On freedom... Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. Ronald Reagan 40th president of US (1911 - 2004). "The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed." Adolf Hitler. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Sir Winston Churchill. It's amazing how we have been recently led from the words of Regan to those of Hitler and then see Churchill's perspective on it.
I agree with you BP, but I do think that Americans have the will to fight, deep down. The government can erode our rights and our freedoms to a point, but once we get to that point watch out. We're already seeing angry Americans around the country standing up to the government. It's not a coincidence that groups like the Tea Party are becoming popular. People are angry with the two-party system. If things continue down the path that they are on, we could see change enacted through different means.
Every empire we have seen has fallen. The Mongolians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Spanish, the British, the Germans... Now it's America's turn.
The Germans were a self-proclaimed empire. They lasted... what..... maybe ten years? Not much of an "empire".
They dominated almost all of Europe and fought on almost every front. That is pretty fucking impressive for 10 years.
I don't see America close to a fall. Coming out of a recession it seems. They will be fine. The problem is you may have another Empire start to rise over on the eastern side of the world.
I happen to agree with this. Our best years are clearly behind us. Socialism, immorality, over taxation has become the order of the day. In fact, were we not isolated from the rest of the world powers, by now I think we would be substantially weaker than we are.
Even the citizens on the US will be better off when they aren't on top of the world. Being the centre of attention isn't always a good thing.
I do know this. When the idea was brought up in the House of Commons by the socialized medicine champion, Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, that Churchill walked out on him. I also know that Churchill's acceptance for it was more due to a country ravaged by war and people were having a hard time finding food, let alone the means to afford medicine. If that makes him the founder of socialized medicine, then I guess that's your slant on it. The history I read (NOT on the internet, but real history), tells me he supported it in the end out of compassion during that specific time. If nothing else, Churchill was a champion of the underprivileged.
By the way, Churchhill was only seen as such a great political figure in England because of the time he was elected. If he was Prime Minister during a time of peace, he probably wouldn't of received such recognition or positive feedback. He was the perfect candidate during a time of war.
I am aware of this, I can use Wikipedia too. I would hardly call post-war peaceful seeing as all of Europe was in a huge recession.
