The November Revolution

American Thinker:

America's 'November Revolution'
By John Griffing

"Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big
things." - Rahm Emmanuel

In our recent election, many Americans voted for a Savior, not a president.

Americans were enamored with the idea of making history in this election, and in that sense we have gotten what we wanted. Unfortunately, Barack Obama is the wrong man, and this is definitely the wrong time.

In fact, the timing couldn't be worse. We have in recent years vastly expanded the powers and autonomy of the Executive Branch, removing checks and balances along the way. Owing in part to well-intentioned conservative attempts to more effectively fight Islamic terrorism, the machinery of US dictatorship is already in place. Security measures like The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, recent revisions of the Posse Commitatus Act, and National Presidential Directive 51 have all served to strengthen our national security in the short term, but with long-term threats to our individual liberties and great risk of abuse in the wrong hands. Now we have handed this power over to the most unabashedly leftist radical ever to hold Presidential office.

America is now seeing the results of its own revolution, a peaceful November Revolution unlike Russia's of almost a century ago, responding to multiple staged crises with pleas for our new leader to save us from ourselves. Our leader is ready and willing, and we have given President Obama the keys to the kingdom. Many of us warned of the dangers of expanding presidential powers, arguing that what might work under a trustworthy administration might be dangerous in the hands of an unscrupulous one. But even we could not have imagined the speed with which our most dire warnings might come true. Had Obama's ascendency been foreseen, we'd have won that argument hands-down. He's the poster-child for the worst case scenario.

Barack Obama has shown remarkable skill in manipulating domestic events and creating artificial crises to enhance his own power. And what he plans to do with that power, evidenced by his own words and actions, is alarming.

Obama's most transparent strategy, about which much has been written, is to cement American citizens' economic dependence on the government, and therefore on him. In order to achieve this, Obama has deepened and prolonged an otherwise fixable economic crisis, creating menacing conditions for social disintegration and chaos. His tax policies and private sector takeovers ensure jobless rates that will rival those of the Depression era, greatly increasing the number of individuals who will look to government for their survival.

But Obama's strategies go far beyond mere economic control.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Obama has followed through on this pledge, and with the passage of H.R. 1388 the Obama youth corps has been born, with a stated purpose to "combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service." The bill mandates that 50 percent of the new corps will be comprised of "disadvantaged youths," including high-school drop-outs, those with limited English proficiency, and those with criminal records. No offense to these disadvantaged youths, but won't this dramatically increase the probability that armed groups of malcontents with grudges against America will be policing the streets under the guise of "disaster relief?"

Add Obama's willingness to take away citizens' use of guns for self defense, and the possibility of reinstating the Clinton assault weapons ban, and suddenly the words "it can't happen here" ring hollow.

There are telling patterns in Obama's methods, such as his repeated willingness to utilize tactics of intimidation. His abuses of power against Stephen Pidgeon and Orly Taitz, plaintiffs' attorneys in his citizenship eligibility case, have been remarkably brazen. As have the steps he's taken to fund and support ACORN's widely acknowledged abuses.

Obama is also moving quickly to fundamentally alter our educational system. As Vladmir Lenin once remarked, "Give me...the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." Obama is making Orwellian calls for "cradle to career" education, much longer school days, and live-in state officials to "prepare" the minds of our children. Prepare them for what? Phonics? Red herrings like the "give us more time" argument divert attention away from the real objective: driving a wedge between children and their parents. The President has also begun an aggressive campaign against free speech, moving to ramrod a bill through Congress that will nationalize the press. This move is in addition to the united assault from those on the Left seeking a resurrection of the "Fairness Doctrine." And now a new bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will give the President the legal authority to shutdown the internet in the "interest of national security," a limitless grant of power. If our new President can go this far this fast in subverting the First Amendment, can attacks on political opponents be far off? If you think this is alarmist overstatement, note that Homeland Security is already all but labeling Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) a potential domestic terrorist, along with millions of Americans concerned about abortion, immigration, and other issues.

The President has unconstitutionally targeted specific individuals with a 90 percent tax, and boldly intruded into the private sector, firing the head of a private sector company. After bank CEOs met recently with the President he remarked, "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." The President doesn't jest. AIG executives received countless death threats in the bonus furor. How can a sitting American President get away with threatening the heads of private businesses with even figurative "pitchforks?"

President Obama has even begun making preparations for martial law, stationing 80,000 troops in the US as a part of his new "Consequence Management Response Force" to deal with the domestic upheaval and strategic social chaos caused by mass unemployment and a vacuum of public morality.

In a great twist of irony, his blatant violation of laws restricting the domestic use of the US military was made possible by the convenient revisions of the Posse Commitatus Act under the Bush Administration. Now the man of the hour is Barack Obama, and he is looking for an opportunity to cross the Rubicon.

Barack Obama is now the most powerful man in the world. We must work tirelessly, through all available legal and political means, to reverse the policies that have placed such unprecedented power in the hands of this one man.