The Obamas and the Peróns

Seventy odd years ago Argentina was one of the ten richest countries in the world. It was, by any and all standards, considered a first world country where people had it all--happiness, money and most importantly individual freedom.

Then Lt. General Juan Domingo Perón and his wife Evita (María Eva Duarte de Perón became the occupiers of Casa Rosada (Pink House) and the Argentina that everyone knew and loved at the time slowly bled away.

The Perons ran on a platform of social justice. They championed distribution of wealth by raising taxes and forcing companies to pay higher, unaffordable wages to the workers.

While Juan Peron was in the military, he studied Mossulini's model of fascism and after becoming president he fully implemented it. Anyone who didn't accept higher taxes for the good of all Argentines was branded a criminal. Anyone who disagreed with Juan Peron's policies was branded a traitor.

One of the most famous Argentine authors, Borges, said about Peron's government that they were trying to take away Argentine individualism and turn Argentines into a herd of sheep. He was arrested for making this and similar remarks about Peron. It didn't matter that in the end Borges was right.

Apart from raising taxes on the rich and burning down the offices of newspapers that were critical of Peron, the Perons, especially Evita, championed taking money away from the rich, by force if need be, and giving it to the poor. And she did so too, with the help of her husband's government and the police. For this reason, even to this day, she is considered a saint. Yes, she is considered a saint because she stole hard earned money from those who had it and gave it to those who didn't want to work.

The Perons sympathized with the Nazis during and after WWII. That is why it was no surprise that when the Mossad went after the Nazis, they went to Argentina. It was Argentina where the Mossad kidnapped Eichmann and flew him to Israel. The Germans, during and after the war, transferred gold to the Perons, both as gratitude for their sympathy and for safe keeping. Most of that gold was snatched away from the Jews of Europe right before they were gassed.

However, Perons themselves were full of contradictions. Where they sympathized with the Nazis on the one hand, Juan Peron appointed Jewish cabinet members in his administration on the other. It is because of these and similar contradictions that in the Argentina of today, you will find two different accounts of the lives of the Perons. One account where the Perons were gods come down to Argentina to save the afflicted and the other account where the Perons were demons of the worst kind, bringing with them the destruction of Argentina and along with it the destruction of the upper and the middle classes that made Argentina what it was to begin with.

Juan Peron stayed in office for 11 years, and in eleven years things had gotten so bad that the military decided to take over the government resulting in a series of military dictatorships. It took Argentina, a rich country with virtually no debt problems, a mere 11 years to be brought down to its knees.

Juan Peron and Evita brought in a movement where money was taken away from those who worked hard for it and given to those who wanted to live off the government's teat. This movement came to be known as Peronism. Since this movement started, Argentina has not had a democratically elected President who wasn't a Peronist.

Even to this day you have one kind of a Peronist party after another. The current government is a Peronist government and the opposition is a Peronist party. There is no second opinion. The country has changed forever and it has been turned into a third world country.

The majority of Argentines (those in favor and those who oppose the government) look up to the government to solve their daily problems. The majority of Argentines ask the government to tell them what's right and what's wrong. And what has this done to this once great country? Wiped the values of individualism, independence and personal liberty from the minds of the people forever.

And the last and most painful point to note here is that the Constitution of Argentina was almost a direct copy (in spirit) of the American Constitution. And today it is a worthless piece of paper that no one cares for and no one wants to care for.

In the end I just want to add that when it comes to Argentina, one can't just blame the government for all the destruction that has been wrought on the people of this country. It is the people that were responsible and still are responsible for putting these people in places of power. It is the people who have collectively committed suicide so that they can get free bread for a day or two and not have to work for it.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."