It's a Civil War: What We Do Now

Townhall.com ^ | March 23, 2010 | Dennis Prager

[Kaslin]

A terrible thing happened to America on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

The country took its biggest step ever down a road diametrically opposed to its original intent of keeping the state small so that the individual can be free and great.

Therefore, in this unprecedented crisis of values, this is what needs to be done:

1. Know and teach America's core values.

We got to this point solely because over the past few generations, Americans have forgotten the values that have made America distinctive and great. Even the "Greatest Generation" failed to communicate them.

In a nutshell, they are what I call the American Trinity: "In God we trust," "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum." The left has successfully made war on all three -- substituting secularism for God and religion in as much of American life as possible; substituting equality (of result) for liberty; and multiculturalism is the opposite of "E Pluribus Unum."

People who do not understand American ideals -- especially small government -- now dominate our schools, our entertainment media and our news media.

(My own contribution here is a video titled, "The American Trinity" at prageru.com. Please view it and forward it.)

2. Recognize that we are fighting the left, not liberals.

Conservatives and centrists are no longer fighting liberals. We are fighting the left.

Liberalism believed in American exceptionalism; the left not only does not believe in it, the left opposes it. President Obama, when asked if he believes in American exceptionalism, replied, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

Liberalism believed in creating wealth; the left is interested in redistributing it.

Liberalism believed in a strong defense. The left believes in cutting defense and a strong United Nations.

3. Democrats should be referred to as Social Democrats. This is not meant to be cute, let alone as a slur. But calling Democrats Social Democrats is an effective way of reminding Americans that there is no longer any difference between what is now known as the Democratic Party and the Social Democratic parties of Europe. When the Democratic Party returns to its roots as a liberal, not a left-wing, party, we will happily resume calling the party by its original name. However, since no Democrat can cite a significant difference between the Democratic Party and the SD parties, there is no good reason not to use the more accurate nomenclature.

4. Work tirelessly to repeal the bill.

We must single-mindedly work to repeal the government health plan. We all know that it is difficult to repeal entitlements because they are like drugs and it is very difficult to wean people off drugs. But it is not impossible. We need to warn our fellow Americans that entitlements will do to America what drugs eventually do to addicts.

All Republicans must run for office on the "repeal" issue. Even when they lose, the difference between right and left, between Republicans and Social Democrats will have been made clear; and clarity is our best friend.

5. Our motto: "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

I used this phrase in addressing the Republican members of Congress. It has become widely used, including by Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., on the House floor during the Congressional debate on Sunday. It encapsulates this epic battle of American values versus leftist values. Every movement needs a motto. I nominate this.

6. Do not let other matters distract.

Neither Republicans nor conservatives are united on every issue facing America. Immigration is one example. But we are united on the big government vs. free individual issue, which, more than anything else, has defined America. If we allow any other domestic issue to divide us, we will lose.

And here's why: If Americans forget what America stands for, it won't help us if there is not one illegal immigrant here. And if we do remember what it means to be American, we can handle anything.

7. Acknowledge that we are in a non-violent civil war.

I write the words "civil war" with an ache in my heart. But we are in one.

Thank God this civil war is non-violent. But the fact is that the left and the rest of the country share almost no values. The American value system and the leftist value system are irreconcilable. If the left wins, America's values lose. If American values prevail, the left loses.

After Sunday's vote, for the first time in American history, one could no longer confidently believe that the American system will prevail. And if we don't fight for it, we don't deserve it.

[El Gato]

2A ISD

FYI for all you none Texans. Texas schools are classed for "competition" (alethics, music, etc) into 5 classes, with some sub classes for some purposed.

The categories are 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and A. I always thought it was kind of silly. but I guess no one wanted to be a class 5 or a "D" school. (Where I went to school we did have letters, A, B, C, D, having dropped the silly multiple A's thing back around WW-II I think).

Anyway, 5A is the largest, 1A the smallest. A 2A district is not large. Which probably means it's a very good school. ISD == "Independent School District", with kindergarten through 12th grade, as distinguished from a kindergarten through 8th grade district that must send it's high schools students to another district. :)

[ronnyquest]

"The reason the way things are the way they are is because people don’t vote. There is a small percentage of people that vote. People need to get off their dead asses and vote!"

Well, you're partly right. The reason things are the way they are today, right now, Tuesday, is that too few of the right people (taxpayers, property owners, veterans, small business owners, farmers, etc.) voted and too many of the wrong people ("activists," "organizers," the entitlement class, illegals, dead people, cartoon characters, etc.) did vote.

An adjunct to that is that, while a third or fourth political party is not a bad idea, and many independents have the right ideas, they nearly always peel votes away from the Republican party, however noble their intentions, whereas almost every shade of leftist will vote democratic. They have the unity of ignorance, apathy, and malice towards our nation and it is powerful in large quantities.

[hinckley buzzard]

A recent poll on approval of Nancy Pelosi elicited single digits of approval, but fully fifty percent of Americans do not even know who she is. Likewise with Harry Reid.

If you want to know what's wrong with America, that's it, right there.

[El Gato]

This flag flies on my flagpost. The original had the letters T-E-X-A-S around the star points. It was the de Zavala flag - one of the first flags of the Republic of Texas; therefore, the Bonnie Blue is doubly special for me.

de Zavala flag, aka First Flag of the Republic

Second Flag of The Republic (of Texas).

Bonnie Blue Flag, first carried by Terry's Texas Rangers, aka the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment.

[El Gato]

We need to take seniors and baby boomers

The oldest baby boomers *are* seniors, and the rest of us are only a few years behind.

[rxsid]

"A recent poll on approval of Nancy Pelosi elicited single digits of approval, but fully fifty percent of Americans do not even know who she is. Likewise with Harry Reid.

I'm seriously hoping that those answers weren't within the same poll. Although, they might as well be for all intents and purposes.

[winodog]

Obama told us he would start a UnCivil War when he played Abe Lincoln at the inaguration.

I felt it then and his actions continue to prove him right.

[hinckley buzzard]

there is not telling what else they will attempt to ramrod through between now and the first of the year

Amnesty is next on the agenda. Thirty million worthless unskilled uneducated riffraff voting 'rat in perpetuity. Get ready, they won't wait long before launching this atrocity on the American people.

[Oceander]

Tax evasion. If you can afford it, "Go Galt" - take a lower-paying job that gives you more free time and use it to engage in enjoyable, but nontaxable, activities such as golf, or spending time with the kids (to make sure that they learn good conservative values and not the fascist, statist values taught in public schools), or what-have-you.

Second, do as much of your business as you can in cash, and don't put any cash you receive into a bank account - get a decent safe if you don't have one already - because once it gets in there it will be recorded and the IRS will treat it as income if/when you get audited, unless you have a really, really good story about how it was really a nontaxable gift from grannie.

Third, don't buy health insurance until and unless you get absolutely dog sick. If you get a little sick, then just negotiate with your doctor about what sort of a fee he or she will charge if you agree to pay him or her in cash.

Fourth, if you have investments, to the extent possible put them into assets that you won't have to dispose of for at least 5 years - no realization event, no taxable income.

Fifth, be prepared to pull out your retirement funds (401(k)s, etc) and pay the 10% penalty, because the unions are now ordering the democrats to seize all private pension/retirement funds - exactly the same way that they were seized in Argentina - you do not want anything left in those accounts when they finally move to seize them.

[fewz]

Elect Bush and get a brand new BigGovernment entitlement: Medicare Part D.

You do know that we have to buy a policy from a private company that we pay for each month. I don't know if our premiums cover all the cost but, it's not an entitlement. You don't get any payment for drugs if you don't buy a drug plan from an approved provider.

[El Gato]

I think that November will be the turning point. If conservatives win overwhelmingly at the ballot box, then that will be the contructive outlet for a lot of this pent up energy. Further, if conservatives take a fair and honest beating (really unlikely, but I'll offer it as a possibility), well, I think that they take their licks and go home.

You know, comrades," says Stalin, "that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.
Boris Bazhanov's Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary, published in 1992

I prefer my life simple and boring. I'd rather spend my evenings surfing FR, than sitting outside with a shotgun protecting my property from roving bands of lawless looters.

So do I, but I don't intend to use a shotgun, although I have perfectly good "serious social purposes shotgun". Think 7.62x51, A good German design, with scope. Not a fancy scope, but a good one. I don't want the looters to get that close.

[nanetteclaret]

I didn’t know the Bonnie Blue was first carried by Terry’s Texas Rangers - the 8th Texas Calvary Regiment! No wonder it’s special! I will add that fact to my explanation of why I fly it.

[CodeToad]

I have a “poker”. It makes nice 223, 40, 45, 308, and even 50 caliber holes.

[catfish1957]

I have been watching that thread too. I believe there will be blood everwhere if the punk president tries that.

[rxsid]

Fire the 219!

Fire the 219 is dedicated to removing from power all 219 members of Congress who voted to destroy the finest Health Care system in the world on March 21, 2010. We will use any and all legal means possible, starting with recall petitions in those 18 states that allow it (NJ,OR,WI,CA,CO,LA,MI,NV,ND + 9 others)

http://firethe219.blogspot.com/

The Legal Standards for Recall of Members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives
by Michael Farris, J.D.
Chancellor and Professor of Government
Patrick Henry College

Read the full memorandum here.

The Top Ten Members of the 219 We Will Remove From Power

1 Bart Stupak MI

Continued:

http://firethe219.blogspot.com/

[ronnyquest]

"being uncivil would be a nice start"

Interestingly, one of our biggest strengths is also one of our biggest problems: we were generally raised right. We're generally polite, well-mannered, civil, courteous, and kind. We mind our own business. We're not always looking for the upper hand. We're honest. We tell the truth. We trust people until they give us a reason not to. We look for the best in people, rather than assuming the worst. We generally do not want to tell others how to live.

I think it's time to not be civil. I'm thinking of a quote from a movie where the good guy finally got tired of putting up with the bad guys' crap, "You tell 'em I'm coming, and Hell's coming with me!"

Just a thought.

[rxsid]

"there is not telling what else they will attempt to ramrod through between now and the first of the year

Amnesty is next on the agenda. Thirty million worthless unskilled uneducated riffraff voting 'rat in perpetuity. Get ready, they won't wait long before launching this atrocity on the American people."

----------------------------

Actually, it will probably be Cap & Tax (i.e. global warming crap) that they will push through.

With Healthcare Law Finished, Democrats Turn Their Attention to Cap-and-Trade Tax
http://newsmax.com/Headline/democrats-climate-change-tax/2010/03/23/id/353598

They want to kill the economy and make even more citizens dependent upon big brother.

Amnesty will be a few months before elections in 2010.

[El Gato]

It probably will be someone doing something stupid that start the whole avalanche

That's what happened in 1775.Though under orders to "take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property", things didn't go down that way. No one knows to this day who fired the first shot at Lexington Green. In ensuring exchange eight Americans were dead from musket shot and bayonet wounds, and 10 more were wounded. The Redcoats, under Major Pitcairn of the Royal Marines and Lt. Col. Smith, then proceeded to Concord, their actual target.

There they captured stores, including food, tents, musket balls and the carriages of the 3 cannon that were their principle target. They proceeded to burn what would burn, and throw the rest in the mill pond. But... they caught the local meeting house on fire. The American Militia, on the far side of the North Bridge, saw the smoke and thought the Redcoats were going to burn the town down (in reality they put out the fire). Colonel Barrett of the militia had ordered the militia not to fire till the Regulars fired first, then to fire as fast as they could. But when it was feared the Regulars were buring the town, the militia advanced on the bridge and the Redcoat "bridge guard" then fired upon them. That set the whole thing off, the militia routed the regulars, with reinforcements coming from towns all over the area, and sent them back down the battle road. If not for Redcoat reinforcements, with cannon, arriving back at Lexington just about the time the fleeing Regulars got there, and probaly even if only the Regulars' reinforcements had not brought a few cannon, likely no Regular would have made it back to Boston, at least as part of any organized formation. As it was, even with the cannon, the Regulars were forced to retreat down that long battle road to Boston.

So even though both sides desired there be no fighting, fighting there was, and here we are today because of it.

[rxsid]

Love that movie!