for and put in position by the Edmonds themselves.  To the STU Team members, what civilians didn’t know about their own cell phones was simply mind boggling.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“watched in mounting frustration, as the perversely named Patriot Acts (One and Two) had become law.  Then came the Total Information Awareness program, which was renamed the more palatable Terrorist Information Awareness program, which collected every knowable fact about every American, and placed it all into searchable databases.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Anyone who had grown up around guns knew that the world was divided into two groups: unarmed potential victims, and armed survivors.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Che had shown the way in Cuba, back in ‘59 and ‘60, sending thousands of possible enemies of the revolution to the firing squads.  It was Che’s firm conviction that it was necessary to execute class enemies en masse, in order to terrorize the rest into rapid submission.  This was a necessary step to guarantee the permanence of the revolution, when half measures would only put the revolution at risk.  It was Che’s dictum that it was better to execute one hundred innocent men, than to allow one clever traitor to live to challenge the revolution.  In the furtherance of the glorious cause of promoting social justice, the ends always justified the means.”
― Matthew Bracken, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

“Under U.S. law, the president nominated generals for promotion, and the Senate approved them.  It had traditionally been done that way, in accordance with the doctrine of civilian control of the military. ”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“A Failure of Civility,” by Mike Garand and Jack Lawson.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Collection: Essays and Short Fiction 2010 to 2019

“There is s no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American.  The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.  We are a nation, not a hodge-podge of foreign nationalities.  We are a people, and not a polyglot boarding house. Theodore Roosevelt”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Always keep your eyes on the horizon, but don’t be afraid to tack with the wind.  Take the two steps forward when you can, and don’t worry about the one step back, as long as it’s only a tactical retreat.”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“It was Che’s dictum that it was better to execute one hundred innocent men, than to allow one clever traitor to live to challenge the revolution.  In the furtherance of the glorious cause of promoting social justice, the ends always justified the means. A generation later in South Africa, Winnie Mandela had updated the method of execution for greater public impact.  At her orders, her followers had introduced the gasoline-filled automobile tire “necklace” to the world, punishing suspected collaborators with the most agonizing death imaginable.”
― Matthew Bracken, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast” went the old saying.  In night patrolling, stealth was everything. ”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?  Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.’  An Englishman named John Harrington said that, all the way back around the year 1600.”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“Creatures that are able to flee starvation will do so.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology

“Claire Wolfe: “America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”
― Matthew Bracken, Enemies Foreign And Domestic

“Nonetheless, America has left you feeling like an unwanted cat or dog tossed out of the family SUV at a distant highway rest stop.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology

“Once we have the power to create the world’s money, it won’t matter who is elected in this or that country.”                 “ ‘Give me the power to create a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws’.” ”
― Matthew Bracken, Foreign Enemies And Traitors

“It could just as easily have been me. That reminder of human frailty and the role that fortune and misfortune play in our lives prevented me from becoming too prideful. Better men than me had died over in the sandbox, often purely by chance. Were you in the lead vehicle, or at the tail end of the convoy? Sometimes it came down to which side of a vehicle you were sitting on when something went ka-boom. Why did the invisible shard of flying metal hit the Marine to your right instead of you?”
― Matthew Bracken, Castigo Cay

“To make a revolution, to be a revolutionary, you have to believe in something.  Some new master plan for everybody to obey.  But to be a rebel, you don’t have to believe in anything.  You’re just a rebel, and you only want to be free.”
― Matthew Bracken, Castigo Cay

“This is a paradoxical case where the normally presumed “safety in numbers” is a deadly betrayer instead of a savior. Given a choice, going it alone beats The Buffalo Jump every time, but it’s very hard to bolt from the herd.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology

“die in place or undertake a desperate swim to greener pastures on other islands beckoning in the distance.   The moral of the story: There doesn't need to be a pig trapper or a turkey farmer in the equation to cause a mass die-off event; nature can do it all on her own. And nature doesn't care about your schedule, or your personal problems.”
― Matthew Bracken, The Bracken Anthology