Democracy to Dictatorship

The End of American Democracy

     Every dictatorship includes several features common to them all. These aspects of tyranny over the populations of so many undemocratic societies have now become visible in the United States. The first of these antidemocratic features is the one party system. This is not yet true in the United States. However, if the Democrats win again in November, a one-party country will surely emerge. This will mean that without opposition of any kind, Democrats will trample on the Constitution and abolish not only the Second Amendment to our Constitution but assault the First Amendment as well. In case you don’t remember, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, all of which are opposed to Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

     A second characteristic of a dictatorship is that the media become a mouthpiece for the government. At one time the American media held government officials accountable for their actions. This applied to both parties and to elected as well as appointed politicians. Today the American media have become an adjunct of the Democratic Party. Consequently, the media will not criticize Democrats nor expose any of their wrongdoings to the public. Instead, the media, with few exceptions, have become active opponents of Republican candidates, who are now faced with needing to defeat candidates of the other party as well as their allies within the journalistic profession.

     A third characteristic of a dictatorship is the inheritance of political power by the members of the family of those already entrenched. One of the reasons for the American Revolution of 1775 was that King George appointed all his relatives to government positions, not only in England, but also in the colonies.

     Today the same thing is happening in the United States. The current nominee of the Democrats is the wife of a former president. The daughter of former Pres. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, was appointed ambassador to Japan even though at her Senate hearings she admitted to know nothing about that country. The son of former Gov. of New York, Mario Cuomo, is the current governor, Andrew Cuomo. Lisa Murkowski is one of the senators from Alaska. She became a Senator  when her father Frank Murkowski was elected governor and appointed his daughter to complete his unexpired term. In Arkansas, the secretary of state appointed his son as well as his son’s wife to government offices. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Al Gore of Tennessee, and Connie Mack of Florida all had fathers who were also senators.

     Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, and Jim Matheson of Utah have been governors, as were their fathers. Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota was the granddaughter of the governor and was herself a Congresswoman. William Schuster of Pennsylvania, Walter Jones of North Carolina, John Duncan of Tennessee, John Dingell of Michigan, Charles T. Walsh of New York, Helen Mollohan of West Virginia, Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, and Charles Bass of New Hampshire have all been members of Congress because their fathers were members of Congress before them. In Utah, representative Mark Udall is the son of former Congressman and presidential candidate Morris Udall. His cousin is representative Tom Udall, whose father was a cabinet secretary and a cousin of Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon. Representative James M. Jeffords of Vermont is the son of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in that state.

     Representative Rodney P. Freylinghuisen has had five ancestors or relatives represent New Jersey before him. Sen. Chris Dodd is the son of former Sen. Thomas Dodd, and Sen. Robert Bennett is the son of a senator from Utah. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas is also the son of a senator, and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is the wife of John R. McKernan, Jr. who was governor of Maine. Representative Russ Carnahan of Missouri is the daughter of a Missouri governor and Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island is the son of Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island. Representative Mary Bono of California and Lois Capps, also from California, and Joe Anne Emerson of Missouri are all widows of representatives in Congress. Former Sen. John Kyl of Arizona is the son of former representative John H. Kyl and representative Tom Allen of Maine has been a member of the Portland city council, as were his father and his grandfather. Representative Charles Gonzales is the son of the late Congressman Henry Gonzalez, and Sen. Evan Bayh is the son of the late Sen. Birch Bayh. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is the son of former U.S. House majority whip Roy Blunt.

     Representative John Sarbanes is the son of former Sen. Paul Sarbanes and Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon has a brother, Milan Smith, who was appointed by President Bush to the ninth circuit court of appeals.

      This long list of nepotists represents only a few of the numerous relatives who have become a part of the American oligarchy in a manner similar to that common in monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and the British monarchy of the 18^th century, from which the American colonists achieved independence precisely in order to escape the nepotism inherent in the monarchical system.

     Nepotism is now also being used to get around term limits. For example, Ohio State Sen. Timothy Grendell has replaced his wife, who sat in that seat for eight years. In Michigan, three women were elected to the state legislature after their husbands left because of term limits. In Oregon, House Speaker Karen Minnis took the seat of her husband in 1998 and William Weld, the former Massachusetts governor, is the great grandson in law of President Theodore Roosevelt. There is also a great deal of political necromancy. For example, Sen. Jean Carnahan is a widow whose husband died while on the stump for the seat she now holds.

     Traditionally the media made it their task to supervise elected and appointed officials and tell the voters about corruption, favoritism, and other abuses of power on the part of the people’s representatives. This function of holding accountable those in power has been greatly eroded in recent years, as professional journalists and professional politicians have become one happy family.

     Numerous such examples include Chris Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo and brother of the  present governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Chris is co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20 and hosts CNN’s morning news show. Then there is Jay Carney, who was appointed Obama’s press secretary . He is married to Claire Shipman of ABC's Good Morning America. Likewise, Ruth Marcus, columnist for the Washington Post, is married to federal trade commissioner Chairman John Leibowitz. The daughter of Pres. George W. Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, is a reporter for the NBC Today show. Ron Brownstein, a Los Angeles Times reporter, claimed that he would treat Sen. John McCain objectively, although Brownstein’s wife CNN producer Elaine McMenamin is the senator's communications director. The daughter of Tom Oliphant of the Boston Globe, a subsidiary of the New York Times, worked  on the Kerry campaign, and Fox News named Greg Kelly, son of New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly, White House correspondent.

     Evidently the close relationship between the representatives of the media and our politicians has to mean that politicians are immune to criticism on the part of those whose connection to the media will never allow that.

   A fourth characteristic of dictatorship is the corruption of the judiciary.  Today our judiciary has lost its independence. It has now become customary for the county chairpersons of both major political parties to nominate the same individuals to judgeships. This deprives voters of an opportunity to elect their judges, since the Republican and Democratic candidate are the same. The judges so elected, or rather appointed, owe their jobs to the two politicians who put them there and not to the people, who have no say or influence. Obviously such judges will rule in favor of the interests of the politicians to whom they are beholden, thereby corrupting our legal system absolutely.

     The phrase "politically correct" has become commonplace in America. It represents the fear of many American citizens to express their opinions freely, thereby undermining freedom of speech, which is the very foundation of democratic life. The fifth characteristic of dictatorship and undemocratic conditions is the restriction on freedom of speech. So-called liberals prevent opinions other than theirs from being freely expressed. Generally Americans are now afraid to say anything that may be unpopular, as the liberal establishment are willing to use all means including physical force to prevent the expression of views they don’t like. Should the present trend continue, it is entirely likely that the few who still voice opinions not supported by the Democratic Party will be silenced, as is customary in all dictatorships.    

     Anyone who has only a minimum knowledge of Jewish history is aware that the 1900 years of Jewish suffering in Europe was directly related to the tyrannies which have always governed there. The fact is that the Jewish community in America has succeeded so immensely because this country has for several centuries allowed our tiny Jewish minority all the blessings of freedom and liberty available to all citizens. Now, however, it appears that a concerted assault on democracy is underway, supported in the main by those who call themselves liberals but are indeed the enemies of democracy. Should they succeed in their designs then the Jewish community would again become the first target of their hostilities. Anyone who visits any of our universities will see for himself unrelenting hatred of Jews promoted by faculty and students alike. It is therefore dangerous for the American Jewish community to continue to support Democrats, who not only seek to turn this country into an oligarchy, but are also those who harbor the most malicious anti-Semites in this country.

     It is to be hoped that American Jews will not make the same mistakes made by their European ancestors, who refused to recognize the dangers that confronted them until it was too late.

Shalom u’vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including End of the Patriarchy (2015).

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