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.
Thanks for the BTTT approvals. :)
>>> Ben Franklin roughly observed that : When the voters realize that they can vote themselves money and lots of benefits...they will. <<<
Yes, similar to de Tocqueville's warning as well. Great minds think alike.
Thanks for the BTTT approvals. :)
>>> I agree with what you say. Where are the leaders we need? <<<
A few of them were defeated last night.
You got that right. The news should be much more positive and optimistic, even before the new congress is sworn in.
I agree, sadly.
I've always said that our job is not to win. It is to remain faithful, doing all we can do with the gifts God has given us; then leaving the outcome to Him.
As always, your thoughts are timely and trenchant.
trenchant
searching: having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect; "searching insights"; "trenchant criticism"
hard-hitting: characterized by or full of force and vigor; "a hard-hitting expose"; "a trenchant argument"
clear-cut: clearly or sharply defined to the mind; "clear-cut evidence of tampering"; "Claudius was the first to invade Britain with distinct...intentions of conquest"; "trenchant distinctions between right and wrong"
'Permission' appreciatively granted. :)
This part of your essay, more so than the other excellent points you raise, is the one that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. To it, I would add only one more thought.
Our constituional right to have our vote count for something will be further diluted as that illegal alien invasion to which you refer reaches high tide. Already cheapened by several generations of anchor babies having attained voting age, our system of elections will continue to erode with the drip-drip-drip of illegal voting and manipulation of electronic voting systems until, finally, loyal American citizens recognize their votes have been rendered entirely meaningless.
What was it Claire Wolfe said about it being "too early to shoot the bastards"? Perhaps -- now, however, we are no longer "standing around numb and confused."
bttt
I am not familiar with almost half of the items on your list. Will have a look at them when I have more time and get back to you. Don't want to respond without being famailiar with where you are coming from.
Sadly, there's not a word with which I disagree.
Of course, I am disappointed but not terribly surprised. I guess I can take some perverse pleasure in this, hoping that the American people in their infinite stupidity will reap what they sow and get their "new direction." And I hope they get it good and hard.
Ping for later reading.
I guess you need to live here to recognize how unlikely that particular miracle is.
Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks for the pings and the kind words, Eaker.
"Personal and corporate industry will find themselves under relentless attack"..."(and) a massive, far-reaching, involuntary redistribution of wealth – aimed at punishing personal and business excellence and ambition and promoting personal and business."
Big business' will go along reasonably willingly. Cutting deals with government and unions to maintain (maybe increase) revenues while the employees & consumers are stuck in the middle. It's likely that we will see more consolidation/mergers, and that smaller operations, and small business in general, will suffer as well. But General Motors and such just might benefit by cooperating with their masters.
As to the next terrorist attack:
within the next year.
Need to plant the scare in the first year and let the new 'bipartisan' game show 'fix' it in time for elections.
If it sounds like I am suggesting collusion - I am.
" Great minds think alike."
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