Freedom Now Stands Alone

The Spectator ^ | 5 Nov 08 | Melanie Phillips

[LSUfan]

So the answer to my question turned out to be yes, America really was going to do this. A historic moment indeed. The hyperbole for once is not exaggerated: this is a watershed election which changes the fate of the world. The fear however is that the world now becomes very much less safe for all of us as a result. Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery -- can only hope that the way this man governs will be very different from the profile provided by his influences, associations and record to date. It’s a faint hope – the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today.

America has voted for change, apparently. Change from what, precisely? From Bush? But in the second term, Bush stopped being Bush. His foreign policy lurched from paralysis to appeasement (redeemed only by the strategic genius of Gen Petraeus – and what price Petraeus now?) As Frank Gaffney wrote in the Washington Times yesterday, Bush’s Treasury is about to open the way for sharia law to be imposed upon America’s banking system. And it was a Democrat-controlled Congress that helped provoke the sub-prime lending crisis that triggered the current financial meltdown.

[workerbee]

And the scariest thing is that he hs no effective political opposition.

Scarier is that all the mechanisms with which we would normally have to regroup and be an opposition will be taken from us. Perhaps scariest is that a majority of our population is completely indifferent to this fact.

[Harry Wurzbach]

apparently this nation doesn’t want freedom any more?

That presumes that this nation's citizenry understands that the constitution guarantees its freedom and that it can be subverted through laziness, neglect, and the courts.

I have no confidence in the American people. Why should I? It's the Constitution which protects us from the stupidity of the people, when it's properly upheld. There's plenty of examples in our history when the constitutional rights of some were infringed upon.

A majority of Americans believe we live in a pure democracy, I am sure. They have no understanding of the importance of the Constitution.

Lastly, most of our forebears came to this country seeking freedom: freedom from tyranny, freedom of faith, and freedom to pursue a better life. At some point it is quite possible that this freedom will not exist anymore. Now do we continue to point this out to an increasingly dull electorate or do we pick up our chips and move on? Yes, there is something great about the brief American experiment. But at some point this country becomes Belgium. Our ancestors came here for a better life. We may have to leave here to find ours.