Paul A. Rahe on Soft Despotism and the Allure of the Nanny State

Paul A. Rahe discusses the danger that a consolidation of government poses for the people of the United States, the psychological disposition that makes democratic peoples vulnerable to servile temptation, and the institutions that once, in some measure, shielded Americans from these propensities.

Asserting that the Obama administration is pursuing tyrannical ambitions, he offers some of the reasons why it is now possible for the nation to recover its original liberty. - Hoover Institution

Dr. Paul A. Rahe is a historian of political philosophy, Professor of History and Political Science at Hillsdale College, and author of the study Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution. His most recent book is Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.