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 Commons 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
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