The 2008 US presidential election is shaping up to be the most important election in history, certainly a number of pundits and politicians seem to think so, and they are 100% correct but not for the reasons they postulate. This election year is important as in may spell the final and permanent death of freedom in America. Since the so-called Progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries we have seen a steady erosion of freedom in this country, corresponding with an ever-growing federal government.

During the turn of the century “progressive” movement a number of well meaning advocates called on the government at all level to play an increasingly active role in our daily lives. Through the passage of the 16th amendment we gave the government the intrusive authority to monitor and tax our wages, thereby giving the state the financial power to expand by leaps and bounds during the 20th century. During the nineteen teens we called on the government to legislate morality through the farce of Prohibition and during the Great Depression we surrendered to the government the responsibility for taking care of our selves and planning for our futures, when it was the government that played a key role in mortgaging that future in the first place. During the 1960s we lead our selves to believe that we could destroy poverty, not through hard work but through handouts, and what have we to show for it?

That brings us to the present day, where freedom is now in the death struggle of a defeated combatant. No more do Americans speak of freedom, self-sacrifice and personal responsibility as they once did. No more do politicians speak of what we can do for our country, rather they speak of entitlements, of regulating this and taxing that, all the while the country spirals ever closer to bankruptcy. A tyranny of the majority (or dare we say…the proletariat) is at hand with the election of Obama. Even with McCain it would only be a question of time.

With the November general election a new era of ever expanding government will be upon us and as the government assumes greater paternal control over our lives, we can look forward to having even less say in personal social or economic matters. Already we are forced to send our children to the worst performing schools in the industrialized world with no viable alternatives. Already we are forced to cede an ever-growing percentage of our salary to the government for a grossly mismanaged social security system and yet not we are asking that very same government to manage our health care. Who is so foolish as to believe that the same government that bankrupted social security and Medicare can be trusted with our healthcare? Apparently quite a few as these are the same people eager embracing the Marxist policies of Obamanomics. Does it help that Obama is a seemingly honest and caring individual? Perhaps, but that will be of little solace when our country has gone the way for Germany or France.

Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/04/democrats.wednesday/index.html