{mosads}The Christian News Wire reports that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will be speaking to the Faith & Freedom Coalition at the “Road to Majority” Conference in Washington, D.C., this coming weekend. A proposed agenda for Palin: What is totalitarianism? Does our way of life and governance — a system of centralized power and planning since 1865 — creep inherently toward totalitarian? (Yes.) What is the antidote? (States’ rights.)
Totalitarianism seeks to control not only the mind but the flesh. Commentary at hand this week should fuel the pump:
Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who has claimed credit for the leak, told The Guardian:“Any analyst at any time can target anyone … Not all analysts have the ability to target everything. I sitting at my desk certainly had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you and your accountant to a federal judge or even the President …”
And Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput wrote in recent op-ed called “Religious Freedom and the Need to Wake Up”:
“Despite a few small concessions under pressure, the administration refuses to withdraw or reasonably modify a Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive mandate that violates the moral and religious convictions of many individuals, private employees and religiously affiliated and inspired organizations … The day when Americans could take the Founders’ understanding of religious freedom as a given is over. We need to wake up.”
Possibly discussion for historic perspective might include an essay by historian Frank Owsley, one of the Vanderbilt “Fugitives” titled “The Irrepressible Conflict” (1930):
“In the beginning of Washington’s administration two men defined the fundamental principles of the political philosophy of the two societies, Alexander Hamilton for the North and Jefferson for the South. The one was extreme centralization, the other was extreme decentralization; the one was nationalistic, the other was provincial; the first was called Federalism, the other States Rights, but in truth the first should have been called Unitarianism and the second Federalism.”