Posted on 09/06/2002 8:17:16 AM PDT by BADJOE
History teaches some very good lessons. They are hard to learn but our forefathers did a great job.
From the beginning of time man has overthrown one form of centralized government only to re-establish another one in its place. Our forefathers understood this far better than anyone ever had. They said governments are the eternal enemy of free men. They said that in order for man to remain free it would take a bloody revolution every other generation, unless you bound down (bastard) government with the chains of the constitution.
On another site this week a poster asked if anyone else hated government as much as he did. I replied to him
"Hell !! I thought you were not a good American if you didn't love our country and hate our government.
At least that is how I have always felt about it"
I think our forefathers had the same attitude that I have now. And I think it is inherent in the average Americans attitude to distrust and have disdain for any government, including ours. One of the hardest conclusions I had to arrive at as a young man, after having been a product of the public school system, was that our government was not on our side. As James Forrestahl, former secretary of the Navy, who suffered a mysterious death, once said about our State Department's foreign policy, " Stupidity is never a mark of consistancy. If they were merely stupid, they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor".
Newt Gringrich put it in a humourous manner when talking about the attitude of Europeans. He related the following story. If you go to Europe and drive on the Autobahn, you feel pretty good cruising down the highway at 100 mph when some some German passes you doing 140 mph. Now he said if the Bundestag passed the 55mph speed limit law, every German would dutifully obey that law, untill the next election. They would vote the 55 mph crowd out of office and the no speed limit crowd in. In America Newt said "A speed limit sign is a benchmark of opportunity.
It is obvious that Yankees and Euros have entirely different attitudes about government's edicts. There are darn few Americans who do not break the speed limit laws everyday.
Now we come to the Free Republic. Once a free wheeling, joyful site for news and discussion of politics, economics, philosophy, ethics and morals. I could not understand the transformation that has taken place in the last six months. Camaraderie, the sense of family, and cooperation seems to have disappeared. Are the Freepers exhibiting the same disdain for the new FR as Americans have for our government?
Yes! But when politicians are identified as the culprits ... there's redress! When the "Government" is blamed, that signals a powerlessness and surrender. The latter is a cop-out. The former is a call to action. That's why we need to personalize our enemies, and remove them from their positions of power. They have names, faces and titles. They are there through political means, they must be removed the same way.
That's my "beef" with the anti-"government" nonsense. It masks the sources of our political injury, and the steps we need to change that reality.
(btw, I'm not posting on this thread anymore... so don't tell anyone about this reply)
Well, ok... but just this once...
hey mods, can you stop the post ticker ?
that way, we can all agree in writing to quit posting,
without runnin' up the count anymore ...
$0.02
On target as usual, ArneFufkin.
this doesn't count toward the 1,000 - it's an official business sorta thing ...
While I find some FReepers abrasive in the way they present themselves and some of their ideas at odds with what I personally perceive to be conducive to promoting a more conservative America, I am willing to accept that there is room for a wide range of opinions in the quest for that common goal. I do think, however, that there are a few here who espouse views that are counterproductive, but unless they are disruptive, I haven't found that to be an insurmountable problem either. They are good for honing our skills when reasoned debate fails. I kinda think that is why some of them are still around, but I won't mention any names. :-) There's enough of that as it is.
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