Paul Rahe discusses the danger 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 us to recover the liberty that once was ours. (39:13) Video transcript

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• start video from beginning Paul Rahe defends his position that President Obama’s health-care proposals “presuppose the administrative state’s assuming a power over our lives that is nothing less than tyrannical.”
• start segment 2 at 8:12 Paul Rahe says it is easy to explain the nanny state, since there is a nanny in all of us. What’s harder to explain is why someone would desire life under the nanny.
• start segment 3 at 15:16 Paul Rahe discusses the keen perceptions and timeless wisdom of Tocqueville.
• start segment 4 at 23:10 What are the roots of modern soft despotism in America? Paul Rahe responds.
• start segment 5 at 29:54 Is the all-encompassing welfare state inevitable? Can we recover our liberty? Paul Rahe responds.