Posted on 06/26/2010 5:51:04 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WHEN Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.
Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.
"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.
In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.
The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.
Where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.
And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.
But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."
If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion- or $50 billion or $100 billion - then so be it.
But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law."
Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.
With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.
If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in constitutional government. And, without constitutional government, freedom cannot endure.
There will always be a "crisis"- which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" as an opportunity to expand the government's power.
That power will, of course, not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.
At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people."
That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people - indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.
If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.
The man appointed by President Obama to dispense BP's money as the administration sees fit, to whomever it sees fit, is only the latest in a long line of presidentially appointed "czars" controlling different parts of the economy, without even having to be confirmed by the Senate, as Cabinet members are.
Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power - versus the rule of law and the preservation of freedom - are the "useful idiots" of our time.
But useful to whom?
Precisely. And history is repeating itself.
Ping!
Good article.
Put differently, a democracy needs ARMED informed citizens
if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive
With vastly expanded powers of government available
at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats,
ARMED private individuals and organizations can NEVER be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.
Now wait a minute....The MSM has label this articles as hate - comparing Obama to Hitler!
Shame on you! ;)
What Good Can a Handgun Do Against an Army.....?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2312894/posts
gnip
Ping!
Then, Germans had other places to escape to that held onto liberty and freedom. We don’t, at least not for long.
It just shows how small their liberal cocoon really is. Anyone who does not follow Thomas Sowell should have the good grace to shut up about politics, because they're not going to know what they're talking about. |
If we don't tar & feather (censure) them they will czar & fetter us.
Will they wait until it's too late? Can they stop or nullify the Dims' planned Lame Duck terrorism?
If there are enough of them and are organized. Yup - guerrilla actions throughout the country can be very effective, as someone posted some days (weeks?) ago, but to deteriorate to such a Postman (Costner film) level of semi-primitive disorganization would be nice to avoid. One can only hope that some military (patriotic) minds are thinking along the same lines.
They are true believers that the ends justify the means. BP needs to pay and Obama is making them pay. Pay no attention to the Constitution. The law means whatever Obama says it means now. It's sickening.
That’s a good article. I’ve seen it a couple of times, but just now read it. Thanks for the link....
ping
When asked if he is getting any help from BP, this shrimper says “5,000 dollars a month, but when I was working, I was making that in a couple of days.” 18:30 into the interview. Fisherman in Grand Bayou, Louisian
Saturday, June 19. http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/06/19/OIL/A/34631/CSPAN+Video+of+Native+American+Fisherman+in+Grand+Bayou+Louisiana.aspx
Just one look at the guy and I’m screaming ‘Yeah sure pall’ Five thousand a month and it just aint good enough.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
It has been most enlightening to watch supposedly knowledgeable reporters -- guys like Jake Tapper -- demonstrate that they had no idea who Thomas Sowell is. In their zeal to find fault with anything that Sarah Palin does (such as recommending this article), they acted as if Thomas Sowell is some unknown whack job.