Posted on 01/12/2016 12:27:31 PM PST by Kaslin
A new Gallup poll concludes that Americans hate their government much more than they did when Obama first took office. In 2009, the burden of government was ranked fourth on the list of problems faced by Americans. At that time, seven percent of those surveyed ranked burdensome government as the worst problem they faced. At the end of 2014, that percentage stood at 16%. More importantly, government was the most often cited concern above all others. At his inauguration, Ronald Reagan said "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. It is the problem." If we Americans didn't believe Reagan then, after seven years of Obama, a lot more of us do now.
From Obamacare, to Dodd-Frank, to an out-of-control EPA, to myriad executive orders and tax increases, Americans are increasingly appalled by Obama's massive expansion of government, the size of which has not been seen since the Depression, in the early days of FDR. At the same time, Americans continue to witness a nearly jobless recovery, soaring health care costs, civil unrest, rising domestic terrorism, a government that continuously lies, governmental intrusion into nearly every aspect of their lives, and a complete lack of accountability when all problems - foreign and domestic - are growing worse.
Recently more and more conservative pundits are begrudgingly joining the ranks of those who have concluded that the bombastic Republican front runner, Donald Trump, has brilliantly made himself the leader of those who still love their country but hate their government. He's both a presidential candidate and a symptom of their hatred. And while he appears to be greatly enjoying the adulation, there is a serious danger resulting from his fomenting an even greater disgust and contempt for the agencies of the American government.
An article by Victor Davison Hanson entitled, War Will Be War, appeared a few months after 9/11. In it he wrote "War is not merely a material struggle, but more often a referendum on the spirit. No nation has ever survived once its citizenry ceased to believe its culture worth saving."
Hanson's piece referred to the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC where the Greek city states, as the result of one lost battle, gave up their magnificently innovative culture and its associated freedoms to their new Macedonian overlords. In so doing, the Greeks remained a subjugated people for the next 2,400 years.
This essay by Hanson was the inspiration for my book, Lessons from Fallen Civilizations, in which I developed a list of 10 immutable principles which contribute to the fall of great civilizations and which can be seen to repeat over time. The first of my immutables, which I also refer to as Hanson's law reads:
Immutable # 1
No nation has ever survived once its citizenry ceased to believe its culture worth saving
The danger to the U.S. which Trump represents and which the new Gallup poll illuminates can be expressed by the following question—what will happen if the next American president can't or won't reduce the cost and burden of America's now hated onerous government?
In November of 2016, a plurality of American voters will hopefully elect a new president who will lead Congress in rolling government back. But what if that doesn't happen? The Greek Historian, Thucydides was the first to observe that history repeats itself. This was because, in his view, the nature of man does not change very much over time. One of his timeless (immutable) observations was: Power always seeks to increase itself.
Students of history would consider it extremely rare and unlikely that an all-powerful government, such as the one currently governing the U.S., will freely give back a substantial portion of its prerogatives to the people it governs. So if that relinquishing of governmental power doesn't happen in the U.S. and soon, how will Americans' growing distrust and hatred for their government impact its ability to defend itself from the threat posed by resurgent militant Islam?
The answer is not reassuring. Consider that the Spanish "Reconquista" took 700 years to rid the Iberian peninsula of Islamic domination. Greece and Southern Europe were enslaved by Ottoman Turks for 500 years. The war between the jihadist portion of Islam and the Judeo Christian West will likely last generations with the outcome in favor of the West not ensured. Welfare state Europe will likely be of little help in this building clash of civilizations. The U.S. will need to reallocate resources away from the construction of its own welfare state while marshaling its resolve to wage and win a long terrible struggle.
Therefore America can ill afford to let its citizenry's hatred for its government to persist because over time it will inevitably morph into a hatred for the country. Soon a new generation will be coming of military age. But what if our sons and daughters, like the Europeans, do not wish to put their lives at risk to save their culture because they hate their government and because they have no memory of when America was still a free country?
The Supreme Court now has us in undocumented waters because everyone wanted a ‘black American president’ so sidelined the laws our fore fathers set up to prevent this from happening...if they would have just stuck to the Constitution, we wouldn't be here now...
There is no ‘Mafia’ family as corrupted or as filthy dirty as the United States Government, and has been that way for a long long time....
You are so right.
Cheech: Hey, what you watchin' man?
Chong: It's a movie about Indians, but it's really boring!
Cheech: Huh? Hey, man, that's not a movie, man, that's a test pattern!
Anybody who has forgotten, should run right out and buy “Rush Revere and ..” series by Rush Limbaugh.
When you read these books, it will put you back in touch with the real America.
[[I was a tyke in the 80s so everything is hazy and tinged with nostalgia, but I remember it being rather nice.]]
It was WAY nice- for the most part- there were some problems of course, but my goodness- we’ve lost so many rights over the past decade that this country no longer resembles what it did in the 60’s 80’s etc- Everyone is suing everyone now, everyone is screaming racism, everyone is screaming ‘micro-aggression, everyone is screaming ‘homophobia’ everyone is screaming ‘islamophobia’ now- no one can say anything ‘out of line’ anymore without someone falling all to pieces because they are such a sissy they need the government to back them up now-
We were free to have backyard barbeques without neighbors falling all to pieces screaming about ‘global warming’ - people minded their own business for the most part-
Kids RESPECTED authority- respected their elders for the most part
businesses were not forced to hire people based on skin color or sexual orientation simply because some quota needed to be filled- work was based on skill- not skin color or sexual preferences- If an ethnic person was better suited to a job, the business would hire them- if not, another person would be hired- for the most part-
Police in small towns worked with the citizens instead of sitting around in police traps waiting to pad their fine accounts- the police genuinely cared about helping people- and didn’t go by some ‘mandatory arrest guidelines’- in other words- police were free to use COMMON SENSE when investigating problems- no more-
The government did NOT take it upon themselves to constantly interfere in our lives telling us what we should and shouldn’t like or do (ie: smoking, food choices etc)- People were free to choose what they liked and didn’t like- all by themselves
On and on it goes-
Things were WAY better back then
Oh, I’m fully pro-Cruz and pro-Trump. If anything, for the sheer apoplexy they deliver to the left. The joy of seeing their lives revert to a hellish nightmare keeps the blood pumping in my veins.
But I’ve gotten to the point that I fully believe the country has crossed the event horizon. For me, symbolically it was when homo-marriage was forced onto the nation, with far too few murmers of dissent. I can no longer look at America, nor my fellow countrymen, in the same light. Nor really even feel all that personally invested in its future survival.
I remember doing just that in 1980.
The U.S.A was a really cool place in those days.
The Rubicon was crossed with gays in the military, the repeal of DADT. The US military with openly gay members? the idea would have got you thrown in the booby hatch 30 years ago.
I remember the lines to sell silver under Carter, along with the CPI rate, what 22%? And the gas lines.
Then came Reagan.
I was a child in the 1940s and 50s, a young adult and a soldier in the 60s. Even a year in Vietnam wasn’t anywhere near as scary as our situation today. I was a happy, optimistic guy back then. Today I mostly just want people to shut up and leave me alone. Is something wrong with me?
I began to make a list of differences between “then” (when America was great), and “now” (not so great). Three columns: A = then/great issue, B = corresponding now/not great issue, and C = why the deterioration.
The list is growing. Things like immigrant assimilation; signage, ballots, teaching in non-English languages; true free speech; booming economy and a choice of jobs; etc., etc., etc. The root cause of most issues is the rise of political correctness. If Trump could re-wind and take us back that would be so great.
If Trump is unable to make headway on reducing the size and scope of govt then the American public will.
“How many of us remember when tv stations would sign off with the Flag?”
And play Taps.
Things have really changed, prior to Obama I was called all kinds of bad things on FR for saying that this is not a free country any longer. Now I don’t know of anyone that would argue that it is a free country.
“Most people would be surprised to find that they need government for very little.”
True, so true. Someone once told me that the best thing about government is that you DON’T get all the government you pay for. Years ago I was telling people that they need to stop looking to government to solve problems because government is in business to CREATE problems. They used to look at me as if I were crazy for saying it but now that it may be too late to do anything it seems that most agree.
I don’t think we had an Indian in the NY pattern.
bkmk
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