How can the centralized State accumulate unlimited power, while still retaining the outward form of a democracy? This question has been the obsession of the American Left for over a century.

◼ The answer lies in subduing the middle class, which is always the deadly enemy of statism. - John Hayward at Human Events

To subdue the middle class, it must be made dependent upon the State. Middle class voters must, at some critical juncture, voluntarily relinquish a terminal amount of their economic freedom. The trick is keeping them quiet while the State passes the event horizon of growth.... it is necessary to persuade the middle class to think of itself as poor. Simple logic must be abandoned, in favor of soothing promises. The depth of its compassion must be the only yardstick by which the State is judged.

A fascinating example of this occurred on Tuesday, when President Obama sallied forth to demand the extension of his “payroll tax cut,” which is actually a $225 billion raid on Social Security funding. Obama described this program as putting $40 per paycheck in the pocket of average Americans, and insisted there is no honorable reason why anyone could possibly oppose extending it, or even question its virtue.

Obama said that “allowing this tax cut to expire would make people’s lives harder right now,” and cited a number of reasons… including high gas prices. “If we start seeing significant increases in gas prices, losing that $40 could not come at a worse time,” he inveighed, citing a local Washington, D.C. entrepreneur who said he was worried about being able to afford gas for his drive to work.

Thus speaks the High Gas Price President, whose policies have done more to cripple American energy than anyone except Jimmy Carter. Gas prices have risen an incredible 83 percent on his watch, and he never misses an opportunity to thwart domestic energy production, even as he pours taxpayer billions into foolish “green energy” payoffs to his big contributors. This is the President who stands athwart American industry yelling “Stop!”… and now he dares to cite the results of his own failure as a reason his demands must be obeyed. You can’t take that Obama “payroll tax cut” away! People need that to pay for Obama’s high gas prices!