Posted on 11/28/2013 2:43:56 AM PST by LD Jackson
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors…" ...Edward Winslow, original pilgrim, 1621 on the first Thanksgiving
I am struck by how much Americans have to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Despite our economic and political difficulties, more than two hundred years of freedom of opportunity have delivered a standard of living by all estimates among the best of the most robust economies anywhere. Educational opportunities are world-class. People come here for the most advanced, effective and readily available medical care. Organizations that rank quality of life put us among the elite developed nations. We have prevailed when challenged on the battlefield and our country boasts the most powerful military in history. While we face difficulties as a nation, we nonetheless remain the envy of other countries with people across the globe hungry for entry to our shores.
It is no secret that our bounty is not the product of coincidence or simple good fortune, but because of the decisions made by our forefathers. Ours was the first democracy born of the blood of revolution. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution ratify human rights, individual freedom and the opportunity for every citizen to pursue their dream. Private property and free enterprise, the underpinnings of market capitalism, are embedded in our founding values. Individual differences and varying levels of achievement are implicit in our founders' vision and in fact create the incentives and competition so fundamental to our national fabric. While we occasionally stumbled, as with the Civil War or the Great Depression, our system created and perpetuated the American dream. There could be no America as it is universally understood without these principles.
Yet there are those who would undo the foundations of our success in the misguided, self-serving and counterproductive quest for political power through the promise of social uniformity. Today the American dream is under assault. We find ourselves with a president who is a socialist ideologue, committed to garnering political sway through the advancement of a socially egalitarian agenda. In president Obama's leftist world, businesses—the engines of production and employment—are the target of vilifying rhetoric, punishing taxes and paralyzing regulation. Successful people are called greedy and selfish. National fiscal deficits pile up to fund ineffective social programs while our health care system is brutally dismantled in what can only be the first step of a socialized medicine scheme. Obama's government seeks to micromanage every aspect of our lives. And leftist engineered intransigence and vitriol make compromise and cooperation in Washington impossible as the liberals strive to do nothing but shift blame for the governance debacle they have created. Can the result be anything other than the dismantling of the very American system responsible for our enviable achievements?
”Democracy cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury..." This statement of uncertain origins is alternately attributed to Karl Marx or nineteenth century French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville. But President Obama seems out to prove the concept. Freedom and democracy are gifts for which we should be rightfully thankful today, but that we must never fail to fight to protect in the future. And there is still time—there is a way. As we approach the pivotal 2014 elections, Americans must redouble efforts to turn back the onslaught of liberal power and take back the American dream. And have even more for which to be grateful on Thanksgiving next year.
A good and blessed Happy Thanksgiving Day!
We must rid ourselves of the turkeys in D.C. by beating the stuffing out of them at the ballot box next year. Mashing them like potatoes will be gravy, and we all should relish the idea. We need to roll over them like a knife through hot butter, and beating them on their pumpkin heads should be easy as pie. Yes, pecan!!
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!
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