Until We Learn to Grow Bananas

One of the favorite techniques of banana republics is to intimidate the citizenry into accepting the government's bidding. We see it all the time in countries forever behind in their abilities to do even a mediocre job of taking care of their citizens and contributing wealth to the world economy.

We have seen relatively wealthy nations like Venezuela, Cuba, and Zimbabwe become global laughing stocks over their economic collapses, and we have seen other countries like Myanmar, Haiti, and Ethiopia continue on their courses toward perpetual human misery. These countries, and many dozens of like governed dictatorial countries have one vital thing in common--centralized planning orchestrated by a cabal of idealists wielding the power of an all-knowing, benevolent government.

Every one of these countries has thousands of silenced victims. They are in jail, dead, in hiding, or cowered into silence and poverty by government thugs or sympathizers.

When leftists protested Republican governance during the Bush years it was called patriotic. These protests were met with an occasional arrest for disruption. Now that the right is protesting the left's vision of universal health care the rules of engagement have changed. The administration itself has turned up the heat on naysayers by calling on citizens to spy on citizens, while Democrat operatives have called out union thugs to control dissent at propaganda town hall style meetings.

Several years ago a friend of mine traveled to Ukraine on business. One thing that he noticed during his time there was the way that so many people in that country avoided making eye contact with him as he walked down the streets of Kiev. According to his hosts this phenomenon was just the lingering effect of a brutal and paranoid government unafraid to make political opponents disappear. These people didn't want to make eye contact because the eye contact might accidentally be with the wrong person.

Dissent was not tolerated and it showed, sometimes for years afterward.

I do not believe that this is the type of change that will be good for the country and I do not think that silencing debate leads to the best solutions.

Obama and the unions can bite me.



clip h/t to Power Line