Jim R. Schwiesow -- The Danger of Blind Loyalty to Political Leaders

THE DANGER OF BLIND LOYALTY TO POLITICAL LEADERS

By Jim R. Schwiesow

April 16, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

The following is a letter of a type that I often receive from the hard-line Bush supporters who believe that the president is anointed and should be beyond criticism in regard to his administrative policies:

�Just remember, all authority is set in place by God. God obviously set President Bush in a higher place of authority than a lowly sheriff, so when you speak of stupidity you might start your search closer to home (The people who elected a loud mouth liberal)�

The people who elected me to seven consecutive four-year terms in office, I think, would be rather amused at this characterization of me as a liberal. I would guess that it was just the dirtiest word that the writer could think of to describe one who has been critical of his hero, George Bush. Some strange thinking here, but fairly typical of the letters that I receive from those who think the president can walk on water and who believe that he functions as a potentate who is unconstrained by law and is immune, or should be, to criticism from lowly peons such as I.

Unfortunately for these people, I do not happen to subscribe to this type of hero worship. I think that Mr. Bush is an absolutely ordinary man who is possessed of no extraordinary perceptual abilities. If he is divinely guided it certainly has not been evident throughout the six years that he has been at the helm of the nation. Too be sure he has been immersed in some fairly rough waters during this time, most of which were of his own making. This is what often happens when one ignores the signs that indicate that an all-ahead full mode will sink the ship, and plows ahead anyway.

How some people have come into possession of the idea that Mr. Bush is clairvoyant and gifted with divine wisdom is anybody�s guess. Maybe they visited a guru on the mountain who imparted such knowledge to them. Whatever the case, it is a wrong assumption. That he has no such gift is indicated by his unwillingness to deviate from the disastrous policies, which have caused the nation to list so badly. All indications are that if he persists and stubbornly maintains the course that he has set, the ship, in this case the nation, will founder. Indeed the vessel wallows at the present time, and a sinking appears imminent.

Mr. Bush�s wars for democracy, and his impolitic pursuit of the same, are crumbling around our ears. If there has been good news on that front I haven�t seen it. Even Fox News hasn�t come forth with any gems of hope in that regard, and it certainly cannot be said that they are anti-Bush. There just isn�t anything to report other than more bombs, more sneaky guerilla warfare attacks, and more dead Americans. Not only does the president not have a crystal ball, which enables him to look into the future, he has no grasp of history. The Korean and Viet Nam wars are not that distant in the past, that he should be devoid of the knowledge that to fight limited wars on the enemy�s terms just is not the way to proceed. Apparently our political leaders are hard learners in this regard. If the death of the one hundred twelve thousand Americans killed in those wars did not provide an example of the kind of wars that we should avoid, there is no hope for us, because our politicians are either masochistic or they are just plain dumb.

Ah, some will say, but what about President Bush�s domestic policies? What about them? Have they been something to brag about? Those who think so apparently totally disregard his immigration policies and his absolute and unforgivable disregard for the security of our borders. A refusal to honor one�s oath to secure the borders of the nation against all invaders does not a hero make.

The president�s deliberate refusal to enforce border security bespeaks arrogance and his statement; �Hell, if they�ll cross the big bend, we want �em.� speaks to a simple mind. It is absolutely incredible that the leader of any country would utter such an asinine statement. It invites criminals, deviants, terrorists, subversives, sexual predators, and freeloaders to come into the nation and prey upon the citizenry. The fearful consequences of such an ignorant mindset have come home to roost.

The economic strain that has been placed upon the nation by an influx of twenty-one million uninvited and unwelcome parasites is enormous. And the social damage is incalculable. Our culture has been forever altered and perverted. Millions of ordinary American workers have been displaced. The black community has been especially hard hit in this regard. The schools, which were already a tremendous burden to taxpayers due to the stupid policies of the federal and state governments�, have been pushed to a state of near collapse by illegal aliens. Diseases, which had long been eradicated in this country, are making an alarming comeback thanks to the illegal hosts who carry them into our midst. And as if we didn�t have enough of our own criminals we have added to that number exponentially. Illegal Hispanics comprise 28 percent of the prison population, while making up 4 percent of the population of the country. And if that is not bad enough the president, and those in congress who think like him, must think that our homegrown gangs are not virulent enough. Their stupidity in regard to immigration has enabled Latino gangs to lay siege to the city of Los Angeles, and to spread their tentacles across the land.

The critic who authored the letter with which I opened this column has expressed his belief that since God set in place George Bush as president it is sacrilegious for me, or any other, to criticize him. Well, God set in place King Saul, King Ahab and Jezebel, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Nero the persecutor of Christians. By an extrapolation from the writer�s viewpoint it would seem that for one to be critical of such leaders is to be in conflict with the scriptures. I have read the rendering of God�s word by Paul the Apostle. And I am mindful of the fact that we have been admonished by the word to be obedient to lawful government, and that we should pray for those who are in positions of authority. I did not find any strictures regarding being critical of political leaders. Maybe if the citizens who were under the rule of the aforementioned despots had been critical of their activities early-on untold millions of lives could have been saved and mountains of abject grief could have been avoided.

My wife, who was unfortunate enough to have been born into the Third Reich under Adolph Hitler, has related what it was like to be dominated by such a regime, and how blind obedience and reverence for the Fuehrer made it possible for this maniac to rise to power and to hold onto that power. That she survived the bombings and the horrors of the war to relate these observations was providential. There was a time when the rise of this maniacal tyrant could have been thwarted, but people were too enamored by his political charisma and verbal expertise to mount a campaign to do so. Later, when he had complete control it was too late. Still he would not have been able to maintain his murderous control over the nation without the acquiescence of all too many German citizens who had a blind allegiance to him. Criticism was not allowed and to participate in such could cause political incarceration and death. Even political jokes were forbidden by the state. How were these restrictions on the people enforced? The answer is with the help of blindly obedient Germans, who informed on their neighbors and reported every minor criticism of the Fuehrer and his regime.

These minions delivered into the hands of the tyrannical government many thousands of innocents who were deemed to be unpatriotic by these rabid Hitler supporters. To be critical was to be unpatriotic, and to be unpatriotic to the dictatorial regime was unlawful and punishable. I respect the right of this letter writer to express his opinion, but you can be absolutely sure that I emphatically and with deadly seriousness disagree with his opinion.

But, we should not worry about any of the preceding. I have the solution in the form of a letter from another of my critics. His criticism of my columns is related below:

�Maybe it is because age has taken away your strength to tote a weapon in defense of the Constitution or the mental capacity to become enraged, but I find your whining and cowardice disgusting. If you want to cry in your coffee do it in private. The rest of us have a battle to fight in this country and it is not over, nor has it even begun.�

So you see this �hero� is going to load up and ride into battle for you and for me, while we cowards hide in the brush until we can be delivered by his mighty hand. I await his rescue that is if he survives his valiant effort against the armed forces of the United States government. After all a real man does not use words, a real man goes down with guns blazing. Good luck, cowboy, you�re going to need it.

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I�ll continue to be critical of the unwise actions of our political leaders. How long that continues depends on whether or not enough blindly loyal citizens finally enable a complete tyrant, such as Hitler, to completely seize control of all of our freedoms. Perhaps the cowboy will prevail and save my bacon before that happens.

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Jim Schwiesow is a retired sheriff with 46 years of law enforcement service. He served with the Unites States Army with the occupation forces in post war Berlin, Germany, and has a total of nine years of military service, which includes six years in the U.S. Army Reserve.

His law enforcement service includes: three years in the military police, fifteen years as an Iowa municipal police officer, and twenty-eight years as the duly elected sheriff of Sioux County, Iowa.

Jim has written a number of articles, which have been published in various professional law enforcement journals.

E-Mail: jimr@orangecitycomm.net

Web-Site: www.sheriffjimonline.com

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