Thomas Sowell on Socialist or Fascist

I missed this excellent article by Thomas Sowell at the American Thinker entitled Socialist or Fascist? on June 12, 2012. I have been seeing and hearing more of this kind of talk of late. If it does nothing else, it vindicates my own instincts that Obama is a socialist functioning as a fascist. It also is gratifying that someone with a far larger reach than your humble correspondent is informing the American people that they have elected a Fascist to office, with the implication that he better be voted right back out.

My first warning about Obama came in November 2008 with a book report on Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism. There have been several since. But Sowell's piece is perhaps clearer for having had the last four years to consider. Thomas Sowell:

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector.

Just so. That is the distinction I have made as well between a Socialist and a Fascist.  The fact that Fascist want to leave business in private hands, but to call the shots led to the term "Thugocracy."  I have likened this administration as being like a Mafia boss who comes into a restaurant, takes a look around, and says to the owner "Hey, Bub, you got a new silent partner, me."  What can the owner do but acquiesce.  If he refuses, he knows he will be shot.

But of course, it is more than just the economy. He wants control of everything. Obama, and his minions in the Administration believe that we the people are virtual children who don't really know what is good for us, and so he and his regulators must decide these things for us.  Why? Well let's look at Jonah Goldberg's definition of Fascism from the book:

“Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the ‘problem’ and therefore defined as the enemy.”

See, that is why they can't simply limit themselves to educating you. Right now, Michelle Obama is "educating" the nation on the "right" things to eat. But the American people just won't listen. They keep eating all the "wrong" foods. Soon, she will bring out the iron fist to regulate you, and if you still refuse to eat your vegetables, well..."ve haf vays..." It's for your own good, don't you see?

In a similar vein, the Administration is in conflict with religious liberty in general, and the Catholic church in particular because Catholics insist on maintaining their principles in the face of the HHS regulation that says every institution (except now places of actual worship) must offer contraceptives and abortificients.  But Catholics have Universities, Hospitals, and parochial schools, as well as offering help with addictions and other social services.  I imagine they look at these institutions as "worship" too, as would be Biblically correct.  Indeed, all work is looked upon by Christians as "worship," so that having our worship defined in any way by the State is a violation of our First Amendment rights to begin with.  Never mind that we be forced to be parties to murder. 

In fairness, this has been going on, little by little, for close to 100 years. Starting with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution ratified in 1913, and continuing with a blizzard of "good governance" laws from local zoning ordinances to Federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act, and through Supreme Court decisions such as Kelo, we have been losing our property rights, and with them our freedoms and liberties. New York City's law limiting salt consumption and its proposal on soft drinks are just the latest and most bizarre. But these have come about because once private property that happened to be used for the benefit of the owner by serving the public has now become de facto "public property."  In some communities, it is illegal to cut a tree on your own property without the permission of some little tyrant...er...government official.  You are now just a share cropper on the Master's land. And if the Master doesn't want you to do something on that land, like say, build your house he will sic his regulators on you.

Sowell, again:

The self-flattery of the vision of the left also gives its true believers a huge ego stake in that vision, which means that mere facts are unlikely to make them reconsider, regardless of what evidence piles up against the vision of the left, and regardless of its disastrous consequences.

The point? Since Sowell is too polite to say it, I will. You can not compromise with these people. You can not appease them. Give them half a loaf, and they will bite off your hand. They can not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power, because even if what they want is not wanted by the majority of Americans, they will find a way, legal or illegal, to jam it down our throats. You can not even concede that they may have a point.  The Left sees itself as the elite, destined by whatever they call a god to rule. They play for keeps. We should too.