The closest we've come to having a dictator

Almost since his inauguration, many on the left have insisted that President Trump has had a desire to become America's first dictator.

Admittedly, many of us on the right also thought this of the president. But it didn't take long for Trump to prove us wrong – and I have personally been more than happy to admit that I was.

However, when it comes to dictator wannabes, there have been at least a few, and all have had one thing in common. They've all been Democrats.

Andrew Jackson, was our first Democratic president and monarchical aspirant, which is how he earned the nickname, King Andrew. Others include Lyndon Johnson, Barack Obama and, of course, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

But there was another, and he still holds the title of Worst of the Worst. I'm speaking of none other than Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States. He is the father of modern-day leftist authoritarian progressivism – right out of Fabian Socialist academia.

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To prove my point, I offer exhibit A:

During World War I, Woodrow Wilson created the "Committee on Public Information," or CPI.

The wicked progressive and Wilson adviser Edward Bernays described the CPI as the "engineering of consent" and "the conscious manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses." Wilson, in the CPI, had created America's first official government propaganda department, designed solely to control the population and manipulate their behavior.

Exhibit B:

One example of manipulation the CPI produced was a World War I liberty Bond poster that read: "I am Public Opinion. All men fear me! If you have money to buy and do not buy, I will make this No Man's Land for you!" Now that's not at all creepy, is it?

In today's climate, many of our shutdown-hungry governors might reword it like this: "If you are ordered to comply and do not, I will make this No Man's Land for you!"

Exhibit C:

The CPI trained groups of almost 100,000 men to give four-minute propaganda speeches to any audience that would listen. They were aptly named the 4-Minute Men. They extolled the greatness of government and portrayed Woodrow Wilson as a larger-than-life leader. They also produced and released many government propaganda films.

Exhibit D:

Wilson enacted his own sedition act, which forbade American citizens from criticizing their government during a time of war. The American people could not, "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language" regarding the government or the military.

Exhibit E:

The postmaster general was even given the authority to revoke all mailing privileges of those who disobeyed Wilson's directive. Many publications were given warnings and the government shut down almost 75 for disloyal printings.

Free speech? Freedom of the press? What's that? Sounds a bit like today's YouTube and Facebook.

Exhibit F:

In the Wilson police state, citizens were not even safe in their own homes if they spoke ill of the president. Federal attorneys and U.S. marshals publicly claimed that citizens had nothing to fear as long as they "obeyed the law and kept their mouths shut."

Exhibit G:

Wilson's Justice Department created the "American Protective League," or APL. Its purpose was to spy on the people and turn in any "seditious persons." In 1918, in a single month, the New York City APL rounded up almost 50,000 citizens. The Gestapo had nothing on them.

In an address to Congress, Wilson exclaimed, "The gravest threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered within our borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit … who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life; have sought to bring the authority and good name of our Government into contempt." Notice Wilson spoke of the "good name" of the government, not the United States. As it always is with progressives and statists, the government is set above all.

It is estimated that almost 175,000 citizens were arrested for seditious behavior or failure to demonstrate Wilson's version of patriotism.

This was very similar to conquered nations during World War II, where Hitler was paraded into a sacked city and its citizens were forced to wave Nazi flags and cheer the Fuehrer, or else.

Exhibit H:

Wilson charged another progressive, Bernard Baruch, with running the "War Industries Board," or WIB. The board was formed to assure that all American industry be in service to the State.

It is said that the WIB served as a precursor to the fascist policies of both Mussolini and Hitler.

Grosvenor Clarkson, a member of the WIB, characterized it as "an industrial dictatorship without parallel; A dictatorship by force of necessity and common consent which, step-by-step, at least encompassed the nation and united it into a coordinated and mobile unit."

These are not the only unconstitutional/anti-constitutional transgressions of the Woodrow Wilson administration, but at least now you have an idea of just how oppressive his administration was and what his successors aspire to.

And we are witnessing some of if today, embodied in many leftist governors.

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