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Capitol dome picture, Donor list compromised, Foundations of liberty, How Government got so bad, How Many Scandals are there in Washington, How the Scandals got so bad, Is President Obama Out of Control, NSA Spying, Obama being persecuted, Tax Records Released, Where left and right comes from
People like to separate the world into left and right,, A philosophical mish-mash that tries to differentiate between political beliefs based on the two sides of the French Revolution. The truth is their is but one line upon which all political beliefs rest. That is the line that runs from absolute dictatorship on one end to absolute anarchy on the other. In the middle of the two extremes lies ordered liberty and the Rule of Law; cornerstones of American and British conservatism.
Foundational to the American experiment was the idea that in order to insure liberty, government and its powers must be limited n size and scope. The wisdom of this belief has been on full display lately in Washington. The slippage of America towards tyranny is now unmistakable to all but the most naive. The revelations of government maleficence and uncontrolled spying are coming in rapid succession. It seems no part of people’s lives has escaped the prying eyes of a government and no activity its unwelcome interference.
Except for those for whom ignorance is a way of life, the evidence is overwhelming. Targeting of conservative groups by the IRS for extra scrutiny and even audits, selective enforcement by the EPA and the disgraceful leaking of confidential records of conservatives has taken place. Open intimidation for political gain has been used against industry as well. The Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary going to insurance companies that she she regulates and controls to suggest contributions might be in order. Then there is the spying, the limits of which are still far from known.
AP, CBS and Fox News has had their reporters followed, there phones tapped and data compromised. The National Security Administration (NSA, an organization whose mandate is to protect against foreign threats) has been monitoring communications between Americans. Beyond just seeing who is contacting who, this is a program that harvest data of all kinds without warrant. Phone calls, emails, private social media, pictures and texts have all been open game for a government that thinks the constitution no longer applies. Nothing outside of China or North Korea compares to the extent of internal spying the U.S. government has done.
No part of American lives has been spared and no where are they safe from those sworn to protect them. Enter an airport or even a sporting event and Homeland Security can take your laptop or smartphone data for no other reason then they dislike the way you look. Go to the Doctor’s office and the intimate details of your life might end up in some bureaucrats hands; so far the medical records for over 60 million Americans have been confiscated by the IRS.
If one asks how things have gotten so out of control the answer is not far. American’s stood silent as, under the guise of a War on Drugs, people’s homes were raided based on nothing more than anonymous tips. They turned their backs when people were swept up and held without charge in the War on Terror. The fact is from zero tolerance confiscations to increasing muzzling of religious speech Americans have been standing by and watching liberty wain for some time. It should not be surprising that when faced with silence, those desecrating the constitution would only seek to expand their abuses even more. Those who fail to protect the liberty of the few endanger the liberty of all.
How much damage the present revelations are doing to President Obama is unknown but it is considerable. The combined weight of these scandals along with the lies told about Benghazi have created an atmosphere of mistrust that is well earned. If trust and confidence are the life’s blood of leadership then President Obama must be facing political death. He has lost the confidence of most Americans and squandered the trust people had in him. Even the New York Times, the Presidents perennial apologist, has finally declared that Obama has lost all credibility. It is all but certain that if this had come out a year earlier the country would be being led by Mitt Romney. The question now is at what point does a president’s loss of credibility become so severe that continuation in office becomes an exercise in futility. The answer may still be unknown but maybe not for long.
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I disagree that on the one hand you have totalitarianism and on the other hand you have anarchy. Many socialists believe in anarchy – as contradictory as that may sound. Anarchy always leads to totalitarianism and anarchy is rarely proceeded by true freedom. Anarchy is usually the result of a repressive government losing control – t does not willing give up control.
Dictatorships are inherently more stable than the absolute liberty of anarchy and I agree the latter inevitably leads to the former (for the same reason a formal Democracy does). The undeniable desire of humanity for order, predictability and safety (not to mention control and power) means the course of radical liberty is short lived. That does not negate the line of political thought going from one extreme to the other. Each belief system promotes differing levels of personal liberty and fits somewhere between the extremes of absolute control and no control at all. It is just that some belief systems are based on experience and correspond with reality and others do not. Consequently the position some beliefs hold on the line is theoretical at best. As you point out, anarchy is historically linked to political collapse (and frontiers for whom no government control exist) and the liberty gained in such situations is quickly lost to whoever is strong enough to take it.
As far as the intertwining of some socialist and anarchist is concerned (OWS had plenty of that), I see it as little more than a pair of fools comparing fantasies. Since neither has any experience upon which to build their utopias it is easy for them to imagine how the two beliefs could be rectified into a single delusional fantasy.