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 persons 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 todays 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 yesterdays 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 ones 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 governments 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 Americans 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 yesterdays 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.
Thanks.
Deserves repeating.
Depends on their degree of personal cut-off-my-nose-to-spite-my-face stubbornness.
As I've said before, conservatives can no longer afford to wear rose-colored glasses (or pay heed to those who do) ... not at this do-or-die point in our history.
Thanks for the excellent insights.
I sadly agree with every word, and feel the same frustration and agony. Will gladly ping you to future posts. Thanks for the kind words.
Courageously well said.
I understand your turning off Hannity tonight. I attempted to watch FoxNews today, for all of about fifteen minutes. Had to turn it off when Pelosi appeared. Today my house was officially declared a gloat-free zone.
Thanks for the excellent and spot-on comments.
Good to hear from you, if sad to know that you agree.
You also made a very powerful and far-reaching observation that I had never considered: Leaders matter. Perhaps socialists can implement their agenda without great leaders, but Conservatives can not.
So very true, and so tragically overlooked. Between now and 2008 we conservatives will be searching high and low for someone who can take on the menacing, and ever-emboldened, forces that threaten us from within, and outside of, our borders. Considering the perilous state of our republic, nothing less than another Reagan will do (and yet who of that caliber is out there?)
On the other hand, the socialist steamroller has the momentum, and all it will take to retain it is a handful of useful idiots in leadership positions to grease the gears now and then.
Sincere thanks for your contribution on this thread. You have provided me, and others, much food for thought.
Your excellent response requires a larger number of functioning brain cells than I possess at the moment (it being nearly midnight). I'll be back tomorrow. Promise. :)
Thanks, Mia.
We all are screwed plain and simple. The only silver lining I see to this, is the simpletons who think that if we play nice to the Muslims they won't attack us, live in the cities that will be the first to go. Alot of people are going to die because of this election.
How will they do that? The formally illegals will insure a permanent dem majority. Of course thats provided that this country lasts until the next election unscathed
Thanks for the ping!
And there you have it. The difference between self proclaimed True Conservatives, and those who work without fanfare to advance conservatism within the process.
This is a setback, but your phoney 'true' brand is outnumbered by those who have a clue, and conservatism will succeed in spite of you.
It is impossible to read your screen name, and not remember the harm Powell brought to his own party. It's a good fit for you.
"It is impossible to read your screen name, and not remember the harm Powell brought to his own party. It's a good fit for you."
He told the truth. The leadership of this party were cowards - politically-correct cowards.
There you go again.... Blaming the victim for the crime.
"The leadership of this party were cowards"
should be
"The leadership of his party were cowards"
They still are cowards.
Sorry, but you are not a victim. You are a demanding spoiler who has no political maturity.
You sure showed us!
Good night.
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