“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party candidate for president
Thomas said that in a 1948 interview during one of his six presidential campaigns. Perhaps he had a crystal ball.
Like Hitler and Stalin before him, Barack Obama recognizes the value of a legion of glassy eyed propaganized drones following his every order. Except for all of the government takeover action currently going on (i.e., the virtual nationalization of General Motors), and the desire to take away our guns, and the desire to suppress free speech (i.e., the resurrection in some form of the Fairness Doctrine), and a slew of other quasi-fascist-totalitarian actions and measures, I am not prepared to compare Barack Obama to genocidal dictators.
After all, Obama hasn't started a program of genocide that we're aware of. Neither Hitler nor Stalin were natives of the nations they ruled and ruined (Germany and Russia, respectively). Hitler was Austrian. Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia. Barack Obama was born in Kenya, as admitted to by a Kenyan diplomat Peter Ogaga. But no, I'm not saying that Barack Obama is exactly like Hitler or Stalin. Only in a few very important ways.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating that stuff about glassy-eyed drones mindlessly following orders from Obama, consider these excerpts: Obama "walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere," George Clooney gushed to Charlie Rose.... "I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make [Obama’s] pathway clear,” Halle Berry recently told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I’ll do whatever he says.” (Does Michelle know about this?).... Last summer, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford wrote that "Many spiritually advanced people I know … identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who … can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet." (Source)
Lest you still think I'm a totally insane rightwing paranoid lunatic, read the following from the The Dartmouth, the student newspaper at Dartmouth College and the campus’s only daily. It's the oldest college paper in the US and is completely student-run and independent of Dartmouth College. I've added my own emphasis to this excerpt, from a column in The Dartmouth in late February, 2008:
Mr. Obama’s program — soon to be dubbed “ObamaCorps” — would essentially obligate economically disadvantaged students to serve America in return for $4,000 each year. His costly proposal, however, welcomes all non-graduated U.S. citizens who study full-time, not only the financially insecure. Therefore, relatively wealthy students could — offsetting tuition costs — effectively use ObamaCorps resources to finance the ultimate spring break. Countless undergraduates would spend the tuition credit not on education but on scuba diving in the Java Sea. Those less intrigued by tsunamis, volcanoes and spawning billfish might bank the $16,000 over the course of four years. Full Column at The Dartmouth...
The Dartmouth also noted this (again, emphasis added):
For unspecified reasons, Obama has not yet announced how many hours per week participants might serve. For the typical Dartmouth student, finding time would be tough. “We will definitely use our education to contribute to the future of America. Why should the U.S. government force students to serve?” one ‘08 female asked when I raised the issue of compulsory service. “Even Bosnia doesn’t do that anymore…do they?” she continued. While ObamaCorps would not mandate military service, the program’s philosophical foundation appears to disregard infamous American individualism.
Of course it does. In fact, it seeks to destroy it. Individualism threatens any dictator - or wannabe dictators. The masses thinking for themselves? Can't have that, it's dangerous. The Dartmouth ended their column with the question, "Are we ready for pseudo-compulsory service?"
Gene Healy comments on that nicely today (31 March 2009) at NetRightNation:
But America’s very existence repudiates the idea that we’re hard-wired for leader-worship. We became a nation by throwing off a king, and our Founders gave us a Constitution that’s based on the notion that all men are flawed and none should be trusted with too much power. Americans, of all people, should recognize how bizarre and dangerous it is to fawn over professional politicians. Full post...
Healy writes a good piece but I think he misses a hard reality of modern America. In 1776, the people were not yet brainwashed by mass media political advertising, constantly barraged by a Left-leaning mass media, and were more rugged in both their lifestyles and outlook. Tens of thousands of Americans, loyal to the British king, fled to Canada rather than fight. Thousands more, who hated the king, also fled to Canada for similar reasons of self preservation.
The fact is that today, in a nation that fawns over amateur singers on shows such as "American Idol," millions have no problem transferring their willingness to fawn from entertainment figures to professional politicians. Since television, professional politicians have, in many cases, become entertainers. Even so, Healy's point is well taken, for not all American Idol fans are willing to follow an Obama off the cliff. Too many, however, are.
So, no, we're not all "ready for pseudo-compulsory service," and this raises an interesting question: Will ObamaCorps allow conscientious objectors to be exempted from service?
In the matter of a military draft, the matter of conscientious objection is easily understood: The objector has a religious or moral problem with killing, even in the defense of his nation, children and neighbors. The objector believes that killing is wrong in any circumstance. That's easy to understand, even if you don't agree with it. However, on what moral grounds could one "conscientiously" object to in the case of ObamaCorps?
The answer to that is the same answer that somebody in Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia should have given - before it was too late.
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