The Police State that is America
The many recent
calls for further regulation of financial markets and institutions in
the United States are but one manifestation of the left's infatuation
with the idea that humans and their society are perfectible if only
enough rules and regulations are put in place to control their
actions. They also mark one more step on the road to totalitarianism
in the U.S. We have been told many times in recent months that it is
necessary to place further restrictions, on what is already a market
over-burdened with Federal regulations, in order to “ensure that
this [the current financial crisis] never happens again.”
President Obama has not only called for more regulation of the U.S.
financial markets, but, also, seems to agree that some sort of
international oversight of those markets is necessary. Given that
the Federal government has apparently won the propaganda war over who
is responsible for the recent “meltdown” of financial structures
around the world –- it was unregulated bankers and financiers who
brought the calamity upon us – it is virtually a certainty that
more onerous restrictions will be placed upon the evildoers in order
to prevent them from causing such damage again: all to the cheers of
a poorly educated and informed populace.
The apparent
success of the Obama regime's drive to further control the nation's
banking and financial infrastructure is another step on the road to
making the United States a police state. As the Federal government
moves to place caps on the remuneration of those who work in the
banking and finance fields all Americans lose yet more of their
freedom – the majority simply haven't yet recognized that fact.
Given President Obama's recent speeches in which he declares that the
banks which were bailed out by the Federal government are not loaning
enough money to businesses and consumers it will probably not be long
before policies will be put in place which will define how much money
banks and other financial institutions must loan to various classes
of customers; likely, whether or not they would ordinarily qualify
for those loans. Despite the President's many disclaimers that he
doesn't want the Federal government involved in the day-to-day
management of such areas of the economy as the auto industry and Wall
Street his actions say otherwise. Given his recent calls for banks
to return to the good old days of loaning money willy-nilly it is
obvious that he has not learned anything from the lessons of the
current economic troubles – indeed, he wants to force banks back
into the very practices which helped get us into this fix in the
first place. Each time the Federal government puts in place more
regulations, every time a Federal or state prosecutor decides to
bring criminal charges against bankers and financiers for actions
that were not crimes when they were made, every time Federal and
state prosecutors are allowed to conflate civil law infractions with
criminal actions (as is often the case with so-called “conspiracies”
whose members are brought to trial) the United States takes another
step on the road to becoming a police state.
One of the signs
that one is living in a police state is an increased unwillingness on
the part of most citizens to say or do anything which might be
construed as opposing the State. The State seeks to attain this goal
in several ways. It starts by introducing young people to the vision
of the State as a benevolent entity –- one which is concerned only
with providing citizens with the best possible life; at the low, low
cost of sacrificing a few civil liberties which don't matter all that
much anyway. For those who have already passed through the State's
education system the mass media (which are always required to obtain
licenses from the State in order to operate) are enlisted in the
propaganda effort. This is particularly true when socialist programs
and policies are being discussed There is an increase in the number
of puff pieces published or aired which seek to portray the
leadership of the State as wise, enlightened individuals who desire
nothing more than to make the citizenry happy, well-fed, and willing
to join the leadership in bettering the nation internally and
strengthening it against all external and internal enemies. During
the period of Nazi rule in Germany this mode of operation was known
as “working toward the Fuhrer.” Citizens are encouraged to
inform the State's police agencies of any “unusual” activities on
the part of their neighbors. Everyone, young and old, is encouraged
to be alert for anything which might threaten “national security.”
The police are increasingly used to monitor the political actions
and speech of the citizens: various types of “thought crime” are
defined and viewed as, in many cases, more serious than plain,
old-fashioned crimes such as assault and larceny. In an effort to
make certain that everyone is made aware of the many threats facing
the State and thus the Nation, and the people arrests are made and
trials held. Many times the information that leads to the arrests is
provided by informants –- often in the pay of the State –- to the
State's increasingly politicized and militarized police agencies.
This serves to reassure the mass of citizens that the State is ever
on guard to keep them safe, while also introducing an element of
doubt about what constitutes a crime, as many of the alleged plots
never get any further than discussing or “planning” some alleged
outrage against the State. (Check out the books The Tyranny of
Good Intentions and Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization
of Almost Everything , both available through Amazon for more
details than I can go into here). The fact that, in many cases, no
overt actions need to be taken in order to commit a crime causes many
citizens to cease even talking about perceived shortcomings of the
government and its leadership. This results in the State being able
to declare that the vast majority of its citizens are happy and
content with the policies of the government –- which is very
convenient whenever someone does actually complain.
The United
States is rapidly approaching this state of affairs. Much of the
mass media is dedicated to feeding the populace intellectual pablum.
Look around at the magazines and newspapers which line the check-out
lanes at supermarkets. It is unusual for any of these publications
to print anything of a political nature and when they do the articles
are almost invariably rehashed “talking points” in favor of
whatever new program the current regime is touting as a way to cure
some perceived societal ill. The airwaves, with the exception of
so-called “conservative talk radio”, are likewise almost devoid
of serious discussions of political issues – the shouting matches
of such programs as the “O'Reilly Factor” cannot be considered to
be reasoned discourse. In most cases even those media outlets which
purport to oppose the proposed action by the State are themselves
pushing for some increase in the power of the Federal government:
it's only that the power will be exercised in a different manner or
in an alternative area of life.
The current
debate over health care “reform” is but one example of this
phenomenon. The Democratic proposal is to place some Federal
bureaucracy in control of all aspects of health care. They would
mandate that everyone purchase health insurance –- whether it makes
sense in the individual case or not. The insurance policies will
have to meet certain government-defined criteria in order to be
considered legal. The current Federally-controlled health care
system –- Medicare -– will be required to scale back the services
it will pay for (to the detriment of those participating in the plan)
in order to partially pay for the new program. What is left of the
free market in medical services will be killed and buried beneath
tons of new Federal regulations and guidelines.
The Republicans,
rather than pushing for reducing the role of the Federal government
in health care, also want to increase its power in this area. Rather
than the Democrats' “public option” (State-subsidized health
insurance) the Republicans wish to put in place something called
“co-ops”. Though no one really knows how they would operate the
safe bet is that they will be another way of increasing the Federal
government's involvement in health care. One can work one's way down
the list of Republicans' objections to the Democrats' proposal and
find similar things. All the Republicans' substitutions still result
in the growth of the power, size, and intrusiveness of the Federal
behemoth: they do not act to reduce the influence of the Federal
government in this field.
In like manner,
one can go through the list of issues confronting this country and
see much the same thing. Democrats want to use the power of the
Federal government to legalize “gay marriage”, while Republicans
seek to use the same power to forbid them. Democrats want to use
Federal power to not only allow women the right to an abortion -–
they wish to force medical service providers to perform the
procedures no matter the feelings and beliefs of the workers.
Republicans want to use the power of the central government to ban
abortions altogether. The list goes on and one is hard-pressed to
find an issue on which one side or the other wants to reduce Federal
power in the area under discussion, let alone act to eliminate that
power entirely. Through all of this the Constitution is more and
more viewed as an antiquated obstacle to enabling the growth of
Federal power. No longer do the vast majority of our U.S.
Representatives, Senators, and members of the Executive branch take
their oaths to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution”
seriously.
As time goes on
the power of Leviathan waxes and fewer citizens move to oppose the
growth. Even now there are few areas in life that are not subject to
some form of Federal regulation. As the State's intrusiveness has
grown so has its police powers: necessary in order to ensure
compliance with its wishes. The United States is effectively a
police state; it's just that in most cases we call our police
“bureaucrats” or administrative law judges in order to disguise
their true function and make their intrusions more palatable to the
masses. Until now they have remained largely non-violent in the
exercise of their vast powers. We cannot count on that to continue
and only the foolish wish to see that power increased. What is left
of free political discourse in this nation is rapidly disappearing.
If the Democrats get their way and the FCC once again imposes the
so-called “Fairness Doctrine” the presence of voices opposing the
growth of totalitarianism on the airwaves in this country will be
mostly silenced. In the meantime those who dispute the need for, or
the legality of, the continued growth of the monstrosity that our
Federal government has become are labeled as miscreants who represent
a small minority of the populace and who are motivated by racist
hatred of the new President's policy initiatives. It is anyone's
guess how much longer these voices of dissent will be tolerated by
the Obama administration or, for that matter, any administration
which replaces it. The State's power continues to grow and most
Americans ignore the threat it poses so long as they can keep up with
who gets kicked off the island next.