The New Road to Serfdom (19 page)

Encouragingly, Barack Obama made precisely the same argument on the night of his election victory in
Chicago: “Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

Quite so. Which is why the rest of us want you to cleave fast to those ideals. They have served to make you rich and free, to the benefit of other nations as well as your own. And you will perhaps allow me a certain additional pride, as a British politician, when I say that your ideals came from ours, that the highest conception of British liberty was committed to paper in the old courthouse at Philadelphia.

__________

Which brings me to my country’s present discontents. The fears that the American patriot leaders had about a Hanoverian tyranny were, in retrospect, exaggerated. The United Kingdom did not develop into an absolutist state. Power continued to pass from the Crown to the House of Commons. Indeed, many of the political developments that occurred in the United States happened in parallel in the United Kingdom, for the obvious reason that the two states were starting from a similar place.

The real divergence has come much more recently. It has come about as a result of a general shift in power in the United Kingdom from Parliament to quangos,
from local councils to central bureaucracies, and, most damagingly, from Westminster to the EU. It is the process of European integration, above all, that has concentrated power in the hands of functionaries, in Whitehall as well as in Brussels. With every new European Directive, every Regulation, Britain is tugged away from its Martian orbit by the gravitational pull of Venus.

In consequence, the grievances which the Americans laid against George III are now, more than two centuries later, coming to pass in earnest. Colossal sums are being commandeered by the government in order to fund bail-outs and nationalizations, without any proper parliamentary authorization. Legislation happens increasingly through what are called Standing Orders: a device that allows ministers to make laws without parliamentary consent—often for the purpose of implementing EU standards. Elections have been drained of purpose, and turnout is falling. Local councils have surrendered their prerogatives to the central
apparat.
Foreign treaties are signed by the Prime Minister under what is known as Crown prerogative, meaning that there is no need for parliamentary approval. Appointments to the growing corpus of state functionaries—the quangocracy—are made in the same way.

How aptly the British people might today apply the ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence
against their own rulers who have “combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws.”

Throughout my career in politics, I have campaigned to apply Jeffersonian democracy to British political conditions, to recover those British freedoms that have flourished more happily in America than in their native soil. Ever since my election, I have worked to repatriate our revolution. So you can imagine how I feel when I see the United States making the same mistakes that Britain has made: expanding its government, regulating private commerce, centralizing its jurisdiction, breaking the link between taxation and representation, abandoning its sovereignty.

The United States is an ideal as well as a country. As John Winthrop told his shipmates on the way to the first settlements in 1630:

The eyes of all people are upon you. And if they see you repudiate your past, abandon that which has
brought you to greatness, become just another country, they, too, will have lost something.

So let me close with a heartfelt imprecation, from a Briton who loves his country to Americans who still believe in theirs. Honor the genius of your founders. Respect the most sublime constitution devised by human intelligence. Keep faith with the design that has made you independent. Preserve the freedom of the nation to which, by good fortune and God’s grace, you are privileged to belong.

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Page numbers of illustrations appear in italics.

Aaronovitch, David, 13

Abu Ghraib prison, 14

Adams, John, 116, 154, 178–80

Afghanistan

British Muslims fighting in, 106

Obama policy, 13, 14, 15

U.S. war in, 129, 139

Africa, 41

anti-Americanism in, 8

emigration, 83

EU membership and, 57, 124

foreign policy and, 7, 133

GDP,
77

South African auto use, xviii

African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States, 57, 124

Albania, 102

American authors, xix

American character, xiii-xiv, xxi, xxii

civic vs. ethnic citizenship, 6

faith in the system, 19–21, 40, 167

myths about, xvii-xx

naïveté or absence of cynicism, 39–40

optimism, xiv, xv, 40

patriotism, 4–5, 172

self-reliance, 2

threatened loss of, xv, xxiii

as virtuous, independent, and freestanding citizenry, xxiii, 6

American Civil War, 63

American culture, 40, 137

Europe vs., 119, 123

shared with Britain, 180–81

American dream, 8

American Enterprise Institute, 160

American ideals, xv, 1–3, 6, 162

British liberties and, 171–81

danger of loss, xv-xvi, xxiii

defending, 123

essence of America as doctrinal, 7–8

exporting of ideology and, 139

failures of, 8

in foreign policy, 133–34, 136–37

as inspirational, 186–87

Magna Carta and, 178

Obama and, 183–84

racial issues and, 10–12

American Revolution, 172–76

Boston Tea Party, 177

Americans for Tax Reform, 161

American superpower and world

leadership status, xxii, 40, 74, 114

Andean Community, 56

Anglosphere, 182–83

anti-Americanism, 8, 10–11, 13, 15

diversity of America and, 19

foreign press headlines, 14–15

Iraq war and, 122

Obama and, 12–13, 14, 74–76

anti-Semitism, 122, 137–38

Arafat, Yasser, 143

Arbour, Louise, 145

Aristotle, 73

Armey, Dick, 166–67, 168

arrogance of power, 37–38

ASEAN, 56

Ash, Tim Garton, 121–22

Ashton, Baroness, 135–36

Asia

anti-Americanism in, 8

in antiquity, 50, 52

as autocratic, 8

economic prosperity,
77,
78

Australia, xviii,
55,
182

Austria,
55,
128

Baldwin, Stanley, 25

Barroso, José Manuel Durrão, 44

Bashir, Omas al-, 149, 150

Becker, Gary, 52–53

Blackstone, William, 143

Blair, Sir Ian, 36–38

Blair, Tony, 30, 135

Bork, Robert, 140, 141

Bosnia-Herzegovina, 139

Bouyeri, Mohammed, 106

Brecht, Bertolt, 44

Britain.
See
United Kingdom

British Tea Party, 176–77

Brown, Gordon, 31, 86, 136

Burke, Edmund, 16, 155–56, 175

Burnham, Andy, 86

Buruma, Ian, 113

Bush, George H. W., 144, 164

Bush, George W., xvi, 70, 122, 127–28, 164

big government policies, 157, 168–69

Bush, Prescott, 163–64

Cameron, David, 165, 168

Canada,
55,
62, 91, 182

capitalism, xvi, 8

Bush’s crony capitalism, 168

competition benefits, 52–53, 54

criticism of, 54

European“third way,” 84

“jungle capitalism,” 54

Rhineland model, 77

Roosevelt and, 66–67

technology and global, 54

Castro, Fidel, 143

Cato Institute, 160

centralization, 50.
See also
European Union (EU)

as big government, 60–61, 76, 162, 168

Bush administration and, 157, 168–69

Constitutional amendments and, 64–66

deleterious to economic prosperity, 52

European integration and, 24–25, 44, 47, 49, 53–54, 56, 74, 75, 84, 120, 123, 124

factors that drive, 61–62

Franklin Roosevelt and, 63, 66–70

problems of, 70, 71, 80, 84, 96–97, 115, 185

protection against, 62

Theodore Roosevelt and, 63

times of crisis and, 70–71

Woodrow Wilson and, 63–64, 65, 66

world government and, 144–45

Chang, Ben, 149

Chávez, Hugo, 13

Cheney, Dick, 122

China, 50, 52, 125, 133

Christian Democrats, 54, 84, 158

Christian Right, 103

Churchill, Winston, 66

climate change, xvi, 12

Bush administration policy, 127–28

cap-and-trade rules, 15, 128

carbon taxes, 76

global governance and, 57

Obama policy, xxi, 57, 74

Rio-Kyoto-Copenhagen process, 75, 128

U.S. vs. Europe, emission data, 128

Clinton, Bill, 13, 93

Clinton, Hillary, 161

“coca-colonialism,” 8, 137

Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges
(Bork), 140

Cole, Harold L., 68

Common Sense
(Paine), vii

communism, 7, 54

consumerism, 8

Contract with America, 166–68

Copenhagen Climate Summit, 57

Council of Europe, 147–48

Cousins’ Wars, The
(Phillips), 173–74

Cuba, 125, 133, 136

Daily Mirror, The
, 86

Dawkins, Richard, 133–34

death penalty, 15, 63

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The
(Gibbon), 51

democracy, 169.
See also
elections American, 17–40

direct election, 28, 34–39, 46, 116, 117, 118

election of judges, 142

free elections, 15

inclusiveness of American, 12

Jeffersonian, 17, 27–29, 39, 134, 166, 186

leaders as accountable, 34–39, 57

loss of, 25

meaningful change through, 40

as more easily truncated than extended, 38–39

open primaries and, 28, 29, 31–34, 46

opponents of, 8

recall mechanisms and, 28, 39, 46

referendums and, 46, 116, 165

representative, 59

term limits, 28, 39, 46, 67

two-party system, 29, 32

Democratic Party, 7, 33, 163

Great Depression and, 66–67, 69

health care issue, 90

Denmark, 128

Descartes, René, 78

dispersal of power, xv, 16, 27–29, 46, 57, 59–60, 61

economy, xxiii

arguments against Europeanization of, 74–85

centralization as deleterious to, 52–53

competition as key to, 52–53, 54

dispersal of power and, 59

European, 74–85, 126

European“third way,” 84

European worker, 79–80, 126

government regulation, 80–81

government spending and, 70

income per capita table,
55

Lisbon Agenda, 78

New Deal and, 67–68

share of world GDP,
77

size of nation and, 54–55,
55,
56

social market, 77

state ownership of key enterprises, 85

taxes and, 53

unemployment, 77,
81,
127

U.S. growth vs. EU, 77–78

working days, length of, 77

education, 76, 168

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 12, 163

elections

British election rules, 29–30

direct election of officials, 28, 34–39, 46, 116, 117, 118

European cynicism, 24

local government and, 28
(see also
localism)

open primaries, 28, 29, 32–34

policy coming from bottom up, 33

turnout at American, 22–23,
23

turnout at European,
23,
23–24

two-party system, 29

Euro-corporatism, 84, 126

European Charter of FundamentalRights, 147–48

European Commission, 47–48, 134

unelected Commissioners, 134–35

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), 147–48

Europe/Europeans

American TV programs in, xx

Ash’s summary, 121–22

average amount yearly to charity, xxi

cars and oil addiction, xviii-xix

centralization of power in, 44, 47–48
(see also
European Union)

competition, dislike of, 53–54

criticism of Obama/U.S., 14–15

culture vs. U.S., 119, 123

cynicism about government, 20–21

decline of church attendance, 104

decline of the family, 101–3

depopulation threat, 105

desire to prevent recurrence of World War II, 47

“dish cities,” 113

economy of, 74–85

end of U.S. military protection, 120

evils projected onto America as their own, xx-xxi

immigrants in, 105, 106, 113–14

loss of faith in government, 21, 105–6

Marshall Plan and, 83

mass migration following WWII, 83

Muslims in, 104–5, 138

Muslim terrorists in, 113–14

no pan-Continental affinity in, 49

pluralism, abandonment of, 52

politeness of, xvii

politicians invulnerable to public opinion, 31–32

proportional representation, 29, 31–32

richness of heritage, 49–52

rise of Western civilization, 50–52

state churches, 104

suburbs of, xix, 113

as superstate, 52