I’M AN AMERICAN, A REAGAN REPUBLICAN.. Yep.. TO MY BONES!

I’M AN AMERICAN, A REAGAN REPUBLICAN.. Yep.. TO MY BONES! This is what it means to me!

I believe our Government has become the problem, not the Solution to anything except those vitally important issues clearly outlined in our Founding Documents, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and OUR BILL OF RIGHTS..

Those originating documents have withstood the test of time, with the self-correcting tools within to adapt to the changing times, social norms, global influences, and technology, while maintaining the simple truths so clearly outlined in its Preamble;

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I believe we have had the blessing of being born in a country that has developed a foundation of Government that has proven, over the last nearly two and one half centuries, to be the Greatest Nation on this Earth.. Who can deny it, if you understand what is the facts of history.. Until recently, we lead the World in every measurable level of success..

Since the beginning, we have been pressured to change the meaning of certain aspects, or meaning of those enumerated elements written into those terms outline, and within time, there have been changes made that have improved the understanding and implantations of the laws governing our Nation.. Again, those changes were enacted within the framework of the original contract.. Most notably by defining, interrupting, and amending the laws through the tools furnished to do so.. The Courts, the Legislatures, and the Ballot Box..

It is only when we deviate from those Founding Documents, and sometimes even following the rules, we stray from the intent of the simple truths that we get into trouble.. However, I must admit, as should you, that most of the problems we have encountered through our history, have accompanied good intentions, and a compassionate natural heart of the people of the great nation.. As examples;

OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE.. Let me draw your attention to the word “OUR” National Defense.. I love the Freedom we are Guaranteed so clearly defined in our BILL OF RIGHTS.. Defenses were and are established to protect our Borders, our form of Government, and the safety of our Citizens, from an enemy, within and outside our Borders..

However, that doesn’t mean we should ignore threats that place our safety at risk from abstract elements, such as our health, and welfare from our global community, disease, energy supply, industrial materials, technology, and trade, are necessary issues that can endanger, and disrupt our safety, as well as our way of life..

BUT, we have ignored the limits, and expanded our original mission of our Constitution when we engage in the decisions and ideological differences other countries have for their methods of governing themselves, and try to impose upon them our preferences, and standards, as to how, or whom they choose as their leaders, no matter the obvious outcomes, unless that outcome directly threatens our personal security, say, Canada, or Mexico, on our Borders..

Cuba, was a perfect example of the type of threat we needed to confront when they placed our safety in jeopardy with ballistic missiles capable of reaching our homeland.. The same can be said for any belligerent Nation threatening us with acquiring the capability to do us direct harm..

OUR INTERNAL DEFENSE.. Any force, intended to impose a change in our chosen form of governing ourselves, should be stopped, dismantled, and destroyed without delay.. Our Constitution demands that we protect ourselves from within, and clearly as we are entrusted to do with foreign occupation.. We are a Republic, meaning the people choose their representatives, through an election process to speak for us in our government process, within the guidelines provided in the founding documents..

Imposing the will of the people, means following the rules of law, restricting the powers of each branch of our government, as well as the rules of the limits of the Federal Branch, overreaching it’s limitations over the Sovereign States of our Union.. Failing to protect those rules is a dereliction of the Duty to perform to protect us from our own government, is as much of a threat to our safety as a weapon aimed at our body..

OUR GENERAL WELFARE.. Protecting the citizenry from an overbearing government intrusion, a national threat of insolvency, a national health crises, interstate commerce, a natural disaster, limited national resources, negotiating international treaties, enforcing federal laws, and nation defense, is our obligation to protect us by the standards outlined in the founding documents.. General Welfare, is not a mandate to insure a happy, healthy, prosperous outcome for every person within our borders..

Our States are responsible for setting the standards by which the population within those states wish to live, governed by the rules, and as much generosity it wishes to extend, and provide to it’s own citizenry.. They decide through their own election process from the smallest towns to the state Capital who speaks for them, and how they wish to live, and die.. Period!

We are living under the Government that we deserve, because we elected the representatives that speak for us in our Republic, not national Polls, not the Media, or prevailing Cultural norms, or fads.. We are a Nation of rules and Laws, limited by and protected by the Constitution, as it is written, not what we perceive is fair, just, hoped for, or shamed into..

LIBERITY.. Liberty is Freedom, freedom from outside influence, freedom from intrusion from our own governments, and freedom for, and between each other.. Since our founding, brave souls, patriotic neighbors, families and friends, have FOUGHT and DIED for your FREEDOM, it’s up to you to insure it was not in vain..

YOU ARE THE REASON WE ARE FREE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THAT FREEDOM, It’s all you will ever get.. You are not gaining any new Freedoms, we are only losing them with each passing day..

Carlo3b, it's good to hear from you. I hope this finds you well. Lots of changes, my FRiend, and none of us is exempt from the ravages of time.

A wonderful essay. I'll pick one topic among many but since the context within which we are treating the thing is the original Constitutional plan, it seems to stick out a bit. It is the issue you have captured under Internal Defense.

A curious thing, this. One of the principal objections to the advent of a standing army among even many of the Federalists was its potential for abuse in forging a supremacy of the federal government over those of the constituent states. Had I been alive at the time I'd have agreed - it would be madness to hope that the leaders of such a standing military could possibly remain immune from such a temptation.

I'd have been mistaken. And even with the advantage of 200 years' hindsight it still seems a nearly inexplicable thing - those exceptions that appear notable - Shays' Rebellion and the action against the Bonus Army - were directed at the veterans of that military and not at the citizens at large. In other countries there are modern examples of the standing military actually functioning as a formal bulwark against the oppression of central government: Egypt, for one, Turkey, for another.

But not here. The price we pay for the discipline of a military sworn to uphold the Constitution instead of a single figurehead - a Washington on the one hand, a Napoleon on the other, and an insignificant pismire such as 0bama at the most disgraceful pole of that continuum; the price we pay for a military deliberately aloof from political influence is that it cannot function as such a bulwark.

Nor can it function as a tool for oppression, at least so long as the discipline remains. And so other means are necessary for the state to extend its sway. Hitler found his in the brownshirts, the Sturmabteilung, a private army whose function was to facilitate his control of the legitimate military, and it did so very effectively (albeit in the end an act of suicide, deserved and unmourned).

There is another route for those intent on extending the sway of central power: a standing army that is not the army, a force immune from the strictures of posse comitatus, a functioning wing of a bloated federal government that has itself become a cancerous tumor. It is federal law enforcement militarized to a degree is simply insane in the eyes of a free people: a standing army that has already acted in contravention to the Second, the Fourth, and the Fifth Amendments and looks to be setting its sights on the First.

Much attention has been paid to the potential of the legitimate standing military making war upon its own people, generally under the assumption that an American Napoleon need only give the order for it to happen. And certainly the deliberate and systematic corruption of the military under 0bama may be seen as an attempt in that direction. But I think the real threat lies elsewhere. As you point out, "internal" defense is only the defense of authority against the people from whom that authority derives its only legitimate source. The fight will be there, I think.

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