Topic: Democrat Watch
Inspired by the famous warning by Martin Niemöller.*
In America, they first created the Welfare State and "Entitlements" -- including Social Security, which they promised would be "temporary" -- which have created generations of dependent masses. But I didn't speak up, because I wanted government benefits and security, too.
Then they created special government programs and rendered court decisions favoring select minorities, setting quotas and giving them advantages in education and jobs. Then they added de facto amnesty for illegal aliens, who do not pay income tax and who use public services and unpaid medical care disproportionately. But I didn't speak up, because I didn't want to be called a racist.
Then they declared that women were discriminated against because of childbearing, that a baby was "part of the mother" until delivery, and that a woman had the "choice" to abort her baby for any reason whatsoever. But I didn't speak up, because I didn't want to be called a sexist.
Then they made trade agreements that increased our trade deficit and exported American manufacturing jobs overseas, increasing unemployment, hopelessness, and poverty. But I didn't speak up, because I didn't want to be associated with Protectionism, and I like cheap foreign goods, too.
Then they created special rights for certain deviant behaviors and lifestyles, enacting "hate crimes" laws that punish violence against certain persons more harshly -- despite the fact that those laws violate the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment -- and even punish speech. But I didn't speak up, because I didn't want to be called a "hater" or a homophobe.
Then it became clear that our government had been infiltrated by Socialists, Communists, Statists, and radicals. They went so far as to say that any opposition to a black president's policies is inherently racist. So I didn't speak up, because I didn't want to be associated with McCarthyism or the KKK.
Then they decided that the U.S. Constitution was outdated, and no longer applied to modern, "Progressive" America. But there were too few people left to speak for my Constitutional rights, because they had all "sold out" to self-interest or surrendered to Political Correctness -- all because people like me were too afraid that someone might call them a bad name.
*Niemöller was a Protestant pastor imprisoned by the Nazis from 1938 to 1945. In a speech in Frankfurt in 1946 he said, "In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me."
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©2009 Paul A. Hughes. All rights reserved. May be freely distributed for private use, with copyright and proper attribution attached and observed.