If you would be a king, you must have subjects.  But as it is no longer possible to command an army and go off to invade and conquer some unsuspecting country, how do you subdue your own countrymen, particularly if they are a truly free and independent people?  For the progressives, this has been their primary question and the answer has been 100 years in the making.  Aided and abetted by the evil of despotic progressivism in Europe that resulted in both World Wars, the self-perceived intellectual elites have slowly and carefully twisted the inherent goodness and morals upon which the Founding Fathers created this great nation.  Asking over and over that those who would work hard and achieve be “thy brother’s keeper” they forged the chains of modern slavery in the form of federal taxes, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes.  Insidiously, they have born down upon the Declaration of Independence’s statement that “all men are created equal” to craft class after class of “victims”, whole groups upon whom they could impress the idea that they were somehow not truly “equal”; conveniently forgetting that the Constitution promises us only equality in the freedom to choose, not equality in the inherent consequences of our choices.

This is not to say that America’s evolution of the definition of equality has not had some merit.  To be sure, to insist that women and all people of color and ethnic origin may have equal opportunity to the inalienable Right to pursue their own, individual Happiness is a good thing, for Liberty is, in Her own way, as blind as Lady Justice and therefore anyone may take their hand.  The problem has come from removing the Great Blindfolds and forcing someone else’s vision of equality of outcome because this can only be accomplished at the expense of others.

That so many Americans have fallen victim (sorry!) to these distortions was seen in the election of Barack Hussein Obama.  On the surface, for America to elect its first black president (even though he is only half black, which makes all the hoopla over it rather half-assed, in my not-so-humble opinion) was, indeed, a vindication of our Constitution.  Yet, as has been proven in the year since, his election was also a most wicked and reeling blow to it.  All his teleprompted rhetoric spoke not to the basic, fundamental and Constitutional values of America, but to the twisted distortions of those values so long and patiently pandered by progressives.  And so America elected a man who would be king, not a president. 

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation before he began his inside job of enslaving his fellow countrymen and, whether they understood why it was happening or not, Americans have watched in worried concern as:

The feds deliberately crashed Wall Street and thereby deliberately trashed the housing market.

The feds took over 2/3 of the American automotive industry.

Unemployment reached double-digits nationwide.

The feds continue to take down the banks.

Unemployment benefits were extended because businesses cannot or refuse to hire under current circumstances.

Congress voted to allow the federal government to take over the health care industry.

Congress voted to allow the federal government to take over the business of student loans.

The feds are now forcing banks to modify loans for the unemployed or underwater or overspent.

Social Security has officially run out of money.

And it is slowly starting to dawn on Americans that all of these activities are being paid for by them.  I recently came across a 2008 article about taxes.  In it, Matt Towery noted:

“…there’s a huge segment of the American population that believes they pay no taxes at all!

You read right. We polled full-time employed Americans and asked them, “Last year, did you pay taxes to the federal government, get a refund or both?”

An amazing 40 percent of respondents said they received a refund only. They didn’t say they paid taxes and then received a refund. They only said that they received a refund.

Nearly half the country believes that they don’t pay taxes to the federal government. They probably know they pay sales and other taxes, such as tolls. But because of our system of payroll withholdings, these folks never notice that on their pay stubs, it says clearly that they are taking home a lot less money than they are being paid by their employers.

So is it any wonder that when this vast portion of the American public is asked whether they believe we should all pay more taxes, in order to bankroll certain popular causes, that they’re often all for it? “

It’s almost laughable.  And while I know that in most of the circles I travel regularly there isn’t anyone who isn’t aware of their federal tax payments, there are some, and dare I say too many, who are really that stupid.  Perhaps most infamously exemplified by this exchange that was broadcast on WJR radio in Detroit, Michigan during the 2008 presidential campaigns:

ROGULSKI: Why are you here?
 
WOMAN #1: To get some money.
 
ROGULSKI: What kind of money?
 
WOMAN #1: Obama money.
 
ROGULSKI: Where’s it coming from?
 
WOMAN #1: Obama.
 
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?
 
WOMAN #1: I don’t know, his stash. I don’t know. (laughter) I don’t know where he got it from, but he givin’ it to us, to help us.
 
WOMAN #2: And we love him.
 
WOMAN #1: We love him. That’s why we voted for him!
 
WOMEN: (chanting) Obama! Obama! Obama! (laughing)

 And another one:

ROGULSKI:  Did you get an application to fill out yet?
 
WOMAN:  I sure did.  And I filled it out, and I am waiting to see what the results are going to be.
 
ROGULSKI:  Will you know today how much money you’re getting?
 
WOMAN:  No, I won’t, but I’m waiting for a phone call.
 
ROGULSKI:  Where’s the money coming from?
 
WOMAN:  I believe it’s coming from the City of Detroit or the state.
 
ROGULSKI:  Where did they get it from?
 
WOMAN:  Some funds that was forgiven (sic) by Obama.
 
ROGULSKI:  And where did Obama get the funds?
 
WOMAN:  Obama getting the funds from… Ummm, I have no idea, to tell you the truth.  He’s the president.
 
ROGULSKI:  In downtown Detroit, Ken Rogulski, WJR News.

All this from Lydon Johnson’s poster child “Model City”, of course.   A place that remains a staunch Democrat outpost, represented by the likes of long-past-expiration-dates John Conyers and the Levin brothers.  A place that has become a veritable melting pot of progressive labeled “victims”:  blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, and union workers, just to name a few. 

Sadly, these people were raised to think this way.  Raised by the progressive ideology that because they are some sort of “victim” they are entitled to the fruits of another’s labor.  And in other, similarly progressive strongholds like California, I can’t help but feel concern as I watch them decide to put the legalization of marijuana on their ballot.  It strikes me as just the thing a modern would-be king and his potential court would do in order to continue to dumb down and subdue a population they wished to conquer.  Oh, sure, the state government is thinking there is money to be made that could help their billions of dollars of debt, and were we governed as intended by the Founding Fathers I personally don’t think I’d have a problem with all drugs being legal and taxed and with appropriate consequences when consumption of them causes harm to another person, however, we don’t live in our Founding Fathers’ world any more, Toto.  No, we live in a land where freedom and responsibility have been disconnected and the consequences of actions are beholden upon the class of “victim” to which you belong, defined by the whims of the federal government.

To whit:

After the Senate passed a “fix-it” bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the influential Finance Committee, said the overhaul was an “income shift” to help the poor.

“Too often, much of late, the last couple three years, the mal-distribution of income in American is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy and the middle income class is left behind,” he said. “Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America.”

Never mind that the so-called “wealthy” have been progressively and arbitrarily redefined to be anyone making over $250,000 a year, the vast majority of them very hard-working small business owners who, after paying their employees and all other business expenses, realistically find themselves living on far, far less than that.  No, sir, they are now a pesky problem, the selfish oafs, and must be forced to share with those who have been taught from their welfare-funded birth ’tis better to receive than to give.

All of this, then, leads to the thought of serfdom.  That place where one is born, one lives, and then one dies for no other purpose except that of being an object, a tool.  Needs are provided solely to the extent they allow you to be productive in the manner the overseer requires to benefit the elite.  There is irony in the fact that America’s first black president is hell-bent on enslaving Americans to that same measure as was once so prevalent in Europe during the Middle Ages; though in some dark, unexamined cranny in the back of his blind and narrow little mind it is perhaps perceived more as some sort of poetic justice, a seed-thought planted there by the likes of left-wing terrorists, communists, and radicals, Ayers, Davis, and Wright.

It is hard to imagine that the descendents, both physical and spiritual, of those who took their freedom from King George and later stormed the beach at Normandy in but one in a long series of defenses of liberty would allow themselves to be placed into the servitude of those who have never performed an honest day’s work in their lives.  And yet that is exactly the unintended consequence Americans now face in electing as president a man who would be king.

Serfdom, USA.