Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Two quotes from James Madison on the relationship between national defense (read homeland security) and tyranny:

“”The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

If James Madison saw this clear pattern in history hundreds of years ago, then how can we in the 21st century fail to see its effects around us in the present? In matters of democracy and liberty, it seems that many Americans have not learned from the wisdom of past generations.

So, now we hear that George W. Bush regards Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a new Adolf Hitler. Is my imagination failing me, or wasn’t Saddam Hussein supposed to be our generation’s new Adolf Hitler?

Or was it Osama Bin Laden? Or Milosevic? Or Manuel Noriega? Or Moammar Quadaffi?

Damn, it’s hard to keep track of all these new Hitlers we have to keep defeating. You kick one Hitler in the head, and another one pops up in another country, just in time for another war.

Has Bill O’Reilly proclaimed Barabara Streisand the new Hitler yet?

It’s getting to be like a fashion, this new Hitler thing: Oooh, darling! Have you seen this year’s new Hitler? It’s simply divine!

Of course, here at home in America, we don’t need a new Hitler to go around bashing gays and foreigners, in good old Nazi style.

Ah, me. So, who is the new Goebbels? How about a new Mussolini? Has George W. Bush picked out a new Idi Amin?