Thursday, October 22, 2009

United Socialist America (USA)?


I don't like being an alarmist. When I was growing up I heard the stories from my dad, uncles, and grandfather about how they served their country and I felt the need to do the same and did serve my country. I attended college at a government funded service academy. The government (taxpayers) paid for my education and flight ratings. I have owed a lot to the US government and paid a lot. It's for that reason I feel the need to speak out against the direction we're headed. I remember Dwight Eisenhower as a father-figure President, lived through the Kennedy assassinations, watched Lyndon Johnson age in office as my peers died in Vietnam, experienced Watergate, received a 19% home loan under Carter, was laid off during Reagan's early years, anguished over the Gulf Wars under the Bush presidencies, and was embarrassed by Clinton. So I've seen some stuff. But I have to say, today, under Obama, I'm truly frightened, which is something I never felt before. That's why I do this blog. Below, I have provided just a portion of Laura Hollis' most recent blog. I recommend you read the entire blog post.


From Laura Hollis' blog at Townhall.com:

. . . Time was, those accused of communist sympathies would deny it. Today’s Marxists brazenly say, “Yes, we can!” Perhaps too much time has passed since the last leftist barbarian starved, imprisoned, or slaughtered millions of his own people in the fruitless pursuit of utopia. Perhaps Obama & Co. are allowed to get away with this because our Pravda press views Obamunism as a “kinder, gentler” sort of communism than that responsible for the deaths of 100 million people in the past 90 years or so. Or perhaps people cannot believe that a fatherless boy from a difficult background, a man willing to reveal all in heartfelt autobiographies, a gifted speaker inspiring such admiration – could possibly pose a threat to the freest nation in the world.

This is foolhardy. The people Obama has handpicked to advise him share his willful ignorance of human nature and his arrogant sense of moral superiority. Those two traits, more so than any others, power the “ends justify the means” ethos that has been behind some of the bloodiest excesses in human history. And that same history is filled with examples where oppression was accompanied by inspiring tales of hardships overcome, ghost-written autobiographies, soaring rhetoric, and a population willing to enshrine the Leader as a godlike figure.

And ultimately, it isn’t – or rather, it shouldn’t be – about Barack Obama the individual. He may be the kindest man one could hope to meet. But the drafters of our Constitution understood something fundamental: that the best protection against oppression lies in a government with limits, not the benevolent personality of whoever happens to be in office at the time. Throwing away our liberty hand over fist because Obama seems like a basically decent guy is precisely what the Founding Fathers warned against. (And for the record, I personally place no confidence in a man who views our Constitution as “flawed,” precisely because it limits his power.)

There were few who remarked with astonishment at a President whose inaugural address was themed around “remaking America.” But millions wondered in breathless anticipation what this “remade” America would look like. Just look at Obama’s role models, and the role models of his appointees and political supporters, and you’ll know. Obama’s remade America would look like Cuba. North Korea. The former Soviet Union. Venezuela. Cambodia. Myanmar. China.

“Communism” is a term that may be outdated. Fine. Whatever you choose to call it – totalitarianism, authoritarianism, liberalism, progressivism, statism, libertarian paternalism – it is the same mindset. Like a virus, the change of name is just a mutation of the same ideas that threaten to destroy the body politic.

1 comment:

Mike West said...

This much I know. God is in control. For that reason, I am not frightened. But I am concerned about the ignorance and passiveness of average Americans. I will continue to do what I can do. Vote my conscious, contact my legislators and persuade others to seek the truth. I believe there is enough resistance to outlast this administration and I believe their actions will backfire on them....eventually.