Like many of Thomas Sowell's columns but unlike his more balanced and carefully argued book, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
, this op-ed is a bit over the top. But his basic point, that Obama's leaning on BP for $20 billion of the corporation's money for use at the government's discretion to compensate victims of the oil spill is a threat to democracy, deserves more serious discussion than it is likely to get.
When governments can shake down corporations on such a scale as in this case, without due process of law or government respect for property rights, are they undermining democracy and the rule of law and promoting a slide to political, statist tyranny? A question to consider, at least in principle.
