But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister, but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison." - Benjamin Franklin, 1787
The Left and most of the Media are convinced that Barack Obama is "The One." No more arguments and dissent are allowed.
I read today, a news story [first link below]. It is a very telling story about the charged atmosphere in which we live. It seems that some government genius in Toledo decided to check "Joe the Plumber" for license, wants, and warrants some short time after he had asked Barack Obama an embarrassing question. Is this the kind of "transformation" that Obama and his supporters represent? Is this the kind of America we want? Are these simply the actions of an overzealous bureaucrat trying to impress his/her Boss? Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, or Franco's Spain [if you prefer] were full of these kinds of "helpful" bureaucrats. Joe Wurzelburger was just a guy in a Toledo suburb asking a question. Obama answered it with revealing honesty in an unguarded moment. Is this what happens when you complain about Obama in Ohio these days? For the state and local government to check up on this Joe seems rather like Police State kind of behavior... in of all places, Toledo Ohio! This is where I grew up, for crying out loud!
By contrast, I wonder if local California and Hollywood Police and the US Secret Service are checking up on that fellow in West Hollywood [The Drudge Report, 10/27/08] who has a vile political display in his yard? This display of "opinion" or "humor" has a Palin mannequin hanging by the neck from a house rafter and a McCain mannequin emerging from flames. But then, I digress...
It just doesn't stop does it? In a previous essay about "Joe the Plumber" and Socialism in America last week, I suggested that Socialism would destroy our country. I heard from only two critics of my last article (
So America wants Socialism, eh?) [who shall ever remain anonymous]. One called me a conservative ideologue, the other one suggested that Socialism was about as dangerous as "cold Borscht." I pondered both of these criticisms for some time. Both critics represented the "finest traditions" of Liberal argument. The first comment struck me as a personal attack, questioning the quality of my
alma mater, West Point, and challenging the integrity of my family and my story; essentially telling me that I was ignorant and perhaps even stupid. The second critic derided laughed off any suggestion that Socialism could be dangerous for America. Neither person engaged opposing ideas or original arguments. They sought only to diminish and mock. Indeed, this seems to be the primary modus operandi in Left wing argument.
I have pondered these critics' comments, the events of the last week, and the ever increasing revelations of Obama's true views. We now know about his admissions: he wants to "spread the wealth" redistribution of wealth [Thanks Joe!] and his proposals for huge tax increases and additional social welfare programs at taxpayer expense. But now, there are some taped interviews in the reporting media which suggest that Obama not only has firmly held ""redistributive" ideas, but also that he sees the US Constitution as a flawed document. No matter how Obama tries to put "rhetorical frosting" on these issues, the meaning of what he says does not change. [And, oh yes, his buddy Bill Ayers has told the GOP essentially to "get a life."] I also said in my last essay that I hoped that I had not served my military career in vain only to see the advent of American Socialism. My point is simple and natural: This is America, not some European Socialist experiment. Allow me to tell two related incidents that happened to me on a cold and drizzly day in East Berlin on October 7th, 1984.
On that blustery day in October, my soldiers and I were taking pictures of the East German National Day Parade in 1984. We were there legally under the post WWII Quadripartite Agreement that guaranteed our free movement and access thoughout East and West Berlin for members of the Occupying Powers [USA, Great Britain, France, USSR]. East Germany insistently and illegally referred to East Berlin as its Capital and would hold its National Day Parade there every year. We, American, in dress uniforms, were there to capture those sights and sounds on film and tape and so to enable the Department of State to launch the US's yearly protest. The US Government clearly understood, in 1984, that if we did not protest this parade every year, that we would lend legitimization to the Soviet claims in Eastern Europe and in particular, that of East Germany sovereignty. This would have seriously injured any future chances of German Re-unification, a stated goal of the US and NATO Allies.
As we stood on a corner on Karl Marx Allee, in order to get a commanding view of those Military, Para-Military and Party Organizations, "Trade Unions" and Military Equipment that passed by, we noticed that we were increasingly pressed on three sides this day by Communist Party thugs, obviously there to harass us. They would jostle us, elbow us hard in the rib cage, and make threatening comments. A just the right moment, as some T-72 tanks were approaching, I felt a huge shove in-between my shoulders. I was flying headlong into the street toward my imminent demise as grist for a tank tread. Just then, the strong arm of my trusty Sergeant, Sergeant First Class "G," hauled me back out of the street and out of oblivion. As I turned to confront and complain to a nearby East German Security Policeman [STASI], I noticed that he had pulled his service weapon and had pointed it at me. Again, my NCO, rescued me from the brink of disaster. Folks, at that moment, any remaining notions that I had might have that these were reasonable people vanished. We prudently began to enforce a strict "buddy system," so as to always cover each others' backs.
Later that same day, in a different part of East Berlin, in uniform and in full view, I chanced to chat with a pedestrian on the street [actually, he was an East German Communist Party member wearing a lapel pin]. He had approached me and was asking me some rather innocuous questions about my rank, and the ribbons on my uniform. All of a sudden ["A
uf einmal"... as the Germans say...] An unmarked car raced up and stopped at the corner. Two men jumped out, seized this guy, hit him on the head with a truncheon, shoved him into a car and sped off [presumably] to the Police station, or some other dungeon, where they likely interrogated him and decided what to do with him for this grave infraction of the rules. His crime? He had dared to ask me, the "enemy," a question. He had forgotten where he was, who I was, and he learned the hard way. I had read about these incidents in books, as related by dissidents and survivors of the Gulags, but there is nothing like seeing it in person.
These were very formative experiences for me in 1984, at age 35, about what happens in a Police State where free association and free speech are controlled, and Party "thuggery" is a way of life.
So... am I suggesting that Barack Obama's Presidency would transform America into another East Germany? No. I am suggesting that Americans are politically adrift. Yes. We are too subject to the demagogic whims and promises of politicians to properly safeguard our Constitution.
We must become better citizens so that this does not happen. Read the Constitution. Study American History. Read the writings of the Enlightenment political philosophers. Read what Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington wrote and said. Understand why we have a Bill of Rights. Study the platforms of our Political Parties. Barack Obama strongly implies in interviews that our Constitution is flawed and suggests we should fix it. I encourage Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the rest of their Liberal, Egalitarian, Collectivist, and Marxist friends and all the rest of us to read and heed Benjamin Franklin's closing thoughts and warnings given on the final day of Ratification of our US Constitution [full speech at link below]. Franklin stated:
"In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administered.
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument."
Dear Reader, I beg your indulgence and further encourage you to watch the YouTube video montage below about East Germany. East Germany was hailed in its day by it's Marxist admirers as the "Perfect Socialist State." East Germany, the "Perfect Socialist State" fell of its own weight in 1989. How many times must the world experience Socialism's failures, and how many times must these Socialist, "Would-be-Messiahs" repeat closing lines of Shelly's "Ozymandias" before we all get the message:
"And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my works. Ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains."
Speaking as plainly as I can to Mr. Obama and his promise of change, "Sir, I don't need, nor do I want, your promise of change and transformation."
William R. Mann
Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber
Speech of Benjamin Franklin
East German Anthem
