As the bitter enormity of the Obama dictatorship becomes clearer, what's happening in California, where we are already living in Obama's second term, warns that you ain't seen nothing yet.
Obama is running on the theme "We Can't Wait." We can't for Congress, for due process, for the rule of law, for the Constitution (that list of negative rights). He must act now for the people.
Obama speaks now as tyrants always speak, blaming freedom for economic hard times, brushing aside the checks and balances of the republic, posing as the champion of the people against the powerful interests that oppress them.
Obama is good at this. He's good at dividing the country, pitting one group against another and then posing as the only one who can unite us. He's reasonable, a metrosexual Hugo Chavez. But it's the same snake oil.
He's not the first American demagogue. The American landscape is littered with the tragic effects of class warfare and divide and conquer politics. Take the history of Detroit.
In the first half of the 20th century, Detroit was the world center of innovation and creativity in personal mobility. The auto industry was a real revolution, marking the break between thousands of years of walking or depending on animals and the vehicles that zip us around today as part of normal life.
Detroit became the center of wealth creation in the world. In 1949, Detroit had the highest household income of any city in the U.S. The opportunity was widely shared. Black Americans streamed into Detroit from the South to get the best paying jobs in America.
Then the Democrats won control of the Detroit city government. From 1947 to today, Detroit politicians have won office demonizing Detroit's success, demanding that the rich pay their "fair share," that corporations "give back," that workers' rights be honored through unionization.
The rich fled, and the plants closed in Detroit, only to reopen in places where they were wanted. Detroit is a burned-out, hollowed-out monument to the failure of a political tradition that Obama champions today. It was not an accident that Obama's first major act in office was to "rescue" GM and Chrysler to save the United Auto Workers union.
The roll-out of Obama's second term is previewed today in California.
The California ruling class of liberal politicians and bureaucrats, backed up by a liberal school system and a liberal media echo chamber, has produced permanent high unemployment, business fleeing the state, permanent big (and bigger) government, high (and higher) taxes, a growing black market (even in school lunches) and a rigid ideological agenda relentlessly pursued by a one-party state.
And things in California are about to get much worse.
Facing a $9.2 billion deficit in a state budget pronounced "balanced" (as required by a state constitution amendment) only six months ago, Gov. Jerry Brown has announced "painful" cuts in the state budget unless taxes are raised.
Brown shrewdly wants the income (to 10.3 percent) and sales (to 7.75 percent) tax increases put on the ballot. He wants Californians to approve a bigger millstone around the neck of the California economy.
Even in California, voters are unlikely to raise taxes on themselves during hard economic times. Brown has a solution to that problem: extortion.
Brown proposes massive cuts to education and aid programs for the poor. Playing out a scripted drama ,coordinated in advance, advocates for education denounced the proposed cuts, crying that education is needed to provide workers for the new economy. Advocates for the poor denounced the proposed cuts, crying that the rich need to pay their fair share.
Powerful unions representing teachers, school administrators, welfare workers, etc., will spend millions demonizing the rich to convince middle-class California voters to approve the tax increases.
Brown is only the latest practitioner of the "Washington Monument" ploy. The story is that whenever the U.S. Park Service was faced with proposed budget cuts, they would close the Washington Monument, hanging a sign on the entrance that budget cuts had forced the closure. Outraged tourists, denied access to the Monument, would then storm the halls of nearby Congress and the budget cuts threat would evaporate.
California's state government is a bloated, inefficient repository of liberal programs – none of which can be cut.
The K-12 schools have more bureaucrats than teachers with a curriculum that teaches "gay history," aiding programs to the poor and offering food, shelter, transportation, even refrigerators, to illegals. The prison guards union has a veto over any state prison-system reform. The state is building a $100 billion bullet train to nowhere.
To fix the earthquake damage to the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Chinese steel and Chinese workers were brought to California because no one was left in California who could do the work.
Brown could balance the state budget without tax increases through reform. He can't do that. He's a product of the iron triangle of public-employee unions, the bureaucracy that houses them, and academia and the media that provide the propaganda to justify the disaster.
Once in a while, Democrats in the Legislature give away the shabby con. A bill was introduced last week to exempt the bullet train to nowhere from environmental review. This train would pave over some of California's best agricultural land, block wildlife movement and pollute the air. This bullet train makes the Keystone XL pipeline look like a butterfly sanctuary. Documenting these environmental impacts would embarrass the liberal elites, so the report won't be done.
Environmental review was already waived for a new football stadium in Los Angeles. Crony capitalism meant that the NFL was more important than the environment. In fact, the "environment" is increasingly used by politicians and unions to favor big money contributors and/or coerce money from private development.
Crony capitalism, extortion of the voters, runaway government, ignoring the Constitution, higher taxes, all-powerful unions. California has it all. It is becoming Detroit.
Californians used to say we were "living the dream." Now we are living the nightmare that the rest of the country will experience should Obama be re-elected.