Reversing Obama’s ‘Soft Despotism’

..Tocqueville,....."Thus, taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands and kneading him as it likes, the sovereign extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrial animals of which the government is the shepherd."

That is what House Republicans are fighting to reverse. With their presidential candidates at odds, with the mainstream media disparaging them at every turn, they need to exercise prudence and not give in to passion that could defeat their purpose

Good column...thanks.

Sometimes, I hate it when Barone's correct. Boehner is routinely denounced on this forum, but he's between a rock and a hard place. Meanwhile the GOP should pick up more seats in the House from reapportionment and redistricting.

Does Boehner survive as Speaker? Should he? He's a bit too emotional for me. There are too many moving parts. It's too early for any predictions.

. . . an immense tutelary power is elevated, which alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyments and watching over their fate. It is absolute, detailed, rigid, far-seeing and mild. It would resemble paternal power if, like that, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves. It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that.

I am so reminded of these words penned thousands of years ago.

Isaiah 3:4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

5 And the People shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.

..... 9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves......

Yes, I do know this was written of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah, but the same principle remains to this day.

The so called 'right' better grow a spine, else this flood of evil in our basements is growing mold and mildew so that our very foundations are rotting away. We do not have time to be guilt-ed into institutional corners of dark waters in sewage filled basements.

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