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History Unfolding
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have
written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages,
and I have studied history all my life. I have
come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not
believe
it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage
crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single
facets on a very
large gemstone that is only now coming into a
sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening.
I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like,
and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm
may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country
that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen
years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement
that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay
back?
Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve,
which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion
dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the
past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms.
That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is
three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this
past
September. Who has this money? Why do they have
it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized
it?
I thought this was a government of "we the people,"
who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy.. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools,
ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents,
why we are exceptional, and why we are worth
preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read,
or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers
are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting
every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is
so
controversial that it simply wants marriage to
remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such
a thing
possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted
our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws
that radically
change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist
groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic.
To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing
prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system
is on
the verge of collapse, social security is nearly
bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system
is worse
than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely
what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth,
and depth..
It is potentially 1929 x ten...And we are
at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of
the same religion,
who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats
of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And finally, we have elected a man that no one
really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen,
let alone
a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska .. All of his
associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields
of employment,
and everything we learn about him, drip by drip,
is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about
his idea
to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense
force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of
course.
The media would never play that for you over
and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter
and
$150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together,
something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment,
Obama will divide us along philosophical lines,
push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different
power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you
will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning..
As a serious student of history, I thought I would
never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt
in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior"
was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom
the
average German knew next to nothing. What they
should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted,
shoved, and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory.
Conservative "losers" read it right now.
And there were the promises. Economic times were
tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled
and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even
newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would
bully
and beat them into submission. Which they did
- regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled
economic
crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression.
Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by
person,
department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy.
The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a
Youth Movement in his name where they were taught
exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,
How did he get people on his side? He did it by
promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for
the
military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating
the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages,
better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride
once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did
it with a
compliant media - did you know that? And he did
this all in the name of justice and .... . ... change. And the people surely
got
what they voted for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
So read your history books. Many people of conscience
objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at,
and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed
out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in
England
(he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed
into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And
the
world came to regret that he was not listened
to.
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated,
the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums,
hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And
yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of
the U. S. presidency)
it was rounding up its own citizens, killing
others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors
against neighbors..
All with the best of intentions, of course. The
road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to
emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective
pieces
of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe
with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across
the chasm
of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by
closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring
around me..
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some
people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or
both.
To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never
been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and
why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.
Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next
elections.
David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island
United States
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Kaiser is a respected
historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics,
from European Warfare to American League Baseball.
Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three
capital cities: Washington D.C. , Albany , New
York , and Dakar , Senegal .. He attended Harvard University , graduating
there
in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent
several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained
in 1976.
He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.
He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department
of the United States Naval War College. He has previously taught at
Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard
University . Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy
assassination,
was just published by Harvard University Press.
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