Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I Am Afraid of My Government


By Alan Caruba

I came into this world when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President and I have never been afraid of my government until now.

I am not alone. A consistent and growing theme of commentaries on the conservative news sites and blogs that I read every day is the fear of the Obama administration that has been cracking down on those who criticize it. They get audited by the IRS. They are refused the same status as non-profit entitles engaging in public education as Left-leaning organizations. They are accused of being racists, homophobes, anti-immigration, and anti-women.

This goes beyond the ordinary disagreements between individuals and groups that express opposition to the Obama administration. It has the look of a deliberate campaign and we have three more years of Obama as President in which to endure it.

In a speech to the leftist nonprofit Center for American Progress, Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-BY) recently urged the IRS to “redouble” its intimidation tactics against the Tea Party. He represents a State whose governor recently said that conservatives were not welcome to live and do business. Its largest city, New York, just elected a Marxist as its mayor.

Jim Lakely, the director of communications of The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank that has led the effort to debunk the global warming hoax, recently posted a commentary, “The Unceasing Political Thuggery of Obama’s Gangster Government.” He noted Michael Barone’s description of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

Lakely cited the growing list of actions taken against who have expressed criticism. It includes Dinesh D’Souza who produced a documentary about Obama’s life, “Obama’s America” and who arrested on felony charges for violating campaign finance law. “This is beyond absurd—especially in light of what the FBI and IRS have found not worthy of any investigation, let alone indictment” in the past. A Hollywood group of conservatives, the only one there, received an IRS demand for its complete donor list; this is a repeat of similar demands of Tea Party groups seeking non-profit status. James O’Keefe whose Project Veritas exposed the nonprofit status of the leftist ACORN is being audited as was Frank VanderSloot, a big Republican donor as was conservative journalist Wayne Allen Root—twice. The list keeps growing.

The Heartland Institute was subjected to the stealing of its confidential budget and planning documents by global warming activist Peter Gleick “for the purpose of harassing” its donors, but no action has been taken against him by law enforcement authorities.

“Never in the history of this country have we seen such a broad and coordinated abuse of the government’s power to threaten criminal prosecution and ruin the lives and livelihoods of people the President and his party see as political ‘enemies’”, says Lakely.

“This should be the political scandal of the century—if only we had an honorable and competent MSM (mainstream media) press corps in this country.”

Ordinary Americans have cause to share my fear as they discover the wreckage that Obamacare is inflicting on our healthcare system, losing their insurance plans, and now we are hearing that the insurance industry may have to be bailed out as it is subjected to major losses. The government’s website is not only a disaster, but it subjects anyone using it to the threat of identity theft as experts testify it can be hacked with ease.

The economy of a nation with enormous energy reserves, enough to make us energy sufficient for decades, is being undermined by a deliberate campaign to shut down coal-fired plants and make the construction of new ones impossible. The Keystone XL pipeline from Canada has been delayed for five years despite the jobs it represents and access to oil at the same time the government has slowed the provision of leases to oil companies seeking to explore and extract our own reserves.

And millions of Americans are out of work or have ceased looking for work as the result of the worst economic “recovery” in the history of the nation. This is occurring at a time when the Obama administration has added $6 trillion to the nation’s debt, causing a leading credit agency to downgrade the nation’s credit rating for the first time in its history.

The scandals attributed to the Obama administration keep mounting from “Fast and Furious” that transmitted weapons to Mexican drug cartels, to the failure to provide security to our Libyan consulate despite many requests, leading to the Benghazi killing of a U.S. ambassador and three brave security personnel who went to his aid. The list keeps growing.

There is ample reason for Americans to fear their government these days and the mood of the nation is growing worse as they realize that they have a President who lies all the time and pursues “climate change” policies that have no basis in known science and a campaign of class war based on “income inequality” as the incomes of Middle Class Americans have suffered a decline. The solution to income inequality has always been an increase in the national economy.

The nation’s military is being undermined by budget cuts and policies that encourage open homosexual participation and the introduction of women into its combat forces. A growing list of generals and admirals have been forced to retire.

It has taken only five years to bring the nation to this point and none of the scandals has resulted in anyone in the Obama administration being held accountable.

They have good reason. When they can no longer depend on the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other elements of the government to act lawfully, this nation—a nation of laws—we are all in jeopardy.

For these and other reasons I and many Americans are growing fearful. We have good reason.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

11 comments:

Eddy Burke said...

A country has the leaders it deserves. How low a general culture must have fallen to elect such a person not once, but TWICE!

TexasFred said...

It's utterly amazing what can be accomplished when you promise the *ghetto rats* a free cell phone...

Gerry Rzeppa said...

Eddy Burke says, "A country has the leaders it deserves. How low a general culture must have fallen to elect such a person not once, but TWICE!"

I fully agree. Like people, like priest. The problem isn't with the leaders; it's with those who elect and even admire them. So the question, once again, is how do we reach the population at large; how do we convince the selfish, the uneducated, and the lazy that being altruistic, smart, and productive is a better way to go?

MrGarabaldi said...

I also fear our government, the pursuit of its political foes are becoming legendary worthy in the annals of the neighboring banana republic. I wonder how much longer this will continue before people no longer have faith in the system and working within the system and their reaction grows physical.

Ronbo said...


Blogger Eddy Burke said...

"A country has the leaders it deserves. How low a general culture must have fallen to elect such a person not once, but TWICE!"

A sizable minority of Americans didn't vote in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012 - In 2008, the other choice RINO
John McCain; in 2012, the other choice was RINO ROMNEY.

The wisdom of the American People is that on the leadership level of the Republican and Democrat Parties both are members of Progressive Party, which is either fascist or communist; thus millions of patriots stayed at home on election day because they felt that voting for the lesser of the two evils is still voting for evil.

In 2010 the Tea Party Republicans captured over 700 local, state and levels in one of the biggest electoral defeats ever suffered by the Democrat Party.

What happened? No RINO Republicans were on the ballot.

Therefore, the United States of America does not have the leadership it deserves, but it does have in control of many local, state and federal offices a cabal of collectivists who seem hell bent on massive oppression of the majority of American who are not going to walk the last mile to totalitarianism.

Nudge...Shove...next is SHOOT.

sdkar said...

I too am afraid as I have never been. I may never have agreed with some presidents and other government leaders, but I always believed they, in their hearts, loved this country, and was doing what they believed would make it a better place. That even though I disagreed with their ideaology, the thought of our country failing and America citizens suffering was horrific for them.


But obama, I feel he hates this country. He does not believe in America's exceptionalism, that he has never been proud of it, and that capitalism must be destroyed and our society rebuilt with the tenets of socialism and communism. I believe obama wants America to crash and burn, so he can make the radical changes his idealogy needs in order to take over. And that obama will do whatever it takes to bring about these changes.

obama has more in common with hitler than most will care to admit. That people who speak out against him are to be considerd enemies, and dealt with accordingly.

I enjoy World War II history, and I used to wonder how an advanced society has Germany was at the time, full of good people, could turn so evil. That how could someone like hitler gain the power he did, essentially declare himself "king" of Germany, and kill millions, and do so in such a very short time period. Well, now I know.

When hitler came to power, he promised hope and change. He was a great and inspiring orator, and the nazi swastika was a symbol of greatness. It in only through the eyes of history that we now see that hitler was truly evil.

Well, I think the same about obama. If we do get to take this country back, obama will go down as the communist, racist, muslim loving, tyrannical seeking president ever. We today are reliving a very close scenario to that of the German people in the 1930's.

One of the greatest curses was the saying..."May you live in interesting times". Well, things certainly are interesting. I am afraid for my country, and I am genuinely afraid of my govt. That one day soon, speaking out, or posting on a blog, may one day be a recipe for punishment. That my health care may be decided based on how I vote. That I may be one day labelled a terrorist and sent to a re-education camp.

1984 seemed like a fiction that could never really happen. Today, it seems like a real possibility.

Dave's Daily Day Dream said...

Alan, your posts are increasingly frightening. As some have said her, the only way to get our country back is to have informed voters. One way is to watch Michael Anthony Peroutka's latest you tube video on what to ask a candidate. You can go see it at,
http://www.theamericanview.com/questions-to-ask-a-candidate/

It is comforting in that it finally gives us concrete things we can to to help.

Ronbo said...

@Dave:

Don't you understand that nothing will be changed by the election of 2014 even if the Tea Party Republicans become the majority in the House and Senate?

Obama is already de facto dictator of the United States and will overrule anything Congress does that's against his agenda by way of Presidential Orders.

The Republic is dead and can only be rebuilt by revolutionary means.

Alan Caruba said...

@Ron. I cannot speak for Dave, but for myself, I disagree. He is already a lame duck.

Dave's Daily Day Dream said...

Shooting would be a ridiculous waste of your life Ron.
We are not there yet.
The Republic is grievously wounded and maybe terminal, but not yet ready to be buried. The panacea for us continues to reside in the hearts of many citizens. I still believe in grassroots action, maybe even secession, but not violence. The police and military are armed in a far more deadly way than we could ever hope to be. Even as 2d amendment fervor sweeps the nation.
I have often wished that "shoot" was a viable option, but it is still immoral and impossible. But times and men change.

Unknown said...

I do not know why I fear the Government.

I feel like the Government has been portrayed in our life,in a very negative and scary way.
And sprinkled with Positive things that are supposed to matter.

And they Do. To someone. ?
But, so everyone that has something to care about, has something positive to say,
And everybody else has to
be fed negativity.
Because of some past thing(s). ?

But for those that see the Government as a Good entity,
they must be very secure in life;
with no problems. or something.
???

And everyone else has to Fear something about the Government.

Is this True???

I don't get it.

Gov'ts are blamed for things all over the World, and Here,
Sometimes things are needed to be done? regardless of someones' opinion.. ? Is that where my brain is at?

So then are we just having to have faith
that the Gov't is not what everyone says it is.

That they'll kill you if you talk bad about them.
Or that they'll make you disappear, if you have any questions, or are even from the "wrong race".

So either the Gov't is evil,
or is it really GOOD. I honestly want to know.
Because I fear the Gov't and have no reason to.
Also , for the police in my area.
And I don't know why.
Most times they are nice people,
But we're taught to Fear them.

Maybe if we quit fearing police and quit giving them a negative image for so long,
"Bad" kids might not have wanted to
grow up to be "Bad Cops". ?

I don't know. But why all the fear. ? :(