On her first trip to Asia as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had the following to say concerning human rights:
“our pressing on those issues can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.”
This comment should send chills down your spine; make you fear for the future of freedom. The subjugation of freedom and human rights to security is the first building block of tyranny. Allowing government to place human rights as secondary to other needs should be resisted.
Look at the verbiage of the Obama administration which is crisis, crisis, crisis. Think the administration officials are all reading from the same playbook? If history teaches us anything it is that fear, more than any other emotion, leads to tyranny. And crises stoke fear.
What’s even scarier is the list of issues which, according to the Secretary of State, take precedence over human rights including the economy, security, and global warming. That puts freedom as fourth on the agenda; a worrisome placement to say the least.
A number of human rights activists in China were put under house arrest for Clinton’s visit. Imagine their hearing her formulation of priorities. Hillary Clinton has effectively announced the state’s victory over human rights.
Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said “Beijing will be much relieved and happy that human rights and issues on Tibet and Taiwan have not been raised by Secretary Clinton,” he said. “Beijing will take it as a good and friendly gesture extended by Washington.”
When the Bush administration dealt with China they did it with the expressed purpose that economic trade would inspire capitalism and freedom in China. The two ideals of economic security and freedom, were linked. Hillary Clinton has separated them.
Ronald Reagan infamously told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Hillary Clinton announced yesterday that walls don’t bother the United States so much as long as money can pass over it.
February 24, 2009 at 4:29 pm
If history teaches us anything it is that fear, more than any other emotion, leads to tyranny. And crises stoke fear.
Pretty much the basis for Crichton’s book State of Fear . If the populace is kept in a constant state of fear, then the state will experience little resistance.
February 24, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I would put more importance to Secretary Clinton’s statement if she wasn’t being groomed as a replacement for Barbara Walters on “The View”. The Clintons’ idea of freedom is somewhere between that of Al Capone and John Dillinger sans machine guns and bathtub gin. They have the same itch caused by greed, lust and power as do guys like the fellow in the White House and his twin masters, George Soros and Richard M. Daley.
February 24, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Matthew, I was wondering when you were going to pick this one up : ) It was all over the news on Sunday here in the EU. Clinton is just reading another page from her husband’s playbook on China; take ‘da money, then whistle Dixie. This was actually begun under Bush Sr (remember? Tienanmen happened on his watch?)
I guess my personal boycott of buying Chinese goods will continue to fall on deaf ears.
February 24, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Hmmm, no wonder i never trusted the government.
February 24, 2009 at 6:45 pm
They don’t care about anything except the Chinese continuing to buy up our debt. For if (or when) they decide to stop doing so, we as a country are going to be in some deep doo doo (not that the doo doo isn’t already deep enough).
Obama might as well throw human rights and Tibet under the bus along with everything else he has found inconvenient.
Of course, we shouldn’t be noticing this kind of thing as we’re supposed to be blinded by his incredible transcendence.
February 24, 2009 at 7:34 pm
It’s all about the Benjamins.
February 24, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Whoa – my sister is a Benjamin…….what’s with that?
February 24, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Renee – I’m not really one for that whole Tibet-Gere-Lama bandwagon. I DO acknowledge the Communist Chinese DID commit genocide against the Tibetans in the 50’s and 60’s. But to be fair, they committed genocide against their own people during the same time as well (something like over 40 MILLION dead/starved to death etc).
The Tibetan govt in exile loves to play the martyrs, and it suits their political aims. However, what they fail to tell the world is that before the Communists came, Tibet was under a very rigid caste system, slavery was still in existence, there was no freedom of religion and outsiders were extremely unwelcome. Had Tibet been more “enlightened” and allowed freedoms and contact with other countries, it would have saved their society in the long run. So, this was definitely a tragedy of their own making.
February 24, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Makes me want to crank up the Supertramp.
February 24, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Mmmm…wasn’t Bill the Supertramp? I thought of Hilary more as Witchy woman.
February 24, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Subvet’s got it: it’s all about the Benjamins. Always has been.
~cmpt
February 24, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Perhaps she secretly admires the Chinese gumption to put those that disagree under wraps.
February 26, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Does anyone know when Obama Mia is coming out????