Sep 9, 2019 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
Harold Pease, Ph. D
All leading Democratic presidential candidates reject present constitutional language in electing future presidents of the United States. Opponents of the Electoral College seek to alter a process that has worked for well over two hundred years. Fueled by Clinton’s winning the popular vote yet denied the White House and unable to get two-thirds of the states as constitutionally required to consider altering this part of the Constitution, some seek to reject the Constitution instead.
They call their plan the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). In it participating states would allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote rather than the winner of the state popular vote, thus potentially disenfranchising the popular vote in your state, perhaps even in a majority of states.
There exists no language in the Constitution authorizing a popular vote for the executive branch of government. Such came about in 1824 after the Electoral College denied the presidency to highly temperamental Andrew Jackson, the most popular man in America due to his success in the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. His supporters, believing the denial to be an injustice, created a straw vote so that the people could participate in the election although this vote had no power.
Over time the media empowered it by treating it as the “legitimate” vote for the president belittling the College process as unfair and undemocratic. Seldom do they remind us that it works because we are not a democracy, but a republic, and that none of the branches of government are democratic; most especially the Senate and Supreme Court. Andrew Jackson had to wait until he could convince the seasoned citizen voters of the Electoral College that he was not too emotional for the office. He did so four years later in 1828. Moreover, today the media seldom cover the real election of the president in December, such is their distain for it.
Those unable to get a two-thirds vote to remove the Electoral College, as required in Article V of the Constitution, have conceived a brilliant but subversive plan to do just that without the constitutional amendment required. When enough state legislatures have committed their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, and that number is 270 or above, remaining states will be required to support as well. Wham!! Almost without any public debate outside state legislatures, and seemingly overnight, the popular vote will replace the Electoral College as the means by which a president is elected. A few highly populated states would decide for the rest of the country—something decidedly opposed by our Founders.
Ironically proponents ignorantly use a small portion of the Constitution to destroy a larger portion. They cite Article II, Section 1 which reads, “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.” This, they say, gives state legislatures the right to award their electors as they see fit. Actually, the phrase allows the state legislatures appointing powers only. To suggest that they should have influence over their voting once selected, nullifies the reason for their existence. The Electoral College was to be a non-governmental body completely separate and unaccountable to the State Legislature once appointed, as per the rest of the section. Certainly the phrase did not authorize states to simply alter or dump Article II, Section 1 and Amendment 12 of the Constitution which is the effect.
Moreover, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact also violates Article I, Section 10. This prohibits states from entering into “alliances,” (compacts) with other states unless Congress gives its consent. Certainly conspiring states have entered into an alliance to nullify the Electoral College, which mandates the right of individual states, to chose the president.
At present 15 states (almost all Democratic) and the District of Columbia, a combined electoral vote total of 196, have come on board 74 short of the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to impose this upon the rest of the country and nullify a long standing pillar of the Constitution. Oregon, June 12, 2019, is the most recent state to join the unconstitutional alliance voting to change the Constitution without amending it as required by the document.
Unfortunately for those who revere the Constitution and the wisdom of the Founding Fathers to balance the vote so that rural Americans would not be disenfranchised by urban Americans are emboldened by Hillary Clinton’s receiving the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election yet denied the presidency. Still, it is well to remember that only California gave Clinton its popular vote. In the other 49 states Donald Trump won the popular vote. Without the Electoral College Clinton would be president by the popular vote of but a single state, disfavored by all others. How is that just, balanced or even democratic?
Granted the Electoral College is the most difficult part of the Constitution to understand and is easy to oppose because it is undemocratic. Spend some time to understand it. A patriot and constitutionalist will see through the scheme to destroy it without the debate and transparency required in Article V. No end run around the Constitution should ever be permitted.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org
Aug 26, 2019 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Student unrest in many universities demonstrates what is becoming obvious; institutions of higher learning are becoming radicalized and project intolerance for anything but a liberal view. Too few permit conservative or libertarian speakers and far fewer a constitutionalist.
I was not surprised, some years ago, to hear a mother share with me her son’s fear that he did not wish to attend college because he did not wish to be politically indoctrinated. Parents increasingly worry about the radicalization of their children as well. As the years go by I hear this more frequently. Often when asked my profession, a political science professor, I get that look, “Oh! You’re one of those.” So, the assumption is that professors, especially those in political science, are socialists or worse: Unfortunately, this is largely true.
College is supposed to be a “big tent” housing all types of thinking so that the student can gravitate to what he thinks best after all sides are presented. Although everyone gives lip service to this statement, there still exists a preferred philosophy. Most colleges insist that they adhere to intellectual diversity, but the evidence and textbooks suggest otherwise; the vast majority of colleges and universities are weighted in favor of one ideology and professors to one political party. This is not hidden. Some political science textbooks acknowledge this.
There exists a consensus of what a “good education” is. Students are immersed in race consciousness, feminism, multiculturalism, environmentalism, collectivism, globalism, political activism, class warfare, global warming, acceptance of sexual deviations as normal, and minimization of the importance of Christianity. The end product, the student, must come to accept the above script. It is also in virtually all textbooks. It’s not that any of these notions are bad, in and of themselves, but it is the nearly universal absence of the opposing view that is most troubling parents/students who do not want the indoctrination.
This reminds me of the 1960’s popular tune “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds with lyrics. “And the people in the houses…made of ticky tacky… All went to the university, Where they were put in boxes And they came out all the same.”
It’s not fear of political science classes alone in most colleges and universities. Students can escape the indoctrination across the hall in a history or sociology class. Not so! Such bias permeates most academic areas. An English professor from a large Midwestern university, who did not wish to be identified because of possible retribution, spoke of English classes giving less emphasis on grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure and more on the political correctness. “Everything from Theater to Philosophy to History to English has, in effect, become sociology,” he wrote. “Teaching subject matter has become less important than teaching a very political perspective.” In the end, “They get taught the same thing over and over: a radical critique of the entire American social structure, an indictment of capitalism, anti-Christian propaganda, and collectivism over individuality.”
Of course, additional courses reinforce the “good education” and the result is that if students have not learned to think for themselves, or have some opposing information from home or church to think with, they graduate and carry the indoctrination into every segment of society as gospel. New teachers from kindergarten to the universities will pipe the same, or similar, message.
Age and experience may alter the indoctrination but the twig is already bent in a prescribed direction and the student, like the twig, will give first consideration to returning to the indoctrination when confronted with anything in opposition. Colleges have so much power over “right” thinking.
An extreme example of this years ago, was a French Language and Culture class at Penn State University that required students to view the Michael Moore film “Sicko,” which focused on the inadequacies of the U.S. healthcare system and promoted national healthcare. In a French language class!?!
The indoctrination begins immediately in some colleges, critics say, “with orientation where students begin by learning about the evils of ‘white privilege’ in a program called the ‘tunnel of oppression’ and sit through lectures informing them that they are part of a ‘rape culture’.” University of Delaware forced incoming freshmen to participate in a “treatment” program a part of which informed them that the word racism applies only to “all white people.” It also “blamed whites for having created the term racism” in the first place “to deny responsibility for systemic racism.” At Hamilton College in New York, fall 2010, male students were required “to attend a ‘She Fears You’ presentation to make them aware of the ‘rape culture’ of which they were allegedly a part and of the need to change their ‘rape supportive’ beliefs and attitudes” (New American, Aug. 5, 2013, pp. 23-27).
No wonder the young man did not wish to be subjected to what he saw as indoctrination. Because he knows that there exist other views there is hope for him, more especially if he selects professors who attempt to give alternative views of which there are still some, he will be fine. But it will take his personal effort to not come out of the university experience “all the same.” It is students, the majority, who have no idea that there exist alternative views that are most in danger.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly columns, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Aug 19, 2019 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
Most now understand that “red flag” laws violate the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights and many Republicans, including the President, now seem willing to join Democrats, after the recent shootings in El Paso and Denton by crazed left-and right wing extremists, to put dents in the Second Amendment hoping these laws “might” somehow help. But few realize that they also virtually emasculate the Bill of Rights. What follows are the amendments “red flag” laws damage and how.
Amendment I. “Red flag” laws encourage “police-led searches” of our social media, thus effectively “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” constitutionally protected in the First Amendment. Disagreeable speech is labeled “hate” speech, thus potentially “violent” speech, thus subject to the removal of ones weapons laws. Liberty ends when free speech, press, assembly and religion end.
Amendment II. This amendment was specifically designed to protect the first amendment giving the people the ability to resist tyrannical government as the Founders had—even by revolution if required. Any law, state or federal, that threatens the Second Amendment as written by the Founding Fathers is unconstitutional. In New Mexico that includes requirements for firearm storage and background checks for private firearm sales. In New York, it includes banning bump stock devices. In Washington State it is I-1639, which “classifies semi-automatic rifles commonly owned for recreation and self-defense as assault weapons and prohibits young adults under the age of 21 from purchasing them.” These violate “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
But “red flag” laws go further, potentially allowing thousands of innocent citizens to be punished only upon the fear that a crime might be committed. Secret lists of innocent people are created by family, acquaintances, and potentially disgruntled ex-lovers or spouses. Any one that can approach a judge with the claim that someone is a danger to himself and/or others, the sheriff is sent to disarm and confiscate his weapons. Those identified are punished without having committed a crime. All this without a shred of evidence of unlawful behavior.
Amendment IV reads in part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Today computers and electronic devices are our “papers” and “effects” include our weapons of self preservation. It is “unreasonable” and unconstitutional to confiscate them on the assumption that they may be used inappropriately. We might also wish to remove their automobiles, knives, hammers, or medicines they MIGHT use to harm themselves or others.
Continuing, “No Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.” Heretofore “probable cause” was based upon evidence of having actually done something, not opinion that someone might do something. Again, there exists no crime! A warrant alone is not due process. “Supported by Oath or affirmation,” means by government agents who have sworn allegiance to protect and preserve the Constitution, which under “red flag” laws this action violates.
Amendment V reads in part: “No person shall be…deprived of…property, without due process of law.” Due process is denied thousands under “red flag” laws. None were charged with a crime, arrested or convicted before gun confiscation. Without due process all of our rights and properties are unsecured. It is that simple.
Amendment VI lists the rights of the accused, the due process procedure entitled to all citizens, in “all criminal prosecutions.” Although “red flag” laws are not criminal prosecutions, they have the same effect. They accuse and administer punishment. They are “speedy” but not “public” as constitutionally required. None were “informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; … confronted with the witnesses against him; … [allowed] compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and …[allowed] the assistance of counsel for his defence.” Where was the “impartial jury?” None of these four constitutionally required conditions were met prior to confiscation, as no crime had been committed. Those targeted by the government in “red flag” laws had no opportunity to resist confiscation.
Amendment VII reads "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.” Twice mentioned is common law which is the underlying principles of justice that govern all human relationships—natural law—whether fully understood or not.
This amendment speaks to property exceeding $20.00 in value, of which all guns exceed. Although largely fallen into disuse because of the now unrealistic money requirement specified, the amendment suggests the importance of common law and jury (peers) trials, rather than judges, making the decisions regarding property. Certainly “red flag” laws exempt juries and confiscate property (guns).
Six of ten Bill of Right Amendments are severely damaged by “red flag” laws with due process, the backbone of our judicial system, the greatest fatality. This is certainly the greatest threat to the Bill of Rights since the Obama sponsored National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which already effectively neutralized Amendments 4, 5, 6 and 8 of the Bill of Rights (see “New Bill Damages Bill of Rights and Could Target Americans for Military Detention,” LibertyUnderFire.org).
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly columns, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Aug 12, 2019 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
Given the mass murders due to gun violence last weekend, 22 in El Paso, Texas, 9 in Dayton, Ohio, 11 in Chicago, 4 in Baltimore; it is easy to see why President Trump would seek a national solution—it is a national problem. Still, the Constitution specifically forbids a national solution—even a state solution—without a new amendment to the Constitution altering the second Amendment, because self-defense is an individual right (even God-given) not a right from government.
The Second Amendment reads: “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” At the time of writing “militia” was the citizen and “shall not be infringed” meant off limits to government.
The only constitutional solution is a new amendment processed through Article V which requires a two-step proposal and ratification process, the latter requiring three-fourths of the states. Anything short of this is a serious “infringement” (violation) of the Constitution and a single violation justifies future violations until this particular freedom (self defense with a firearm) is lost to future generations.
“Red Flag,” laws are thought to be the “go to legislation” for the presumed mentally unstable of society that could resort to violence against themselves or others. These potentially allow thousands of innocent citizens to be punished only upon the fear that a crime might be committed. Secret lists of innocent people are created by family, acquaintances, and potentially disgruntled ex-lovers or spouses.
Anyone that can approach a judge with the claim that someone is thought to be a danger to himself and/or others, the sheriff is sent to disarm and confiscate the alleged offenders weapons. Those identified are punished without having committed a crime. All this without a shred of evidence of unlawful behavior. This legislation flies in the face of presumed innocence first which, until now, has been the backbone of our judicial system.
“Red Flag,” laws, are based entirely upon the assumption that someone may commit a crime, rather than, has committed a crime. If we disarm enough we will get the supposed perpetrator before he commits a crime. Their speech or behavior is viewed a red flag. Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung and Castro, all socialists, would have loved such laws. They could have labeled and disarmed their opposition before they did anything.
“Under Colorado’s proposed law, anyone can make a phone call to the police. They don’t even have to be living in the state. There is no hearing. All the judge has before them is the statement of concern.” Moreover, “little certainty is needed. Some states allow initial confiscations on just a ‘reasonable suspicion,’ which is little more than a guess or a hunch.” In just nine months of Florida’s Red Flag law passage, just last year, “judges granted more than 1,000 confiscation orders. In the three months after Maryland’s law went into effect on Oct. 1, more than 300 people had their guns taken away.” In Anne Arundel County, “a 61-year-old man died when the police stormed his home at 5 a.m. to take away his guns” (“The Folly of ‘Red Flag’ gun laws,” June 17, 2019, The Washington Times).
The biggest problems with Red Flag evaluations is that they happen “ex parte,” without the defendant present to defend himself. Due process, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights in three places, is denied. If “ex parte,” a second hearing is scheduled, some weeks later, where the defendant must provide evidence proving his innocence (U.S. & Texas LawShield Blog). You must prove yourself innocent of something that you never did, nor probably thought of doing, but was previously punished for by the forcible confiscation of your weapons. We are dangerously close to destroying the backbone of our judicial system, the presumption of innocence.
Some remember going down a similar path with Japanese-Americans many years ago. More than 110,000 were feared to be potentially dangerous in World War II and thus were rounded up in secret raids throughout western states and placed in “relocation camps.” No crimes had been committed and the United States later had to pay reparations to descendants for this injustice.
Both mass murderers appear to be politically motivated. El Paso mass shooter and Trump supporter Patrick Crusius, 21, traveled 650 miles to target a community at least 80% Hispanic for his victims. Far left Dayton, Ohio mass shooter and Elizabeth Warren supporter Connor Betts, 24, worshiped Antifa and hated ICE. Both far left and far right think the other crazy and capable of violence which is the foundation for Red Flag laws. Both want the power of government to remove the other.
An ominous cloud hangs over America if its citizens flood authorities with calls to take away the gun rights of the other. Historically government is happy to do both. El Paso and Dayton may be equivalents to Fort Sumpter in the Civil War.
LibertyUnderFire has already published how Red Flag laws violate, not only the Second Amendment, but amendments I, IV, V, VI and XIV as well. It essentially emasculates the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. President Trump cannot support red flag laws and the Constitution simultaneously.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Aug 5, 2019 | Healthcare, Liberty Articles, Taxes
By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
I met R. Sellner Reese about 9 years ago and found her story one of the most compelling and unusual ever; she lived under two of the most murderous socialist governments ever: Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. “I was born under Hitler, grew up under Stalin and worked under communist dictators Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honnecker in East Germany,” she told me. Few had more practical experience under socialism than she.
She and her three children came to America in 1985 for political and religious freedom requesting political asylum. Her main message: “socialism never worked under these regimes and it will never work in America either.” Even then, under Obamacare, she saw America falling into the same trap of repeated lies and false promises that duped her German friends and neighbors.
She spoke to my classes when I got to the section dealing with socialism. I introduced her as having lived under two of the three biggest tyrants in world history, with China’s Mao Tse Tung being the third. She vehemently objected to my using the term communist instead of socialists. She made it clear that there was no difference and that the distinction only existed in the West. “We only used the term socialist.” I never made that mistake again. I had tried to separate the two as though one was tolerable, the other the more violent of the same thing.
“Hitler promised National Socialism but gave us tyranny instead,” she said. “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Some warned the people but the promises were so desirable and powerful. “My friend’s father told other people, that Hitler is a liar and will bring Germany down. One evening, two men came to his apartment and took him in for questioning before the police. Five days later, the wife received a letter that he has passed away with a heart problem. The family was told his grave was at the city cemetery. The family was so afraid to ask questions, and nobody knew what the Gestapo had done. No paper concerning his death was ever found. I personally know so many people who have suffered in the Nazi time.”
A second Hitler promise: “Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.” The socialist promise that the government would take from the rich and give to the poor only made everyone poor and resulted in human suffering and death, and eventually war. “In my school class of 40 children, only 8 had a father after the war. Women had to take all the responsibility for family and their future.” So much for the socialist promises.
After the war the Soviets held the eastern part of Germany where she lived, (renamed East Germany) under socialism with Joseph Stalin. “We had to learn how wonderful the Red Army was and that socialism will take over the whole world to make all people free.” She remembered the fruitless promises of prosperity under Hitler. Socialism never delivered then or under Stalin. “We had little food and I never saw a banana, and chocolate was only a dream. We had to stand in long waiting lines for food. When I finally got to the counter, there might not be anything left. To buy a car, there was a 10-15 year waiting time. Of course, you must have cash!”
Still, even midst all this poverty, the message went out, “SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY TRUTH ON THIS EARTH!” But the real truth was that the people could not choose their education or occupation. “The government had control over your personal life, our work, living place, childcare, school and the ‘STASI’ (Socialistic Secret Service) constantly watched us. If you resisted you ended up in prison and your children could be taken from you and adopted.”
A visit to Russia, the motherland of socialism, in 1982 revealed the failure of the promise of socialism there as well. “The citizens of Russia were so poor. Bad housing, not enough food and clothing.”
In 1985 Reese was finally able to leave socialist East Germany and come to the United States under political asylum. What she sees here in recent years is too similar to the socialist worlds’ from which she escaped, Reese says, and it frightens her that we are taking the same path of forced sharing the wealth and socialized medicine and so many other things, and she is forced to watch tyranny return one more time.
When she sees Congress having its own healthcare plan rather than taking the same one forced on the people, visions of privileged healthcare for the socialist leaders in East Germany comes to mind. She experienced rationed healthcare when her mother was declared too old for an operation and died two years later because resources would be better spent on the young, but knew that such would not be denied a government official.
Reese then warned, .”It can happen in America!!” What is happening in America right now is scary! I’d like to tell everybody, socialism will never work in America either.”
What would she now say with the Democratic Party openly promoting socialism.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org
Jul 28, 2019 | Economy, Healthcare, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
With all Democratic Party 2020 presidential candidates seemingly embracing socialism we could vote for socialism, Austria did. In the 20th Century at least a fourth of the world became socialist. Austria was the only country that acquired it by ballot rather than revolution. Once fully in place there are never again free elections with options other than socialists. Austria chose it because it promised to end dire economic conditions and died as a free nation for so doing. Kitty Werthmann, whose account is herein summarized, was an eyewitness to the vote and resultant suffocation of all freedom in Austria in 1938.
With unemployment and interest rates at 25%, the country was in deep depression and “people were going from house to house begging for food.” Kitty remembers her mother cooking a big kettle of soup and baking bread to feed her staving neighbors, about “30 daily.” The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party, two conflicting varieties of socialism, were fighting each other. The Germans, under Adolf Hitler, promised an environment of no crime, full employment, a high standard of living, and happiness. Austrians “became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.” The Austrian government could not deliver these conditions, so 98% of the population, believing the lies, “voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.” When this happened, the people danced for joy in the streets for three days.
Almost immediately law and order returned and “everyone was employed” in government created jobs, but what followed under fascist socialism was pure hell. In return for believing the empty promises, education was nationalized and freedom of religion in public education ended. Crosses in the predominantly Catholic schools were “replaced with Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag” and prayer, replaced with singing praises of Germany. “Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance.” If their children were not present, parents were threatened first with “a stiff letter of warning,” then with a $300.00 fine, and then with jail. The day consisted of two hours of political indoctrination followed by sports and fun. The children loved it but “lived without religion.” Having no moral compass, illegitimacy flourished. “Unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.”
Men and women had equal rights under Hitler. They found out what that meant when workloads were equal, making no distinction on the basis of sex. When the war came in 1939, the draft was compulsory for both sexes and women served on the front lines as well. Many became “emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.” Kitty Werthmann continues, “When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.”
Under Hitler’s socialism everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing. Healthcare was socialized as well, free to everyone. “Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.” Of course, to pay for this benefit for the less productive, “the tax rate had to be raised to 80% of our income.”
When the war started, a food bank was established. “All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death.” Socialism now controlled life and death by controlling who ate.
Small businesses were intentionally over-regulated out of business leaving the government owned large businesses the only ones existing. “We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished.” Moreover, “farmers were told what to produce, and how to produce it.”
Worse yet, finding it so easy to kill six million Jews, Hitler next moved on the mentally retarded as not having value and liquidated them as well. To prevent the population from revolting, guns had long since been registered, then outlawed, and freedom of speech ended as well. “Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.”
How close are we to implementing some of the above socialism by false promises, as did they, too close? Hopefully we will not waste our vote on the failed promises of socialism that delivers only slavery and shared poverty.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org
