By Selwyn Duke ——Bio and Archives--November 6, 2012
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The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for "equal protection of the laws" for all Americans. To have a law that can cost an organization millions of dollars a year either apply or not apply, depending on the whim or political interest of the President of the United States, is to make a mockery of the rule of law. How secure is any freedom when there is this kind of arbitrary power in the hands of one man? What does your right of freedom of speech mean if saying something that irritates the Obama administration means that you or your business has to pay huge amounts of money and get hit with all sorts of red tape under ObamaCare that your competitor is exempted from, because your competitor either kept quiet or praised the Obama administration or donated to its reelection campaign?This is Third World governance. It’s reminiscent of what happens in places such as Argentina, where businesses that toe the ruling-party line get rewarded, while those that don’t get punished and perhaps, even, nationalized. It is also how you consolidate power. After all, corporate backing is invaluable for political candidates. But how many businesses will support the opposition if they know it means the hobbling, and maybe even destruction of, their business? This government control over business also is, we should note, a distinguishing feature of fascism, as espoused by Benito Mussolini and its other founding fathers. This brings us to what’s at stake this election. If we want more evil behavior, all we need do is reward it through toleration. And there is such a thing as the point of no return. Once corruption is woven into your civilization, it can be as inextricable as a virus in the human nervous system. It becomes status quo, and then you can’t play at all if you don’t pay; then even “good” people accept it as just a fact of life. Barack Obama has gotten away with murder, figuratively and literally, thus far. The media has enabled this, through their sins of omission and commission: through their failure to expose the president’s malfeasance and their manufacture of faux dirt on his opponents (e.g., the Bain game). And if the voters re-elect Obama — despite in-your-face scandals, a listing economy, and fraying foreign policy — the president will get a clear message. “I can get away with anything.” He will be like a child who crashed his unearned Nissan and maxed-out daddy’s credit card — and then is rewarded with a Porsche and credit-line extension. This election will tell us if the American people are wearing a collective “Kick me” sign. If so, we are damning our posterity to a kick in the bottom and a jackboot on the neck, without measure and without end.
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