A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship.Some counsel us that this is hyperbole, and such rhetoric is not helpful. It makes "us" look wacko.
I disagree. The way to make it more difficult for unmasked tyranny to become pervasive is to sound warnings when it's approaching the perimeter. All the structures are already in place. All that's needed is an event of sufficient magnitude.
Dismiss this as tinfoil hat black helicopters all you want. Point and laugh. Hell, invoke Godwin's Law if you like--even though national socialism is staring us all in the face.
Something I wrote a while back about the "insurrectionary theory" of the Second Amendment comes to mind:
Something I wrote a while back about the "insurrectionary theory" of the Second Amendment comes to mind:
And to those who feel this is too dangerous, that it is uncalled for, that it is unneeded because we have the vote, or the right to speak, that we have evolved beyond such crude reminders of our barbaric past, I must ask where in history is any civilization guaranteed stasis? Has not despotism and mass destruction plagued every civilization that preceded ours? Is it not, in fact, still commonplace throughout the globe? By what suspension of reality, by what denial of the observable and the probable, by what art, device or magic are we sheltered few immune from catastrophe? Are we certain, from our brief and privi
And to those who feel this is too dangerous, that it is uncalled for, that it is unneeded because we have the vote, or the right to speak, that we have evolved beyond such crude reminders of our barbaric past, I must ask where in history is any civilization guaranteed stasis? Has not despotism and mass destruction plagued every civilization that preceded ours? Is it not, in fact, still commonplace throughout the globe? By what suspension of reality, by what denial of the observable and the probable, by what art, device or magic are we sheltered few immune from catastrophe? Are we certain, from our brief and privileged vantage point, that such things will ever remain headline curiosities? Is it not just plain stupid to proclaim that our familiar way of life will forever be the norm, when everything that has gone before us shows we are, instead, the extremely lucky beneficiaries of a rare and fortunate convergence of circumstances; and one, by the way, that has only been preserved under force of arms?But what do I know, paranoid absolutist "principles freak" that I am...?
[Via David H and Tommy S]