I was recently thinking about history, as it relates to leaders and great political upheavals, and remembered one defining moment that made crystal clear to me how demagogues attain power.

It happened during the 50’s… something called “revolution” in the streets of Cuba, in the mountains, in the fields, everywhere. Cuban freedom-fighters sacrificed life and limb against a corrupt dictatorship, another oft-repeated chapter in Latin American history coming to an end. The story started like so many others in this hemisphere: a popular figure, a coup de’tat, a dictator, brutal repression of political enemies, and a revolution. There were many groups fighting for freedom, almost an entire nation up in arms fighting for democracy, but there was one group that stood out in the press, the “bearded ones” fighting for freedom in the mountains led by one Fidel Castro Ruz, a man who declared himself pro-democracy and anti-tyranny. He was the people’s hero, idolized by millions, saluted by the United States’ press as the George Washington of the island nation.

What he becomes is something born of nightmares, a relentless bloodthirsty machine of repression seeking to secure power through body counts, chasing down anyone who disagreed on this isolated island in the middle of the Caribbean. Were there signs of this prior to his betrayal of the Cuban people? Many ask this question and today we know the answer is “yes.” The lesson is visual… it happens in this video below at 0:44 or so. Take a look:

This one moment summarizes the lessons we can learn from that nation’s history. It is something that is seen in recent history… moments when a human being, flawed, ambitious, and arrogant, uses props to make himself seem supernatural. The example of a dove “spontaneously” landing on the shoulder of the Cuban butcher is just one… in the United States we have a different example. We have people hyperventilating and fainting over the sight of one peculiar politician. Here’s a compilation of people fainting:

We can assume that the dove landing on Fidel Castro’s shoulder was staged (or was guided by the hand of Satan). Can we say the same thing about Barack Obama’s fainting females? Or do we assume that people simply faint at the sight of him? Now that he has assumed power, where are the people short of breath?

Barack Obama was raised to the status of near-deity by the media and his handlers… but we have seen this story before. It was written in Cuba, in North Korea, and other countries like these where miracles have been ascribed to human leaders, especially brutal, murderous ones.

What I saw during the 2008 campaign was unlike anything I expected from my fellow Americans. A blindness, a hypnosis, a total lack of independent thought gripped millions of people disillusioned with the previous administration. It makes me wonder if it was all staged… if the statists put up this charismatic politician with ridiculous props, an adoring media, and a mountain of cash so that the American public would be taken for a ride. America did fall for it… but the shiny new-ness is now dull and reality is setting in. We are now a one-party state that issues mandates on individuals and ignores the will of the people.

Now that the Republicans are gaining traction from the Left’s overreach, I worry that they too will put up some shiny politician and try to pedal him/her to the American public so that they can continue their own big government agenda. Make no mistake that there exists a huge faction within the Republican ranks that is pro-big-gov’t though most of them masquerade as conservatives. As a good friend of mine said “beware of slick talking hucksters selling ‘ism.’” Our fight should not be necessarily for “liberalism” or “conservatism” but for freedom… and we must never forget that whenever politicians seem too good to be true, they absolutely are.

-AG