“No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.” –Alexander Hamilton

In October 1939, a month after Great Britain declared war on Germany in that unpleasantry a few of us history buffs remember as “World War II,” Winston Churchill said of communist Russia: “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…” In true Churchill form, he added wryly, “But perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

In other words, if you want to decode “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” just consider the underlying “interest.”

A year ago, Barack Obama was something of an enigma, but his interests are now clear – crystal clear.

The prospect of an Obama presidency, supported by a legislative branch controlled by like-minded liberals, and only the slightest conservative margin in the judicial branch, poses a greater risk to American liberty than any domestic enemy in our nation’s great history.

An Obama presidency would be a offense of staggering proportions to our national heritage of liberty, an offense equaled only by the impending assault against the liberties set forth in our U.S. Constitution following an Obama inauguration.

Yes, Obama has the dubious distinction of being ranked the most liberal of the “useful idiots” in the Senate – apologist for socialist political and economic agendas. And it took him only half a term to achieve that ill repute, (and he announced his presidential aspirations after only 143 days in session).

That rank puts Obama to the left of his primary benefactors, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. (By contrast, his running mate, Joe Biden, has taken 36 years to achieve his status as the Senate’s third most liberal member.)

But Obama is entitled to his political views.

After all, our Constitution’s Bill of Rights affirms every American’s inherent right to liberty, not just in what we say and write, or how we worship, but also in what we believe and with whom we choose to associate.

And, we know plenty about what Obama believes and with whom he associates. Here is a partial list of key associates: There is his communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, his terrorist friends William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, his religious mentor Jeremiah Wright, the ACORN crowd, Leftists Richard Daley, Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Kwame Kilpatrick, Rashid Khalidi and, well, you get the picture.

The problem is that Obama and his ilk believe they are not bound by the plain language of our Constitution, adhering instead to the errant notion of a “Living Constitution,” which they have adulterated by judicial diktat to comport with their worldview. In his view, we should be “One nation under Obama.”

What informs Barack Hussein Obama’s worldview first and foremost?

Obama is the consummate “useful idiot,” a socialist who believes not only that the will of the people should be subject to that of the state, but, likewise, the economy should be state controlled through taxation and regulation.

Obama insists that our economy is “out of balance,” and our tax policies “badly skewed.” To resolve this, he says we need a “tax policy making sure that everybody benefits, fair distribution, a restoration of balance in our tax code, money allocated fairly…”

“Fair distribution”? By this, of course, he means “redistribution.”

Further, Obama asserts that free enterprise is nothing more than “Social Darwinism, every man or woman for him or herself … tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity.”

Free enterprise “doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity”? Only in the mind of a lifelong adherent of socialist doctrine could such an absurdly un-American assertion originate.

Obama’s economic plan represents a maturation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s class-warfare decree: “Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”

In fact, Roosevelt’s “principle” was no more American than Obama’s. Roosevelt was paraphrasing Karl Marx, whose maxim declared, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

English sociologist and historian H.G. Wells, whose last work, The Holy Terror, profiled the psychological development of a modern dictator based on the careers of Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, said of Roosevelt’s reign, “The great trouble with you Americans is that you are still under the influence of that second-rate – shall I say third-rate? – mind, Karl Marx.”

That admonition is equally true today – even more so.

In 1987, Ronald Reagan commented on useful idiots: “How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

While Obama and his cadre of elitists both understand and advocate socialist doctrine, their populist support across the nation is not from academic, intellectual or philosophical equals. Their adoring masses can’t begin to articulate why our nation was founded, what our Constitution sets forth, what citizenship entails, or why free enterprise is superior to socialism.

They are, by and large, good people who have been dumbed down by government schools and the Leftmedia. They are not in possession of an ethic that inspires them to put “Country First,” as John McCain and a long list of American Patriots have done. Instead, unable to discern their civic responsibility, they follow Obama’s example, asking not what they can do for their country, but what their country can do for them.

They “feel” rather than “think” their way through political issues, and the consequences for future generations of Americans are dire.

To that end, perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas, proclaimed, “The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Obama’s constituents are checkers players being led by chess masters, and the Democrat brew they have been drinking has been incrementally spiked with socialist booze such that they are completely intoxicated, and don’t know it. Will they sober up before the dawn?

Commenting on the upcoming election, Joe Biden said, “This election is the most important of your entire life.”

On this point, and only this point, do I unreservedly concur with Joe.

Quote of the week

“It is freedom itself that still hangs in the balance, and freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.” –Ronald Reagan