The percentage of lawyers in government supporting Obama is stunning if not surprising. Read the entire article. The problem is not necessarily that Obama supporters are any more evil than let's say Romney supporting lawyers, it's that they consist of the entire Executive branch of the Federal government. If there were say a 50/50 mix between Obama supporters and non-Obama supporters the Obama supporters would not feel that they had absolute moral authority (derived from the fact that everyone around them thinks exactly as they do) to act as they did/do in the IRS scandal, nor would they feel they could get away with it as easily if they tried. Checks and balances.
The problem, as NRO says is
...With certain limitations understood (we don’t know the affiliations of non-donors), the chart above looks more like the political affiliations of Ivy League women’s-studies departments than those of an allegedly impartial federal bureaucracy.
But what if the combination of increasingly activist government with strong bureacratic bias re-creates federal service as a kind of permanent spoils system for the Left? Isn’t it inevitable that this leftist bureaucracy will eventually view itself not as a servant for all citizens but as an instrument of its own righteous ideology?
Some of you will say, "if the numbers were reversed, it would be just as bad", and yes there would be problems IF the numbers were reversed. But, conservatives, though maybe not all Republicans, are not the type of people that are drawn to a cozy safe gubmint job. They are more the risk takers/entrepreneurial types. I'm speaking in generalities of course. And those of us conservatives who are not that type appreciate what those types of people add to society. This is opposed to liberals who view entrepreneurial types with envy and hate, as evil, selfish people who must be controlled. Liberals with this type of view are the type of people that dominate the civil service to an incredibly astonishing degree. Saying that it would be bad if the numbers were reversed is an irrelevant observation. The numbers WON'T be reversed. It's the nature of the beast.
If the Civil Service is led by a Republican administration, then the 'servants' are constrained in what they think they can get away with. But, when led by a far leftist wealth redistributor who says "punish your enemies" when speaking of other Americans, then there is no constraint.
And that brings us to the problem we have today (which probably has been a problem since FDR's days, but is shoved in our faces, impossible to ignore now): in the past, the Federal government has been viewed, generally, as a necessary weight on the populace. Doing a fair job of making things right for all Americans and protecting us from foreign enemies, if at a heavy cost. But, when Americans view their government as a partisan tool rather than an unbiased burden, then the government's legitimacy is destroyed. When half the people view the government (rightly so) as an enemy of THEMSELVES IN PARTICULAR, then as our Dear Leader says "We're going to have some problems".
You're damn right you arrogant f#$k. We've got some problems. I would say the biggest crisis in government since the Civil War. For reals.
I think the people working in government have always been fairly left leaning. Why are they now deciding to use their positions in government to punish those that they disagree with in such a blatant manner? I think it has to do with the new leadership that has set a new tone of political persecution. I think that the IRS targeting was not the result of rouge bureaucrats; but instead, it came from people fairly high up in the Obama administration. Mark Steyn points out that “In August 2010, President Obama began railing publicly against “groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity” (August 9th, a speech in Texas) and “shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names” (August 21st, radio address). And whaddayaknow, that self-same month the IRS obligingly issued its first BOLO (Be On the Look-Out) for groups with harmless-sounding names, like “tea party,” “patriot,” and “constitution.”” http://www.nationalreview.com/article/350537/all-seeing-state-mark-steyn/page/0/1
ReplyDeleteWhat the IRS has done is pure thuggery and totalitarianism. Thuggery, coercion, and oppression is the only way that socialism and central economic planning—what Obama seeks to bring about--can be brought about as noted by Hayek in “The Road To Serfdom”. It can be shown that Obama disdains the rule of law and the Constitution that was set up as a way to check and balance the power that the governments has by calling it a charter of negative liberties (Chicago public radio interview). Hayek pointed out in “The Constitution of Liberty” that those that seek re distributive justice—Obama revealed that he supports this in the Chicago public radio interview and other places) are hindered by constitutions and the rule of law. Rush Limbaugh pointed out that Obama is in the process of bringing about a coup d'etat: “...there's a coup d'etat going. You know it and I know it. This is what animates us. This is why the Tea Party exists. This country was founded on certain concepts, principles, beliefs -- and they're under assault.[...]There are people attempting to take over this country and to make it something that it wasn't founded as; turn it into something that it wasn't intended to be. That is happening. You know it and I know it. It's peaceful, nonviolent.” http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/06/07/america_in_the_midst_of_a_coup_d_etat
Obama can not be honest with the American people in what he intends to do to America. He must lie and eliminate any political opposition (kicking the opposition off the ballot was how he won his first public office) through thuggery and coercion. Health care reform provides a perfect example of Obama not being honest. You can youtube what his views on this subject are in his own words and compare them with what he said to the American people when selling the health care law. It is sad that the vast majority of Americans still worship this guy and can not see what he stands for.
Your point that the perception of the government by Americans as an impartial burden on Americans is giving way to a burden that is borne in an impartial manner underscores a dramatic shift that has been taking place for awhile and one that has recently made itself known in a fairly direct way by all of these recent scandals of the IRS, the DOJ, and the NSA spying. The fact is that the nature of our government is transforming. There has been a system set up to exercise a totalitarian-type of control or a “turnkey totalitarian state”in the words of a former NSA official over the American people that has been set up largely since the war on terror has started. In the not-too-distant-future when the economic crisis hits the key will be put in and the system turned on. What the NSA is doing alone is scary. Fox News did a documentary on it and the government has the ability to know everything about you and is storing all emails, text messages, and phone calls in its new data center. For now they are not using this information against Americans, but in light of the IRS scandal do you think that it won't be used against Americans sometime in the future?
ReplyDeleteThe sad fact is that this IRS targeting of conservatives is just the beginning of what is to come and is not just big government run a muck under Obama, but it is rather a much bigger change in the nature of our government. The question is will people that believe in limited government be willing to continue to set up these organizations that promote the ideas of limited government, protest big government, donate to conservative political groups or candidates, send that text message that is critical of government, make that call to a group that stands for limited government or a group that opposes what the government is doing knowing that they will stand a chance of extra scrutiny from the IRS or the government in general? The vast majority will not be willing to sacrifice the well being and livelihood of their and their family's lives. The point is coming when you will have to be willing to go to prison, face repercussions such as getting fired from your job or maybe not getting hired for you political beliefs, and make a stand for limited government, and in the process face loosing all of your wealth. You should be preparing yourself mentally for this totalitarianism that will be combination of “1984” and “A Brave New World”. What is happening in America is nothing new and is the natural end result of a free society as made evident by a quick review of history. Tocqueville described this form of tyranny that awaits democratic nations fairly accurately: “It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch4_06.htm
Knowing that the government has all of this information on you and will use it against you will restrain you from acting making you a timid animal.
Good comments Jeff. Regarding '1984' & 'A Brave New World', I read something, I forget where, where the writer was saying something like "government control will not be forced down our throats by a brutal state, a ala '1984', but embraced voluntarily by a passive society, a la 'Brave New World', as we have embraced the internet and the easy monitoring that it gives the government, and the other liberties we give up in the name of safety". Something like that. Who of us would give up our internet? Who doubts that without very strong oversight, the 99% Democrat civil service will use the internet against its political opponents? We have security cameras everywhere, hey, they were useful in catching the Tsarnaev brothers, who doesn't support that? And we have digital communications, cell/internet, that record everything we do in the digital world. It's not that they are watching us constantly, it's that, should they choose to be interested in us, for any reason, they can easily find out whatever they need to find out.
ReplyDeleteA nation/world of sheep with Federal Bureaucrats as our shepherds. Winston Smith loved Big Brother (last sentence in 1984).
Yeah, another point you touch on, doing this exact thing is exactly how Obama has climbed the political ladder, when he got his popular Republican opponent for the Illinois Senate seat, Jack Ryan (ex-husband of 7 of 9 Jeri Ryan) to drop out of the race by having a fellow traveller in the Illinois state government expose sealed documents of their divorce. Evidently a nasty sex scandal.
ReplyDeleteObama has used this in the past, publically hints at having lackeys do this exact thing, and then asks us to trust him.
That most of the country supports him in this effort tells me it's time for a change, but I don't know how we make that change.
Wired magazine wrote an article about a year ago describing what the latest leaker( or whatever he is) exposed. I don't know why people or the world was so surprised when this information was recently revealed. The article talks about the new data center being built by the NSA and how that it is collecting a lot of information on U.S citizens and how that it has the ability to know everything about an individual. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
ReplyDelete"Sitting in a restaurant not far from NSA headquarters, the place where he spent nearly 40 years of his life, Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together. 'We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,' he says."
The article is interesting. The government may currently be using this information for good purposes, but this type of power and information will be abused in the future--and most likely is already being abused. A system to control people to an extent unknown in human history is inadvertently being set up. In the coming economic crisis it will be used to deal with the accompanying social upheavals.
Regarding "1984 and "A Brave New World" I read a similar article that you did. I read "A Brave New World" and I found the book interesting. It describes an oppressive government that exercises its control over people not through violence and brutality but through pleasures like sex and other sensual pleasures that acts as a way to stupidity and satiate people into apathy against the oppressive government.
Obama's and the left's goals and agenda can only be accomplished through thuggery, coercion, lies and deceit. The Fabian progressive socialist which are the ancestors to the modern day left revealed this in their mascot which is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Most people just can not see how that supporting poor people, providing free health care, and a big caring government can be so evil. It is counter intuitive and people just can not wrap their heads around it.
This thread is reminding me of a conversation I had recently with a woman in her 60's. I was at a bar with my wife and there was live music. The 60 year old lady said how Elvis music was banned from the state of Washington for a period of time. Nowadays, public schools are having swarms of young teenagers dance to music that is directly referring to promiscuous sex and womanizing. Our culture is devolving.
ReplyDeleteYou should read "A Brave New World" online. It is a quick easy read. http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html Then you should read "Life At The Bottom: The World View That Makes The Underclass". After reading the books you can take some soma to do away with any negative feelings the books will leave with you.
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