American Tyranny
More than a year ago, less than a month after the Obama Inauguration, I wrote about the threat of an emerging American tyranny, quoting Tocqueville’s nightmare scenario of a slow seduction of the American people who would willingly abandon freedom to a soft dictatorship that would appear to be democratic. I was right about Obama’s intentions, but wrong about the reaction of the American people, which is central to the battle in which we are engaged.
Tocqueville foresaw a slow death of freedom. He feared that the power of the central government would gradually expand, meddling in every area of our lives, and he was afraid that we would welcome it, and even convince ourselves that we controlled it.
Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their own will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated…
The tyranny he foresaw for us does not have much in common with the vicious dictatorships of the last century, or with contemporary North Korea, Iran, or Saudi Arabia. “The nature of despotic power in democratic ages is not to be fierce or cruel, but minute and meddling.” The vision and even the language anticipated Orwell’s 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World. Tocqueville described the new tyranny as “an immense and tutelary power,” and its task is to regulate every aspect of our lives.
It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd.
Tocqueville thought we would not be bludgeoned into submission; we would be seduced. He foresaw the collapse of American democracy as the end result of two parallel developments that would ultimately render us meekly subservient to an enlarged bureaucratic power: the corruption of our character, and the emergence of a vast welfare state. His nightmare vision is brilliantly and terrifyingly prescient:
That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?
Roger all that. Tocqueville had it right, and it’s exactly what has happened on his old continent. Europe has fallen under precisely that sort of tyranny, and our would-be tyrants thought they could do the same here.
But the scheme did not succeed, at least the way they planned it. Instead of embracing the tyranny, the American people unexpectedly rose up against it. To use Tocqueville’s metaphor, Americans acted like a recalcitrant child and refused to behave. At which point the tyrannical wannabes decided to slap us down and make us behave properly. They were forced to carry out a coup, a baldfaced seizure of power. Thus, the Demon Pass. Thus the two most memorable lines from the coup plotters: (Pelosi): “we have to pass it to find out what’s in it,” and (Hastings): “there are no rules. This is the U.S. Congress.”
That was not the way it was supposed to happen. We were supposed to go quietly. Instead we fought back, and the final outcome of this big fight–the one I foresaw more than a year ago–is still in doubt. The would-be tyrants may prevail; after all, they have the awesome power of the state. But we have the numbers and a superior vision.
Americans can be very tough in this kind of fight. Ask King George.
HUZZAH
Thank God that at least one British Newspaper knows what he is.
http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2010/03/barack-hussein-obama-and-indonesia-theres-no-place-like-home.html
Barack Hussein Obama and Indonesia: there’s no place like home
Now that President Obama has done enough back-room deals to get the Democrats’ health care legislation through the House of Representatives, he can resume making plans for a visit to his childhood home, Indonesia. The trip was on for this week, but the White House cancelled it so Obama could stay in Washington to push through the Bill.
Once he lands at Jakarta, capital of the world’s largest Muslim state, he probably won’t make the same mistake he made a few years ago in Kenya, when he let himself be photographed wearing a turban. Still, he may find it hard to resist the urge to go native.
One of the reasons a lot of Americans find Obama oddly foreign is that he had an oddly foreign childhood: his formative years were spent in Indonesia. His half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born there. The rest of Obama’s childhood was spent in Honolulu, a Pacific Ocean capital soaked in East Asian culture.
What’s this got to do with Britain, or indeed with Europe? Plenty. Obama is the first US president who was raised without cultural or emotional or intellectual ties to either Britain or Europe. The British and the Europeans have been so enchanted with ‘America’s first black president’ that they haven’t been able to see what he really is: America’s first Third World president.
If you doubt it, remember the kick in the teeth he gave Britain over the Falklands just a few weeks ago. Obama had his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, fly to Buenos Aires to give American support to President Kirchner’s call for international negotiations over the Falklands. Amazing. What was more amazing is that all we’ve heard out of Number 10 and the Foreign Office since then is that it doesn’t mean anything.
Oh, yes it does, and Washington insiders know it does.
I’ve just been in touch with Dr James Lucier, a former US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff Director, about all this. He tells me: ‘Culturally, Obama detests Great Britain. He sent the bust of Churchill back without a fig leaf of an excuse. He insulted the Queen and the Prime Minister, giving them ridiculous gifts.’ At one point, ‘he refused to meet the prime minister.’
Here is what is happening, though the British Government seems oblivious of it. The Obama administration is ready to dump the Old World in pursuit of the One World.
Britain is being dumped. The special relationship, whatever is left of it, is over. Britain losing control of the Falklands to Argentina would just be collateral damage.
But France is being dumped, too. Obama’s ostentatious refusal to have dinner with President Sarkozy during his visit to France last year was no accident. Rather than meet the French president, Obama went off to a restaurant with his wife Michelle.
Germany is being dumped. Obama has been little more than dismissive of Chancellor Merkel. Russia in turn will be waved aside.
Most spectacularly of all, the European Union has now been comprehensively dumped. The American president has refused to attend what is supposed to be a US-EU Madrid summit in May.
What we have shaping up, but what the British Government doesn’t yet grasp, is that Obama has a conscious policy of down-grading America’s relationship with, first, Britain and then with the rest of Europe.
He believes that the US — yes, his own country — and Britain, and the leading European countries, too, for that matter, are imperial powers who ruthlessly exploited the Third World for their own profit.
And Obama is America’s first Third World president.
Forget Obama’s Chicago black cadence. It is a fake. He copied from the kind of black preachers that were unknown to him until he was a grown man and inventing his political image.
What the Obama administration has near-wiped from the president’s personal history is that his only childhood links with America were as a schoolboy in a fashionable private school in Asia-dominated Hawaii, where he was raised by his white, bank executive grandmother.
Chicago is not Obama’s homeland. It never was his formative influence. The president’s world view is more aligned with that of Indonesia.
You can be sure the gift Obama gives the President of Indonesia will be something more than the dvd box-set of old Hollywood movies he gave to Gordon Brown. The US president’s manner on the trip to Indonesia will be more the manner he showed to the King of Saudi Arabia last year. The king received a deep bow, something never done by any US president before. Obama also kow-towed to the Emperor of Japan and to the Chinese premier.
What’s going on? According to Dr Lucier, Obama’s policy is to disestablish the United States, Great Britain and Europe from the hegemony of world power, and elevate in their place the hegemony of the Third World under international governance.
Remember, Obama is a deracinated individual. He has no roots. He is a man from an Asian-Pacific background bred to no admiration for the ancient constitutional history which, until now, has reached across the Atlantic to bind America and Britain.
The president actually feels that the US Constitution, which grew out of Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights, is ‘inadequate.’
Indeed, Obama has stated that, because the US Constitution guarantees only ‘negative rights’ — that is, establishes what the US Government may not do to individuals or to the sovereign states — instead of giving people guarantees of food, shelter education and health care and the rest, it is ‘inadequate.’
That is one reason he has worked so hard to get the health care legislation through Congress. It is undoubtedly unconstitutional. Already, the attorneys-general of Florida and South Carolina are poised to challenge its constitutionality in court. At least another dozen state attorneys-general may join in the suit.
Obama has made it clear he despises both the US Constitution and the British tradition from which it springs.
His decision to send his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to Argentina to give support to President Kirchner is part of this anti-British atttitude. Mrs Clinton has supported President Kirchner’s demands that the fate of the Falklands be decided by the United Nations decolonisation committee.
It is all part of the same Obama world-view. This interference in South American affairs is not part of the old yankee — yanqui — imperialism. The important thing to note is that the Obama administration is not stepping in to decide the fate of the Falklands itself.
No, it wants to turn the dispute over to a Third World-dominated instrument of international governance, the UN.
One might imagine that Obama is willing to back Argentina over the Falklands because he thinks America has something to gain from it. That is not the reason. There is no profit for the US in cultivating the Latino presidents, and there is no particular policy to do so.
Rather, US support for Kirchner’s demand that the Falklands question be turned over to the UN is just another opportunity for Obama to strengthen the ideological world system which he hopes will one day overwhelm the old Anglo-Saxon Common Law America.
His vision is for the US to abandon its Constitution and its laws, which are tied to Britain, the country for which he has shown such disdain.
Tocqueville also observed the exceptional
private associations of Americans, which
accomplished many of the functions taken
over in later days by the State, and which
may be used to reclaim those functions from
the State, If the People do not wait to long.
President Obama…a.k.a…King George of America formerly of Kenya
It has taken a lot of being led down the garden path and plied with bull$#!t, not wanting to believe that anyone America has elected to the highest of leadership positions could betray us……but the worm is turning…slowlyslowly
I wrote this on my blog yesterday before the vote…
I want my country back!
It seems like the ultra-liberals have been able to bribe and coerce enough congress-scumbags to pass the Obamacare. And as I said before, there would be hell to pay for this monstrosity. Obamacare is the very definition of unlimited government – the threat of which was forewarned by the Founding Fathers more than two centuries ago. The federal government, which is up to its neck in debt and unfunded liabilities, decided to launch the biggest entitlement of all times – the medical care for all. The spending on this new entitlement will surely dwarf many if not most of Federal programs and will make the bankruptcy of federal and state governments inevitable. The time of reckoning is at hand, brothers and sisters. Obamacare is the last breath of the liberal order – and it’s time to take America back from the party of thieves and looters.
All patriots of this nation must stand together and fight back. United we will win! There is no blue or red America anymore – there are only those that believe in America the beautiful, America the free, America the shining city on the hill – and those that believe in welfare socialism and government servitude. Today, we fight not only for our personal well-being – but for the dignity and honor of this country, for the right to look into the eyes of our children and say – we defended this nation from the perils of socialism. In November 2010, we will answer the crucial questions of our times – are American people worthy of the Constitutional Republic built by the Founding Fathers – or the Great American Experiment has failed, and we should all go back to Europe, Africa and Asia? Will American people have the right to proudly say “We are Americans” – or will they forever live in infamy and indignity of the European welfare socialism?
I don’t know about you, but I am certain of the answer to these questions. I am glad that the Democratic Party passed the Rubicon. From now on, there is no coming back for the liberal elites, no talks of compromise and middle-ground. Today, it is abundantly clear that we either will live in Obama’s America or America that our Founding Father envisioned. You cannot have both.
The November elections will be the most important elections in our lifetime. If you don’t vote for America in November – you don’t deserve to be called an American.
Written by a Russian immigrant who loves America and who loves freedom.
Stupor congressional opponent, Benishek I think his name is, has already raked in a fortune in campaign gifts from anti-Obamists, 38 states are planning lawsuits, tea parties, oathtakers, doctors in New England thinking of quitting. Ok for the first 24 hours of resistance, but Obama still has the support of 45% of the public and 90% of the MSM. This fight will not be easy, especially as they will certainly tamper with the elections.
Now the states are taking up the battle.
Health care defies the laws of commerce in most states.
Its the same as Obama telling me I have to buy a government motors car or I will be fined.
This will go all the way to the SCOTUS and I think Obama and Pelosi will be slapped down,
the high court has no love lost on this administration.
Michael, thank you for the great and important article, it carries wise philosophical vision.
“the would-be tyrants may prevail”
Dear Michael, I strongly believe that the American people will not allow the handful of American Marxists to control the values and principles of liberty that they paid the high price for it.
Americans are smart enough and they quite know how to protect and defend the sacred principles of liberty that they have spread it around the world, where became an principles and sacred values of the life of that nations.
Yes, Europe has fallen under tyrannical system, but the Americans they who have liberated the Europeans from fascism which outcome of that authoritarian system and recently that Americans themselves also who liberated the countries of central Europe from the evil Communist system.
I hope that the American socialists to ask Italians and Germans about the source of their liberty?!
So, not to worry! The sacred values and principles of America “freedom and democracy” will prevail throughout the world than ever!!!
Jassem Othman, Syrian, the land of Holocaust “Poland”.
Tocqueville certainly was insightful. The key to the battle is thinking in principles. Whoever provides valid moral principles — and justifies them — will win.
Seduced indeed, by ‘bribing the public with the public’s money.’
I’d been wondering how even relatively intelligent people could have been so seduced by him. I guess money does talk.
I think you are close but no cigar:
The tyranny of the USA against its citizens has been imposed in the model of “Czar Russia” and its successor “The Commuless Moscow Weapons Company” (AKA:USSR).
They simply defined a set of laws to which no one could comply so the government could
“legally” jail anyone they felt like going after. The USA may have crossed that line but is certainly approaching it.
In that Americans:
embraced “Harold Hill” Obama;
still proudly finance the war against themselves every day at the gas pump;
allow a war to rage that is closer to “human sacrifice to Islime than even trying to win (attempting to win in any way is a war crime)…
…One must face the facts: Obama/Pelosi/Reed may be absolutely correct: Americans need a nanny state…
We even have ex CIA guys that administer propaganda for the enemy by accepting and describing dictators and tyrant mass murderers as: religious leaders of Islime…instead of tyrants and mass murderers that parade as religious…
It is time for a constitutional convention called by the States…
takes a big man to admit when he was/is wrong…
So sorry Mr. Ledeen seems to rule out Mr. Obama’s use of brute physical force to gain his goals. I believe that he will use force if his position is threatened. Again, only in limited individual situations. He is no pacifist.
For example, I believe that he will propose that American troops be used to guarantee the borders of a Palestinian state. Should Americans die at Israel’s hands due to the American invasion, that excuse will be used to emasculate Israel – thereby doing Iran’s work for her.
I think a Catch-22 is usually missed when the forethought of Tocqueville is considered. He was right. Umm, therefore, you are fighting destiny. Maybe, Barack is only the manifestation of the enemy, and the enemy is our own wicked hearts (the majority, anyway)? I mean, to think one man has grabbed the reigns of America. Isn’t anyone familiar with the concept of the spirit of anti-christ, as opposed to a single person being anti-christ?
Sad times.
Believe in Genesis. Believe in Jesus.
Note to self:..buy more ammo at Wal-Mart this week.
Michael and excellent essay.
I do think that those who are trying to control us are not as soft as you hope. I believe they are more in the Mugabe camp or similar to the german thugs of hitler. if they could they would use force. the SEIU and new black panthers are the future enforcers. the brown shirts.
this bunch is not above violent means. as we have witness they will do anything. they are not even pretending to represent the people.
Oh no, the government share of health care jumps from ~40% to ~60%, still well below the levels in almost all developed nations and tyranny is on the march!
Rules in the Republicans 1994 alternative health plan and in Romney care are instituted and we are transformed into an Orwellian hellscape!
Pragmatist and Jerry,
Thanks for the tip on tin foil stock.
Hyphenated American,
Isn’t hyperbole fun?
I can’t wait until the Republicans make significant advances in the House and Senate this fall…and nothing changes. …or they spend all their time blaming the ‘previous administration’ while accomplishing little or nothing, themselves.
To paraphrase and old saw, beware of politicians bearing promises and gifts.
…and don’t expect Washington to listen to the states, folks.
The ship has sailed. The course is set. …and a murthering great storm lies dead ahead. The only question that remains is whether you will aquit yourselves like men and women of courage.
I’m excited to see conservatives running on a “repeal HCR” platform of re-instating lifetime insurance caps, re-instituting rescission and re-opening the Medicare ‘donut hole’. Why have government death panels when the private health insurance companies do it so well. It’s going to be a fun run to November.
Jerry: could be Obama’s Israel ploy; but if Obama interferes in: “the nice long lasting war and sell lots of weapons” (C 1991 Getty) Obama will be shown the (back) door…and he knows it…
The naive , emotional gullibility being expressed by the DEMS and their apologists on here is preposterous. How can you ADD Millions and Millions of people to a system and NOT increase costs it just beggars belief. Now one of the DEMS SCAMS is to PRETEND that cutting Medicaid by $500M and putting that $500M towards Obamacare is like $1000M of NEW money without any costs LOL and the gullible fools lap it up. But just wait there are MILLIONS and MILLIONS more to be added for cover once they get around to giving cover to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, think they wont,and of course MILLIONS and MILLIONS of VOTES for the DEMS too when they get AMNESTY too. Think I am kidding thats next on the agenda for the Mohammedan BOGUS POTUS. America is gone long live the SOCIALIST States of AMERIKA.
Michael, when you can, take a look at “The Keys of this blood” by Malachi Martin.
Cardinal Wyszynski, the Fox of Europe, also faced the, as you put it: “The would-be tyrants may prevail; after all, they have the awesome power of the state”, but he concluded that the resources he could call upon were mightier than the power of the state.
Obamandias is a fitting label of the chief deformed soul, and he ain’t seen nuthing yet!
“Faster, please”
Hmmm, where have I heard Ledeen use that phrase before? This from Wikipedia:
‘Regarding regime change in Iraq, in 2002 Ledeen criticized the views of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, writing:[18]
He fears that if we attack Iraq “I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a cauldron and destroy the War on Terror.”
One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please.’
You got your wish, Mikey. Happy 7th Anniversary!
Very well reasoned. What may be equally important is the context added by “Progressives” masquerading as elected Democrats. Harry Truman & JFK would be horrified at what they have done and how they have done it. These are not Democrats in any sense of the party history. What we have today are Syndicalists operating the Democratic Party as a Syndicate. This is not socialism or marxism or communism, but something far worse. We have a Syndicate taking form in our national government no differently than has been already accomplished in the major cites of Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and others like them. These Syndicate interests have sprawled onto the national stage and through monied non-profits, university “government” departments and selective transnational sponsorship are now fomenting a ‘superior culture” that is unsustainable but for taking hold of and dominating our domestic governments via control of the succession to elective office. Many see Congressional Democrats resigning and applaud without giving a thought to the ambitious true believers and myopic technicians that have been syndicalized and carefully prepared to replace them; sycophants whose livelihood and future are dependent upon establishing what must necessarily become a de facto ruling class in which they and those like them preside over the rest of us like the royalty of old. Syndicalism is the way feudal societies are shaped and ruled. We forget the real problem faced by communist and socialist societies was the governments began to operate as a grand syndicate engaged in a criminal conspiracy against the citizenry. Does this not describe Pelosi-Reid-Frank-Obama? It’s not just Chicago gone nationwide, but an growing syndicate forming out of an underlying criminal conspiracy to create a de facto ruling class in perpetuity complete with dynastic institutions and dominant families who rule and control all the major cash flows and policy creation in our economy. This is our founders worst nightmare come true. These Syndicalists cannot be defeated by branding them as leftists, liberals, commies and socialists. This rhetoric will not work, as they have effectively defined those who use it and immunized themselves by preempting the susceptibility of their base. But we are now seeing the first real fracture in the monolithic loyalty they have so skillfully manipulated from loyal Democrat voters deluded by their rhetorical schemes. The present American generation must be taught the history of Syndicates in our governmental history and then connected to the modern evidence exposing those today conspiring to permanently establish the federal Syndicate they are creating before our eyes. They must be taught the true Democrat political tradition is long dead; that the only Democrats left are the voters; not the party officials, not the candidates or the elected elite. They must be shown how they have been duped by syndicate interests serving elitist agendas to create an insiders-only system. The gestalt of this drives the tea party movement. They smell the scale of crime, corruption and insider dealing that only a Syndicate can bring. Our nation faces not a Cancer, but a massive, aggressive, and perniciously insatiable progressive parasite which has embedded itself like a monstrous tick on the back of our national government. Either we remove it and destroy it, or it will suck us dry and leave us riven with disease and suffering to face a tragic end.
I’d have some hope for our future except we gave our children to Moloch’s Government education system long before we gave ourselves to Government Motors, Government Farm, and now Government Health.
The younger generations needs to be in the fight but, sadly, they have been drugged and brainwashed into submission.
Perhaps when their iPhones go dead we will get a rise from them….
Israel too knows just what Obama is
Israel defies Obama over Jerusalem settlements
Israel will defy American pressure to halt the construction of controversial Jewish housing in Arab east Jerusalem, when President Obama meets Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, in the White House today.
Fresh from his historic victory to reform American healthcare, the US leader is to be confronted, within hours, with a foreign policy crisis. This time Mr Obama must resolve the worst breakdown in relations in decades between America and its closest regional ally, Israel, and try to get the Arab-Israeli peace process moving again.
But any hopes of a compromise were dashed yesterday when Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem, insisted that Jewish settlements would go ahead in spite of US objections.
Mr Barkat said that Israel had not intended to insult America, when it announced a 1,600-home plan in Ramat Shlomo during a peace mission by Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, earlier this month. He remained adamant that the project would go ahead.
Related Links
* Netanyahu seizes chance to make peace with US
* Clinton: US will be a critical friend to Israel
* Four Palestinians killed in fresh unrest
“I do not think anybody intended, naturally, to try to insult,” he said in an interview at the Israeli Embassy in London. “But let us not get mixed up. Planning in the city of Jerusalem has to, should and will continue. We want to be sensitive to the American Administration but I want to make sure people realise there is no [housing] freeze in the city of Jerusalem.”
The former paratrooper added that not only would the development proceed, but he also revealed details for another housing project in east Jerusalem. The “King’s Garden” project in the flashpoint Arab area of Silwan, the scene of regular disturbances beween Palestinians and Jewish settlers, envisages the demolition of 80 Palestinian homes to make way for a park.
The status of the holy city is supposed to be negotiated as part of a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, who want the Arab side of the city to become the future capital of their state. Mr Barkat said that Jerusalem would remain the capital of the Jewish state. It is believed that Israel may be prepared to hold off for a matter of weeks to enable talks to resume with the Palestinians, but has ruled out a permanent freeze.
He was strongly backed last night by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, who offered an uncompromising defence of Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. “The connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem cannot be denied,” he told a conference in Washington. “The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and they are building Jerusalem today.”
He said that the city was “not a settlement – it’s our capital” and added that nearly half its Jewish population lived beyond the 1949 armistice line in what is considered East Jerusalem. “Everybody knows that these neighbourhoods will be part of Israel in any settlement,” he claimed. “Therefore building in them in no way precludes a two-state solution.”
Mr Netanyahu was speaking to more than half the members of Congress at a dinner hosted by America’s most prominent pro-Israel lobby. He meets President Obama in the White House later today.
His remarks, and those of Mr Barkat, were in sharp contrast to the views expressed by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, yesterday in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful Israel lobby meeting in Washington. She said: “New construction in east Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need,” she said.
Mr Barkat said that the city was planning 50,000 apartments, two thirds for Jewish neighbourhoods and a third for Arabs, in proportion to the existing size of the two communities.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7071927.ece
Quote from author…
“Roger all that. Tocqueville had it right, and it’s exactly what has happened on his old continent. Europe has fallen under precisely that sort of tyranny, and our would-be tyrants thought they could do the same here.”
And exactly how does this tyranny manifest itself in Europe? Are all Europeans brainwashed and do they all willingly follow the ‘instructions’ of their leaders without question or hesitation?
Here’s something to consider; more and more Europeans are voting for ‘right wing’ political parties which seeks to stop the current trend of PC and MC which have been in vogue in Europe for the last few decades. How does your statement that Europe is a tyranny correspond with that trend?
And last but not least, can a man who is elected by a free people in a democratic nation ever be referred to as a tyrant? Surely the American people can vote in another candidate in the next presidential election if they’re unsatisfied with Obama’s policies?
Yes, Americans who love freedom WILL prevail. There are only two important questions. Will they have the guts to take up arms before the tyrants take them from us, and how can the police/army be got on side or persuaded to stand aside while the leftist scum are removed.
“I wont have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, If I help him, he’s gonna help me.” Freedom? Screw that! Gimme, gimme, gimme! Freedom is too hard!
Reading of Mr. Ledeen’s musings about the threat of an emerging American tyranny, i remembered an essay from 2006, written by Sam Ashwood about Robert E. Lee. A key quote is below –make of it what you will, but please try to get something from it by forcing yourself to set the race issue aside for a moment and concentrate on what Lee –after all an expert on the matter –thought about the ramifications of the various balance points between states’ rights and the central authority. I guess the question is, what are the criteria of balance? Central power 1941-45 was great and wonderful, other eras of recent past at more or less between that and now, where nowadays it seems to cost too much, do too much of low and negative value, and create loss of virtue and gain of fear.
Anyhoo, here’s Ashwood on Lee, just a snip (my several boldings), the whole essay is at this link:
***
“…Even in defeat, Lee manifested a quiet Christian dignity. Though firmly believing the South had acted rightly, and that he had done right in defending his native state against hostile invasion, he was never heard to reproach his former enemies. In fact, on one occasion after the war, when he served as president of Washington College (later renamed Washington & Lee), he responded, “Sir, if you ever again presume to speak disrespectfully of General Grant in my presence, either you or I shall sever our connections with this university.” Also, after the war, at the Episcopalian church in Lexington, when a black member approached the table to receive Communion, Lee was the first to join the man, and thus set an example for the other members of Christian behavior.
Not bitter, but saddened, Lee lived out his final years striving to educate the young men of Virginia to serve the country God had placed them in. The defeat of the South had, he accurately foresaw, ended the days of strict construction of the Constitution, and ushered in the American empire. States’ rights had always been precious to Lee. Indeed, he had gone to war to defend Virginia, his native soil. He was not a traitor or terrorist, as some modern, historically ignorant and inept writers accuse, nor was he in favor of slavery. He had drawn his sword “only in defense of my native state.” To Lee, and to the South, had there been no invasion, there would have been no war. But the war came, and Lee, a reluctant secessionist, became more dedicated to the cause as the war progressed, once remarking, “No civilized nation within knowledge has ever carried on a war such as the United States has carried on against us.” This, of course, stood in stark contrast to the impeccable behavior of Lee’s army during the Gettysburg campaign, a result of strict orders issued by Lee, which forbid the soldiers from exercising vengeance on the Northern population, but to wait on Him “to Whom vengeance belonged.” During the cruel abuse of the South during Reconstruction, he privately remarked, “Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in my right hand.” Prophetically, he would write to the British Lord Acton in 1866, “The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all that have preceded it.” Two years later, he would mourn, “I grieve for posterity, for American principles and American liberty.” In our day and age, we are reaping the fruits of what was sown in Lee’s time.
(end quote)
Loved it Michael
Michael,
Strong work. We are where we are because we allow this to happen. When Hussein was running for president how many people actually was able to see through his ‘mask?’ I did not vote for him precisely because of his ‘mask.’
The next question is: How do we stop him and his cohorts from further damaging our country.
I suggest we understand what motivates him.
http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2010/03/barack-hussein-obama-and-indonesia-theres-no-place-like-home.html — from Greg in comment 1. Great article. Understand that he is out to DESTROY our country by changing rules as they see fit under the pretext of ‘Living Constitution.’ This way more US citizens will depend on him and his cohorts. Next move will be amnesty for illegals so as to shore up votes and stay in power.
@26 Chaves was elected, so was Hitler…
Grand Ayatollah Mikey Bin Ledeen has the defect of his qualities, Dr. Bones. Or perhaps one may call what His Eminence suffers from “a professional deformation.”
The eminence of His Neoëminence, like that of all known Revs and Neorevs, is mythology-based. “Narrative-based” as a trendy tertiary educationaliser would likely prefer to say nowadays. Label their baseness as you like, sir, it does not make any political difference, for under no circumstances can barefaced _mythos_ and _narratio_ constitute grown-up argument or proof.
Bin Ledeen, who is not, after all, an *exceptionally* IQ-challenged Rev, may even be consciously aware of this point and snicker to Himself as His Eminence twistifies in the path of Party an’ Ideology.
For example, “the tyrannical wannabes [_sc._, the ‘Democrat Party’] decided to slap us down and make us behave properly. They were forced to carry out a coup, a baldfaced seizure of power. Thus, the Demon Pass.”
Mikey has kept a literal kiddie’s sense of fun, Dr. Bones, despite the impediment of His Eminence’s virtual robes and neoturban. ‘Baldfaced’ is good, or at least it *would* be good, if one could be completely sure that H. E. did not originally intend the colourless ‘boldfaced’: plainly the evil obscenities of President Summers and Mr. O’Bama would have been much more foregivable, had the perps been decently bearded while perpetrating them.! I guess, though, that if that had been the case, His Eminence would add sacrilege to the indictment–or that lesser included offense, impersonation of an officer of the First Estate.
Bearded or beardless, though, the _narrationis crux_ is obviously H.E.’s slap-down-and-seizure fairy tale.
Now I ask you, sir, how “slapped down” does Grand Ayatollah Bin Ledeen look to you to be just at the moment? Perhaps we should have saved that telephone number for the Snitch Office in the White House basement: it would be a pleasure indeed to drop a dime on little Mikey! I daresay there can not been enough time to arrange for those summer camps whither we mean to send the Bin Ledeens of the world to vacation in year ’round, Guantánamo style, but they must have at least be taking reservations.
Be that as it may, you can hardly miss that Mikey’s current notion of bein’ “made to behave properly”: “Here I am, stormtroopers, come ’n’ get Our Eminence if you can!”
One is reminded of an apologist for the kiddies’ late Neocomrade Senator J. McCarthy of WI, who spoke, many years ago now, of the early Ike Epoch as bein’ full of icky liberals bellowing at the top of [our] voices, “Look at me, how I am cowed! I am afraid!! I dare not speak out!!!”
That was more or less a fair cop, it seems to me. ’Tis not for mortals to achieve Perfection, Dr. Bones, let alone Neoperfection: even wingnutettes and wingnuts and Birchers and Birthers–nay, sir, even His Eminence of Padschamestán _in partibus neotericum_–can never hope to be infallibly in the wrong.
(( More exactly, the dingalings can keep on hopin’ for Neoperfection without reproach if they like. Their dingalingianity only begins when they move on to actually expectin’ it. BFZKB. ))
Pretermitting this and that incidental BinLedeenian delight, I shall head straight for the Demon Pass in hopes of cutting off the bad guys. It was the D. P. _trippa e bologna_ that got me started on His Eminence’s case, as it happens. For who could guess from Mikey’s neomythologisin’ that it never happened?
At less then forty-eight hours’ distance from the obamanation in question, even His Eminence’s own Party base an’ vile cannot *all* have agreed to misremember _wie es eigentlich gewesen_.
I betcha, though, that H. E. does not seriously anticipate that they will. It seems highly likely to me, Dr. Bones, that the Grand Ayatollah is just givin’ his P&I neoëthics a little outin’. That is to say, I conjecture that little Mikey thinks it balanced and fair and, indeed, the only obvious course of neoäction, to damn the “Democrat Party” on [our] own petard, as it were, neodeemin’ [1] us guilty of having deemed because we talked about it out loud, and were overheard so to talk by the Daughters of Virtue and Sons of Wisdom LLC. [1]
_Ego autem dico vobis quoniam omnis qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam iam, moechatus est eam in corde suo_ [2]
Happy days.
___
[1] The Ayatollaholic verb may not need any support from a slender and possibly fickle affix. Possibly run-of-the-mill deemin’ is all His Eminence absolutely requires here, with the usual proviso that “to deem” is OK when the DVSW (LLC) do it, but a crime against Nature, should somebody else attempt the same at home.
_Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi_, don’t you know, sir? If I may presume to recycle the late Buckley Minor’s favourite self-servicin’ saw and apophthegm.
[2] _Ev. Matt._ V:28.
the end of american greatness.
it took a racist marxist narcissist to do it with help provided by imbeciles in the congress and senate
as the first commentor pointed out, our president is not interested in the alliances of democracies, and cares nothing for the concept.
instead, barry struts and puffs himself up and admires himself, bellowing his empty rhetoric just as the ruler of a third world country.
clearly, he admires tyrants and despots, and yearns to be in that panalopy of grotesquerie.
we are in very serious trouble. mentally, so is he.
#26 Kritisk_borger
1.In Western European countries, the differences between “right-wing” and “left-wing” parties and governments is smaller than the differences between the “radical” and merely “left-wing” elements of the Democratic Party here in the U.S. No less an “authority” than Bill Clinton has stated that the full range of political opinion in Western Europe would fit “comfortably” within not merely his Party, but his branch of same- which, not so coincidentally, is the branch President Obama hales from. In short, there isn’t a very broad palette for the voters to choose from.
The UK is a good example. Tony Blair came into office promising not to “go to the extremes” of the Labour Party (who regarded Leon Trotsky as a wimp). So, to be “moderate”, he completely disarmed the British people, elevated his cronies to the peerage to ensure control of Lords, and established law-enforcement policies in which violent street thugs get “Anti-Social Behavior Notices” instead of actually being arrested, their victims are prosecuted for resisting, and the police spend most of their time monitoring his political “enemies”.
Even when he did the right thing (by sending the British armed forces into battle against Islamism) he did it without adequately supporting the troops either logistically or in terms of policy. And he topped all of this off with ever-higher taxes to pay for the ballooning expenses of a government that really seems to either be incapable of actually doing anything useful, or doesn’t really care, as long as it has absolute power.
Gordon Brown, his anointed successor, has continued all of the above, and now faces a Parliamentary election his own experts tell him he hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in the nether regions of surviving. So, naturally, he is trying to figure out how to postpone or cancel it.
His Conservative challengers? Their main difference with the New Labour platform is that while New Labour has been deliberately bringing in immigrants illegally to “stack the deck” in the voting rolls, the Conservatives want to do it openly.
Both are mainly interested in power, and have little regard for consequences. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once observed, a difference which makes no difference isn’t really a difference.
2. Other European countries have the same problem. Plus, they all have in common with the U.S. a class of “enlightened elites’”, pseudo-intellectuals who dream of power used by them to remake the world into their “ideal state”. Almost without exception, they revile Western Civilization, because its “cold, unfeeling logic” is less congenial to them than a more Eastern, “mystical” worldview in which there are no solid facts, and what they “feel” is all that matters.
Under such a system, what the “ruling class” believes trumps reality every day and twice on the Sabbath (whatever it may be locally). If you want a good meterstick for this, ask a typical “intellectual”, in government or academia, what they think of (a) astrology and (b) nuclear power. (Just don’t expect the answers to make sense.)
Outside of Europe, Iran is another object lesson in this. Also an object lesson in what sort of society you actually get when you give mystically-inclined pseudo-intellectuals the absolute power they crave. It’s not peaceful, not “enlightened”, and definitely not a “good neighbor”.
3. If you want to see what actual elections with actual differences really look like in Europe, you have to go to the former Warsaw Pact countries. They tend to look at Western Europe with disbelief, as they already know what living under a one-party state operating on socialist principles is like. After all, they were subjected to exactly that, by force, for over four decades. It’s not a coincidence that the Western European governments are leery of letting them in the EU with full voting rights in Brussels; they might just upset the applecart.
It’s bad enough, from the EU’s point of view, that they have no good excuse to keep Germany out, as its politics are nearly as “radical” (i.e., fact-based) as the Czech Republic’s. Which shouldn’t surprise anybody, as half of the country was nearly wrecked by the type of socialist policies the EU heads see as so perfect. And Angela Merkel is all too well aware of the damage such policies cause, having been born and raised in what used to be the Soviet-controlled half of the country.
4. Finally, you are apparently unaware that the word “tyrant” comes from a Greek root. Its original meaning is a despotic ruler who becomes a dictator, after first gaining power by masquerading as a populist “man of the people”. The list of dictators who have used this method is a long one, and includes such luminaries as Nero, Caligula, Julius Caesar, Lenin, Mao, and Muammar el-Qadafi. To say nothing of a few whose names wouldn’t get past the moderators.
With Obama, the list just got one name longer.
clear ether
eon
To post # 15:
What do Mugabe, the last US president, and the current US president have in common?
They all come from a long line of Bush people…
“But the scheme did not succeed, at least the way they planned it. Instead of embracing the tyranny, the American people unexpectedly rose up against it.”
Ah Mike. Mike. And the rest of us fellow choir members sitting here in our choir loft. Yes, OUR segment of the population unexpectedly rose up against it. But what about … all the others who didn’t. All the others,including for example,nearly all the scores of folks I’m surrounded by in this state government office as I type this, who haven’t a clue of the import of what actually happened to this country on Sunday. All the others who have embraced the soft tyranny. The handouts. The dependence. The plethora of mini-razor cut rules and regulations. The propaganda doled out from K1-12 right on through to college. The illegal immigrants who will soon be added to the voting roll call as they join the permanently dependent underclass. The permanent plantation. No Mike, et. al. It’s not we-who-know who will rule. It is and will be … all the others. Someone. Anyone. Please tell me I’m wrong.
tripper i don’t know that you’re wrong. nobody does. the outcome is not foreordained, and so we will play the game.
If you vote out Obama, be ready for flash riots like those in Philly. “Gather weapons and ammo.” Captain Miller in “Saving Private
Ryan.”
John Rawls was one of the most destructive thinkers of the 20th Century. He was also an economic illiterate. Rawls did not have to foggiest idea how wealth is created. Such ignorance, however, did not deter him from advocating principles of wealth redistribution. Rawls was a mealy mouther who refused to concede that his egalitarian goals were impossible to achieve without granting the government extraordinary powers. Soft despotism is the inevitable result of his political doctrines.
A Cass Sunstein will initially try to “nudge” you into doing what he so desires. But eventually—-he and his cohorts will slam you good and hard. Soft despotism will almost certainly evolve into hard core Communism.
38. eon
“the police spend most of their time monitoring his political “enemies”” – that is complete rubbish. even Blair’s enemies (the sane ones anyway) would not make that claim.
“Brown now faces a Parliamentary election …he is trying to figure out how to postpone or cancel it. ” – wow! that is going to be a big story! Your ignorance of UK politics is clear from this statement alone. There has to be an election on or before June 3rd, Brown has no choice. If he tried to prevent it there would be a constitutional crisis the like of which the UK has never seen before. It would be electoral suicide for Brown and the Labour party and most likely end up with Brown being removed from office by his own party before the election. A British Prime Minister can call an election at any time during a term of office, perhaps that is why you are confused?
If you are not aware of the facts it is probably best not to pass comment.
clear ether indeed.
“A Cass Sunstein will initially try to “nudge” you into doing what he so desires. But eventually—-he and his cohorts will slam you good and hard. ”
Absolutely. I don’t know how many people are aware of it, but the Porkulus bill includes a thing called HITECH, which starts to require electronic health records (EHRs) for everyone, and the will apply to health care provider who accepts Medicare and Medicaid patients.
At first there will be financial incentives.
“Meaningful use” standards are planned. The proposed standards include a requirement for at least one entry in an EHR for at least 80% of the patients, reporting of smoking/non-smoking status for patients over 13 years old, and other items.
The plans are to ratchet up these meaningful use standards.
I just came from a talk on this by a guy who is an enthusiastic proponent of it, in fact who has spent a lot of the last year in DC with our betters.
41. You are wrong, for if there will be another free and fair election, we shall surely win, and if there shall not be another free and fair election, we shall kill them for their crime of levying war against us.
There are always lost battles in the war for freedom. Let us hope that the events of this weekend were Thermopylae, and that we were the Greeks; We will get them at Salamis.
If conservatives become a permanent minority in the US of A, the world will become a borderless, lawless, uniform Third World: Mao’s version of marxism, under islam. Forget Chavez – he’s an idiot, waiting either for him to declare that he’s now an atheist (like his brother-in-arms Castro), or him converting to islam.
The future of the average “American” (and the future of the average person on this Earth) is the present world’s average peasant, a thorough mix of present-day Iran China and Sudan.
IF the conservatives become a permanent minority here; and that’s what this administration intends to gradually accomplish, at least at present.
BTW, all commenting in PJM seem fixated on BHO; the guy is a nitwit. The real power in DC are some of the “czars.” They have designed and run this administration. Among them, first in rank is the atheist Jew Cass Sunstein, the intellectual descendant of the other two evil atheist Jews, K. Marx of the moronic “workers of the world unite” and “the history of the world is the history of class struggle” fame, and the ruthless, bloodthirsty pig and “strategy” genius L. Trotsky.
You’re more optimistic than I am. We will see if this can be repealed, I think all we will be able to do is tinker a bit around the edges. There can be no argument that the overall trend is more and more towards a nanny state with less personable responsibility and the resulting loss of freedom that goes hand in hand with the loss of freedom to fail. The great experiment is doomed as we go quietly into the night.
Has it occurred to anyone that the society described by Tocqueville would die out. A government sponsored hedonistic society would not want its fun interrupted by the difficult task of having and rising children. That would involve to much expense, stress and uncertainty.
It wonder if this explains Europe’s declining birthrates?
Personally, I’m headed down to the local Republican Headquarters today and volunteering for duty.
The war begins today and requires the work of many to succeed. Do your part.
I am glad to read one pundit who doesn’t hide his head in the sand.
These are commies anyway, if we don’t find a leader able to outflank them they will always be three steps ahead of us.
Commies plan wars, not politics.
We need Washington.
So, I will add that a decent amount of prayer will help (like in: “without intermission”).
Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independance, 1776
#38 eon
There is also the term draconian, which comes from the Tyrant Draco. For, one is not being redundant when one mentions draconian as well as tyrannical.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep,
his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our
own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of
their own conscience.” -C. S. Lewis.
What America has been witnessing is the work of robber barons who also happen to be moral busybodies…But we can call the current crew Statist Democrats for short.
They’re hard-wired bionic minions of some [progressive] Dr. Evil, only with an appetite for extorting trillions instead of mere billions.
They grow fat through claiming ‘To Serve man’.
Michael:
In his book “Liberal Fascism,’ Goldberg spoke of America’s “libertarian antibodies” that he suspected would kick in, should the country enter another “fascist moment.” It looks like he was right, and that a helluva allergic reaction is setting in.
Stephen Stills observed something similar:
http://www.answers.com/topic/for-what-it-s-worth-performed-by-various-artists
Where’re the US Armed Forces in this slide to a banana republic? Nevermind, of course, the brass – it’s all under BHO’s and Gate’s influence; but what about that oath to “uphold the Constitution” which comes before that to “obey the CiC” by the rest of the rank and file?
Oh, I know, the retirement and health insurance benefits.
The left’s clever trap always works:
Obstruct all reasonable responses to the normal challenges in the life of a nation, until an emergency requires use of extraordinary power –think ‘executive order’ or ‘recess appointment’.
Then when the left rotates into power, use that precedent –but not delicately and rarely and in order to meet a national threat, but hard and fast and relentlessly –in order to advance a party ideology.
“what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is negotiable”
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=discovering_tocqueville
Last night I wrote a formal letter to President Obama informing him that, for what it’s worth, I’m hereby withdrawing my personal consent for him to govern this nation on the grounds that he knowingly is carrying out unconstitutional, intolerable acts. Along with this withdrawal of consent is the collateral statement that henceforth I consider President Barack Obama to be the centerpiece of an illegal Presidency. Therefore, any treaties or agreements with foreign countries he makes will be null and void. Any domestic actions he makes are null and void. Until this illegal President is removed, and because he is breaking federal and state laws every day he continues to act as President, the laws, likewise, apply not to the people. I pay no taxes, state nor federal. I follow no laws, state or federal. I have formed a defensive perimeter and consider myself a defender of the United States of America. This will be my last entry on the internet. I’ve canceled all social networking sites. This will be my final internet entry. Over and out.
Last night I wrote a formal letter to President Obama informing him that, for what it’s worth, I’m hereby withdrawing my personal consent for him to govern this nation on the grounds that he knowingly is carrying out unconstitutional, intolerable acts. Along with this withdrawal of consent is the collateral statement that henceforth I consider President Barack Obama to be the centerpiece of an illegal Presidency. Therefore, any treaties or agreements with foreign countries he makes will be null and void. Any domestic actions he makes are null and void. Until this illegal President is removed, and because he is breaking federal and state laws every day he continues to act as President, the laws, likewise, apply not to the people. I pay no taxes, state nor federal. I follow no laws, state or federal. I have formed a defensive perimeter around my home and consider myself a defender of the United States of America. This will be my last entry on the internet. I’ve canceled all social networking sites. This will be my final internet entry. Over and out.
They were forced to carry out a coup, a baldfaced seizure of power.
Yes, after Obama had said several times in recent years that using the reconciliation process on legislation like “healthcare” would be very wrong.
(Pelosi): “we have to pass it to find out what’s in it”
Another brilliancy of recent days from…
the would be mistress of the hive mind
“Now, being a woman won’t be a pre-existing condition.”
I agree with Mr Ledeen, and I’m heartsick for my country.
Remember the German political party that bad old Hitler became the leader of?
N.S.D.A.P.
The English translation is of the—
National
Socialist
Democratic (or, maybe Deutsch = German?)
Arbeit = Workers
Party
Just saying. Our current crop of celebrating leaders of the American Democratic Party sure do seem to me to fit the above description.
It’s a “national”, “socialistic”, putatively “democratic”, “workers” = union, “party”, nicht wahr?
To my way of understanding what they just did on Sunday with their close vote in the House is quite the same as the enabling rule that the German “parliament” passed making Adolf the supreme Fuhrer = leader.
Be honest—don’t you know, in your truthing Heart, that Obama-Pelosi-Reid, and all their ilk, would love to do what Hitler did, and become the LAST LEADER of the USA?
Ya sure, ya betcha!
Mr. Ledeen – if you’re still checking in on this one – I apreceated your references to Tocqueville and his prescience. I think the key point is that he anticipated that the hoi poloi would not be bludgeoned, but reduced. And that is exactly what has happened over the past few electoral cycles – a “drift” to left of center, disturbingly apparent in the second term of GWB. I had expected this Adminstration to step up the pressure towards the Euro-Socialist model.
As you say, what we got was not supposed to happen: to go quietly, like Canada after Trudeau. That is why a lot of the conservative pundritry is milling a-round confused and disoriented. “Doesn’t he realize….”? “Could he really be a Socialist?”
The “audacity” of Axelrod’s strategy was for these deeply committed radical socialists to go for broke, to scam, jam and ram a hard left agenda through to law before the electorate woke up. No reducing.
No quiet segue. We’re being bludgeoned.
There were two smart calculations in this approach: take advantage of the Conservative tradition of avoiding criticism of your political opponents character; and blind-side them: knock them off balance with the force and venom of your attack. This has been obvious in Obama’s unrelenting, micro-focussed effort to get his socialized-medicine foot-hold into law, with no comprises or intention to honor his pledges. Dictatorship is their intention.
Their audacity, and their impatience, and their euphoria in their power, will lead to strong, possibly violent, resistance, but the right needs to get off its “nonjudgmental” ass and not go quietly into that dark night of tyranny.
i’m here stu. thanks for your thoughtful note.
Michael, I wish you were right. But Americans of 2010 are not like the Americans of 1776. Those Americans were innured to hardship, accustomed to providing for themselves, truely independent in spirit. They grew up under no social safety net to soften and subvert them. What is more they were accustomed to fightimng, with arms, for their survival; and would use those arms against an oppressor whose base was three thousand miles and three months sail across the ocean.
We will see how this plays out now. But I don’t see any smoke in the streets nor any broken glass.
Most people on the Left will never be convinced of the arguments talked about here. Why? Because their brains are NOT designed for freedom of thought and action.
They have no means to appreciate it. Their values are not the same because their minds are not the same.
The only answer is to divide the country. We are the most itinerant people in the world. We can make this happen.
And it may be the last hope for the survival of western thought.
To Hyphenated American: I say bravo to all you’ve said here. I was born here and love my country. We need a LOT more Americans to wake up and stand with the rest of us who love our country. I admire your patriotism and wish I could give even a little bit of it to the unconcerned Americans “out there”. I believe that they will be the first ones crying in their beer when it’s too late for all of us.
“Hey, stay off my lawn!”
We must have the courage to say enough to the government’s encroachments. Stop! This is mine. I’ll do what I think is best for me and my family. In other words, “Hey, stay off my lawn!”. The Tea Parties and other acts of defiance and protest have shown that we are not ready to allow our Noble Experiment to “quietly go into the night”.
I am not a defeatist but I think america is lost.
if this (what ever it is because it isn’t health care) isn’t repealed and I have doubts that it will. this combined with the staggering debt (which is still being grown) will put the USA into a debt crisis greater that the one Greece is going to see.
the cap and trade bullsh!t is still looming and the military is being gutted.
where is there a light at the end of the tunnel ?
welcome to africa … Zimbabwe was one if not the richest countries in africa when it got it’s first marxist president. (what you thought I was going to say black president …racist !)
Micheal what can be done ? how does one fight this ? …it seems like what Iran is going through. The government disregards the people. do we need across the board strikes by business owners? they are the John Galt’s. Are they going to swim against this tide until they drown?
commander: the legal remedies exist, and we all know them. first, throw the bums out 8 months from now. second, support states’ rights against the attempt to expand the feds’ power (which is what the ‘reform’ is all about). third, preach the constitution (read Seth Lipsky’s great book). fourth, read Pajamas Media and watch PJTV…stay informed.
“Britain is being dumped. France is being dumped. Germany is being dumped.”
All that shows is that even Obama can get something right. US out of NATO now! The EUropeans can take care of themselves. The EU has openly proclaimed itself a counter weight (i.e., always in opposition) to the US. The US should not have been entangled in EU civil wars of the 20th century. Year after year, most subjects of the EU wanted and voted for Communism. When we oppose tyranny, they betray us at every turn. They are a dying people. Let them pass. The next war will be fought to destroy EUrope: home of anti-semitism, fascism, nazism, socialism and communism.
True. The 16,500 IRS Obama Stasi may well be the tipping point. The more equal than others farm animals should be a little more subtle in their creeping totalitarianism. This turns up the heat too fast and us frogs know we are being boiled. Tea Party on, boys and grrls.
RE: 75
“The Tea Parties and other acts of defiance and protest have shown that we are not ready to allow our Noble Experiment to “quietly go into the night”.”
The pendulum swings left, then right, then left. The problem is that overall the center point is inexorably moving left. We removed the freedom not to plan for ones retirement out of compassion for the grasshopper at the expense of the ant. Social security is now ingrained and will never go away. Likewise the “right” to buy a house which gave us the Community Reinvestment Act, the current financial crises, and huge obligations to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Those problems haven’t been addressed and are still with us. Now the “right” to healthcare. Whatever we do to undo Obamacare the fact that Americans being responsible for their own healthcare, or lack of, is gone and we will never get it back. It was in fact taken away a long time ago when we decided we would deny care to no one regardless of ability to pay. The current mess is just a vain attempt to curb the costs of that “turn nobody away” philosophy. Now add the fact that Americans are continuously living longer so Social Security outlays will continue to grow. Healthcare costs will continue to increase because we are constantly coming up with new drugs and medical procedures which in turn add to our longer life spans. Of course it’s all unsustainable and at sometime it will stop because there will be no money and there will be no one willing to lend us the money. It will stop but the populace accustomed to being taken care of will protest. Violently. Interesting times are coming; at 51 I will probably see them. Since I will be rather elderly when this does blow up I may find myself hanging from a tree from the mobs. Have a nice day.
#79 Michael Ledeen
What I fear is that we will always be three steps behind the subversives’ tactics: thanks to their organization and their money they can stage big “October surprises” every single time that there is going to be an election.
It’s easy for people who control unions, acorn (whatever its new name will be), etc. to plant provocateurs in the tea party’s rallies (I think we just saw one last Saturday at the Capitol Hill)…OR WORSE…
The steel (in fact: stalin , the steel man) will of the subversives must be matched by an opposition that has the same strong will …
We need strategists…
Oh, but you better stop talking all this nonsense Michael Ledeen! You’re starting to sound like one of those raving lunatic Tea Partiers that Ron Rosenbaum has been trying to warn us about!! You should just go to sleep and let your Progressive Socialists show you what’s best for you!!
Interesting times are coming; at 51 I will probably see them. Since I will be rather elderly when this does blow up I may find myself hanging from a tree from the mobs.
Why do I say this?
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGM5Yzk4OWFjZWQyNjlkNjIwODMzYmY4MjA4YTc1Yzk=
The Biggest Rip-Off
“According to the Financial Report of the United States Government (check the table called “Nation by the Numbers” on page xiii), we have over $45.8 trillion of unfunded liabilities coming our way, on top of a current deficit (total assets of the United States minus liabilities) of $11.4 trillion.”
“And who will pay for this? Young people, of course. If we do not reform entitlement spending as soon as possible, we will shortly embark on the most massive transfer of wealth from the relatively young and poor to the relatively old and rich in U.S. history (for a visual go here).”
The young are not going to like this and most revolutions come from the young.
To point out where we are headed just look at the old maxim that states “As California goes, so goes the country”.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzZhOTljMGM5NWRhYzY5OGM5ZGRiZjBhNDU4ZDZmYTk=
Iraqi Bonds Now on Par with California
Michael, I think that American people did not vote for Obama’s narcissistic personality, rather they were voted for his rhetoric that garnished with honeyed words and smooth.
I hope that Americans “in the next presidential election” will vote for the American Right-Wing, those who have NEVER absolve the evil regimes of evil intent, while your current administration (The American Socialist Administration), in U.S. foreign policy has been done nothing except a policy of pandering and appeasement and supporting Islamic states!!!
Obama’s Socialist Administration, surprisingly does NOT interesting in supporting the alliances of democracies or supporting of freedom revolutions. But shamefully it just interesting in a policy of appeasement and subservience and the bowing to tyrants and despots, in addition to the practice of the silly authoritarian system on Americans those who strongly and every single day advocate and defend the real American values and principles as a “SUPERPOWER”, which indeed has became threatened by Obamamism’s Autocratic System?!
You should expose this!!!
Jassem Othman, Syrian, Poland.
I have always wondered why the German people allowed Hitler to gain the power that he did. I am told that the common man loved Hitler. Until he started killing them. If one man or woman had eradicated Adolph, millions of lives would have saved.
The point is this. Why would a free people allow any type of tyranny to form, whether soft or otherwise? My perspective is that Barack Obama has decided to overthrow this Constitutional Republic and that he has, in effect, declared war on the people of this nation. He is now mocking and baiting the public like a spoiled adolescent, trying to provoke a fight. Cold fury lies just beneath the surface of Obama and I believe that he will certainly use force against our people. Unless
he is stopped. These are perilous times for the Republic and dangerous times for dissenting citizens.
Hello,Fantastic article dude! i am just Tired of using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Have you thought to be putting video to this blog to keep the visitors more interested?I think it works.Kind regards, Anthony Utzig
I made sure my stock and barrel were at rest and on solid form….I squeeeeeezed the trigger waiting for the snap of the firing pin…As I anticipated, the bullet hit its mark. At 200 yrds my 17 calb was bitchin. but then my thoughts wandered to the possibility of this target being of the category of those who impeded on ones freedom….I fear that soon this will be the scenario in America. I believe in freedom….and as Jessee James and the gang robbed from the people..So it is today with our government..
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