and manufacturer, as a fight for a sound,n• wholesome, economic national life. … It is a fightnfor clean politics and for free government. Whennyou have destroyed small business, you havendestroyed our towns and our country life, and younhave guaranteed and made permanent thenconcentration of economic power. . . . Thenconcentration of wealth always leads, and has alwaysnled, to the concentration of political power.nMonopoly and bureaucracy are twin whelps fromnthe same kennel.nThe NRA was opposed by most honest businessmen, evennin large corporations, and in 1935 the Supreme Courtndeclared the act unconstitutional. It did not take long,nhowever, for the great corporations to recognize the benefitsnof a cozy relationship with government. As Adam Smithnamong many other champions of the free market observed,nbusinessmen hate competition above- all else, and thenMorgans, Boeskys, Milkens, and Trumps of this worid donnot make their money by creating or producing, but by thenbribery, blackmail, and manipulation that comprise “the artnof the deal.”nThe cynicism of big business in America can be measurednby the support of Eastern coal companies for thenClean Air Act, the contributions to NOW made bynmanufacturers who like cheap labor, and the generalnenthusiasm for importing unskilled legal and illegal aliens,nregardless of the social, economic, and political costs to thennation as a whole.nThe ethnic conflicts in the U.S.S.R and Eastern Europenought to serve as a warning to the United States. Sovietnrulers deliberately drew national and territorial boundariesnthat made neither historical nor ethnic sense; they alsontransferred populations: Russians to Lithuania, Volga Germansnto Siberia. Stalin’s motives were the same as those ofnancient tyrants and emperors: suppression of nationalistnaspirations. The most obvious lesson for America is that it isndifficult if not impossible to create a unified nation-state outnof disparate ethnic groups that have a history of conflict.nUndeterred by either common sense or the terrible examplenof Yugoslavia and the U.S.S.R, our own Kremlin hasnrecenfly imposed a liberalized immigration law that willninsure a deepening of ethnic hostilities and the gradualnBalkanization of the country.nThe government, apparenfly, is not importing cheapnlabor fast enough to suit the new globalists. Despite the poornrecord of assimilation earned by many Soviet emigrants,nwho are uncomfortable with American freedoms, andndespite the FBI’s chilling statement that the most violentncriminal gangs in America are composed of Russians, thenHeritage Foundation is calling for admission of one millionnadditional Russians and proposes to pay for them byn”selling” $4.2 billion of Liberty Bonds. This is the politenway of saying borrow $4.2 billion dollars and pay twice thatnback in principal and interest. Once upon a time we soldn”liberty” bonds to finance the defense of America. Now it isnto promote the interests of unhappy Russians.nThis is affirmative action conservatism with a vengeance,nand it comes at a time when the continued centralization ofnpower in the hands of the national government and federaln14/CHRONICLESnnncourts is already alienating the various ethnic, religious, andnregional minorities. Hispanics, blacks, fundamentalists, andnSoutherners — to name only a few of the most prominentngroups — will eventually have to give up the futile contestnfor power and privileges at the national level and will turnnincreasingly to one or another form of separatism. Thenfederal system set up by the Founders served us well, butnfederalism amounts to little more today than the right toncollect state and local taxes under the watchful eye of thencentral state. For a vast and diverse territory of the size of thenUnited States, there are only two alternatives to federalism,nand we shall probably experience both of them in some formnin the coming years: imperial tyranny and secession.nSince the 1930’s, the national regime has attempted toncreate e pluribus unum, not by the federal system that allowsnfor local and regional diversities, but through various devicesninvented and developed by nationalists, fascists, and Stalinists:nthe imperial architecture of Washington, so similar innintent and design to Moscow and Beriin; the rigmarole ofnflag reverence and pledges of allegiance that would havensickened most of our ancestors as much as the flagndesecration that such idolatry inevitably invites; the politicalnindoctrination into “democratic values” that replaced thenteaching of history in our schools (facts can get in the way ofnthe “truth” that serves “the national interest”). Symptomaticnof the transformation has been the evolution of thenPresident from a limited constitutional executive to annemperor responsible directly to the national will and notnanswerable to the Congress that represents the authority ofnthe states and localities. The imperial President, who cannotndo without a Byzantine retinue of chamberlains, secretaries,ncounsels, and advisors, can now undertake wars on his ownninitiative. The ultimate justification, as his agents in thenSenate expressed it, was the protection of the President’sn”credibility” in foreign policy. In a burst of republicanncandor. Senator Nunn informed Arlen Spectre (in thenSenate debate on the two Gulf war resolutions), that he hadntaken an oath to uphold the Constitution and not to defendnthe prestige of George Bush. But Senator Nunn has beennsilenced, and other honest Senators who followed theirnconscience in opposing the war, notably Fritz Hollings, arennow being attacked as traitors in language reminiscent ofnFDR’s attacks on Charles Lindbergh.nNo one understood the role of propaganda in thenideological state better than George Orwell. In AnimalnFarm the beasts are constantiy terrorized by rumors ofnthe renegade Snowball; the traitor Goldstein plays thenTrotsky role in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both in years andnsophistication, we have already gone beyond NineteennEighty-Four, and Americans cannot be loyal to their countrynunless they are constantly reminded of an arch-enemy thatnthreatens to destroy us: the wicked Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin,nRichard Nixon, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Manuel Noriega,nSaddam Hussein.nBut propaganda takes its toll on a people. The mostnfaithful and patriotic elements begin by swallowing the baitnwhole, but eventually they become cynical and lazy. In thenU.S.S.R. propaganda has done its job all too well, and ifnthere were any responsible groups that could serve as anliberal aristocracy and a nucleus for building the habits andn