For many of us Americans, the promise of life in this country has always been independence: the simple right to live freely without constant oversight. However, we are reaching a tipping point where independence feels like it is being traded for a claustrophobic level of government control. We are now seeing new surveillance mandates in our vehicles, a forced phasing out of older vehicle technology, and a confusing foreign policy. We are being monitored and it’s not the immediate act that’s concerning; it’s the progressive lack of agency. We are voting, but not being listened to. We are working this country with our bare hands, but the direction is being steered towards our death, not freedom.

Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act mandates that by 2027 all new cars must include “advanced impaired driving prevention technology.” While the law is framed as a safety measure to stop drunk driving, the potential for abuse is a legitimate concern. Even if the law doesn’t explicitly demand AI facial recognition that reports to the police today, the hardware required for these systems creates a digital “kill switch” in every driveway. Once our cars are equipped with the sensors to monitor our breath or eye movements, the leap to constant surveillance is a small one, potentially violating the Fourth Amendment and the basic right to travel privately. There is nothing wrong with the interlock; the breathalyzer device to start one’s car. Tackling alcoholism can be done in far less intrusive ways (such as education). Equipping every vehicle with government involved AI is extreme oversight, with dangerous potential for abuse. Another poor excuse pushing us towards utter mass surveillance. Are we too engrossed in nonsense to see this? It feels like we’ve become sheep in a system that doesn’t respect us.

The government is also aggressively pushing for higher ethanol fuel blends such as E15. It is often marketed as a win for the environment, but for those who value car longevity, it feels like forced obsolescence. Ethanol is notoriously corrosive to the rubber and plastic components in older engines. By making it harder to maintain a purely mechanical vehicle, the system effectively forces citizens into the “new machinery”: cars that are connected, monitored, and easily controlled by outside parties. It isn’t just about green energy; it is about eliminating the option to own a vehicle that isn’t watching you.

Beyond our borders, the “machinery” of control extends into a geopolitical landscape (the Middle East) that feels increasingly disconnected from the interests of the average citizen. The ongoing tensions involving Iran and Israel leave us wondering: are we again wasting American lives and resources for the same “Iraq” war “excuses” of the 2000s and 2010s? We are told unverifiable stories about the necessity of their oil, or the spread of democracy, yet it seems like there is no direct, logical, reasonable explanation for us to be involved. We have our own oil. We can deal with other countries. Israel is not a 51^st state. Provincial politics in Middle Eastern countries is not our business. If they want to have a lack of democracy, drastic wealth disparity, provincial terrorism; that’s not our problem. We already have half a continent and nearly 350 million people to worry about. Or “spy on and control”, it now seems.

The “individual” is becoming secondary to the “system.” Through a sensor in the steering wheel, corrosive fuel in an engine, or a confusing alliance overseas, the common thread is a loss of choice. I don’t feel like I have any say, power, control. Yet the constitution literally starts with WE THE PEOPLE. If our government keeps acting this way, I wouldn’t be surprised if we take back control and start new sovereignties. I can’t live in a world that is controlled by “distant insanity.”

This is why I don’t vote. You don’t have my consent for any of this. Until we craft a more fair system that actually informs people and accounts for individual preferences, I won’t support a broken system. I’m not interested in being “represented” by those who don’t listen to us, the PEOPLE.