But Americans have forgotten their own history, so they can t remember, and therefore can t imagine, an alternative. Tyranny seldom announces itself. In fact, a tyranny may exist without an individual tyrant. A whole government, even a democratically elected one, may be tyrannical. An infallible sign of tyranny is a welfare state, which is inevitably accompanied by high taxes.
Most tyrannies subsist less by committing atrocities than by creating dependents.
The trick is to get as many people as possible getting their income from the government. Since governments don t produce wealth, they can pay benefits to dependents only by imposing taxes on productive people, thereby forcing one part of the population to support another. The parasitic segment of the population will always be loyal to the government, reinforcing its power. Franklin Roosevelt knew this when he created a national welfare state. And like most successful tyrants, Roosevelt was charming and popular.