Posted on 11/08/2006 1:55:58 PM PST by joanie-f
More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson observed, ‘Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.’ Jefferson believed that America's survival lay primarily in the character of her people.
Likewise, Samuel Adams warned future generations by referring to ‘good manners’ as the vital ingredient a free society needs to survive. Adams said, ‘Neither the wisest Constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.’
As the few FReepers to whom I have pinged this probably know, I spent a lot of time over the past three weeks speaking to people about the need to re-elect Rick Santorum. While I was uplifted by the average person’s willingness to listen and comprehend -- and by the number who seemed to be swayed toward voting republican after listening and questioning -- it is still very disturbing to be personal witness to the number of voters who had intended to vote based on superficial perceptions resulting from snippets of campaign advertising, much of which was sheer distortion or out and out fabrication. For every one voter whose door was approached by a conservative intent on informing him, I am sure there were a thousand who entered the voting booth yesterday never having been ‘set straight’. It is beyond disheartening.
So, while I returned home every night uplifted by the fact that people are very one-on-one receptive, the ‘bigger picture’ is pretty grim.
With each succeeding year, the American populace becomes less informed and more special-interest oriented. Combining the ongoing illegal alien problem (whose solution is nowhere in sight) with the ‘education’ that our children are receiving in our public schools (placing less emphasis on our proud heritage, and civics in general, every year – focusing instead on phony, leftist multicultural philosophies), and the Marxist influence in virtually every institution of higher education, exactly what kind of optimistic view can we embrace of the intelligence/knowledge/allegiance of the new (both alien and youth) voters coming down the pike? Where is there a reason to believe that future disingenuous, un-American, anti-liberty candidates and programs will be held accountable by a citizenry that is even more apathetic, disinterested, special-interest-oriented, or leftist-indoctrinated than today’s voters?
Patriotism requires allegiance, education, strength, endurance, courage, resolve, and action. But it does not require the wearing of rose-colored glasses. Until our leadership addresses the illegal alien problem, until the number of voters who feed at the government socialist welfare/entitlement trough (as forewarned by deTocqueville) can be dramatically reduced, and until we determine to educate our children as to their proud heritage and the dangers posed by relinquishing it, election results will continue to fall in favor of powerful liars who can voice the biggest promises to the host of least informed minds.
I believe we are fighting a losing battle. But, unless and until the battle is lost, we are called to continue to do our part to keep the enemies (both foreign and domestic) at bay. To do any less would hold us just as accountable as those passive, 'sideline Americans' who choose not to be a part of the crusade to reclaim this republic from the scoundrels who call themselves leaders, but who bear no allegiance to our Founders and their vision.
I believe the results of yesterday’s election will have strong and insistent implications for the future of our republic. Barring a miracle of God, or a personal/spiritual epiphany on the part of the generally apathetic and/or ignorant-by-choice citizenry (the former is always possible; the latter grows more unlikely with each passing day), I believe that the following events are very likely to occur over the next few years.
Prepare for a dramatic increase in the invasion of America by an irresponsible, parasitic, malevolent army which chooses to thumb its nose at the critical concepts of the rule of law/national sovereignty by illegally crossing our southern border with the over-riding purpose of reaping the benefits of two-plus centuries of courage, moral sacrifice, work, excellence, and unprecedented prosperity … without any intention of contributing their own. In the process, and under the governance of left-leaning American ‘leadership’, they will play an integral role in the realization of the socialization of America. Even worse, we will witness the complete erasure of our borders, and the establishment of a North American Union, in knee-jerk deference to the eventual vision of one-world governance, under which our Constitution will become increasingly ridiculed, mocked, and eventually declared entirely irrelevant, and the vagaries of Marxist/socialist-authored and implemented international law will take precedence.
Personal and corporate industry will find themselves under relentless attack, with government, academia and media working feverishly to revoke the citizens’ right to keep the fruits of their labor, and replace it with a monstrous entitlement state which will ensure a massive, far-reaching, involuntary redistribution of wealth – aimed at punishing personal and business excellence and ambition and promoting personal and business mediocrity, with the end result being a dramatic increase in the power of the state and complete dependence on state largesse for our existence.
There will be continued erosion in respect for, and protection of, the institution of marriage and the nuclear family. Government will become even more of an advocate for homosexual rights, abortion rights, and laws which will continue to attack and destroy any notion of the importance personal responsibility for one’s own actions. Families will find themselves under relentless attack, with the government usurping increasing power over the lives and minds of the children of America, and with parents finding themselves serving simply as biological creators and temporary physical custodians of wards of the state.
Government intrusion into the education of our children will escalate. Despite the unconstitutionality of the federal government dictating education policy, it will continue its aims at leftist indoctrination of the generations to come through the political power implicit in loans, grants, regulations, activist court decisions, and curriculum manipulation. Government-controlled curricula will continue to downplay, if not eradicate, the importance of our constitutional heritage while indoctrinating our children in environmental mythology, globalist doctrine, and sexual liberation. As a result, future generations will not understand their proud roots, nor be willing to defend the noble society which emerged from them.
The federal government will continue to pass laws focused on driving up the cost of medical care, so as to eventually allow the government takeover of that all-important industry. The direct takeover of medical care in programs like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the free hand that trial lawyers have obtained in dictating the terms of care (while coincidentally lining their own pockets, and those of the politicians to whom they choose to contribute) have played a major role in the destruction of what was once the most excellent health care system in the history of the human race. The government’s interference in the healthcare free market through ERISA mandates related to HMOs and other managed-care organizations, and the medical aspects of our tax code, will continue to undermine healthcare in American, while lining the pockets of the privileged few, driving good doctors out of business, and eventually placing the government in complete control of our health and well-being. When medical care is forced to circumvent government rules and bureaucratic management, it will not be long before the quality of each and every American’s life will be profoundly and inalterably affected.
The left will eventually impose its own brand of ‘faith’ on the American culture – a secular humanist ‘faith’ in which man and his needs and follies are the focus of ‘worship’, and the mention in the public square of the name of the one and true God becomes legally and politically verboten … there will arise an incrementally, governmentally-imposed ‘faith’ in which moral absolutes are deemed criminally intolerant and situational ethics are raised to the level of holy sanctimony.
The war on Islamic fascism will be transformed into a series of compromises with evil, including the retreat of American forces from the Middle East, which will result in brutality against liberty-oriented Middle Easterners that will rival the bloodshed that occurred in the killing fields of Cambodia. Our enemies, in the Middle East and the Far East especially, will become dramatically emboldened, and our genuine allies, Israel and Taiwan especially, will find themselves looking down the barrels of vicious, barbaric, unyielding guns … and, when they turn around to see who is watching their backs, they will see nothing but darkness.
There will be another terrorist attack (if not a simultaneous series of attacks) on America, made possible by a deadly combination of open borders and failed paper-tiger policies, which will make the holocaust of 9/11 seem like a walk in the park. The increased demands for vigilance, defense of sovereignty, and sense of nationalism that occurred five years ago have all but evaporated into the political ether, and the after-effects of what was surely our final wake-up call have fallen by the wayside. There will be no more wake-up calls. There will be death blows, after which America will be brought to her knees, pleading for mercy with barbaric madmen, and no longer capable of even whispering the word ‘freedom’, let alone defending that noble, precious, God-given gift.
The democrats controlled congress for forty years, from 1954 through 1994. Ronald Reagan was entirely responsible for paving the way for the Republican Revolution. The miraculous and providential accomplishments of the Reagan Revolution are now nothing but a fond memory. And, to those who believe that the pendulum will eventually swing back, and that conservatism will regain the prominence and power necessary to reclaim our beloved republic from the scoundrels, I say there is no time to wait to reclaim her again. We have run out of options and wiggle room. The hot breath of a mad and unprecedentedly barbaric and determined adversary, bent on our annihilation, is breathing down our necks now. They will not be denied ... nor does our current leadership – especially after yesterday’s election results – appear to have what it takes to hold them at bay.
The majority of Americans cannot continue to accept, at face value, leadership which says what we want to hear, and then proceeds to do as they wish (which, in the case of the current, and now future, leftist leadership on the Hill, requires the eventual subjugation of American citizens to the state, and the eventual subjugation of the American state to globalist governance). Simply put, the future of our republic will lie in the willingness of her people to take the time, and expend the effort, to look beneath the surface. Believing the words from the mouth of a leader is a conscious choice that must be made by every concerned citizen. As with any choice, it cannot be made without critical thought. Believing their words was okay when our leaders in Washington were virtuous. It is a deadly practice when they are anything less.
Over the last twenty-four hours, I have heard countless references to the need for bipartisanship and building bridges. Bridges are only as desirable and powerful as the relevance of what lies at the other end. I, for one, want no part of bridge-building, when doing so means creating a meandering, but single-minded, path to self-destruction.
For now, adieu.
I think we will be attacked hard and fast right after this, they will test our resolve.
I know how most of us here would respond, but how the new gov't will respond I've not a clue. "Dubya" can order a immediate reaction but the follow through will depend on funding and resolve from people without any integrity at all...."Interesting Times"
PING!
One possible future for America...
The Day After..."Oh, my head. How much did I drink. I VOTED FOR WHO?"
never give in
never give in
never give in
--The Cure
Who are the "others" you refer to?
Whew... thank you. (Of course in honesty, I'd already done it... and was just being kind of, um, Jesuit :o)
Well deserved!
How long, do you think, before those who asserted "there's no difference between the two parties" change their minds?
A Lincoln quote that has been burying itself in the corners of my mind of late, and will not silence itself is:
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! ... At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.’
I believe that our national suicide is a much more viable outcome than ever before. It is just occurring too slowly for most of our countrymen to notice.
As for the Iraq war, I am so sick of the hand-wringers who would turn (and are turning) this war into another Vietnam, forever carping on the number of casualties, as if any war were winnable without incurring significant deaths on the battlefield. Although the loss of nearly 3,000 courageous Americans killed in Iraq is a monumental tragedy, I wonder how many Americans are aware that 19,000 British soldiers lost their lives in one day during World War I's Battle of the Somme.
What does infuriate me about the prosecution of this war is our unwillingness to confront the major source of the ‘insurgency’ – Iran and Syria. Watching more Americans die each day, while knowing that we have yet to seriously attempt to stem the flow of vermin across the borders with Iran and Syria, is maddening.
As always, Jeff, thank you for your incomparable insights, and your unfailing patriot viewpoint.
Continued best, as always, to you and yours, my friend, in these troubling times …
~ joanie
Thanks so much for the kind words.
Well said, Tet.
Thanks for the kind words ... and continued best to you and yours during these troubling times, my friend.
~ joanie
That is the goal of our NWO globalist President. When the US Canada and Mexico are joined together they will bring about the formation of the North American Union. The NAU is the North American continental region of the New World Order, that has been quietly talked about for years by CFR members.
To see if they could get the continental economy one one track,Bill Clinton pushed NAFTA , The North American Free Trade Agreement, through Congress. Then George Bush slid CAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, through Congress.
When this Guest Worker Amnesty Plan is passed, Conservatives will become the minority because it will mean that 20 million Democtrat voting immigrants will be added to the polls. Is anyone wondering why I doubt the Conservatives will ever hold the White House again.
Just exactly what the differences are between our two major parties is won't matter one iota because we will be living under a socialist system of government. Neither party is interested in maintaining our national sovereignty. As a matter of fact, both of them are working to disolve it.
A couple more terrorist attacks and we will drop the Constitution to become beholden to the rules set forth in the UN Charter.
How long will this take to happen? My guess is less than six years for everything to be put in place. Will American patriots revolt? Maybe, but if the economy is doing well they won't have any support.
Keep praying that I am wrong, would you?
Joanie, you've hit a silent, in-park bottom of the ninth homer whether you know it or not with that one. That was the issue that turned normally dependable conservative Christian votes over to the dems in sufficient numbers to topple key congressmen. This is the issue that has been hammered heavily in recent months in Christian circles. They're no longer taking the deceptive or ignorant prattle of so-called conservative talksters like Rush, Medved, or Hannity, that are foolishly telling them that it isn't so, and dismissing it as 'conspiracy theory.'
Its going to take a lot to put the egg back together, and I'm beginning to doubt that it can be done while President Bush and his neocons are in office. (Monday I was confident that it was going slide like water of the duck's back)
Buck up, FRiend. We're all really disappointed at how bad things went, but it is in the past. Now we should think about what we do for the future. If we think about the future, we'll be a lot less likely to suffer losses like this election.
And nothing that happens now is going to doom the nation forever. All through American history, this country has survived far worse events than a bad midterm cycle. Things change over time. Look at the Dems--when Bush was reelected, they thought the world would end. We don't have to be hysterical like them, we have more common sense. We should just focus on what we can do tommorrow, not on what's in the past. Don't lose sleep over something like this.
Joanie-f, please add my name to your "small handful of remaining FReepers who share your view." I'd be honored.
I've been at this for close to 50 years now, and I can't recall a time when I ever felt this frustrated.
Today our country is teetering on the brink and the pain I feel in my gut is excruciating. FR is my/our last refuge.
Eaker, thank you for the ping.
It will take us a very long time to recover from what the near future holds for us now
It never had to come to this .. but it did
There is nothing we can do about it now .. what is done is done
Pray and be prepared .. because it's going to get ugly
I agree that "it" is coming. After yesterday, "it" will be here sooner - but "it" still was coming, regardless of who is / was in power.
Lots of different thought threads on this: The Dems are now in a position where they can't blame GWB for everything from sun spots to bird flu. They are going to have to actually do something, be accountable.
Unfortunately, there are way too many of them (read Dems / Libs) that think, "all we have to do is talk to these folks, reason things out, be civilized - quit invading their country's, bla bla bla."
Those are the ones that concern me the most. The enemy does not operate that way. Of course you first have to recognize that we - the USA - really does have an enemy to worry about.
It is now the Dems turn for policy. I expect the worst, but ya never know.
Just in case, my inventory will soon be increased by a "G" or two. So far, limited to only an "I", and that "I" stands for Ithaca, several variants.
Never felt this way before.
At any rate - only two races left. Man how time flies.
Pessimism is sometimes warranted, if we are to make genuine 'progress' (as opposed to the politically opportune lip-service kind). And I am afraid that, today, pessimism and realism are hopelessly intertwined. Modern American patriots have no business wearing rose-colored glasses.
Thank you for the powerful input.
Its 23 million, not 12, and if the dems are foolish enough to do that, the people will turn against them and put the republicans back in for sure. The American people will not accept another amnesty; there will be mass assinations like after the civil war if it happens.
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