Liberal fascism doesn’t stomp, it slithers
Michael Ledeen knows the score too:
The economics of the current expansion of state power in America are, as I said, “fascist,” but the politics are not. We are not witnessing “American Fascism on the march.” Fascism was a war ideology and grew out of the terrible slaughter of the First World War. Fascism hailed the men who fought and prevailed on the battlefield, and wrapped itself in the well-established rhetoric of European nationalism, which does not exist in America and never has. Our liberties are indeed threatened, but by a tyranny of a very different sort.
Most of us imagine the transformation of a free society to a tyrannical state in Hollywood terms, as a melodramatic act of violence like a military coup or an armed insurrection. Tocqueville knows better. He foresees a slow death of freedom. The power of the centralized government will gradually expand, meddling in every area of our lives until, like a lobster in a slowly heated pot, we are cooked without ever realizing what has happened. The ultimate horror of Tocqueville’s vision is that we will welcome it, and even convince ourselves that we control it.
There is no single dramatic event in Tocqueville’s scenario, no storming of the Bastille, no assault on the Winter Palace, no March on Rome, no Kristallnacht. We are to be immobilized, Gulliver-like, by myriad rules and regulations, annoying little restrictions that become more and more binding until they eventually paralyze us.
Think about that next time you strap on your government-mandated seatbelt and drive your CAFE-compliant hybrid wuss-mobile past a row of no-smoking bars, restaurants, and public spaces.
- Entries
No thing is forever.
Here in Mo., the head of MODOT, the state road people, felt compelled to sound off in the press last week about the necessity of changing the seat belt law to allow the cops to stop a motorist for that reason only, rather than having to make up some other excuse for stopping them.
This is the guy in charge of filling POTHOLES in the state, but because he works for the Government, he feels it's within his sphere to tell me whether or not I should wear a seatbelt (I do).
Freakin nannystatist busybodies, never happy unless they're telling someone else what to do.
I am no expert on the service industry,but I am willing to bet that a good deal of profit for restaurants come from the sale of alcohol. Bye bye bars...I sometimes go to an establishment in my city which is often packed on a Saturday night. Now I ask, how exactly is the staff supposed to limit 200+ patrons to 1 drink per hour? What about liability if a patron is arrested for DUI? I know for sure I can be intoxicated well beyond the legal limit for driving BEFORE I even set foot in a bar, and nobody would even have a clue.
Does this mean I am liable for people I invite to my home for drinks? If the liability for my intoxication belongs to someone else, does this mean I am not responsible for my condition? If so, how can I be charged with DUI? My being over served affected my judgement, causing me to break the law.
Can I sue the car company for manufacturing a product that can be used to kill or maim people? If I drink myself into losing my job and poverty, can I sue the beer company for manufacturing a product that causes broken lives, huge medical problems, crime, and even death? Where does it end?