As a poster here has indicated, when citizens find themselves in seemingly hopeless personal situations related to feeding their families or achieving their goals for a new career, they find little solace in high-sounding ideas or principles.
At times like these, they cannot link bad ideas with the consequences they are feeling and experiencing. And those who wish to become their masters count on their vulnerability, as they may offer solutions which will assure their own elevation to positions of power.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," Ivan relates a fictional story to his brother. It posits that Christ refused the Devil's temptation to create bread from stone so humanity could remain free, and that by doing so Jesus made freedom the ultimate gift from God, because man would happily enslave himself for free bread. "So, in the end, they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us: 'Enslave us, but feed us!' And they will finally understand that freedom and the assurance of daily bread for everyone are two incompatible notions that could never co-exist!" "Christ may have been able to turn stone into bread or feed 5,000 with three loaves and two fish, but the state is no miracle worker. Any time the state embarks on a miraculous quest, it is always an act of power, not faith or charity." - Peter Marshall
Whether the prospective tyrannical power-seeker comes from what we call the "Right," or from the "Left," the "consequences" of tyranny are the same.
Only the American Constitution has limited the coercive hand of government. Once its limits are disregarded or erased, the consequences of tyranny will be loosed.
American voters of the Year 2016 might keep that in mind as they contemplate the futures of their grandchildren and succeeding generations.
Living generations of Americans today, of all races and creeds, are beneficiaries of the ideas of 1776, as they were implemented in the Constitution of 1787, as that Constitution has been honored by action.
"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." - Daniel Webster
-— Only the American Constitution has limited the coercive hand of government. Once its limits are disregarded or erased, the consequences of tyranny will be loosed. -—
Beautiful.