“freedom from what?” he would presumably answer, “the government.” But this begins to seem a strangely eighteenth-century answer, when you think about a typical day in the twenty-first century. You may find yourself on the telephone, caught in an unwinnable battle with TRW or some other credit rating bureau because they made a mistake—perhaps a very consequential one—in administering your credit history. While on hold you get on the computer and try to figure out a recurring, unexplained charge on your Verizon cellular bill. Our founding republican spirit of “No taxation without
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