It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis's Prophetic Warning

"It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis is a political novel focusing around a folksy, self-conscious plain spoken Southern politician named Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip rises to power during a period of profound unrest in America, appealing to the "common man" of the American voters. At this time (in a very pre-World War II setting) the United States is facing a slew of its worst existential crises to date, and the American people, once sunny, confident, and striving, are now scared, angry, and disillusioned.

Buzz Windrip appears to be a regular guy, personable, easy to get along with, and reasonable. He claimed to want America to be whatever one wanted, the land of the free and the brave, better than all others. Guided by his secretary Lee Sarason, he cozies up to the electorate by stoking their disdain for fancy ideas and encouraging them to follow their hearts, not their minds.

When Windrip is elected, all hell breaks loose. The dissent is crushed, the Bill of Rights is gutted as he stacks the Supreme Court, blame is placed on foreigners and war is declared (on Mexico), and "rehabilitation" (labor) camps are established to help shore up Windrip's vaunted "New Freedom," which toted the beauty of American freedom and branded anyone who disagreed or even questioned the President, as anti-freedom and anti-America while quietly killing freedom.

All that's really left of the old America are the flags and patriotic songs, which for many is more than enough because they have others to blame. The blame falls on the "it can't happen here" crowd, those who have yet to realize that being American doesn't change your human nature. Americans are not inherently better than others. Whatever it is in human nature that attracts people to tyranny is in Americans like it's in anyone else. The problem is that Americans are arrogant and oblivious, and so saying they have freedom is enough that they don't believe tyranny can happen in their country, even as it is going on right in front of their eyes.

Windrip's most formidable task, convincing Americans to renounce bedrock democratic principles, was already accomplished well before he took power. The United States was ripe for a Fascist takeover, it was just waiting for its moment. Through a combination of influences-his easy bearing chief among them (along with massive cash donations from Big Business, spineless disorganization in the liberal opposition, a stuffy aloof opponent, and support from religious fanatics who felt like they've been unfairly marginalized)-he wins the presidential election (sound familiar?).

Once in, he appoints his close personal friends and political advisers to high-level positions, stocks the Supreme Court with 'surprisingly unknown lawyers' who called him by his first name, takes away most of the power of Congress under the guise of national security, allows Big Business to dictate economic policy, consolidates the media to a few rich corrupt owners, and fills newspapers with syndicated gossip from Hollywood to keep everyone distracted.

Newspapermen worry that America is moving backward to a time when anti-German politicians renamed sauerkraut "Liberty Cabbage" and "hick legislators"...set up shop as scientific experts and made the world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of true silence while silencing real scientists,'' but newspaper readers, wary of excessive negativity, stop paying attention, even when journalists who don't tow the line start disappearing.

Given the nature of "powerful and secret enemies" of America, who are always hiding infiltrated in your neighborhood, and always on the verge of "planning their last charge" to take away our freedom-an indefinite state of crisis is declared, with freedom tossed aside "until the threat passes." The President assures this is for America's own safety, and as soon as the threat is over, the freedoms will come back.

Sure, some say these methods are extreme, but enemies are around everywhere, and since everyone is permanently in danger, and plain folks are tired of wishy-washy leaders, and feel the president's decisiveness is good leadership in a time of emergency-not a Fascist takeover. Besides, as one man says, a Fascist dictatorship "couldn't happen here in America...we're a country of freemen!"

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Discover the Truth about the Republican Party

Does the Republican Party really stand for Republican Principals? What are republican principals? Find out more: http://historyofrepublicanparty.blogspot.com/

Socialized Health Care in America - Danger Ahead

By Cleve Tidwell

American health-care crisis... political watchwords used in countless situations in Washington to strike fear into the souls of man. The current healthcare system is in need of reform. Unfortunately, our left thinking friends seek a strategy for reform that cripples, rather than stimulates, the situation of the American healthcare system. By proposing a single-payer system shown over and over again as a threat to the well-being of American families, a potential obstruction to quality care, and stifling of American individualism against an ever-encroaching Federal government, the Democratic Party has succumbed to the conclusions that Europe made 40 years ago. The people of Europe were ahead with a more socialized medical system, and these countries are coming to grips with the astronomical failures of socialized medicine in their own lands.

Even as early as 1964, an aspiring Western politician named Ronald Wilson Reagan spoke out against "socialized medicine", by any other names, including, "public options" and "single-payer systems", as detrimental to American freedoms.

Included in the Democratic push for governmental intrusion into healthcare is Michael Bennet, our freshman senator. His speech given on the Senate floor mimicked Democratic sentiments on reform, citing the local example of Grand Junction's healthcare program as visualization for a Federal system. The Western Slope community's shift towards a centralized medical system was a local decision made by its citizens, not by Federal mandate. What makes our country great is the delegation of power from the Federal government to state and local authorities to maximize individual liberties. This difference allowed the citizens of Grand Junction to alter their system, successfully.

Ironically, the very successes cited by Senator Bennet come as a direct result of less Federal power, as opposed to an increase in Federal controls. Population in Mesa County hovers around 120,000. A similar system would probably not see success rates when mandated by bureaucrats in Washington D. C. Senator Bennet's insistence that follow-up care does reduce overall long-term costs may be true, but the choice should remain in the hands of a free market where hospitals and insurance companies help determine how to merge this into business costs.

Senator Bennet raised concerns about whether American families will be able to keep their private healthcare if they wish to do so following the introduction of the public option. The public option will create incredible barriers to private care access. For instance, businesses offering insurance to their employees, given increased tax burdens and rising inflation, will be compelled to drastically reduce, or sever completely, insurance to workers, causing an increasing use of the "free" public system. According to Ed Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation, as many as 119 million Americans will be left with the public option as the onlyoption. Claiming the individual choice to retain private care is inconsistent with the outcome of the single-payer system, and will result in less freedom for families to make important decisions about their healthcare plans.

Socialized medicine, once limited to political organizations, has now filtered over into groups like the American Medical Association, who have expressed concern over President Obama's plan for healthcare. I commend these doctors, who continue to stand against political sweet-talk and promote the valuable services they offer our nation. Their efforts reflect the American Medical Associations empathy for patients' rights.

My life experiences have taken me to countries where socialized medicine is the norm. However, I must point out that government run health is not effective. Examples from Canada include people that can afford American Health Care cross the border to get immediate care due to thelong wait in Canada if people in countries with socialized medicine are in need of surgery or special care they are told that in orderto see doctors they will have to wait for weeks and sometimes months. In Japan the care is slow and they are one of the most advanced countries in the world, but they have a single pay system that is not working. The government of Japan is now talking about an increase in the single pay system since the funds are not there to support the program. This is another problem with a government run program. The governments cut services to reduce the cost of running the program, have fewer doctors and raise fees as needed. The people of the country lose all choices and are totally at the mercy of the government.

I watched in Honduras as a friend's daughter of 25 had stomach problems and went to the doctor. Because she was not wealthy and could notget ahead in the line she stood in line for two days, yes two days. Once there she was told she needed an x-ray. It was scheduled for weeks later. She died a few days later. This is not a rare case.

In Canada the death rate for cancer is much higher than the US due to one drug not being made available in Canada since it is too expensive. Therefore, unless people go to the US to obtain it their cancer is not stopped.

Another area in which Democrats and Republicans should easily be able to find common ground is in fighting healthcare fraud.

If you think this is just tinkering around the edges of healthcare reform, you're wrong. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a doctor, believes that fully one-third of all health spending is wasted on defensive medicine, red tape and outright fraud. In a system that will spend $2.5 trillion this year, that means that more than $800 billion will go to unnecessary, unproductive and fully preventable spending. I believe that America desperately needs a real change in health care that will never happen if we can't get beyond this endless debate over government-run healthcare.

A good start are the suggested principles stated by Past House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The fact is, command-and-control from Washington doesn't work. Competition, choice and individual control will produce the health system Americans want.

To truly bring down costs and expand coverage we must build a bipartisan agreement focused on four things:

1. Improving individual health by incentivizing prevention, wellness and early health.
2. Giving doctors and hospitals incentives to deliver high-quality care through fair and proper payments.
3. Reforming public programs like Medicare and Medicaid to root out fraud, cut waste and reward quality.
4. Empowering individuals with the information and financial resources they need to be better, more-informed consumers.

The Center for Health Transformation has developed an approach that will improve individual health, lower costs and deliver the best possible care. Tell your representative that any health reform bill must have these basic principles. Please Google Center for Health Transformation.

America can't afford to let health care move to government control. Americans lives will change beyond anyone's expectations and the downward spiral of the past America way of live will begin.

I urge you to contact your senators and representatives in Congress and say no to government run health care.

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Churchill on War and Politics

"Politics are almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times." - Sir Winston Spenscer Churchill, [1920] from Bartletts Familar Quotations.

"AA 1025 Memoirs of an Anti Apostle" a Book Review

It seemed very far fetched to me that a country or a person would try to subvert an entire religion. It seemed even less possible to me that anyone could hate the thought that a God exists, so much that he would devote his entire life to subverting the Catholic Church. Surely this book must be a fiction? After all what harm had the church done to anyone? It has been an instrument for peace in the world since the time of Christ. And yet truth is stranger than fiction. During World War II the church's stance against communism raised the ire of the Soviet Union to the point that it became an enemy of the State. The evil empire put its atheist zealots to work infiltrating the church in an effort to erode its power.

"AA 1025 Memoirs of an Anti Apostle" gives us a glimpse into the mind and the mission of a man whose sole purpose in life was the destruction of the Catholic Church. Marie Carre simply published the memoirs and added two pages of her own comments, letting the spy tell us his own story of murder, deceit and subversion. After you read this book you will gain a new perspective on why the world is as it is today and why Vatican II caused a schism in the Church. You may even acquire a better understanding of good and evil. Positively gripping, this book will provide new insights as to why the church has lost so many followers since the 1940's. You may even begin to wonder if the Pope is Catholic.

Joseph L. Conigliaro

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Think you’re a Democrat? Think again.

The world has changed quite a bit since 1776, the clothes, the language, the culture, even the meaning of the words we use. And so has the Democratic Party. You may not be voting for what you think you are voting for. Get answers http://historyofdemocraticparty.blogspot.com/

What the New Health Care Plan Means to You

Young people may be forced into taking health insurance they do not want, old people may lose their benefits and their choice of doctors, and over one hundred million people may be forced out of the private insurance plans they presently enjoy and into a government sponsored health care plan offering lower benefits and coverage and long waiting periods for operations and rationing of medical services based on government decisions.

Is this what you want?

Costs will continue to spiral upwards and out of control as the federal deficit grows dynamically as a result of health care demands forcing us to borrow more and more and eventually raising interest rates and inflation as we as a nation struggle to service the debt.

Is this what you want?

As a nation we will pay for the health care of about twenty million illegal immigrants and their families while saddling our children and grand children with a debt they will be forced to try and repay.

Is this what you want?

A national health care system may make health care decisions including who may live and die for you and yours detailing what medical services you should and shouldn't be entitled to receive for how long and when life sustaining drugs should be cut off because they are not cost effective and you are going to die anyway.

Is this what you want?

The health care bills now pending in congress details some of these things - check pages 425 - 430 of the current soon to be revised house version of the bill for examples of what I'm talking about.

Now the current administration is trying to rush the bill through congress by August without giving the congressmen and senators the time to read through what will probably be more than one thousand pages.

The current version in the senate says that senators can keep their own top of the line health insurance policies and don't have to be a party to what the rest of the nation will be forced to take.

Is this what you want?

I say we should vote out of office any member of the house of representatives or senate who cannot prove that they read every page of whatever plan is finally proposed before they vote and any congressman who doesn't agree to be subject to the same plan and terms and conditions that the rest of us are going to be forced to accept.

What ever happened to freedom in this country? What ever happened to the government representing us rather than telling us what we have to do?

If this is the politics of tomorrow, I want back to the past. This is not the kind of change most of us signed on to. What about you? What about your future, your freedom, your childrens freedom? Don't give away the rights your forefathers fought so hard to preserve. What kind of a future will that leave you and them with - a future where your opinion doesn't count - a future where you have no rights?

Please feel free to use this article as long as credit is given to the resource box. © Copyright, Arthur Levine 2009 Hi, this is Arthur Levine author of Johnny Oops, a soon to be published novel. To find more of my opinions on health care reform and read excerpts from the book please go tohttp://johnnyoops.blogspot.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arthur_Levine http://www.pippoproducts.com

A Prophesy About Us From the Fifth Century

After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizeable. When the time for Advent and the Antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. At that time, the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society.

At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit which they received in Holy Baptism and equally of remorse.

The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And all this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be Lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs he will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other. At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have acheived all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist. And, the impious one! - he will so complete sceince with vanity that it will go off the right path and lead people of lose faith in the existence of God in three hypostases.

Then the All-good God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear and kill the perverter and his servants - St. Nilus [430 AD]

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Guilty - Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter - A Book Review

In Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter, the author once again gives us a piece of her mind. Fearless as ever, Coulter points out things that we would rather turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to. While most of the people who have picked up her book have hated her for it, I have found her rather refreshing and honest. Well, as they say, the Truth always hurts.

I was eating my lunch one day when I heard a group of officemates-mine, I am sad to admit-talking about another officemate of mine. He was almost thirty years old and his girl friend of five years, who worked on the next floor, weren't even in the process of tying the knot. Had they presented the fact that his girl friend's biological clock was ticking, I would've just agreed that they should get married because they do seem to be a perfect fit. But then one of my officemates said that he probably should just make a "deposit" so they would know if they were sexually compatible before getting married. I was appalled. I wasn't naïve but there are some changes you shouldn't adopt, even if it meant convenience. This was one of them.

It made me think of the hundreds of single mothers out there who say they are saying that they are raising their child alone by choice. I agree; it was their choice that made them single mothers-women who have shrugged off their morality for what they think would make them happy for that moment. I'm not saying that they should be condemned because of these wrong choices (I'm not even saying that being happy is wrong) but I agree with Coulter that these women are guilty for presenting themselves as the victims. If we want a better society, we should stop saying it and do what's best for us and for our neighbors. Everything starts with a decision and sticking with that decision. Don't go plunging into a pool when you can't swim. Make sure you can pay for what you're buying and all that stuff that goes along those lines.

I agree with Coulter when she said that these people who call themselves the victims of society's "modernity" and loss of morality-slaves of the moment and all that-are the ones who actually launch an attack on America. I'm not saying we should go all St. Francis of Assisi and give our life's savings to the poor. What I'm saying-and what Coulter points out in Guilty-is that we should be living within our means. By doing so, we are not only helping ourselves but also those around us who cannot afford to live so lavishly. Also, don't go around preaching what you can't do. We already have a lot of that in the media. Sadly, it is the bravery in Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter that could make you hate it when you should be taking a seat and listening to what it's saying.

For more information, check other Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter book reviews. Erika Ayala works part time for a consumer review company. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erika_Ayala

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