Our federal government is currently arguing that as individual citizens we have no “fundamental right” to obtain any food we choose. It is seeking a ruling to establish the precedent that we do not have unlimited choices concerning the food we eat. Specifically, the case is centered around the sale of raw milk. There are many of us that see value in eating food that has not been processed and for some, access to raw milk is one of their more healthy choices. Our wise and all knowing government, however, has decided that it knows our nutritional needs better than we do, that they are the experts, that they have the right to tell us what we can and cannot eat. This is just the latest in a long list of meddling by governments at all levels over what we choose to put into our bodies, going back to Prohibition.
The question is, does the government have the right to determine what you put into your body? Does it have the right to tell you what you eat and drink, what supplements or drugs you take, what forms of exercise or sexual activity you engage in? Laws have been passed that regulate salt, fats and sugar, pressure is being put on food processors to change their recipes to conform to government guidelines, the process of getting drugs approved through the FDA is a long and expensive process that often denies patients access to new treatments until its too late. The First Lady has been thrilled with the new health care bill that gives the government unprecedented power to regulate our behavior as she wages her war on obesity. The congress is now considering legislation that will make some state grants dependent on the body mass index average of its children.
That brings us to the crux of the matter-money. As a libertarian, I don’t believe any government has the right to tell me what I eat or drink, what supplements or drugs I take or any other personal behavior I engage in as long as that behavior does not infringe on another’s rights to life, liberty or property. If I drink alcohol, it is my business unless I get behind the wheel and cause an accident. In that case, alcohol should not be a mitigating factor to decrease my penalty but I should be held responsible for any damage, injury or death I caused. If I eat too much junk food and get fat and develop diabetes or heart disease, I should be the one who pays for my increased medical costs. If I engage in promiscuous or homosexual sex and contract AIDS, I should bear the consequences.
That is not, however, how it works in America. The government has done its best to remove any responsibility for our actions from us and make us victims. Through Medicare and Medicaid and now through Health Care Reform, the government pays for the consequences of our behavior. That means if you take care of your body and make good behavioral choices in your life and I don’t, you will be paying for the consequences of my bad choices. To have your money stolen to pay for my irresponsibility rightly makes you mad and so it should. If it is your money, then you do have the right to regulate my behavior. If we have children, we know that because we provide them food and shelter, we have the right to regulate their behavior. If they begin engaging in behavior that we don’t like, we restrict their freedom. If they break a window playing ball, we take the ball away; confiscation of property. If they don’t eat their vegetables, they don’t get dessert; restriction of access. If they are out causing trouble with their friends, we confine them to quarters; restriction of association. If they cuss us out, we wash their mouth out with soap; restriction of speech. When they move out, however, and support themselves, we no longer have the right to exercise that level of control. If they break something, they pay for it. If they associate with the wrong people we can give them advice but that’s it. Being responsible for your actions, positive or negative, it the mark of a mature adult.
We have redefined our relationship with our government, however. We once interacted with our government as mature citizens. Today, our government interacts with us as subjects and children. It takes money from the productive and responsible and uses it to pay for the consequences of the people who are irresponsible and unproductive. As long as bad behavior is subsidized two things will be true. The irresponsible will not make responsible choices unless they are forced. The second is that the government will continue to assert it right to regulate all our behavior on the grounds that it is paying the bills, even though its with our money. If we choose to interact with our government as children, expecting it to meet our every need, then it will fill the role of parent and will exercise legitimate control as a consequence of that occupation.
The fix to this is simple. Remove the government safety net. For one hundred and fifty years of our history we got by just fine without it. There was no FDA, no welfare checks, no illegal drugs, no government health insurance or Social Security. Somehow, without the government intervening, the American citizen built this country from a few colonies on the eastern seaboard to a world power, economically and militarily. Somehow, hard drinking settlers tamed the west. Without government regulation, we all had food to eat and water to drink and roofs over our heads, and that food and shelter was considerably better than that in the Old World. If you engaged in negative behavior you bore the consequences. If you lost your job you found something else or you depended on your family or neighbors and they determined your “recovery” or the worth of putting their time and money into your life based on your cooperation. If you resorted to crime to support bad habits, justice was swift and harsh. Morality, justice and community were essential in such an environment and that is exactly the way it should be.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Law Abiding Citizen
Law Abiding Citizen
One of the major differences between a republic and an authoritarian dictatorship is the glue that holds it together. In a dictatorship order is established through fear. In a republic, the social order is held together by a common respect for the law and a mutual appreciation for the system. “Law and Order” has been ingrained in the American psyche since the beginning, and rightly so. Anarchy is the antithesis of the American experience. It is the moral character of the individual citizen and a respect for the law that allows our society to function smoothly without an overwhelming police presence. The reason our system works is because the vast majority of the people are inclined to obey the law, even if they don’t always agree with it.
The major reason for this is because we believe we live in a representative republic. We vote for people who make the laws with our best interests in mind. These leaders are supposed to respect our God given rights and create laws that solve any problems that crop up. Our system was designed to move slowly and deliberately so every law was carefully considered and the likelihood of a bad law being pushed through by a bad legislator or two was minimal. That was the idea. However, our republic now exists in form only and the system works very differently today.
The electoral system is designed to maintain party leadership through gerrymandered districts and the creation of law has been outsourced to lobbyists and special interests. Our legislators, by their own admission, don’t understand or even read the legislation they pass. Most power has passed to the executive branch which interprets and implements the arcane legalese of current legislation. The average citizen is, for all intents and purposes, locked out of this process. Laws come down from on high that, at best, may not have our best interests at heart, and at worst, may be detrimental to our liberty and the health of the country as a whole; but are very good for expanding the power of those in charge.
Consider where we are today. New laws, the rules of the game we are all supposed to respect and abide by, are being pushed by radical communists like Nancy Pelosi and voted on by congressmen who think islands tip over if too many people are put on them. They are written by radical policy groups, interpreted by executive branch bureaucrats and implemented by federal union workers. Does anyone think this is a system that works for us? The original cry of the rebellion was “No Taxation without Representation”. Our government has gone far beyond that. They create programs that create more problems and tear apart the very fabric of our society, rewarding immorality and corruption and punishing the “law abiding citizen”. They spend, borrow and print money in ways that will eventually destroy the economy. They confiscate the wealth of one citizen to give it to another and often that other isn’t even a citizen but a criminal alien. They give rights to terrorists and take them from us. The list could go on.
The question then becomes, are we obligated to dig our own grave? At what point does the system and the laws it produces become so immoral that it is moral to become criminal? Consider the civil rights movement of the sixties. The law says “sit in the back of the bus; drink from this water fountain; go to this diner.” They were all legitimate laws passed by democratically elected representatives. Perhaps the blacks had little or no say but do we really have any more? If we are told to sit in the back of the bus but can see that the bus is heading for a cliff, do we not have the moral duty to disobey the law in order to do the right thing and try to save the bus and everyone on it? At what point does an immoral law, a law that directly attacks our God-given rights and the guarantees to be secure in our person and property under our contract, motivate us to act morally? At what point does the confiscation of our property, the attempts to silence our speech, the removal of our rights to self protection and self determination become too much? How much must they take before we realize we have been raped and beaten and if we do nothing, the death blow will quickly follow?
The only obligation we have to follow the dictates and proclamations of the “gods” on Mt. Washington is the obligation we create in our own minds. We the people as part of the various states entered into a contract with the “national” government and that contract is called the Constitution. It defines the duties and responsibilities of both parties. The federal government has its areas of responsibility and the people and the states has theirs. There has been an egregious breach of that contract by the federal government. Look at it this way. If you and I enter into a business contract in which I promise to deliver some item and you promise to pay a certain price for it and I don’t deliver that item, are you morally or legally obligated to pay for it? Of course not. Yet our federal government has refused to follow the stipulations of the contract and we continue to feel legally and morally obligated to pay. We are not under any moral obligation to recognize the authority of a governments that has invented and stolen its power. Of course the government could force us to obey its edicts and endure the confiscation of our liberty and property. These threats are becoming the primary motivation for the American people to yield to the increasing demands of Washington. No one wants to go pay a fine or go to jail, no one wants the stigma of being a criminal. But isn’t this how totalitarian regimes maintain control? Through intimidation and fear? In a republic, the government fears the people. If Washington can continue to count on our cooperation and support for their tyrannical actions, what do they have to fear? Nothing. Before our government’s despotism takes a very dark turn, we need to muster the courage of the original patriots, willing to risk it all and do what is right and moral, even if its not legal.
One of the major differences between a republic and an authoritarian dictatorship is the glue that holds it together. In a dictatorship order is established through fear. In a republic, the social order is held together by a common respect for the law and a mutual appreciation for the system. “Law and Order” has been ingrained in the American psyche since the beginning, and rightly so. Anarchy is the antithesis of the American experience. It is the moral character of the individual citizen and a respect for the law that allows our society to function smoothly without an overwhelming police presence. The reason our system works is because the vast majority of the people are inclined to obey the law, even if they don’t always agree with it.
The major reason for this is because we believe we live in a representative republic. We vote for people who make the laws with our best interests in mind. These leaders are supposed to respect our God given rights and create laws that solve any problems that crop up. Our system was designed to move slowly and deliberately so every law was carefully considered and the likelihood of a bad law being pushed through by a bad legislator or two was minimal. That was the idea. However, our republic now exists in form only and the system works very differently today.
The electoral system is designed to maintain party leadership through gerrymandered districts and the creation of law has been outsourced to lobbyists and special interests. Our legislators, by their own admission, don’t understand or even read the legislation they pass. Most power has passed to the executive branch which interprets and implements the arcane legalese of current legislation. The average citizen is, for all intents and purposes, locked out of this process. Laws come down from on high that, at best, may not have our best interests at heart, and at worst, may be detrimental to our liberty and the health of the country as a whole; but are very good for expanding the power of those in charge.
Consider where we are today. New laws, the rules of the game we are all supposed to respect and abide by, are being pushed by radical communists like Nancy Pelosi and voted on by congressmen who think islands tip over if too many people are put on them. They are written by radical policy groups, interpreted by executive branch bureaucrats and implemented by federal union workers. Does anyone think this is a system that works for us? The original cry of the rebellion was “No Taxation without Representation”. Our government has gone far beyond that. They create programs that create more problems and tear apart the very fabric of our society, rewarding immorality and corruption and punishing the “law abiding citizen”. They spend, borrow and print money in ways that will eventually destroy the economy. They confiscate the wealth of one citizen to give it to another and often that other isn’t even a citizen but a criminal alien. They give rights to terrorists and take them from us. The list could go on.
The question then becomes, are we obligated to dig our own grave? At what point does the system and the laws it produces become so immoral that it is moral to become criminal? Consider the civil rights movement of the sixties. The law says “sit in the back of the bus; drink from this water fountain; go to this diner.” They were all legitimate laws passed by democratically elected representatives. Perhaps the blacks had little or no say but do we really have any more? If we are told to sit in the back of the bus but can see that the bus is heading for a cliff, do we not have the moral duty to disobey the law in order to do the right thing and try to save the bus and everyone on it? At what point does an immoral law, a law that directly attacks our God-given rights and the guarantees to be secure in our person and property under our contract, motivate us to act morally? At what point does the confiscation of our property, the attempts to silence our speech, the removal of our rights to self protection and self determination become too much? How much must they take before we realize we have been raped and beaten and if we do nothing, the death blow will quickly follow?
The only obligation we have to follow the dictates and proclamations of the “gods” on Mt. Washington is the obligation we create in our own minds. We the people as part of the various states entered into a contract with the “national” government and that contract is called the Constitution. It defines the duties and responsibilities of both parties. The federal government has its areas of responsibility and the people and the states has theirs. There has been an egregious breach of that contract by the federal government. Look at it this way. If you and I enter into a business contract in which I promise to deliver some item and you promise to pay a certain price for it and I don’t deliver that item, are you morally or legally obligated to pay for it? Of course not. Yet our federal government has refused to follow the stipulations of the contract and we continue to feel legally and morally obligated to pay. We are not under any moral obligation to recognize the authority of a governments that has invented and stolen its power. Of course the government could force us to obey its edicts and endure the confiscation of our liberty and property. These threats are becoming the primary motivation for the American people to yield to the increasing demands of Washington. No one wants to go pay a fine or go to jail, no one wants the stigma of being a criminal. But isn’t this how totalitarian regimes maintain control? Through intimidation and fear? In a republic, the government fears the people. If Washington can continue to count on our cooperation and support for their tyrannical actions, what do they have to fear? Nothing. Before our government’s despotism takes a very dark turn, we need to muster the courage of the original patriots, willing to risk it all and do what is right and moral, even if its not legal.
Monday, May 10, 2010
A Great Set Up?
Most people enter politics because they want to win. Sure, they may make a show of “public service” but as the behavior of most politicians demonstrates, they want to acquire and keep power. To do that they need to win. Political parties are established to get their candidates to win and advance the agenda the party believes in. If that party and the candidates within it do not have any guiding moral principles, winning becomes everything and any means are acceptable to that end.
Consider also that the leaders within a party are not as short sighted as most politicians, who cannot see past the next election or even this week’s poll. It is their job to ensure their party continues to win and they do whatever is necessary to ensure their dominance for years, if not decades. It has been clear since the sixties that the Democrat party has been much better at this than the Republican party. Winning is not the final goal, complete destruction of their opponents is. Certainly since the nomination of Judge Bork, the personal vilification of the opposition aided by a media that agrees with most of their worldview, the Democrats have nearly perfected their brand of smash-mouth politics. In their efforts they have lied, accepted intolerable levels of corruption among their own, distorted the very language of politics and have enacted policies that have been by any objective standard miserable failures. Irrespective of these things, they have been electorally successful, particularly on the national level. The Republicans have never come close to the supermajority they enjoyed last year and since the New Deal, have rarely held majorities at all.
I have said these things not to excuse Republicans, whose behavior has been far from angelic, but to propose a scenario in which the Democrat party may establish itself, at least at the national level, as the only party of consequence. Many of us have become educated to the fact that a government solution to a problem is recipe for disaster and that government spending is going to lead to financial Armageddon eventually. We now borrow nearly forty cents out of every dollar we spend. We complain about skyrocketing deficits yet this administration is going to double it again. We know that Medicare is bankrupt and Social Security’s demise has been moved forward by decades, placing the explosion of that financial time bomb within the next ten years. We are aware that the government uses various accounting tricks to make things seem better than they are. Even the financial community itself is starting to follow the lead of David Walker, former comptroller of the US, in warning about the “unsustainable” nature of all this.
Not all politicians are stupid. Some, perhaps, but not all. They may live in a bubble but most of them know what is going on. Sure, some of them may ignore it, others hope it doesn’t happen until they’re gone and a few are doing what they can to warn us. Then there are those who are trying to bring the system down. For them, the trick is to bring it down in a way they don’t get blamed for it. Democrats are very good at this. Chris Dodd and Barny Frank, in collusion with Fannie Mae and ACORN, were largely responsible for the housing collapse but since it happened during President Bush’s tenure, the Republicans got the blame. Ted Kennedy was responsible for creating HMO’s yet it was the Democrats that tied Republicans to those insurers and others, demonizing them to pass Health Care Reform. Those are just two examples and does not include their penchant for creating a crisis where none exists. Again, Republicans have tried to play the game and have created their own set of problems but the Democrats are so much better at it.
By all accounts, the Republicans are going to make great gains in November and in 2012, perhaps they will have the presidency as well. The problem is, the financial situation we have created will require the kind of drastic action anathema to politicians. Our whole political class operates on the principle that is exists to give goodies to the people, “bring home the bacon”, create new “rights” and entitlements. Actual cuts, much less the elimination of whole programs and departments as well as the reductions in benefits that will be necessary to keep us solvent go against all the momentum Washington has built up for eighty years. What happens if in the middle to the end of this decade it all comes apart? If the Democrats filibuster any attempts to cut taxes to help the economy or cut programs or benefits to reduce or eliminate the deficit and fix our broken “entitlements”? The current Democrat leadership has mashed down the accelerator as we approach the cliff. If they bail out and let the Republicans take the wheel knowing there is no chance to avoid a catastrophe, the Republicans will be blamed for the mess just as they were after the 1929 crash. They will be reduced to a small minority for decades and the march to Washington’s totalitarian control will be rapidly completed.
Other than the timing, and I wouldn’t put it past Democrat operatives to provide the catalyst for the catastrophe, you may be saying it won’t happen because we are so much better educated today. Really? Maybe you are because you have put in the effort but even now there are 45% of the people that approve of the president’s job even with all we know. The American people have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to look to government to solve problems and if there are problems, it must be the party in power’s fault. The vast majority of the people in this country, after going through government schools and with the attention span of a gnat, are not going to think all this through. They are going to have a knee jerk reaction and will be susceptible to a new messiah who may make this president look tame in comparison. Only if we get a hold of our neighbors and somehow convince them that, as Reagan said, government is the problem, not the solution, will we have any hope of thwarting such a devious plan.
Consider also that the leaders within a party are not as short sighted as most politicians, who cannot see past the next election or even this week’s poll. It is their job to ensure their party continues to win and they do whatever is necessary to ensure their dominance for years, if not decades. It has been clear since the sixties that the Democrat party has been much better at this than the Republican party. Winning is not the final goal, complete destruction of their opponents is. Certainly since the nomination of Judge Bork, the personal vilification of the opposition aided by a media that agrees with most of their worldview, the Democrats have nearly perfected their brand of smash-mouth politics. In their efforts they have lied, accepted intolerable levels of corruption among their own, distorted the very language of politics and have enacted policies that have been by any objective standard miserable failures. Irrespective of these things, they have been electorally successful, particularly on the national level. The Republicans have never come close to the supermajority they enjoyed last year and since the New Deal, have rarely held majorities at all.
I have said these things not to excuse Republicans, whose behavior has been far from angelic, but to propose a scenario in which the Democrat party may establish itself, at least at the national level, as the only party of consequence. Many of us have become educated to the fact that a government solution to a problem is recipe for disaster and that government spending is going to lead to financial Armageddon eventually. We now borrow nearly forty cents out of every dollar we spend. We complain about skyrocketing deficits yet this administration is going to double it again. We know that Medicare is bankrupt and Social Security’s demise has been moved forward by decades, placing the explosion of that financial time bomb within the next ten years. We are aware that the government uses various accounting tricks to make things seem better than they are. Even the financial community itself is starting to follow the lead of David Walker, former comptroller of the US, in warning about the “unsustainable” nature of all this.
Not all politicians are stupid. Some, perhaps, but not all. They may live in a bubble but most of them know what is going on. Sure, some of them may ignore it, others hope it doesn’t happen until they’re gone and a few are doing what they can to warn us. Then there are those who are trying to bring the system down. For them, the trick is to bring it down in a way they don’t get blamed for it. Democrats are very good at this. Chris Dodd and Barny Frank, in collusion with Fannie Mae and ACORN, were largely responsible for the housing collapse but since it happened during President Bush’s tenure, the Republicans got the blame. Ted Kennedy was responsible for creating HMO’s yet it was the Democrats that tied Republicans to those insurers and others, demonizing them to pass Health Care Reform. Those are just two examples and does not include their penchant for creating a crisis where none exists. Again, Republicans have tried to play the game and have created their own set of problems but the Democrats are so much better at it.
By all accounts, the Republicans are going to make great gains in November and in 2012, perhaps they will have the presidency as well. The problem is, the financial situation we have created will require the kind of drastic action anathema to politicians. Our whole political class operates on the principle that is exists to give goodies to the people, “bring home the bacon”, create new “rights” and entitlements. Actual cuts, much less the elimination of whole programs and departments as well as the reductions in benefits that will be necessary to keep us solvent go against all the momentum Washington has built up for eighty years. What happens if in the middle to the end of this decade it all comes apart? If the Democrats filibuster any attempts to cut taxes to help the economy or cut programs or benefits to reduce or eliminate the deficit and fix our broken “entitlements”? The current Democrat leadership has mashed down the accelerator as we approach the cliff. If they bail out and let the Republicans take the wheel knowing there is no chance to avoid a catastrophe, the Republicans will be blamed for the mess just as they were after the 1929 crash. They will be reduced to a small minority for decades and the march to Washington’s totalitarian control will be rapidly completed.
Other than the timing, and I wouldn’t put it past Democrat operatives to provide the catalyst for the catastrophe, you may be saying it won’t happen because we are so much better educated today. Really? Maybe you are because you have put in the effort but even now there are 45% of the people that approve of the president’s job even with all we know. The American people have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to look to government to solve problems and if there are problems, it must be the party in power’s fault. The vast majority of the people in this country, after going through government schools and with the attention span of a gnat, are not going to think all this through. They are going to have a knee jerk reaction and will be susceptible to a new messiah who may make this president look tame in comparison. Only if we get a hold of our neighbors and somehow convince them that, as Reagan said, government is the problem, not the solution, will we have any hope of thwarting such a devious plan.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Ready for a Fall
Right before his ascension to the presidency, Barak Obama promised a "fundamental transformation of America". For more than a year he has been very busy making good on that promise. He and his cohorts have been putting the last nails in the coffin of the founder’s vision and have been busy putting the final touches on the Marxist machine they have been enthusiastically selling to us for a long time. We are in a much more dangerous position than many realize. Most believe that if we just change the electoral landscape in November, we can turn the tide and restore a republican form of government. I have news for you. Our republic is gone, murdered by our own hand almost a century ago. We maintain the forms of the constitutional framework-three branches of government, regular elections-but the substance of what has grown on the banks of the Potomac is much more sinister.
The fact is, everything required to impose a system of totalitarianism is in place today, most of it long before our dear leader was elected. The millions of pages of government rules and regulations encompassing every area of our lives have been accumulating for years. Just look at the originally innocuous Social Security Number. With it the government (and anyone else) knows almost everything important about you. All your income, property and even buying habits are available to them. As a non-illegal alien you cannot earn money without it. The fact that the government issues and regulates the use of this number gives it tremendous power if it chooses to use it. That is just one thing, albeit a big thing. Consider all the other rules and regulations created and implemented by two million government employees in a myriad of agencies that encompass every area of life that matters, and many that don’t. If the government decides it doesn’t like you, a visit from the IRS is just a start. They have it within their power to destroy anyone. Any business could be enveloped by a swarm of bureaucrats from OSHA, the EPA and a host of other regulatory agencies who could suddenly decide not to issue permits or file lawsuits for any activity whatsoever. We’ve already seen this type of intimidation in the financial sector. Because congress writes legislation that leaves so much up to the interpretation of the directors (czars) and bureaucrats, we are no longer under the rule of law but that of man. A yes or no from some pencil pushing bureaucrat can make or break the life of any citizen today. To coordinate that effort against the perceived enemies of this government would not take much. The gulag isn’t really necessary anymore. Destruction of the opposition could easily be accomplished with the federal bureaucracy in cooperation with a compliant media.
Over the last two years, the tentacles of control have become even greater and much more open. The fact that much of the banking industry is under indirect and direct government control, its constant threats, intimidation and outright usurpation of private business, its support for union thugs and its openly declared war on free market capitalism are obvious examples. There is the unprecedented ability to spy on the American people. I am not talking about conspiracy theories here. The government’s attempts to read our e-mail, listen in on our conversations, and its ability to follow our movements with cameras and face recognition technology are all current activities. The same technology that has done much to advance our society can easily become the tools of our oppression. Any time we become dependent on a technology and that same technology comes under the regulation and control of the government, it gives the government more power over us. On top of all that is the close cooperation between union gangsters and this administration as well as the president's call for the development of a domestic security force as well funded and powerful as the military and just about all of the pieces are in place.
A strong argument could be made that we have been evolving into an elected dictatorship for some time. Congress has become increasingly irrelevant as they have passed their lawmaking duties off on others. Sure, they still vote but the laws are written by special interests, lobbyists and bureaucrats and are filled with vague and imprecise legalese that even the lawmakers confess to not understanding. Then they are interpreted and implemented by the various agencies of the government as they see fit. Those agencies are all under the control of the executive branch and ultimately, the president. Even if congress occasionally gets some spine, this administration has shown its willingness to implement its agenda via regulation or executive order instead of legislation.
There is only one thing that keeps us from becoming Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia or imperial Rome. The American ideal still living within the hearts and minds of its people and, yes, even some politicians. Ideals like a sense of justice and fair play, everything that comes under the heading of "Judeo-Christian" values, a respect for the "American Dream". There is also still fear on the part of government officials, particularly elected ones, of the people. They fear a backlash if they overreach, not just of losing their jobs but ultimately, of the people exercising their second amendment rights. With health care reform legislation, however, we turned a corner. Washington has increased its power slowly and deliberately for a long time, sometimes going in fits and starts, often under cover of darkness. With health care reform, however, they voted to extend their power over our very lives and health despite persistent protests and polling that showed the vast majority of the people did not want it. The fear of an electoral backlash no longer intimidates them. If they move to make our second amendment rights illegal or impotent, they will, in their minds, have nothing to fear at all. The ice upon which we stand is very thin and melting further every day. It would take very little to plunge us into the cold waters of totalitarian tyranny.
Consider Germany from 1933 to 1939, six short years. Less than a two term president. They had a very bad economy prior to the rise of Hitler. The people were looking to their government to solve the problem. Hitler and the Nazis were democratically elected, even if the election was marred by intimidation and fraud. Hitler used the "crisis" to consolidate his power, particularly the supposed "terrorist attack" on the Reichstag. He soon controlled all supposedly private businesses. Within a few years he was master of Germany. If a government has power concentrated at the top, if it is run primarily through a bureaucracy and the people are conditioned to assume their government is there to solve every one of their problems, a rapid change in leadership and direction is not only possible but likely, particularly in times of crisis. The genius of our original system, with the separated and limited powers of the federal government, was that such rapid changes were impossible. That is why it has taken the statists/progressives decades to get to this point. Now that that original system exists in form only, the likelihood that a silver-tongued megalomaniac can take the reins of power and transform our country is a very real possibly. We are primed for a fall.
The fact is, everything required to impose a system of totalitarianism is in place today, most of it long before our dear leader was elected. The millions of pages of government rules and regulations encompassing every area of our lives have been accumulating for years. Just look at the originally innocuous Social Security Number. With it the government (and anyone else) knows almost everything important about you. All your income, property and even buying habits are available to them. As a non-illegal alien you cannot earn money without it. The fact that the government issues and regulates the use of this number gives it tremendous power if it chooses to use it. That is just one thing, albeit a big thing. Consider all the other rules and regulations created and implemented by two million government employees in a myriad of agencies that encompass every area of life that matters, and many that don’t. If the government decides it doesn’t like you, a visit from the IRS is just a start. They have it within their power to destroy anyone. Any business could be enveloped by a swarm of bureaucrats from OSHA, the EPA and a host of other regulatory agencies who could suddenly decide not to issue permits or file lawsuits for any activity whatsoever. We’ve already seen this type of intimidation in the financial sector. Because congress writes legislation that leaves so much up to the interpretation of the directors (czars) and bureaucrats, we are no longer under the rule of law but that of man. A yes or no from some pencil pushing bureaucrat can make or break the life of any citizen today. To coordinate that effort against the perceived enemies of this government would not take much. The gulag isn’t really necessary anymore. Destruction of the opposition could easily be accomplished with the federal bureaucracy in cooperation with a compliant media.
Over the last two years, the tentacles of control have become even greater and much more open. The fact that much of the banking industry is under indirect and direct government control, its constant threats, intimidation and outright usurpation of private business, its support for union thugs and its openly declared war on free market capitalism are obvious examples. There is the unprecedented ability to spy on the American people. I am not talking about conspiracy theories here. The government’s attempts to read our e-mail, listen in on our conversations, and its ability to follow our movements with cameras and face recognition technology are all current activities. The same technology that has done much to advance our society can easily become the tools of our oppression. Any time we become dependent on a technology and that same technology comes under the regulation and control of the government, it gives the government more power over us. On top of all that is the close cooperation between union gangsters and this administration as well as the president's call for the development of a domestic security force as well funded and powerful as the military and just about all of the pieces are in place.
A strong argument could be made that we have been evolving into an elected dictatorship for some time. Congress has become increasingly irrelevant as they have passed their lawmaking duties off on others. Sure, they still vote but the laws are written by special interests, lobbyists and bureaucrats and are filled with vague and imprecise legalese that even the lawmakers confess to not understanding. Then they are interpreted and implemented by the various agencies of the government as they see fit. Those agencies are all under the control of the executive branch and ultimately, the president. Even if congress occasionally gets some spine, this administration has shown its willingness to implement its agenda via regulation or executive order instead of legislation.
There is only one thing that keeps us from becoming Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia or imperial Rome. The American ideal still living within the hearts and minds of its people and, yes, even some politicians. Ideals like a sense of justice and fair play, everything that comes under the heading of "Judeo-Christian" values, a respect for the "American Dream". There is also still fear on the part of government officials, particularly elected ones, of the people. They fear a backlash if they overreach, not just of losing their jobs but ultimately, of the people exercising their second amendment rights. With health care reform legislation, however, we turned a corner. Washington has increased its power slowly and deliberately for a long time, sometimes going in fits and starts, often under cover of darkness. With health care reform, however, they voted to extend their power over our very lives and health despite persistent protests and polling that showed the vast majority of the people did not want it. The fear of an electoral backlash no longer intimidates them. If they move to make our second amendment rights illegal or impotent, they will, in their minds, have nothing to fear at all. The ice upon which we stand is very thin and melting further every day. It would take very little to plunge us into the cold waters of totalitarian tyranny.
Consider Germany from 1933 to 1939, six short years. Less than a two term president. They had a very bad economy prior to the rise of Hitler. The people were looking to their government to solve the problem. Hitler and the Nazis were democratically elected, even if the election was marred by intimidation and fraud. Hitler used the "crisis" to consolidate his power, particularly the supposed "terrorist attack" on the Reichstag. He soon controlled all supposedly private businesses. Within a few years he was master of Germany. If a government has power concentrated at the top, if it is run primarily through a bureaucracy and the people are conditioned to assume their government is there to solve every one of their problems, a rapid change in leadership and direction is not only possible but likely, particularly in times of crisis. The genius of our original system, with the separated and limited powers of the federal government, was that such rapid changes were impossible. That is why it has taken the statists/progressives decades to get to this point. Now that that original system exists in form only, the likelihood that a silver-tongued megalomaniac can take the reins of power and transform our country is a very real possibly. We are primed for a fall.
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