Mark your calendars. On Tuesday, September 8th at noon, President Obama will be delivering his “Back to School” speech to the entire K-12 public school system, in which he will be stressing the importance of education and hard work. Republicans’ knees have predictably jerked, labeling Obama’s speech as “indoctrination” and the search for “junior lobbyists;” these responses are not surprising, since apparently it is the job of the GOP to yell “Fascism!” whenever our current President acts very similar to his predecessor.

This isn’t even the first time one of our Dear Leaders has addressed American children before. President Bush Sr. spoke to students in 1991, and President Reagan did the same thing in 1988 (via C-SPAN). The Democrats’ knees also whipped back in protest, and Newt Gingrich, the Republican stalwart, was quick to defend “his” president.

This is why I can’t take the Republicans’ criticism of Obama seriously. In just two terms, Bush managed to do incalculable damage to our liberties, and the conservatives stood behind his every move, smearing anyone who opposed Bush’s Fascistas as “unpatriotic.”

Same goes for the healthcare debate. The Right is throwing everything they got against Obama’s militarized-socialist healthcare plan, but where were they when Bush, with his expansion of Medicare, added another tentacle to the Leviathan government? Or the Pentagon’s ugly, murderous, and freedom-crushing military socialism? Passively silent.

Turning back the clock a few months, what if John McCain had won the election last November and decided to give a speech similar to Obama’s? I can just imagine the Republicans thumping their chests, praising McCain’s courage and leadership; he is fighting terrorism and keeping us safe. The Left would likely howl, scream “Fascism!”and wait patiently for their chance to elect “their” dictator.

The Republicans have no moral legs to stand on, and they completely miss the point in their criticism of Obama’s “indoctrination”. The problem is the very idea that a President should be addressing his subjects in this manner, that he is what Joan Walsh at Slate approvingly calls America’s “Father-in-Chief.” Additionally, the idea that the federal government should have anything to do with something so complex, important, and essential as education is an incredibly dangerous idea.

Obama’s speech will have little effect compared to the damage that gun-run schools have on young Americans’ minds. Government schools (excuse me, “public” schools) increasingly resemble crime and drug infested prisons, where millions of kids are told what to think. Children are required to worship the State and its secular gods (Lincoln, FDR, etc.), be vaccinated and overmedicated, standards are continuously lowered, the dropout rates escalate, and the costs continue to rise. Higher costs and lower quality: is there any better definition of a government program?

When the Pharaoh addresses his future pyramid builders next week, conservative talk-show hosts and TV pundits are likely to go nuts, but they hopefully won’t be taken too seriously. They have “just” discovered that we live in a soft, elected dictatorship (since at least 1947, actually), and they will continue to rant until a GOP Caesar saves the day.

_

For more of Robert’s work, please visit his Libertarian Examiner blog.

» You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.