Alexis de Tocqueville called it
a “soft despotism”.  Mussolini
referred to it as “corporatism”.
We now call it Obama-nomics.

Barack Obama has made a
mad dash these fiirst 100 days
of his presidency to the ex-
treme left.  Taking advantage
of every available crisis at
hand, he is pushing America
deeper into Socialism. This
despite his campaign promises
of appealing towards modera-
tion.  Instead, we appear des-
tined to be in line for rations,
of health care, energy, food,
and anything else he can sink
the government’s teeth into.

Soft Despotism is the slow,
creeping, incremental seizure
of power by the government.
It started long before Obama,
so we cannot blame him for
all of it.  Wilson, FDR and
LBJ all played a major roles.
Truman, Carter and even a
few ‘moderate’ Republicans
had a hand in it as well.

Mussolini’s plan for corporat-
ism called for a vertical inte-
gration of government,
business and labor unions
to control a nation’s economy.
The recent moves towards
salvaging GM and Chrysler
show the blueprint from the
Obama version of corporatism.
Labor unions will hold a signi-
ficant stake in both, a majority
in Chrysler.  Uncle Sugar also
holds a piece of the pie.  What
ever is left is fought over by
creditors and bond holders.

The banks are facing a similar
fate.  The Fed is stalling those
banks who want to repay the
TARP funds loaned to them.
Claiming that they are still in
peril, after a ‘stress test’, and
despite several banks showing
a 1st Quarter profit, Uncle
Sugar wants the banks to give
them common stock, with
voting power, instead of the
preferred stock the banks ini-
tially handed over last year.
The Obama Administration
is under strong pressure from
their labor union supporters
to pave the way for the banks
to become unionized as well.

The Obama Administration
has expanded the role of the
government in the economy
from around 20% of GDP to
over 30%.  He has weighed
in with record breaking budget
deficits, dooming future gener-
ations to higher taxes and
massive debt.  Unemployment
continues to grow as the
stimulus packages already
voted on by the Congress have
failed to have any effect as of
yet.  Most analysts now say
that at best, the economy may
begin to rebound sometime
next year, if then.

On foreign policy, Obama took
his teleprompter on tour over-
seas.  He continued protocol
gaffes begun with dissing the
British Prime Minister, Gordon
Brown.  In Europe he gave the
Queen of England an IPod,
apologized for America being
a bad country, and bowed to
the Saudi king.  More apolo-
gizing continued in Mexico
and in Trinidad.  He greeted
Hugo Chavez, whom Obama
emulates with his daily TV
appearances.  North Korea
has started processing
nuclear material again and
test launched a long range
missile as America sat and
did little to stop or condemn
it.  Russia now admits that
our intelligence from the
Bush era about Iran’s nu-
clear program is correct,
yet little is being done to
prevent Iran from building
a nuclear bomb.  The only
country who will act, Israel,
is being criticized by Obama
surrogates.

The media claims that the
Obama Administration is
the brightest and best run
ever.  Yet nearly all of his
cabinet appointments have
had serious issues due to
failures in the vetting pro-
cess.  Many key positions
have yet to be filled.  The
new White House Press
Secretary, Robert Gibbs,
is absolutely the worst ever
to hold that position.  His
press conferences are
filled with stumbles and
gaffes.  This past Monday
was a good example when
a photo-op of Air Force One
flying over New York City
sent thousands fleeing
buildings in fear of another
9/11 attack.  An outbreak
of swine flu from Mexico
now stalks America, but
did not stop Obama from
playing golf over the week-
end.  Had Bush done so,
the MSM would have
screamed bloody murder!

A report from the Center
for Press and Media
shows that Obama has
received an extraordinary
amount of favorable press
coverage.  Over 27 hours
compared to less than 8
hours during the same
period for Bush and about
15 hours for Clinton. They
failed to vet Obama during
the primaries and continue
to let Obama slide on his
many gaffes and decisions.

What is in store for the next
100 days?  Legislation to
reign in the credit industry,
nationalizing health care
and putting a huge new tax
on energy consumption.
Nice, eh?  Congress is now
even reconsidering Obama’s
much ballyhooed Middle
Class tax cuts, as projec-
tions for the budget deficit
look grimmer than predicted.
If potential inflation rates of
8+% annually don’t scare
you enough, how about the
prospects of the Taliban
seizing control of Pakistan
and their nuclear weapons?

After all, under the Obama
Doctrine, America is the bad
guy and is to blame for all of
the world’s problems.  So why
should our enemies fear us?
Which brings me to a nice
quote that we should all keep
in mind the next four years.

“When the people fear the
government, there is tyranny.
When the government fears
the people, there is liberty”
Thomas Jefferson, like all of
our Founding Fathers, knew
that the republic given to us
via the U.S. Constitution
would only keep us free if we
defend it.  Line by line, clause
by clause.  Over the past
century, the Constitution has
been under continuous assault.
Each new law passed, each
new treaty entered into, sheds
one more safeguard of our
liberty.

At break neck speed, Obama
and the Democrat-controlled
Congress, are passing legisla-
tion.  Bills involving vast sums
of money, policies that change
the very nature of this nation
are being made law with little
if any review or debate. And
they are far from done.