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
