Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

This was originally written by Thomas Sowell, and I have reposted it here.  I think it gives a very good view of the direction that our country is headed, and if something is not done, we will soon be a fascist country, with Obama as Dictator.  

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

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When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.

Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.

And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.

But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."

If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion — or $50 billion or $100 billion — then so be it.

But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law."

Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.

With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in constitutional government.

The Rise of the American Oligarchy

Oligarchy - government by the few; a gov in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes;  a group exercising such control.

This is the definition of Oligarchy, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  I think that it adequately describes today’s Federal Government.

An oligarchy is usually thought of as controlled by business owners.  This is what happened in Russia after the demise of the Soviet Union.  Friends of the new government officials were given everything while the average person, who had depended on government hand outs all his life, was given nothing.  This basically moved the base of power from the government to business owners who were beholden to the government.

While this is technically different from what is taking place in the United states, it still follows the same basic principles.  All of the power has been put in the hands of a very small group of people, and is done under the guise of “democracy,” which of course makes the people think that they have a say in what happens.  This, of course, is an illusion.

The Federal Government will not stop spending (which the people do not want).  They have slowly centralized power over the past 100 years (which the people do not want).  They create new administrations whenever they feel like it, even though there is nothing in the Constitution that gives them this power (which the people do not want).  They dictate who will run companies (which the people do not want).  They own companies (which the people do not want).  They have completely done away with the will of the people, and now rule by the will of the ruling.  This is the definition of an oligarchy.

The states can create whatever agencies whenever they want.  The Constitution does not expressly give them consent to do this, but it does give them permission to do things that are not involved in Interstate Commerce.  This means that as long as they follow the general guidelines of the Constitution (freedom of speech, etc), they can do anything that the citizens want.

This does not mean that the States can turn themselves into a Communist-style government, a Fascist-style government, or anything else that is at odds with the Constitution.  But, neither can the Federal Government.  And this is the exact same thing as an oligarchy style government.  It is wrong regardless of what you call it.  Communist, Fascist, Totalitarian, Leninist, Marxist, Oligarchic.  They all enslave the masses, and this is exactly what your Federal Government is in the process of doing to you and your family.