I thought at the time that this was remarkably simplistic...and terribly wrong. Fascist economics do not require a dictator. They don't even require a Deemocrat; Richard M. Nixon was a leading proponent of fascist economics, too.
In America today, we don't have A dictator...we have a thousand dictators...a thousand points of blight on our Republic.
A thousand demi-dictators are VASTLY more dangerous to our Republic than would be a single one. They become the embodiment of "LIBERAL FASCISM".
Who are they? They are not hard to identify. Some of them are odious, and some seemingly benign. A few of them are popularly elected, as we see in the 111th Congress...but only a few of them. Most are beyond the power of the people to remove from their positions of power.
And their power is hardly uniform. Some of them are TERRIBLY powerful...far beyond most people's appreciation. Some have only very limited power. But, taken together, they have power that approaches the absolute. And we know what absolute power does vis-a-vis corruption, don't we?
They are the judges who tell us an amendment to our state constitution passed by popular vote is "unconstitutional".
They are the DoJ attorneys and other Federal and state apparatchiks who decide they will NOT enforce our laws. Or who abuse their power to deliberately styme both state and Federal law.
They are the commissioners and staff of a baffling number of Federal bureaucracies who EXCEED or do not exceed the power of their agencies according to law, and who promulgate rules and regulations that DICTATE how we live. For a contemporary example of the EXCEED kind, think "FCC". But think also of the EPA and a baker's dozen others.
Milton and Rose Friedman, two of the greatest Americans and thinkers of our time, wrote The Tyranny Of The Status Quo about three decades ago. In it, they described "the iron triangle"...a combine of interests that would always and automatically act to brunt change at the Federal level.
One corner of that iron triangle was and is the bureaucracy...a nameless, faceless agglomeration of people who wield enormous and virtually irresponsible power. Hans A. von Spakovsky has pointed out that these people are generally Collectivists (he did not use that term), and this is one ESSENTIALLY important reason that conservatives will tend to be disappointed by the people they elect to office. Those ELECTED officials virtually CANNOT alter the stampede, except to slow it (as in Ronald Reagan).
For several decades, I have been unable to sing the National Anthem. I cannot answer the penultimate question about "the land of the free, and the home of the brave" without weeping. Our national government is dominated by a thousand little dictators, and we have allowed that.
Am I pessimistic about that continuing? No, ever the cock-eyed optimist...who insists on dealing with reality...I simply know it to be true NOW. I have reason...via the TEA Party movement...to be more optimistic than I could have been just a year or two ago. People can change what elected politicians cannot.
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Your optimism is rooted in history and reality. The doom and gloom, woe are we, we are sooooo screwed crowd need only look at the history of this nation to renew hope for its future. People who have tasted freedom will never give it up. EVER! This strategy of dismantling freedoms piece by piece works only until people realize what is happening - and they now are. I have no doubt FCC's attempt to control free speech - as well as EPA's attempt at imposing a carbon crimes agenda will be aggressively challenged and defeated as unconstitutional abuse of authority.
ReplyDeleteWhen the dust has settled, and the nation is on to its next challenge - this will be remembered as a place where the constitution was affirmed, and the nation strengthened. Believe it! Work for it! Bank on it!
BUT...
ReplyDeleteSowell, Steyn, Derbyshire, etc...