America’s Last Chance

America has one last chance, and it is a very slim one. Americans can elect Ron Paul President, or they can descend into tyranny.

Why is Ron Paul America’s last chance?

Because he is the only candidate who is not owned lock, stock, and barrel by the military-security complex, Wall Street, and the Israel Lobby.

All of the others, including President Obama, are owned by exactly the same interest groups. There are no differences between them. Every candidate except Ron Paul stands for war and a police state, and all have demonstrated their complete and total subservience to Israel. The fact that there is no difference between them is made perfectly clear by the absence of substantive issues in the campaigns of the Republican candidates.

Only Ron Paul deals with real issues, so he is excluded from “debates” in which the other Republican candidates throw mud at one another: “Gingrich voted $60 million to a UN program supporting abortion in China.” “Romney loves to fire people.”

The mindlessness repels.

More importantly, only Ron Paul respects the US Constitution and its protection of civil liberty. Only Ron Paul understands that if the Constitution cannot be resurrected from its public murder by Congress and the executive branch, then Americans are lost to tyranny.

There isn’t much time in which to revive the Constitution. One more presidential term with no habeas corpus and no due process for US citizens and with torture and assassination of US citizens by their own government, and it will be too late. Tyranny will have been firmly institutionalized, and too many Americans from the lowly to the high and mighty will have been implicated in the crimes of the state. Extensive guilt and complicity will make it impossible to restore the accountability of government to law.

If Ron Paul is not elected president in this year’s election, by 2016 American liberty will be in a forgotten grave in a forgotten grave yard.

Having said this, there is no way Ron Paul can be elected, for these reasons:

Not enough Americans understand that the “war on terror” has been used to create a police state. The brainwashed citizenry believe that the police state is making them safe from terrorists.

Liberals, progressives, and the left-wing oppose Ron Paul, claiming that “he would abolish the social safety net, privatize Social Security and Medicare, throw the widows and orphans into the street, abolish the Federal Reserve,” etc.

Apparently, liberals, progressives, and the left-wing do not understand that privatizing Social Security and Medicare and destroying the social safety net are policies that many conservative Republicans favor and are policies that Wall Street is forcing on both political parties. In contrast, a President Ron Paul would be isolated in the White House and would never be able to muster the support of Congress and the powerful interest groups to achieve such radical changes. Moreover, Ron Paul has made it clear that a welfare-free state cannot be achieved by decree but only by creating an economy in which opportunity exists for people to stand on their own feet. Ron Paul has said that he does not support ending welfare before an economy is created that makes a welfare state unnecessary.

Candidate Paul cannot take any steps to reassure Americans that he would not throw them to the mercy of the free market, because his libertarian base would turn on him as another unprincipled politician willing to sacrifice his principles for political expediency.
If libertarians were not inflexible, candidate Paul could endorse Ron Unz’s proposal to solve the illegal immigration problem by raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour, so that Americans could afford to work the jobs that are taken by illegals.

Economist James K. Galbraith is probably correct that Unz’s proposal would boost the economy by injecting purchasing power and that the unemployment would be largely confined to illegals who would return to their home country. However, if Ron Paul were to treat Unz’s proposal as one worthy of study and consideration, libertarian ideologues would write him off. Whatever liberal/progressive support he gained would be offset by the loss of his libertarian base.

Why can’t libertarians be as intelligent as Ron Unz and see that if the Constitution is lost all that remains is tyranny?

In short, Americans cannot see beyond their ideologies to the real issue, which is the choice between the Constitution and tyranny.

So we hear absurd accusations that Ron Paul, a libertarian “is a racist.” “Ron Paul is an anti-semite.” “Ron Paul would favor the rich and hurt the poor.”

We don’t hear “Ron Paul would restore and protect the US Constitution.”

What do Americans think life will be like in the absence of the Constitution? I will tell you what it will be like, but first let’s consider the obstacles Ron Paul would face if he were to win the Republican nomination and if he were to be elected president.

In my opinion, if Ron Paul were to win the Republican nomination, the Republican Party would conspire to refuse it to him. The party would simply nominate a different candidate.

If despite everything, Ron Paul were to end up in the White House, he would not be able to form a government that would support his policies. Appointments to cabinet secretaries and assistant secretaries that would support his policies could not be confirmed by the US Senate. President Paul would have to appoint whomever the Senate would confirm in order to form a government. The Senate’s appointees would undermine his policies.

What a President Ron Paul could do, assuming Congress, controlled by powerful private interest groups, did not impeach him on trumped up charges, would be to use whatever forums that might be permitted him to explain to the public, judges, and law schools that the danger from terrorists is miniscule compared to the danger from a government unaccountable to law and the Constitution.

The reason we should vote for Ron Paul is to signal to the powers that be that we understand what they are doing to us. If Paul were to receive a large vote, it could have two good effects. One could be to introduce some caution into the establishment that would slow the march into more war and tyranny. The other is it would signal to Washington’s European and Japanese puppets that not all Americans are stupid sheep. Such an indication could make Washington’s puppet states more cautious and less cooperative with Washington’s drive for world hegemony.

What America Without the Constitution Will Be Like

In the January 4 Huff Post, attorney and author John Whitehead reported on the militarization of local police. Some police forces are now equipped with spy drones. Whitehead reports that a drone manufacturer, AeroVironment Inc., plans to sell 18,000 drones to police departments throughout the country. The company is also advertising a small drone, the “Switchblade,” which can track a person, land on the person and explode.

How long before Americans will be spied upon or murdered as extremists at the discretion of local police?

Recognizing the privacy danger, if not the murder danger, the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a report, “Protecting Privacy From Aerial Surveillance.” https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/protectingprivacyfromaerialsurveillance.pdf

The ACLU believes, correctly, that liberty is threatened by “a surveillance society in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded, and scrutinized by authorities.”

The ACLU calls on Congress to legislate privacy protections against the police use of drones. I support the ACLU because it is the most important defender of civil liberty despite other misguided activities, but I wonder what the ACLU is thinking. Congress and the federal courts have already acquiesced in the federal government’s warrantless spying on Americans by the National Security Agency. The Bush regime violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act many times, and all involved, including President Bush, should have been sent to prison for many lifetimes, as each violation carries a 5-year prison term. But the executive branch emerged scot free. No one was held accountable for clear violations of US statutory law.

The ACLU might think that although the federal executive branch has successfully elevated itself above the law, state and local police forces are still accountable. We must hope that they are, but I doubt it.

The militarization of local police has received some attention. What has not received attention is that state and local police are also being federalized. It is not only military armaments and spy technology that local police are receiving from Washington, but also an attitude toward the public along with federal oversight and the collaboration that goes with it. When Homeland Security, a federal police force, comes into states, as I know has occurred in Georgia and Tennessee, and doubtless other states, and together with the state police stop cars and trucks on Interstate highways and subject them to warrantless searches, what is happening is the de facto deputizing of the state police by Homeland Security. This is the way that Goering and Himmler federalized into the Gestapo the independent police forces of German provinces such as Prussia and Bavaria.

Homeland Security has expanded its warrantless searches far beyond “airline security.”
The budding gestapo agency now conducts warrantless searches on the nation’s highways, on bus and train passengers, and at Social Security offices. On Tuesday January 3, 2012, the Social Security office in Leesburg, Florida, apparently a terrorist hotspot, became a Homeland Security checkpoint. The DHS Gestapo armed with automatic weapons and sniffer dogs demanded IDs from local residents visiting their local Social Security office. http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/010412shield

Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed federal police officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon, reports infowars.com.

The DHS gestapo justified its takeover of a Leesburg Florida Social Security office as being an integral part of “Operational Shield,” conducted by the Federal Protective Service to detect “the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”

One wonders if even brainwashed flag-waving “superpatriots” can miss the message. The Social Security office of Leesburg, Florida, population 19,086 in central Florida is not a place where terrorists devoid of proper ID might be visiting. To protect America from the scant possibility that terrorists might be congregating at the Leesburg Social Security office, the tyrants in Washington sent the Federal Protective Service at who knows what cost to demand ID from locals visiting their Social Security office.

What is this all about except to establish the precedent that federal police, a new entity in American life, the Federal Protective Service, has authority over state and local police offices and can appear out of the blue to interrogate local citizens.

Why the ACLU thinks it is going to get any action out of a Congress that has accommodated the executive branch’s destruction of habeas corpus, due process, and the constitutional and legal prohibitions against torture is beyond me. But at least the issue is raised. But don’t expect to hear about it from the “mainstream media.”

Americans in 2012, although only a few are aware, live in a concentration camp that is far better controlled than the one portrayed by George Orwell in 1984. Orwell, writing in the late 1940s could not imagine the technology that makes control of populations so thorough as it is today. Orwell’s protagonist could at least have hope. In 2012 with the erasure of privacy by the US government, protagonists can be eliminated by hummingbird-sized drones before they can initiate a protest, much less a rebellion.

Never in human history has a people been so easily and willingly controlled by a hostile government as Americans, who are the least free people on earth. And a large percentage of Americans still wave the flag and chant USA! USA! USA!

The Bush regime operated as if the Constitution did not exist. Any semblance of constitutional government that remained after the Bush years was terminated when Congress passed and President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act. One wonders how the National Rifle Association, the defender of the Second Amendment, will now fare. If there is no Constitution, how can there be a Second Amendment? If the President, at his discretion, can set aside habeas corpus and due process and murder citizens based on unproven suspicions, why can’t he set aside the Second Amendment?

Indeed, it is folly to expect a police state to tolerate an armed population.

The NRA is very supportive of the police and military. Now that these armed organizations are being turned against the public, how will the NRA adjust its posture?

Many NRA members, pointing to the “Oath Keepers,” former members of the military who pledge to defend the Constitution, and to police chiefs who support the Second Amendment, believe that the police and military will disobey orders to attack citizens.
But we already witness constantly the gratuitous brutality of “our” police against peaceful protesters. We witness military troops all over the world murder citizens who protest government abuses. Why can’t it happen here?

If you don’t want it to happen here, you had better figure out some way to get Ron Paul into the Presidency and to get him a cabinet and subcabinet that will support him.

Meanwhile, the police state grows. On January 4, 2012, the Obama regime announced by decree, not by legislation, the creation of the Bureau of Counterterrorism which will among other tasks “seek to strengthen homeland security, countering violent extremism.” http://newsok.com/obama-launches-bureau-of-counterterrorism/article/feed/332475

Take a moment to think. Do you know of any “violent extremism” happening in the US?
The regime is telling you that it needs a new police bureau with unaccountable powers to “strengthen homeland security” against a nonexistent bogyman.

So who will be the violent extremists who require countering by the Bureau of Counterterrorism? It will be peace activists, the Occupy Wall Street protesters, the unemployed and foreclosed homeless. It will be whoever the police state says. And
there is no due process or recourse to law.

Given the facts before you, you are out of your mind if you think Ron Paul’s rhetoric against the welfare state is more important than his defense of liberty.

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About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

88 Comments

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  1. “What do Americans think life will be like in the absence of the Constitution”?

    Few American’s have thought about Mr. Roberts question. They are too distracted with who will win the next “American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Super Bowl, World Series or other electronic lobotomy programming to even give it a thought.

    By: TNguy . January 17, 2012 . 8:30 am |

    • Dr. Roberts, you seem compelled and obsessed with writing doom & gloom articles and about how the USA is on it’s last leg. Which is fine as we have many flaws and a National Debt approaching $16T. (and that is only the amount they admit too)
      However, this article states. “America’s ONLY hope is to elect Ron Paul. Ok, let’s just say I agree, the current state of reality that exists in this known universe gives Ronald Paul a ZERO % chance of winning the GOP nomination. (unless Mitt and Newt drop dead).
      Therefore, we thusly can conclude that there is a ZERO chance to save America – right sir?

      By: Timothy Feller . January 28, 2012 . 12:37 pm |

      • Ron Paul will never be the President and America will turn into a police state. America is not going anywhere, except that it’s going to shrink drastically from its present mammoth size. All this is still a speculation, but what’s not a speculation is that Israel’s not going to remove it’s fangs from this mammoth till it runs out of blood.

        By: kinky . February 27, 2012 . 1:05 am |

  2. I wonder if we could somehow fashion a legal challenge
    that could make it all the eay to the Supreme Court QUICKLY that required that court
    to definitively state WHETHER THIS NATION STILL STANDS AND OPERATES UNDER OUR
    CONSTITUTION…..OR HAS THE CONSTITUION ACTUALLY BEEN ABANDONED AND SUPERCEDED
    [since the Civil War] by a sort of continuing and never lifted state of emergency?????

    I now do seriously believe this latter is the case. A tiny bit of evidence surfaced very
    briefly a couple of months ago…to the effect that the US Gov’t has a SECRET LEGAL
    INTERPRETATION of the Patriot Act that differs in very serious ways from the
    understanding of that act by the general population…..

    We may actually be operating NOT under the Constitution at all, is my guess at
    the moment….and all gov’t “insiders” now know this……and NONE of them
    dare to raise the issue…???? What in god’s name would STOP anyone from raising it?
    Yet……it seems to be the case.

    Your views? How to pursue this?

    Dennis Morrisseau W. Pawlet, VT 802 645 9727 dmorso1@netzero.net

    By: Dennis Morrisseau . January 17, 2012 . 8:50 am |

  3. Dr Roberts-Poking my nose in this,You may want too present R.Paul with a list of his specific promises,and the aims and means too obtain them,as an open ended bond for him to sign,backed by all current and future assets earned and banked anywhere.If he’s not full of it -surely he won’t have a problem with this.Same with all your other high integrity,humanitarian politicians.
    Please understand me-someone born and raised in the frosty bannana republic too the north of you,isn’t in any sort of stone casting position.Indeed there was a time in my memory when judged by our politicians(and what canadian doesn’t prefer a statesman-if only because a statesman is a DEAD politician),we were by far and away the biggest assholes in the known universe.We have lost our front rank in this And our politicians haven’t gotten any better(last fed election,’choice’ was between THREE treasonous isreali agents! One of them won-boy was I suprised.)-not a good sign.Now I’m very worried for freinds south of the line.Yankeedom isn’t conducive too thought,nor has being for quite a bit more than 10 years.The continually still sinking standards aren’t a good sign-8hr ‘DNA’ idents being as fine an indicator of this as could be ask for.
    Bon Chance Todd Millions 712Eastend SK s0n 0t0

    By: Todd Millions . January 17, 2012 . 3:53 pm |

    • A while back, I wrote you a letter, I stand by my word, If you are wliling to run an all out campaign I will donate myself full time to help you in any way you need it. WITH OUT PAY! That is how desperate we are to get someone in office who HONESTLY has the people’s best interest at hart!. We, I am afraid, are done as a country if you don’t get in there and fix the problems because no one else has the guts to do it.DR. PAUL IF YOU FIGHT, AND I MEAN FIGHT, I KNOW YOU CAN WIN! I KNOW THERE IS A LARGE, VERY LARGE, FOLLOWING. THEY JUST NEED TO KNOW YOUR COMMITTED!

      By: Hector . April 20, 2012 . 10:59 pm |

  4. This whole article assumes that our votes count, and that the office of President wields some kind of power. Two false premises which lead to the false conclusion (that our course can change based on who we elect as President). In order to save Amerika at this late hour, you would literally have to throw everyone out, throw all the millions of pages of legislation out and start over. And the puppetmasters are simply not going to allow that.

    It’s OVER, America! We lost our country while we were busy watching television PROGRAMMING, going to the colliseum to watch endless meaningless sporting events, and fretting over who was divorcing who in Hollywood. Go back to the boob tube, now, and watch the latest evolutionary religious programming on Discovery, Bible mocking programming on History, or the mind numbing, profanity, violence and free sex programming on the other channels.

    By: eternalgospel1611 . January 17, 2012 . 6:56 pm |

  5. eternal, your description about television is correct but you left out the main perpetrators namely the zionists who have total control over the main stream media and that includes Hollyweird. Even though I am not religious, I also feel the same way: for the most part television is trash, nothing but mind numbing entertainment that disguises the real motive behind the programing :
    to destroy America’s values and the republic itself by dumbing down and brainwashing Americans through distraction and zionist propaganda.
    However, this is not the only culprit. Therein the public school system which is now run by bureaucrats in Washington for the purpose of creating a society of non thinking and obedient servants. Those who will do what they’re told and march off to war when they’re told to, without question. Those who are conditioned to simply accept things as they are without so much as a sneeze. This is the real problem: a citizenry that has no will of its own, that is ignorant, stupid and lazy when it comes to the things that matter most: who is in charge of the nation, what they are doing and how does it affect me and my family?
    There is absolutely no excuse for being ignorant when so much vital information is available. It is entirely irresponsible and unpatriotic. It also exposes the laziness so ingrained in far too many people.

    By: JohnZ . January 18, 2012 . 1:31 pm |

  6. Dear Mr.Roberts,you come across as very sincere to most people, and I truly believe that you are not stupid.This constant banal banter about the Constitution, the ridiculous mantra about Elections and who would save the god-forsaken U.S.A. is driving most sane persons to puke.There has never been a free and fair election in this Country or any other so-called Democracy be it State, Local, or Federal.The PROLES who actually think that they have something to say about their state of affairs by casting a Ballot, are for all intents and purposes” LOST IN SPACE”for them, there is no hope.It is NOT who votes that counts, but who counts the votes that really matters.I also believe. that you already know this to be a fact. The Constitution LIE is a whole other matter, and one needs to look no further than the Preamble of this much touted document to understand the fact that it has never been in force for one single day since it was signed and ratified, as we have been in a constant state of war or insurrection ever since, right up to the present day.You may or may not know this fact, however, consider yourself properly ‘clued in’. The hidden hands, that are really in charge of us all,shall under any and all circumstances select and install whomever they wish, wherever and whenever it so suits their purposes by whatever means necessary to accomplish their goals and aspirations as they see fit.The next POTUS has already been selected but the dog and pony show must continue as there is money to be made.The demise of the American empire is unfolding as we speak, all according to the script.,The cast of characters have been chosen, the puppets are all in place and the directors shall say what goes and when.The attacks on the Middle-east are a foregone conclusion,the response shall be swift and deadly at which point the American empire as we know it shall cease to exist.The one and only hope that we have, is for our senior military leaders to walk off the stage in indignation and outrage as Admiral Fallon did to stupid bush-lite the Monkey-man a few years ago.The village idiot still has egg on his face on that score.The Creator is not on the side of anyone, It is up to us to be on the side of the Creator,may we all see the light before it is too late.The # one hundred Monkey is alive and well.// Zebedy-titus. Out.//

    By: Zebedy-titus . January 19, 2012 . 2:41 pm |

  7. The NRA SUPPORTED the NDAA. They are worse than worthless now. The Second Amendment Foundation is a hope along with National Gun Rights.
    The psychologist who interviewed the Marines at Camp Pendelton leaked the results to the press, and that was that a vast majority of the Marines would have no problem opening fire on unarmed American citizens if simply ordered to do so. It was front page San Diego Union Trib. The next day the Marines “detained” the psychologist pending “investigation”. I have never heard another peep about it.

    By: mm . January 20, 2012 . 2:24 pm |

  8. Ron Paul is not the only candidate who stands for civil liberties.
    Jill Stein, whom I support, would restore human rights in the US
    while protecting social programs.

    By: Richard M Stallman . January 27, 2012 . 11:02 pm |

  9. What wonderful insightful analysis. How refreshing to hear an alternative view rather than the drivel which passes for news in much of the mainstream media. We in the UK, like the average American citizen. feel completely disconnected from the political process. Is it any wonder that voting levels in much of the western world are falling becasue we the people do not believe a word the politicians say. If Paul Craig Roberts is correct in his analysis, then the state of Palestine will never come to fruitiion because the 1% will never allow it to happen!!!! Why does not PCR stand for the presidency himself???

    By: Maxy . February 6, 2012 . 2:59 pm |

  10. Dr. Roberts – KUDOS, to you, Sir, for having written, BY FAR, the SINGLE MOST ERUDITE, well-written, and CONCISE SUMMATION, of where we stand, as a country, today. Either we, as Americans, VOTE EN MASSE FOR RON PAUL, OR, we vote for essentially three things: 1 ) MORE WAR, 2) MORE INFLATION, and 3) MORE TYRANNY.

    Kudos, again, Dr. Roberts. IF RON PAUL OFFERED YOU THE CHANCE TO BE HIS Vice-Presidential Running Mate – WOULD YOU ACCEPT? (Just curious) I know RP has mentioned Judge Napolitano. Good choice. I believe you would also be a good choice.

    By: Anon American . February 27, 2012 . 10:43 am |

    • I think RP needs Judge Napolitano on the ticket, tho I also agree that PCR would be a very good alternative choice.

      In any event THEY MUST RUN AT THIS CONGRESS, ADVOCATING A COMPLETE REPLACEMENT in the election
      WITHOUT REGARD TO POLITICAL PARTY AT ALL.

      d morrisseau w pawlet, vt dmorso1@netzero.net 802 645 9727

      By: Dennis Morrisseau . February 27, 2012 . 3:12 pm |

  11. As a “COUNTER-POINT” to Dr. Roberts article, above: I’d like Dr. Roberts readers to consider the following:

    The Great Debate: How Ron Paul’s Presidency Will Reshape America
    http://www.infowars.com/the-great-debate-how-ron-pauls-presidency-will-reshape-america/
    Source: http://lewrockwell.com/stevo/stevo10.1.html

    By: Anon American . February 27, 2012 . 11:01 am |

  12. Unless Paul and [I hope his running mate will be Judge Napolitano] BOTH begin to speak with force and also
    directly intervene in the CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, urging very strongly that the entire Congress be unseated
    and replaced with an entire new crop of “public servents”, then even if he wins election he will be powerless– and also quickly dead.

    The good news is that if he and the Judge do RUN AT THIS CONGRESS…..they will win in a landslide AND have a pretty much entirely new CONGRESS to work with when they take office. They should begin this line right NOW……but in no event later than a day or two before Super Tuesday.

    d morrisseau POB 177 w pawlet, vt 05775 dmorso1@netzero.net 802 645 9727

    By: dennis morrisseau . February 27, 2012 . 3:06 pm |

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