Posted on 12/18/2008 2:38:57 PM PST by mojito
Herb London is the President of the Hudson Institute, a Professor Emeritus at NYU, and a former candidate for Governor of New York on the Conservative Party ticket. He took the results of November's election harder than we did, and wonders whether this country has undergone a profound change for the worse. Herb wrote this provocative essay for Power Line:
The results are in and my candidate lost the presidency. Since I love this country, I wish the newly named President Barack Obama every success. But this was an election unlike any other. I don't think the Republicans merely lost an election, I believe many of us lost a country.
This was a land that once rewarded hard work and enterprise. A place where one's word was his bond. America was the land of opportunity. If you can't do it here, you cannot do it anywhere. We were a people to be envied, not only because we had the highest standard living, but because we had the greatest degree of stability.
Americans were notoriously optimistic because we counted on tomorrow being better than yesterday. We were an open people dependent on fair play and a free market bounded by a standard of virtue. With all the blemishes in our past and breaches in our own ethics, we were a model of civic rectitude. "Dems that gives, gets;" those who wish to bilk the system will be discovered and isolated.
There was a time not so long ago when people did not depend on government to bail them out of financial difficulty, a time when the nanny state bred apprehension, not affection. Now, it seems, in the new America almost everyone wants a free ride. The non-tax payer wants a rebate from the taxpayer. The poor man wants everything the rich man has and he wants the rich man to give it to him.
Enemies of the nation, it turns out, are not enemies at all; we merely defined them as adversaries. Had we been clever in the past, we could have defined them out of existence. All we have to do is engage in "soft power," diplomacy and clever negotiating skill. Surely those who want to kill us will be persuaded that swords should be converted into plowshares. It's odd, but Osama bin Laden doesn't seem to embrace this position.
The America of now is one where Orwellian logic rules. Redistribution of wealth is fairness. Taxes are patriotic. The free market should be a regulated market. Big government is good for you. Politicians know what kind of health care is best for you. Choice should be limited, except when it comes to abortion. Power comes from being powerless. Progressive education is designed to promote progress toward socialism. Race doesn't count unless a person of color tells you it counts. Higher education gets lower each year. Those who create our problems should be asked to solve them. Religion should be a private matter that does not inform public morality. Liberal is radical. Free speech is selective speech. Courage is impetuousness.
Yes, Americans - many Americans - want change. The level of dissatisfaction runs deep. But the national cri de coeur hasn't a direction. That's what makes it so dangerous. Americans live better than at any moment in our collective history, notwithstanding the meltdown on Wall Street, yet despair is ubiquitous. Admittedly observing 401K accounts disappear as soap bubbles will make anyone angry. Nonetheless, it is a privilege to live in the land of the free, a privilege now regarded as an entitlement.
It was once wrong to use community groups such as ACORN to steal an election. It was once wrong to conceal one's past in order to invent an identity. It was once wrong to use the instrument of government finance to satisfy a constituency and then claim an unregulated market is what ails us. It was once wrong to lie in a campaign and still is except when the media panjandrums avert their gaze for the lies of a favored candidate.
Surely we face threats across the globe that cannot be easily forestalled. Arguably the most significant threat is from within in the form of an unregulated government, a government large, intrusive and seductive. This is the new American government that promises everything and demands very little from its citizens. "Shop until you drop" is the national anthem. After all, you don't have to fight if you don't want to and you don't have to sacrifice if that's too much for you. All you have to do is visit malls and keep opinions to yourself. Opinions are important since Truth Squads want to be sure you don't criticize the chosen candidate.
Where is my America, the place of fair play, individual rights, the rule of law and respect for private property? Was the past merely a dream from which I have awakened? Can that America of exceptionalism return? Can it find its way back into the public consciousness?
I have my doubts. Now the change agents scream "everything will be different." Alas, they are right. It appears as if everything will be different, most especially the end of an America I loved.
Time will tell.
Then they did it.
I am sure that by the next election Republican countermeasures will be in place and the Democrats will be returned to their own personal hellholes in the third-world.
It does me.
It represents my feelings completely.
“I have a feeling this post represents the feelings of many FReepers.”
post#22 in response to#17:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2150697/posts
Time will surely tell - that the great American experiment ended this year. We are now in charted waters....as we’ve seen in Europe and other socialistic societies.
“The results are in and my candidate lost the presidency.”\
At least he HAD a candidate.
Progress invariably means change. Change does not invariably mean progress.
Me too
Then they did it.
That's the standard liberal MO. First, they convince themselves that conservatives either are cheating or will cheat. (After all, conservatives are eeeeeevil.) Once they are thoroughly convinced that the other side cheats, it gives their consciences the green light to cheat, since the other guys are doing it.
Of course, it doesn't matter that the other side doesn't cheat. All they need is the conscience-numbing effect of moral equivalence, even if imagined.
To me, the common denominator for all our country's ills is the unwillingness of every individual to be responsible for their own well being...period. Liberals have created an entitlement mentality in voters and the liar who promises the most gets the votes. If the politician is later proved corrupt, no one seems to care as long as they continue to get their freebies. The productive members of society have been the host to the unproductive long enough. They have sucked us dry and it's time for them to pony up and start supporting themselves. I'm tired of giving and not getting anything in return...
The mess that ushered in an Obama administration, as well as the almost certainty that Obama policies will produce near Great Depression economic conditions in the US, will cause a large backlash. Those who voted for Obama because of how bad they thought things were under Bush will be ready for change in 2010 as things will be far worse than they could have imagined. If Republicans an get rid of RINOs and go back to Reagan’s vision for America they will sweep Congress in 2010 and be in the White House in 2012.
When you reward someone who has done nothing it is impossible to return. Some of us would like to put on a good face about this but we all know there was voter fraud, criminal mischief, an unqualified candidate, a media that withheld information, behind the scenes illegal overseas campaign contributions, seedy, despicable charactors who befriended the one and most of all a Republican party that fell victim to the cancer called liberalism. By the looks of things with the morons we have in congress and the senate and now the leader of these criminals becoming president I do not feel a bit confident in where we are going and the cliff we will all be going over but most of all we failed out children most of all!
“Arguably the most significant threat is from within in the form of an unregulated government,..”
Unregulated government. Man, how true is that! Weren’t the members of the government once regular people like us? How did this happen? I know the answer to my questions but still, something confuses me. It doesn’t seem possible that the government could get so bad so fast.
It represents mine.
A Masterpiece!
I regret to say, I doubt it.
We’ll take the country back , one way or another.
The article said — “The results are in and my candidate lost the presidency.”
Hmmm.., I thought the conservatives lost because they *did not* have a candidate. Wasn’t McCain chosen by the Democrats??
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