RUSH on Ledeen: Alexis de Tocqueville on THE END OF AMERICA

www.rushlimbaugh.com ^ | March 6, 2009 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yosemitest]

Story #4: Ledeen: Alexis de Tocqueville on the End of America
March 6, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I had been meaning all week to share with you
something that Michael Ledeen posted at his pajamas blog called Faster, Please!
Michael Ledeen is a genuinely brilliant conservative,
and he doesn't go in for dividing the movement.
He used to write a lot of National Review Online, now has his own blog.
He's been reading de Tocqueville, Alexis de Tocqueville
who came to the United States in our early years
and tried to figure out what made us work,
and he did.
And in the process, he prophesied
what would be our downfall,
how would a nation this great actually cease to be?
It's a long, long story, but my buddy Andy McCarthy as National Review Online has chosen an excerpt for his post,
and I wanted to share this with you.


"The tyranny he [Tocqueville] foresees for us
does not have much in common
with the vicious dictatorships of the last century,
or with contemporary North Korea, Iran, or Saudi Arabia.
He apologizes for lacking the proper words with which to define it.
He hesitates to call it either tyranny or despotism,
because it does not rule by terror or oppression.
There are no secret police,
no concentration camps,
and no torture.
'The nature of despotic power in democratic ages is not to be fierce or cruel,
but minute and meddling.'
The vision and even the language anticipate Orwell’s 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World.
Tocqueville describes the new tyranny as 'an immense and tutelary power,'
and its task is to watch over us all, and regulate every aspect of our lives.


It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules,
minute [mi~`nute] and uniform,
through which
the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate,
to rise above the crowd.

We will not be bludgeoned into submission; we will be seduced.
He foresees the collapse of American democracy as the end result of two parallel developments
that ultimately render us meekly subservient to an enlarged bureaucratic power:
the corruption of our character,
and the emergence of a vast welfare state
that manages all the details of our lives."


That is what de Tocqueville envisioned for the eventual end of America,
that we basically give ourselves away,
that we would allow ourselves to be seduced
by promises of eternal prosperity, fairness, equality,
and in the process, there are so many regulations
and such a blanket of restrictions on people
that not even the smartest can penetrate it,
not even the best and brightest can penetrate and stand out.
So to make this happen,
we have to get rid of our character
and we need a vast welfare state
that manages all the details of our lives.
I must say that I have been among the most prescient in suggesting
that the real motivation for Obama's economic policy -- and there are policies:
destroy the market,
create massive unemployment,
return the wealth of the nation to its rightful owners.
We don't have enough wealth to make everybody millionaires.
We don't have enough wealth
to make everybody earn $250 grand a year in perpetuity.
What we have, ladies and gentlemen,
is a giant welfare state
that's in the process of being manufactured,
that the Democrat Party will preside over forever,
because everybody, or enough people,
are going to need the goodwill of Democrats in power
in order to get by.
You're going to have to see the first lady behind the counter at McDonald's
when you go in there as your poverty stricken day drags on,
take a picture of her with your cell phone while you go in there
and get your McNuggets or whatever is being handed out that day.


END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...



Faster, Please! We Are All Fascists Now

Faster, Please! We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyranny

Andy McCarthy: Michael Ledeen on Tocqueville on Us

*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.

[Yosemitest]

Thanks, Rush.

Also read Barack Obama's America; A timeless critique from TOCQUEVILLE..

[GiovannaNicoletta]

bookmark for later

[stockpirate]

The question is will we just go quitely into this long dark night, as freedom’s last light flickers from our shores.

Or will we take our soon to be masters to task and fight the good fight at the hot gates like the 300.

Fascism is the road we are on, our destiny awaits our great nation, what say ye?

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[classified]

My daughter read this assigned book for one of her Junior classes in High school this year and I decided to try and read it before she did. Have to say it was difficult but interesting. Didn't read it all the way thru. Difficult...I didn't tell her that though.

[El Gato]

'The nature of despotic power in democratic ages is not to be fierce or cruel, but minute and meddling.' The vision and even the language anticipate Orwell’s 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World. Tocqueville describes the new tyranny as 'an immense and tutelary power,' and its task is to watch over us all, and regulate every aspect of our lives.

The only problem is that those who come to power in such a "Democratice Age" want to retain that power, and they may do so by ending that age. Then you get BOTH "minute and meddling" and "fierce or cruel". Ask the Germans. Hitler came to power in a (brief) Democratic age, although by means we might not recognize as "democratic", but it was conducted by democratically elected political leadership. He soon ended that brief age and the rest is history.

What country or countries will liberate America from a new Hitler? There are none who could, and at the same time would desire to do so.

We'll have to do it on our own.

[Gondring]

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2009/02/14/were-all-fascists-now-ii-american-tyranny/

[Yosemitest]

I agree that "our destiny awaits our great nation", and I'm stocking up ... for the upcoming civil war we're about to fight.

Question:

What will you do, when local law officials knock on your door to confiscate your firearms?

[Yosemitest]

"Have to say it was difficult ... but interesting"

It shows the failure of our public school system,

and the destruction of our language.

[donna]

“Idiocracy” - Joe crashes into the future (Clip)
(Warning - some bad language)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8203212340782420167&q=Idiocracy&ei=5CB8SIjtIIT0rQOAysCQCw

Private Joe Bauers, the definition of “average American”, is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.

[seatrout]

Michael Ledeen is a genuinely brilliant neoconservative

[Yosemitest]

"We'll have to do it on our own."

I agree!!!

[Yosemitest]

"neoconservative"

There's nothing new

... about being a conservative.

And, someone should tell Obama

... there's nothing new ... about being a socialist.

[stockpirate]

Way before that happens the problem will be resolved.

The willingness of the people to use extreme violent force to preserve their liberty is a very powerful lever.

Our would be masters need to understand, and some already do, that “We the people” are in fact very willing, perhaps even too eager to use extreme violent force to preserve our liberty.

I will be ready if my country calls, may God be with us all, and may we be in God’s will.

[Yosemitest]

Amen.

[jla]

Didn't read it all the way thru. Difficult...I didn't tell her that though.

You bought one printed in French, didn't you? (only kidding).
What did your daughter think of Democracy in America? (I assume that is the book you refer to). And you really should pick it back up and give it another try. More than likely it isn't the subject or content but rather how he wrote that bored you. Try rereading it a small part at a time.
Years ago, I was in an antique shop/bookstore and found a very old copy, it's in English though so I never thought it would be worth anything.

[jla]

French ping?

[jla]

Michael Ledeen is a genuinely brilliant neoconservative

~sigh~

[classified]

Yes what I read was very interesting. She found it difficult also but she obviously got enough of what the teacher wanted her to get because I believe she did well and continues to do well in her class. It is a good private school and they really give them challenging material.

I plan to try and read and approach it as you suggest. I'm not a big reader. Never was. My husband is extremely great in history and reads constantly on current affairs. So if there is anything that I need explained he is able to do so. Thanks!

[Yosemitest]

This story's bacground really needs to be read.

Read to following, in the order given...

NEWSWEEK: We Are All Socialists Now, page 1.
NEWSWEEK: We Are All Socialists Now, page 2

Faster, Please!: We Are All Fascists Now page 1
Faster, Please!: We Are All Fascists Now page 2

Faster, Please!: We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyranny page 1
Faster, Please!: We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyranny page 2

Andy McCarthy: Michael Ledeen on Tocqueville on Us

RUSH on Ledeen: Story #4: Alexis de Tocqueville on THE END OF AMERICA