Monday, September 29, 2008

The Dark Night of Fascism

One of our readers took me to task recently for describing the Left in this country as having fascist tendencies. It lowers the level of discourse, I believe was his claim. I have seen several examples come and go since then, but this story coming out of Missouri is truly chilling, and indicates the fascist intentions of elements within the Obama campaign and in.


Last Tuesday without any fanfare, the Barack Obama campaign announced Jennifer Joyce and Bob McCulloch, the top prosecutors in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, were joining something called an Obama truth squad. They plan to respond immediately to any misleading advertisements and statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws.


The story itself is scary, in that the reporter's sarcastic tone shows he sides with the Obama campaign in threatening free speech--he obviously thinks his speech rights will never be threatened. Governor Matt Blunt of that state was sufficiently alarmed to issue a statement concerning the threat of law enforcement officials signing up to deter what they consider untruthful campaign ads against Barack Obama.


What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.


What response would be appropriate from a prosecutor to paid advertising, which I believe still falls under the First Amendment? We do still have a First Amendment, right? What business do prosecutors have, in their official capacities, being part of a "truth squad"? I'll bet Ernst Rohm, the community organizer in charge of Hitler's Brown Shirts, would admire that one.

Organized intimidation: now an approved method in American politics, and the jihadis haven't even gotten warmed up here yet.

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