Tocqueville on Socialism and DemocracyMarch 05, 2012
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I spoke earlier about integrity, self-reliance, rugged individualism, things that made this country great, things which define the institutions and traditions that made this country great. They're all under assault by people who actually hold you in contempt. They don't look at you as competent. You don't have what it takes to make the right decisions. They know this because, given the choice, you would not turn your life over to them. And when you won't turn your life over to them, you're a threat. They derive their power from forcing you to turn to them for your very needs in life, not just your wants, but your very needs.
If you want an endless supply of anything, they'll be happy to provide it as long as you vote for them, but you're never gonna get too wealthy in the process, because then you become an enemy. You must be cut down. It's called class envy. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote on this subject in a famous book, "It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them."
In other words: People who have totally abandoned self-reliance, managing their own affairs -- people who have given up running their own lives -- what-in-the-heck kind of people are they going to elect to lead them? "It is impossible," Tocqueville writes, "to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants. The American republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education, the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint.
"It's not necessary to do violence to such people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy. They themselves willingly loosen their hold. They neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own masters." They give that up, which is fine, but then they come along and demand that all the rest of us give up our own self-reliance and our own independence. They're not content to live their lives the way they want. They then must try to make all the rest of us live the same thing way, and that is what the entire Obama administration is about. This administration actually has an enemies list. This administration actually calls the names of private citizens and holds them up for ridicule and attack.
It encourages those attacks on private citizens who simply disagree and who do nothing more than speak constitutionally protected words! Have you ever thought what kind of people they are who are literally threatened to death by words? Well, that's President Obama and his supporters and his political party. Words! And publicly ridiculing? Some might say that we really aren't private citizens anymore under this regime, that we are more like subjects. If we behave properly, then if we need pair of sneakers, we might get it; if we need a new kitchen, we might get it. Don't behave accordingly and not only will you not get it, you'll get called out. And a nation of Obama supporters will then attempt to ridicule you into silence and acquaintance.
Back to Tocqueville: "Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: Equality. But notice the difference. While democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." The equality of socialism is everybody equally miserable, everybody equally wanting, everybody equally unhappy. Not liberty, but equality in restraint and servitude. "America is great," Tocqueville concludes here, "because she's good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith." The greatest threat that the nation faces is the absence, right now, of a moral core. Any attempt to establish one is fought tooth and nail by those who do not want one.
END TRANSCRIPT
_________________________________________________________
