“Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.”
I don’t know who said that first, but we are on the brink of relearning that lessson the hard way. With all of the media clamoring for our attention 24/7, I’m seeing virtually nothing pointing out the many obvious parallels just within the past 100 years. Growing up as baby boomers, we often wondered how the German people could have stood silently by while Adolph Hitler carried out his disasterous plans. Yet apart from the Holocaust itself, most of what Hitler did could be easily compared to the actions being taken by our own government right now. The bank bailouts, the quasi-nationalization of the auto industry, and the massive stimilus programs look very much like steps that Hitler took in his rise to power. (And the inflation that is bound to follow our unprecedented deficit spending may make the Weimar Deutschemark look like a stable currency!) The same could be said comparing today’s actions with those of Benito Mussolini. Yet the only lessons of history even mentioned today are based on complete mischaracterizatons of the actions of FDR. FDR, the president who turned a routine two year recession into a 15 year depression of unprecedented magnitude, borrowed many, perhaps most, of his ideas directly from Hitler and Mussolini. He openly admired both men, and envied the political power which they were able to use to intervene in their own economies. Most of those ideas were initially ruled unconstitutional here, until FDR succeeded in silencing the Supreme Court. But those same interventions are occurring here today, with barely a peep from the people or the media.
Three months ago, it would have been preposterous to suggest that the federal government would take control of the banks. Yet they have done so, and nobody said a word. The nationalization of the auto industry is taking place right before our eyes, and the best we can do is debate whether taxpayer dollars should be used to do it! Instead of defending our freedom, we appear to be clamoring for more regulation.
Apparently when we elected Barack Obama, we bought the “change” message hook, line and sinker. Somehow, despite all the lessons of history, the total and complete abject failure of socialism anywhere and everywhere it has ever been tried, we seem to think that The One can somehow turn that thoroughly discredited concept into a viable model for the American economy. I have great respect for Mr. Obama’s intelligence, but our complex economy is far beyond the comprehension of even the most brilliant central planners. Apparently our socialist schools have succeeded in their mission of whitewashing that incontrovertible (and inconvenient) truth.
I do not believe that we must go through an Even Greater Depression, but we are staring into the abyss. So at the risk of being redundant, I can only repeat, “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.”