Galt's Gulch
11

"A dictatorship cannot take hold in America today." - Ayn Rand

Posted by GaltsGulch 8 years, 1 month ago to The Gulch: General
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"A dictatorship cannot take hold in America today. This country, as yet, cannot be ruled - but it can explode. It can blow up into the helpless rage and blind violence of a civil war." - Ayn Rand

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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 1 month ago
    Rand said, "A dictatorship cannot take hold in America today." I am not sure this is true any longer. So this is how liberty dies ... to thunderous applause. (Princess Padme, in the Star Wars series)
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    • Posted by ewv 8 years, 1 month ago
      Ayn Rand explained how the American "sense of life" would reject dictatorship, but that a sense of life is not enough to hold out permanently against the growing explicit philosophy of irrationalism, altruism, collectivism and statism. Read her article "Don't Let it Go", then the later "A Nation's Unity" and "The American Spirit" just before and after McGovern's landslide lost. Then compare the state of the culture then with what it is today, and how much worse Obama and Clinton are, both in their ruthless actions and the base on which Clinton now has to build. We are living through what she feared, and it is getting worse.
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    • Posted by $ Abaco 8 years, 1 month ago
      I don't think it's true any longer. I have been saying for the past two years that the American people are very, very eager to be ruled. The really do want it.
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      • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
        Ruled by PC, perhaps half of them. The deplorables, on the other hand, are very much against this and are on the edge of political revolt at this point, and not that far from taking it further.
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      • Posted by $ pixelate 8 years, 1 month ago
        Indeed... I have said, in the company of friends, "What's to be upset about? The Mets are playing tonight, the tri-tip on the barbecue sure smells good and the old lady, well, she got a sparkle in her eye." The People are fat and happy. Just keep the gravy train rolling. My neighbor is on SSDI... his understanding of economics "Everybody pays taxes." The state of the economy is irrelevant to him ... he gets his govt. welfare check... spends it on food and entertainment. Even my dad is on a check ... federal postal carrier pension ... 19 years into it. He earned it, of course, contractual... but the SSDI? We have 13 million adults on SSDI... and everyone knows an SSDI person that is still hauling firewood, fixing their roof, hiking the PCT. The SSDI has become a $180B welfare check. After awhile, everything becomes irrelevant ... the rulers and rules are irrelevant... the only thing that Is relevant, is The Check. Just keep the gravy checks rolling.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 1 month ago
    IF Clinton is elected, the choice between subservience and violent revolution may not be far off. If her policies crush the economy, there will be an instinct to flog the horse harder, rather than offer a carrot. As the job market craters and crime spins out of control thanks to efforts to cripple the law enforcement community, martial law will slowly become part of the solution to keep the lid on the pot.

    Hillary is too stupid to exercise patience, and she may well stumble into a major conflict with either China or Russia (Russia is now the prime globalist target). How many Americans are going to be willing to die in a senseless conflict for a leader that hates the military?
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    • Posted by 1musictime 8 years, 1 month ago
      Government are servants.
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      • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 1 month ago
        They stopped being servants, by any definition of the word with the Wilson administration. We've been derelict in our duty in allowing our representatives to accept the idea of an imperial executive in a President with near unlimited power. The other big mistake was when Kennedy permitted government workers to unionize, with the result being the self-serving mandarins who are indifferent to the needs of the voters.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 1 month ago
    She was right then, but I think she's have something else to say today.If the Republicans lose the presidency, and the senate and/or the house, we will in effect have a one party system. Not much different from a dictatorship. The Republicans have shown a great lack of moral cajones while owning both houses, can you imagine how they'll be if they lose them?

    In any case, I think Ayn Rand would be quite vitriolic today if she were at the height of her powers.She might even get into politics a bit. Can you imagine her advising Johnson and getting his head straight? He probably could use some objectivist advisors right now.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
      If AS didnt move the needle towards freedom, how on earth is Johnson supposed to do it ? We are living in replay of AS right now. Venezuela is in the final throes of a replay of AS. Even Rand thought that Galt should stand aside politically until the collapse weakened the establishment. Look at what Trump is going through just for supporting some principles of freedom. He has 40% of the country behind him, and I say that the upset with socialism isnt going to go away if he isnt elected. The country will be even MORE divided and just not give any mandates to Hillary to do anything at all.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 1 month ago
        If Hillary is in office, it won't be divided for long. The Republicans will pretty much cease to exist as I pointed out above. In any case, I don't think Johnson is the guy and sadly, Ms. Rand is dead.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
          The republicans ceased to exist already. The rise of Trump and his hijacking of the party is proof of that. The regular repubs would have been dead in the water without Trump.
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          • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 1 month ago
            "The regular repubs would have been dead in the water without Trump."
            I think there's a chance the regular Republicans would join the regular Democrats. The Bernie Sanders Democrats would join a kinder, gentler version of Trump.
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            • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
              I kind of liked Sanders as a person until the day his true feelings about Trump came out. He is a vicious evil politician who talks out of both sides of his mouth, and then gives in and supports his archenemy Hillary. I lost all respect for him at that point.
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              • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 1 month ago
                I don't know if he honest, but he seems to supportive of socialism. He also has the most contemptuous pronunciation of the word billionaires. The context is usually that's who's going to pay for his proposals. It seems he promotes a fantasy that somewhere in the world are huge amounts of wealth that could pay for everyone's basic needs. Not only do I not like the spirit of expecting someone else to pay, billionaires don't have enough wealth to pay for everyone else even if the gov't took every bit of their wealth. I did not want him to win the nomination.
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                • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
                  I wanted him to win and get rid of Hillary forever. But she was so crooked that she trashed him. He should have been pissed off, but he capitulated and joined her. He just looked for whoever had money he could take- didnt care where it came from.
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    • Posted by lrshultis 8 years, 1 month ago
      From your point of view, if the republicans had both houses and the presidency, then that would be "not much different from a dictatorship". Neither way would be like a dictatorship. There is much more involved in a dictatorship and takes more than the results of an election.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 1 month ago
        You're not taking philosophy into account. A Republican control of congress and the presidency would be quite different from a Democrat take-over.. Just a brief reading of history would illustrate how countries becoming socialistic are merely the first steps to a dictatorship. First get control of the government promising all sorts of of benefits. Eventually, as the system fails to provide for its citizens more control is put in place in order to "fix" the problem, until the fixers are in complete control. Look a Russia, Venezuela, Italy and Germany. I'm not praising the Republicans, but they are farther from socialism and as a result further from dictatorship.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 1 month ago
    The worst of the worst have a 150 year jump on us...the vast majority of us have just been living life and not paying the kind of close attention our forefathers expected us to do.

    I think we Can get it back, back from the throws of death...but it ain't gona happen overnight.
    It might take us as long to recover as it has for us to find ourselves in this situation.
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    • Posted by DeanStriker 8 years, 1 month ago
      Dissolution is the ONLY way of returning to anything resembling morality and common sense. Too bad that we can't vote on that! So we await the Great Collapse, and wonder if then We can resist returning to tyranny.
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  • Posted by coaldigger 8 years, 1 month ago
    The more time spent in the post Vietnam educational system, the more people are willing to submit. Many, however, could give two s**ts for education, are unwilling to be bullied, are armed and capable of being ornery about the loss of liberty. We, "intellectuals", are not exposed to these people on a day to day basis so it is easy to discount their existence.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
      Education in the "government indoctrination centers" is really evil. I think public education should be just stopped in its tracks.

      I am one of the basket of deplorables, as Hillary blurted out, and we arent just going to sit idly by while Hillary exercises her power.
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      • Posted by 1musictime 8 years, 1 month ago
        A few anti-deplorables are with misguidance to war words with Russia. If Russia's communistic, they are hailing the country and its government allies.They jealous there's a person a number describe leader and greater than the what more honest believing people talk are imposters north of the border.
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  • Posted by wiggys 8 years, 1 month ago
    it is a shame that we have people in power who are oblivious of all things especially the writings of and philosophy of Ayn Rand. She was unique in her ability to see not only what is taking place but what will ultimately take place based upon what she was observing. Personally I believe the possibility of explosion as she put it is not necessarily far off. How the wash. elite deal with it will be a tragic comedy.
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  • Posted by Animal 8 years, 1 month ago
    It certainly can happen here. All a would-be tyrant would have to do is offer more Free Stuff.

    And there is no Brutus among us.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
      Hillary is a dictator. Stand up to her, and she crushes you will all the PC stuff, lies, propaganda, and in the end thievery to make you weak.
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      • Posted by 1musictime 8 years, 1 month ago
        She may or may not dictate the way to set the table.She turns away from Bill because of Monica. Think he cares?The only sink is what various people fear she may want toward America.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
          For me, its the idea that because of stupidity, she will get us into a war with Russia. Putin will challenge her and force her into a corner from which war would be inevitable. Trump would never do that. It like the cuban missile crisis in the 60's- If our government had put its foot down about missiles so close to our shores, and agreed to remove OUR missiles from Turkey (like we agreed to later), there would have been no crisis. BUT, Kennedy waited until the missiles were already in Cuba- way too late. We had to resort to military power to have them removed. Same thing will happen with Hillary.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 1 month ago
    I am sure that statement was true when Ayn Rand said it, but time has marched on.
    So have the Progressives . . . .
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
      Hillary wants power for herself, period. That is a dictator in the making. She just uses democracy as the way to do it. Wait till the opposition is crushed, and we see what she will do.
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      • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 1 month ago
        And if Trump wins, I'm wondering if King Barry may find some excuse to declare martial law and stay in office. Since the DOJ and the FBI are run by lapdog stooges, I also wonder how the military generals Obama has not so far fired may react.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
          Trump has at least 40% of the voters. I dont see some sort of leftist military coup in the works.
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          • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 1 month ago
            You should see the donation-seeking mail and email I've received and I guess starting to mess with my head.
            Me dino has not sent a donation to any of these Obama gonna be dictator claimants.
            My reasoning? How the heck is this group or guy gonna stop O from doing anything?
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            • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
              Its such a waste of time to get too involved in politics with the great mass of the electorate so involved in the emotional reasons for voting one way or another. The Presidency is about foreign affairs and domestic security- keeping us safe. The rest of the stuff, including women coming forth claiming inappropriate sexual things is really a waste of time and unimportant to those basic requirements of presidency. 10 minutes after the election, all this crap Hillary has brought up will fade into obscurity, and we will be faced with the real problems of the country.
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      • Posted by 1musictime 8 years, 1 month ago
        Hillary's not directly talking it. She talks what she may pretend she wants toward various people, but may be "self-serving".More, possibly, with interest toward her,family, and friends.She may want to be a dictator on Mars.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
          But if we dont vote for Trump, we will get her, and she will consolidate her power. Obviously her supporters dont mind being lied to and misled as to her blatant cronyism coupled with major hiding of what she is actually doing.
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  • Posted by 1musictime 8 years, 1 month ago
    No. Not then. Maybe closer today, but not. It's despite a number believing there's a dictatorship at present. Obamacare may be a close example. It's more from one person. Separate groups follow and enact. Too much without protest and interest of one disagreeing and not wanting the negativity from it.From one person,but various groups may be okay to materialize it. One may agree they are traitors to The United States Of America.
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  • Posted by beesqr 8 years, 1 month ago
    Article V of our Constitution enables 2/3rds of the States to call for a convention to propose ammendments. Of course, limiting spending and term limits shoould be considered. If their output is approved by ¾ of the state legislatures, (NOT the Federal folks), the ammendments become law. Other than this, God forbid, Revolution.
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  • Posted by VetteGuy 8 years, 1 month ago
    If Hillary changes the balance of the Supreme Court, this may no longer be true. Obama was held somewhat in check because five of the Supremes would not go along with his more outrageous executive orders. If Hillary gets a majority on the court to side with her, she can pass whatever executive orders she wants. Instant Dictator.
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  • Posted by Snoogoo 8 years, 1 month ago
    Civil wars often result in dictatorship.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 1 month ago
      We really have a civil war going on right now, just not a full blown military one. The blacks have revolted to get more goodies and entitlements, and half the country is voting for Trump to maintain our current way of life. The establishment has its NSA and militarized police to protect itself. If Hillary gets in, the Trump supporters wont give in, and the minorities will be made more bold by Hillary treating them as entitled.
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