History Unfolding
 
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on hist=ry that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all=my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, an= I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a=credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I=know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.. Yes= a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace ha= dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make mas=ive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no=real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom=or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is=three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was=a government of “we the people,” who loaned our powers to our elec=ed leaders. Apparently not.
 
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our eco=omy. Why?
 
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we ar= worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, re=d, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, scho=l boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
 
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their ch=sen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about=his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than=our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would ne=er play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’= pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
 
Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?<=r>  
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now=
 
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never,=ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us alon= philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces int= a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it co=es, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning..
 
As a serious student of history,  I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s= In those times, the “savior” was a former smooth-talking rabble-rou=er from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What=they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, sho=ed, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way political stage through great oratory. Conservative “losers” rea= it right now.

And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lo=. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully and beat them into submission. Which=they did – regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand – the Great Depression. Slo=ly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of Germ=n citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name wh=re they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so= No Jews of course,

 How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to th= jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instil= pride once again in the country, across Europe,  and across the world. He did it with a compliant media – did you know that= And he did this all in the name of justice and …. . .. change. And the peopl= surely got what they voted for.
 
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It’s all there in the history books.
 
So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and=were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Church=ll pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lor=s in England=/st1:country-region> (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a=crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he=was not listened to.
 
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in .. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than ju=t two terms of the U.=S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogatin= its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors..=All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with the=.
 
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I hav= a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am=wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me..
 
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me,=others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am= But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly=what I believe-and why I believe it.
 
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote=in the next elections.
 
David Kaiser    -    Jamestown , Rhode Island=United States