The masks are indeed being torn off right and left — well, mostly Left. Brace yourself for the chilling shock of seeing the liberal media being honest and forthright at long last:

The interview was nearly over. on the Fox News Channel last Wednesday evening, Sean Hannity was coming to the end of a segment with Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, the chair of the House Republican Conference and a vociferous foe of President Obama’s nearly $1 trillion stimulus bill. How, Pence had asked rhetorically, was $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts going to put people back to work in Indiana? How would $20 million for “fish passage barriers” (a provision to pay for the removal of barriers in rivers and streams so that fish could migrate freely) help create jobs? Hannity could not have agreed more. “It is..the European Socialist Act of 2009,” the host said, signing off. “We’re counting on you to stop it. Thank you, congressman.”

There it was, just before the commercial: the S word, a favorite among conservatives since John McCain began using it during the presidential campaign. (Remember Joe the Plumber? Sadly, so do we.) But it seems strangely beside the point.

Maybe to you. To those of us who still believe strongly in the absolute necessity of restoring America That Was, it IS the point, always was, and will always remain so.

If we fail to acknowledge the reality of the growing role of government in the economy, insisting instead on fighting 21st-century wars with 20th-century terms and tactics, then we are doomed to a fractious and unedifying debate.

Also economic stagnation, loss of prosperity, and loss of freedom. But hey, avoiding a “fractious and unedifying debate” is what really matters.

The architect of this new era of big government? History has a sense of humor, for the man who laid the foundations for the world Obama now rules is George W. Bush, who moved to bail out the financial sector last autumn with $700 billion.

A flat-out lie. The problem was exacerbated by Bush, who is anything but conservative, sure. But the foundations were actually laid by the liberal media, who have long misrepresented Democrats as anything but what they are: socialists, opposed by definition to everything America is supposed to stand for.

They have also, as part of their decades-old project of remaking America into EUroLite, misrepresented liberal RINOs like Bush as “conservative” — just as these particular propagandists do in the quoted article — even labeling them as “right-wing extremists” when it suits their purposes. They have incrementally shifted the debate in this country ever leftward, to the point now that the only argument they will take seriously — or present as anything other than simple lunacy — is that between Left and further Left.

It rankles quite a bit to be lectured on how there’s just no use in debating whether this country should more slavishly emulate the failed Eurostates…by the very people who have worked so hard, and so dishonestly, to limit the terms of the debate to their preferred parameters.

They have stolen our country from us, using classic Gramscian/Alinskyite tactics. They have helped the Democrats drive us like cattle right up to the edge of the socialist cliff, by providing cover for them as they intentionally wrecked our nominally free-market economy with bonehead policies that they knew would never work the way they disingenuously said they would. And they now openly advocate even more of the same, and are trying to ram the rest of the Big Takeover through the legislative process without debate or even serious reflection, using as a rationale the fear and insecurity created by a manufactured “crisis” that is in no way addressed by the measures they’re pimping.

Our socialist masters plan to continue this evil, long-term project to its ruinous completion. They are even now attempting to panic the herd into mindless stampede, in order to plunge us irretrievably into the collectivist abyss. There can no longer be any question of their intent, or of the seriousness of the situation we now face — nor of the disastrous consequences to American liberty should they further succeed.

And by helping to steal the ‘08 election for their empty-suit Messiah, liberal-media hubris is now so monumental that they actually dare to tell freedom-loving Americans that we may just as well sit back and not argue the point anymore, because essentially, they have us right where they want us. The title of this piece is “We are all socialists now” — but they always were. And some of us never, ever will be. Another bit of hubris hurled right into our teeth by these lying dirtbags.

You guys loading mags and sharpening bayonets yet? Because I no longer have any doubt: they have stolen our country. We will not get it back, except by force. War is coming, a war none of us wants, but will no longer be able to avoid because of our masters’ towering, implacable arrogance, their obstinate security in the belief that they know how to run our lives and organize our society better than we the people do, and their delight at having finally seized enough power to see it all through.

Gird your loins. We will no doubt continue fighting a rear-guard action via all legal means at our disposal for some time yet, given the distasteful and horrific nature of the last real alternative; perhaps open admissions like this one will prove premature, and will suffice to stir the majority of Americans from their peaceful slumber at last.

But I wouldn’t bet the rent on it. And none of us should be laboring under any illusions: these deceivers, these would-be tyrants, won’t stop until…well, until they’re stopped. By any means necessary.

(Via AP)