‘I don’t care if it’s legal, it’s wrong’
This is a very scary statement. We’ll get to it later.
In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler galvanized a country around economic nationalism with the hatred of Jews, blaming them for all the evils in pre-war Germany. Hitler was an early community organizer, fomenting hate against those doing nothing illegal. It’s an election year. Obama needs an enemy- it’s what community organizers do. They identify an enemy and rally people around and against it. From Alinsky’s rules:
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
And so we have this year’s democratic playbook. Economic nationalism. Corporations are this year’s Jews.
The White House is seeking to amp up the Democratic base this fall by criticizing corporations for abandoning the United States to lower their tax bill.
It’s a return to economic populism months for a White House that has repeatedly flirted with the theme, but sometimes been distracted by other pressing domestic and international affairs.
Democrats believe the issue could help their party hold on to its majority in the Senate, which Republicans are hoping to take over.
“Let’s rally around an economic patriotism that says, instead of giving more tax breaks to millionaires, let’s give tax breaks to working families to help pay for child care or college,” the president said during a speech in Texas last month. “Instead of protecting tax loopholes that let corporations keep their profits overseas, let’s put some of that money to work right here in the United States rebuilding America.”
democrats will be assailing the companies employing this legal technique, questioning their patriotism:
Democrats see the tax issue as a political winner that allows President Obama to side with middle class taxpayers and against corporate executives who can be painted as disloyal and unpatriotic. They think it will be difficult for Republicans to defend the practice.
Obama calls companies who use this legal tax technique “corporate deserters.”
“Even as corporate profits are higher than ever, there’s a small but growing group of big corporations that are fleeing the country to get out of paying taxes,” the president said. “They’re technically renouncing their U.S. citizenship, they’re declaring their base someplace else even though most of their operations are here. You know some people are calling these companies ‘corporate deserters.'”
This Obama-inspired “economic nationalism” is reminiscent of early Nazi Germany:
German nationalism that began to develop before World War II was a major motivation behind many individuals who joined the Nazi Party. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, used his profound oratory skills to manipulate the German people into following his regime’s propaganda. The people were looking for something to improve the economic situation caused by the depression. The Nazi Party had a great propensity to purvey “mythical nationalist beliefs”; in 1933, they began deliberately blaming the Jewish population for the economic disparity in Germany (van Evera, pg. 8). The fact that the Jewish population was targeted as scapegoats would now be seen as blatant prohibited discrimination; however, the Nazis persuasively qualified their argument. The Nazis told people to blame the Jews because many Jewish citizens were still wealthy while everyone else was monetarily suffering, using economic inequalities to agitate relations between groups. This began to fuel the anti-semitism that the Nazi Party endorsed. Another reason to blame the Jewish, as advertised by the Nazi party, was their collective refusal to fight in World War I, argued to have caused ergonomic depression in Germany. In a state of ubiquitous anxiety, the once disjointed Germans unified under a government that provided comfort and security, a new state that would take control and help Germany become a rising hegemonic power. This newfound nationalism was built around a common enemy: the Jewish people. The people were blinded by these newly instilled nationalist beliefs, coerced by their superiors to believe that the Nazi way was the right way. The government was telling the people to represent and preserve national interest first and foremost. Simultaneously, the people were told that the Jewish citizens were threatening this national security. Some perpetrators knew exactly what evil they were doing during the Holocaust; on the other hand, other individuals were just nationalistic pawns of the Nazi Party that were so programmed to operate for the state and its interests. The binary dichotomy of victim and perpetrator is problematic because these traditional, distint roles assume that one cannot overlap the other. The Holocaust happened in large part because an over-powering government took advantage of a weak people who just wanted to be provided with directon during a time of disparity. The people followed their government whole-heartedly because their faith in their previous government, the government where they had lost their possessions and valuables, had been compromised.
– Profound oratory skills
– Hyper-nationalism
– Demonization of citizens
– Creation of an enemy
Sound familiar?
Ironically, Obama allowed Delphi to use this strategy to survive as part of the auto bailout:
As part of the bailout of the auto industry in 2009, Obama’s Treasury Department authorized spending $1.7 billion of government funds to get a bankrupt Michigan parts-maker back on its feet — as a British company. While executives continue to run Delphi Automotive Plc (DLPH) from a Detroit suburb, the paper headquarters in England potentially reduces the company’s U.S. tax bill by as much as $110 million a year.
Just what is the cost of these inversions? About $2 billion per year, maybe. Obama has blown more than that on the comforts of illegal aliens.
The US corporate tax rate is 35%, highest in the world. Lowering the corporate tax rate to make the US competitive with the world would be a reasonable approach but as far as democrats go it’s out of the question. The amount of money involved isn’t all the large but democrats will try mightily to make a mountain out of the anthill. In so doing Obama and the left decide to once again demonize lawful citizens and companies doing absolutely nothing wrong or illegal, but Obama doesn’t give a damn about things being legal:
‘I don’t care if it’s legal, it’s wrong’
Says who? Wow. Obama gets to decide what’s right and wrong, superseding the law. The dog whistle has been blown and democrats are already introducing legislation to correct this “wrong.” It’s unlikely to pass but that’s not the point. It’s designed to be a political wedge. The GOP might be wise just to go along with a tax plan and then credit democrats as corporations accelerate their departure from the United States and wave goodbye.
Obama said
“If you’re a secretary or you’re a construction worker, you don’t say, ‘you know what? I feel like paying a little less so let me do that.’ You don’t get a chance to do that — these companies shouldn’t either. ”
Yes you do- if you’re the President. Obama paid only 20% in taxes on an income of nearly $500,000 last year.
Obama also said:
“You shouldn’t get to call yourself an American company only when you want a handout from American taxpayers.”
GM, anyone?
Goldman Sachs?
Solyndra?
Obama and Adolf Hitler share a characteristic:
“Hitler understood how to mobilize the various resentments of the large majority of the German people.”
Obama has a history of demonizing the opposition, questioning patriotism repeatedly and that is exactly what Obama and democrats are trying to do in order to determine the outcome of the 2014 election. All they needed was the right enemy. This pogrom shows early signs of working with low information democrats (as if there was any other kind). One made this comment this morning over at The Hill:
Simple. Ban the product of any traitorous corporation.
Another added:
Simple
End their charter to do business in America
Corporation death sentence.
Think about this- your being a traitor, your being unpatriotic, your being an American, your being wrong- is judged, defined and decided upon not by and by our laws, but by King Obama alone. John Adams said that we are “A government of laws, and not of men.” That always sounded to me like a good idea. Unfortunately the President doesn’t seem to think so. Kings seldom do.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.