"Freedom for us, but not for them, eh, Mitch?"
McConnell: [giggle]
Posted on 07/04/2015 3:49:11 PM PDT by walford
It was the first time in history that a country was based upon something other than place or ethnicity. The Founding Fathers built upon the thoughts and actions resulting from the Reformation and Enlightenment, deliberately crafting a government legitimized by a popular mandate.
No longer did someone rule by Divine Right. Religion and the Divine were not possessed by a Chosen aristocracy and the coercive power of government was not used to impose it upon the populace. Political influence and economic success could be attained by other means than birth. For the first time in history, one could use hard work, creativity and discipline to provide a need -- and in the process make things that were previously attainable to only the few available to nearly everyone.
One could attain economic success to mutual benefit in an industrializing society, rather than at the expense of others in agrarian medievalism.
It is no accident that the Industrial Revolution coincided with the American Revolution.
Prior to the founding of our Republic, there was doubt as to whether limited representative government would not degenerate into mob rule. The founding of the United States of America showed the world that freedom is the optimal human condition. It was demonstrated that people could govern themselves and the result would be justice and prosperity that penetrated to a far broader proportion of society than previously deemed possible. Seeing the technological innovation that was nurtured under freedom, much of the world strove to emulate this example.
Certainly this course has been imperfect. We can second-guess the choices of people from the 18th Century as they essentially created the field of political science from scratch. Their prejudices and experience certainly colored their actions -- and their posterity certainly suffered the consequences. But the Founding Fathers’ genius provided a structure under which we could reform our society beyond what they could have imagined -- and still remain intact through great upheaval and tumult.
Hence, we enjoy the longest continuously running democracy the world has ever seen.
But, from the beginning, there were always forces who did not trust the people and sought to disenfranchise them. To this day, they try to seduce the people into giving up their freedoms for the false security of dependence upon those who are smarter and know better. They try to demoralize the public into thinking that they cannot run their lives w/o guidance and provision from their Betters.
The threat to freedom is as great now as it’s ever been. Our way of life and our empowerment to see to our own personal safety and economic security are under attack on all fronts -- by those who smile and tell us that they will take care of us if we only put our lives in their hands.
There is an elite class who dominates the media, academia, the legal profession, politics and the entertainment industry who have been patiently conniving to make us ignorant, impoverished and disenfranchised. Then they turn their pinched faces to blame freedom for the crime, poverty and social dissolution resulting from their mischief as they offer to save us from ourselves.
We are not being attacked by force of arms, but by deception -- and it has had its deleterious effect over the past couple of generations. The middle class is the main target for destruction; people who can take care of themselves have no need for benign tyrants.
Has freedom had its chance? Is mankind doomed to suffer under tyranny? I don’t think so. But we need to wake up, recognize what is being done to destroy our way of life and fight back.
We owe that much to those who sacrificed so much to bring us the greatest nation the world has ever seen. We owe that much to our children who must live in the world we leave behind.
Liberty and Freedon, quickly slipping away.
Not everyone wants freedom.
The Founding Fathers never thought of this.
It’s slipping, but with perseverance, we can grasp it and bring it back...We must, for the future of our grandkids.....
One of the most important things I learned in the military was to never give up...never quit...until the last breath leaves your body....
I’ve had a great day in town where I grew up and saw real patriotism all around. Photos of our Parade and a few of the family.
http://s1182.photobucket.com/user/JohnNorvell/library/Independence%20Day%202015?sort=3&page=1
Classic vehicle buffs would love our parade.
That is extremely AWESOME, cripplecreek!!!!!!
THAT is America.....THAT is what America is about....
Thank you for sharing....
I’d like to see Dingy hog-tied out on the Bundy Ranch rangeland for a couple of days. Ditch could be there too with his locally indigenous kind.
Of course they did.
” In framing a system which we wish to last for ages, we shd. not lose sight of the changes which ages will produce. An increase of population will of necessity increase the proportion of those who will labour under all the hardships of life, & secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings. These may in time outnumber those who are placed above the feelings of indigence. According to the equal laws of suffrage, the power will slide into the hands of the former. No agrarian attempts have yet been made in in this Country, but symtoms, of a leveling spirit, as we have understood, have sufficiently appeared in a certain quarters to give notice of the future danger. How is this danger to be guarded agst. on republican principles? How is the danger in all cases of interested coalitions to oppress the minority to be guarded agst.? Among other means by the establishment of a body in the Govt. sufficiently respectable for its wisdom & virtue, to aid on such emergences, the preponderance of justice by throwing its weight into that scale. Such being the objects of the second branch in the proposed Govt. “
What they never envisioned was a monolithic media that could drive the mob’s lowest desires through the Founders’ checks and balances.
Freedom is not an idea, and it’s not an end state.
Freedom ALWAYS raises the question, “freedom to do what?”
Freedom to do right, to serve the good and true, is of value.
Freedom to pursue perversity, to slaughter, to serve the evil and wicked, is loathsome.
Happy 4th of July.
The Sunnis of Iraq wanted freedom - to slaughter the Shia.
The Hutus of Rwanda wanted to be free - to murder the Tutsis.
With freedom comes responsibility — and consequences. The most recent generations are being raised to believe that they cannot bear this burden and should therefore seek the comfort of leaving it to others to decide — and act.
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