Mr. Obama won a second term in the White House. As in the past, the country split in two, with the left and right coasts voting Democratic and the middle voting Republican.
The election is clear proof that takers now outnumber the makers, just as New York City tenants outnumber landlords. California voters passed a ballot measure which imposes a "temporary" tax increase just as New York City tenants voted for a "temporary" rent control system three generations ago.
This situation of a majority of voters demanding benefits from the public treasury was predicted shortly after America was founded. Henry Randall sent a copy of his Life of Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Macaulay, a British author and Member of Parliament. Part of Lord Macaulay's reply of May 23, 1857, was printed in American Heritage, February 1974, p 104:
Dear Sir,
... I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilization, or both. In Europe, where the population is dense, the effect of such institutions would be almost instantaneous.
What happened lately in France is an example. In 1848 [after the French revolution that finally ended the Orleans monarchy - ed] a pure democracy was established there. During a short time there was reason to expect a general spoliation, a national bankruptcy, a new partition of the soil, a maximum of prices, a ruinous load of taxation laid on the rich for the purpose of supporting the poor in idleness.
Such a system would, in twenty years, have made France as poor and barbarous as the France of the Carloviangians. Happily, the danger was averted; and now there is a despotism [under Napoleon III - ed], a silent tribune, an enslaved press. Liberty is gone, but civilization has been saved. [emphasis added]
Lord Macaulay pointed out that all of the formerly downtrodden French poor wanted immediate access to the good life the moment the aristocracy was overthrown. The resulting welfare system and taxes to support it destroyed industry in France. The economic situation became so bad that Napoleon III was able to take supreme power, just as economic unpleasantness in Germany after World War II made it possible for Hitler to assume supreme power.
In Lord Macaulay's view, basing welfare and its necessary taxation on democratic impulses would eventually destroy society. He would regard the European and OWS riots as a sign that collapse is nigh. As Peter Pan put it, "This has all happened before and it will all happen again."
Nobody believes that people ought to be left to starve in the streets, but the devil is in the details. Our system creates three classes of people:
The widespread perception that the welfare system is loaded with cheats was illustrated during a Republican Presidential Debate:
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a doctor, was asked a hypothetical question by CNN host Wolf Blitzer about how society should respond if a healthy 30-year-old man who decided against buying health insurance suddenly goes into a coma and requires intensive care for six months. Paul--a fierce limited-government advocate-- said it shouldn't be the government's responsibility. "That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks," Paul said and was drowned out by audience applause as he added, "this whole idea that you have to prepare to take care of everybody …"
"Are you saying that society should just let him die?" Blitzer pressed Paul. And that's when the audience got involved.
Several loud cheers of "yeah!" followed by laughter could be heard in the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in response to Blitzer's question. [emphasis added]
The mainstream media reacted in glee at this confirmation of what they've always believed about those callous, bloodthirsty Rethuglicans.
As asked today, the welfare question has become, "How high do we have to raise taxes to get enough money to give the poor whatever it costs to persuade them to re-elect Democrats?" Anybody who objects to paying higher and higher taxes is callous, heartless, or worse as far as the mainstream media are concerned.
The health care question has become, "How do we find the money to pay for whatever health care procedure any doctor or any pressure group decides any person ought to have?" This isn't possible because there's no limit to how much medical care any society can consume; there's always one more test, one more drug, or one more day on total life-support.
The corporate question is, "how much do we have to spend to create environmentally-sensible green jobs?"
It doesn't matter how anyone asks any of these questions or any other questions. As Lord Macaulay predicted, the election boiled down to the 47% who feed off the government. This includes corporate plutocrats and politicians such as Al Gore who've made millions through government-backed "investments."
Mr. Obama projected an aura of caring about people like the Obamaphone lady who vote for more and more benefits from the public treasury. As the Federal reserve continues to pay off Mr. Obama's supporters by printing more and more money, we're heading for inflation such as no American has seen before.
What will happen when the few remaining workers decide it isn't worthwhile for them to spend their lives working only to have all their work taxed away? If the goods aren't produced, they can't be given away regardless of government policy.
What does Chinese history have to teach America that Joe Biden doesn't know?
Will's description of the "obamaphone" woman as a lady is generous at best so label me as insensitive. My mother taught to treat all women as ladies until they proved different. I think her actions are obvious.
Aside from that Will suggests that we as a country are doomed with democracy being the killer. He is right of course, history has the slain carcasses of democracies scattered all over its landscape. The question is what can one do to protect oneself? Firearms? Not really, while you can protect yourself against one intruder you can't hold off an army so that answer is idealistic at best. Buy gold? Not really. You can buy it in hopes of staving off how inflation will affect your standard of living but when push comes to shove the government will take it away from you. You might be lucky and receive money for your gold but it will be worthless dollars. How about leaving the country for say New Zealand or a Pacific island? New Zealand is as bad or worse than the situation here in the States and do you really think that it will be unaffected by America's demise? If you are on that island pirates will find you and what are you going to do with that gold on an island anyway. Gold is a delaying tactic dispite what the gold gurus tell you. Have you ever thought about going to the grocery store and buying bread, meat and milk with gold? How easy is that going to be? If you don't have a medium of exchange our way of life can't exist.
So what are we to do? The only possible solution is politically with a huge groundswell of grassroots voters taking over. How do you do it? It will not be at the national level. We must start at the local city level and take over city hall, spread to the county, then the state and finally to congress and the presidency. We have not demonstrated as voters to have a long term diciplined approach to anything so what I am proposing is very unlikely but is the only way that I can see to a return to a republic. RIP America.