David
Kaiser is a respected historian whose published
works have covered a broad range of topics, from
European Warfare to American League Baseball.
Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser
spent his childhood in three capital cities:
Washington D.C. , Albany , New York and
Dakar , Senegal .. He attended Harvard
University , graduating there in 1969 with a
B.A. in history. He then spent several years
more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which
he obtained in 1976. He served in the Army
Reserve from 1970 to 1976.
He is a
professor in the Strategy and Policy Department
of the United States Naval War College . He has
previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams
College and Harvard University . Kaiser's latest
book, The Road to
Dallas, about the Kennedy
assassination, was just published by Harvard
University Press.
Dr. David
Kaiser
History
Unfolding
I am a student of
history. Professionally, I have written 15 books
on history that have been published in six
languages, and I have studied history all my
life. I have come to think there is something
monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe
it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage
crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but
they are merely single facets on a very large
gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper
focus.
Something of historic proportions
is happening. I can sense it because I know how
it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how
people react to it.. Yes, a perfect storm may be
brewing, but there is something happening within
our country that has been evolving for about ten
to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically
quickened in the past two.
We demand and
then codify into law the requirement that our
banks make massive loans to people we know they
can never pay back? Why?
We learned just
days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has
little or no real oversight by anyone, has
"loaned" two trillion dollars (that is
$2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months,
but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose
the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine.
And that is three times the $700 billion we all
argued about so strenuously just this past
September. Who has this money? Why do they have
it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who
asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this
was a government of "we the people," who loaned
our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently
not.
We have spent two or more decades
intentionally de-industrializing our economy.
Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down
our schools, ignored our history, and no longer
teach our founding documents, why we are
exceptional, and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think
critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not
revolting, teachers are not picketing, school
boards continue to back mediocrity.
Why?
We have now established the
precedent of protesting every close election
(violently in California over a proposition that
is so controversial that it simply wants
marriage to remain defined as between one man
and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing
possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted
our sacred political process by allowing
unelected judges to write laws that radically
change our way of life, and then mainstream
Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our
voting system into a banana republic. To what
purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is
collapsing, housing prices are in free fall,
major industries are failing, our banking system
is on the verge of collapse, social security is
nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire
government. Our education system is worse than a
joke (I teach college and I know precisely what
I am talking about) - the list is staggering in
its length, breadth, and depth.. It is
potentially 1929 x ten...And we are at war
with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of
offending people of the same religion, who, in
turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your
children if they have the opportunity to do
so.
And finally, we have elected a man
that no one really knows anything about, who has
never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a
town as big as Wasilla , Alaska . All of his
associations and alliances are with real
radicals in their chosen fields of employment,
and everything we learn about him, drip by drip,
is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you
have heard him speak about his idea to create
and fund a mandatory civilian defense force
stronger than our military for use inside our
borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would
never play that for you over and over and then
demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant
daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more
important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform
can be boiled down to one word: Change.
Why?
I have never been so afraid for my
country and for my children as I am
now..
This man campaigned on bringing
people together, something he has never, ever
done in his professional life. In my assessment,
Obama will divide us along philosophical lines,
push us apart, and then try to realign the
pieces into a new and different power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you
will never see the same nation again.
And
that is only the
beginning..
As
a serious student of history, I thought I would
never come to experience what the ordinary,
moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In
those times, the "savior" was a former
smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets,
about whom the average German knew next to
nothing. What they should have known was that he
was associated with groups that shouted, shoved,
and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political
stage through great oratory. Conservative
"losers" read it right now.
And there
were the promises. Economic times were tough,
people were losing jobs, and he was a great
speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a
lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to
speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would
bully and beat them into submission. Which they
did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected
to office, while a full-throttled economic
crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression.
Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of
government power, person by person, department
by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The
children of German citizens were at first,
encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name
where they were taught exactly what to think.
Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of
course,
How did he get people on
his side? He did it by promising jobs to the
jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards
for the military-industrial complex. He did it
by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun
control, health care for all, better wages,
better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride
once again in the country, across Europe , and
across the world. He did it with a compliant
media - did you know that? And he did this all
in the name of justice and .... . .. change. And
the people surely got what they voted
for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look
it up. It's all there in the history
books.
So read your history books. Many
people of conscience objected in 1933 and were
shouted down, called names, laughed at, and
ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out
the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in
the House of Lords in England (he was not yet
Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and
called a crazy troublemaker. He was right,
though. And the world came to regret that he was
not listened to.
Do not forget that
Germany was the most educated, the most cultured
country in Europe . It was full of music, art,
museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
universities. And yet, in less than six
years (a shorter time span than just
two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was
rounding up its own citizens, killing others,
abrogating its laws, turning children against
parents, and neighbors against neighbors.. All
with the best of intentions, of course. The road
to Hell is paved with them.
As a
practical thinker, one not overly prone to
emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can
either believe what the objective pieces of
evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe
with disgust); I can believe what history is
shouting to me from across the chasm of seven
decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my
eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is
transpiring around me..
I choose to
believe the evidence. No doubt some people will
scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am
foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps
I am. But I have never been afraid to look
people in the eye and tell them exactly what I
believe-and why I believe
it.
I
pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps
the only hope is our vote in the next
elections.
David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island
United
States