It Can Happen Here

So this is how fascism came to America.

It came in the form of a young, idealistic politician. A handsome fellow and a brilliant orator, he is a man set on fire by the ideals of altruism, collectivism and statism and who has the ability to pass the fire in his soul on to others. Unlike other politicians -- notably Bill Clinton -- who signal their cynicism, Barack Obama absolutely, without any doubt, believes in his purpose. He is a politician and something more -- a missionary, a prophet, a Moses ready to lead us to the promised land. He is a man imbued with moral certainty.

He is a somewhat odd man, one who is hard to define and pin down. He has described himself at times as a "rorshack test" and a "blank screen." He has been called a flake:

Barack Obama is a flake, and the American people have begun to see it. The chief characteristic of a flake is that he makes choices that are impossible to either understand or explain. These are not the errors of the poor dope who can't grasp the essentials of a situation, or the neurotic who ruins things out of compulsion, or the man suffering chronic bad luck.

The flake has a genius for discovering solutions at perfect right angles to the ordinary world. It's as if he's the product of a totally different evolutionary chain, in a universe where the laws are slightly but distinctly at variance to ours. When given a choice between left and right, the flake goes up -- if not through the 8^th dimension. And although there's plenty of rationalization, there's never a logical reason for any of it. After awhile, people stop asking.

...

Back at school, Obama got himself named editor of the Harvard Law Review. This is a signal achievement, no question about it. The kind of thing that would be mentioned about a person for the rest of his life, as has been the case with Obama. But then... he writes nothing for the journal.

Now, let's get this straight: here we have one of the leading university law journals in the country, one widely cited and read. Entire careers in legal analysis and scholarship have been founded on appearances in the Review, including some that have led to the highest courts in the country. Yet here's an individual who, as editor, could easily place his own work in the journal -- standard practice, nothing at all wrong with it. But he fails to do so. And the explanation? There's none that I've heard. We can go even farther than that, to say that there is no explanation that makes the least rational sense. 

We follow Obama down to Springfield, where as a state legislator, he voted "present" over 120 times. What this means, as far as I've been able to discover, is that he voted "present" nearly as much as he voted "yes" or "no".

...

We turn eagerly to learn what his term in the U.S. Senate will reveal, only to be disappointed. But it's not surprising, really. After all, he was only there for 143 days.

Or he is like Woody Allen's Zelig, a cipher who fits in and reflects any reality about him. If he is a fascist, it is because his party is fascist, our ideals are fascist, the spirit of our time is fascist.

Fascism is the form of socialism in which the means of production are nominally left in the hands of private ownership, whereas the ends of production are dictated by the state. In America the dictation is called "regulation." By regulating business politicians are able to achieve their statist ends while maintaining a pretense that America is still a free country. When their intervention causes a crisis, politicians blame the crisis on greedy businessmen and use it to justify further intervention in the economy.

Every assumption underlying the economic proposals in Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight is fascist. He lacks any glimmer of understanding of freedom and assumes the state has the right to dictate any terms to business.

For example, Obama criticizes McCain because, "he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars." By what right does the state tell automakers what their fuel efficiency must be? Don't businessmen have property rights? Don't our politicians understand that a free country does not violate rights, even if it means having inefficient fuel standards? These questions are never asked in contemporary, fascist America.

Obama's ignorance of economics is so complete, so unquestioned and so impenetrable that this man has no understanding that his ideals will not work and will destroy freedom in America.

Fascism did not come to America the way it does in Hollywood. It was not brought by an evil mastermind. It was not brought by a greedy white industrialist intent on abusing the common man.

Fascism was brought to America by a Peter Keating, a social metaphysician who earnestly believes the bromides of our culture and lives by the ideals of altruism, collectivism and statism because they are all he has heard. He is a man who simply thinks he is giving America what it wants.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.

Obama's speech is titled "The American Promise." It is about America's ideal. And what exactly is this ideal?

...that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.

No, it is not the promise of the Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness" -- that would be a selfish, individualist promise. To Obama the American promise is collectivism: our destiny is inextricably linked and our dreams can be one. This is the promised end of a President Obama's change. Americans will stop being selfish and will sacrifice to the collective.

It won't be easy, but Michelle Obama has already warned us of that. "Barack Obama," she said, "will require you to work." Nobody gets out of this deal. We're all in this together.

All my life I have wondered if America really could sink into the abyss of dictatorship as Europe did in the mid-20th century. Intellectually I have know it could happen as we have lost freedom after freedom to "regulation." Tonight in Obama's acceptance speech fascism in America was made concretely real as it never was before. Now I am convinced it can happen here.