Posted on 05/08/2015 5:03:18 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy
Throughout this series of essays, I have emphasized that there are a number of key concepts that lay the foundation for a successful republican and constitutional government that serves to preserve liberty. These include concepts such as natural law, natural rights, the rule of law, the division of governing power, and the reasonableness of laws that are made. Now, as I close this series, it is time to point out something that may be uncomfortable for many, but which is nevertheless true.
All of these concepts are toothless without the will to put them into practice.
We can talk about natural rights until we are blue in the face, but the fact remains that while we may possess them from God as our natural birthright as rational beings created in His image, the only way we can effectively enjoy them is to be diligent about both securing and then maintaining our ability to use them. Who cares if you have a theoretical right to free speech when you silently acquiesce to cultural Marxists when they ban as "hate speech" whatever expressions of thought are offensive or inconvenient to them? Of what good is your right to be secure in your property and effects when you meekly submit to police who freely rummage through your home without a warrant or an EPA which arbitrarily declares your field a "wetland" and forbids your use of it upon pain of fines and imprisonment? Talk talk talk, all day long – but until you step up and fight for your rights, you might as well be bellowing madly at a stone wall.
I am reminded of the statement by the German general in World War I, Hans von Seeckt, who wrote, "Das wesentliche ist die Tat" – "The important thing is the deed." Or put simply, if you don't act, then you won't achieve anything. All the good intentions in the world aren't worth a stick of rancid butter if you don't follow through on them.
I write this because it is most needed today. If there is one overarching thing for which I would criticize many, perhaps most, conservatives and self-professed lovers of liberty, it is this: They are lazy, self-centered, self-absorbed, and completely unsuited as they currently sit to truly enjoy the fruits of the animating conquest of liberty. Conservatives will lounge around on internet forums and social media and complain about this and say that "somebody ought to do something" about that. They may even show up to a rally for the free food and the entertainment, if it fits their schedule. Sure, they'd really, really like to get involved to do something about defending the 4th amendment except, well, hey, their kids have a ball game that night and we can't miss that. In short, they're so fat and happy that they don't even have the will to stand up and stand together to do something about the dissipation of our liberty in the face of the left-wing/cultural Marxist/homosexualist/Islamist agenda.
And then you have the conservatives who hear any kind of call to work together for the common goal of recovering lost liberty and disdain it as "collectivism." They'll pat themselves on the backs for being "rugged individualists" who "don't let anyone tell them what to do." Ridiculous fools all. Benjamin Franklin – who knew more about the foundations and principles of liberty than any one of us alive today – warned his contemporaries that they needed to hang together lest they all hang separately. If you can't work together with likeminded patriots, then you're no good to the cause of liberty. Go back and pay your taxes and enjoy your chains.
The enemies of freedom are many – liberals, "progressives," radical homosexuals, Islamofascists, environmental wackos – the list goes on and on. Each of them wants to take away your rights. The sodomites are gunning (sometimes literally) for your freedom of religion. The econuts are composting your property rights as we speak. The radical Left is working hard to grant Islamic terrorists an assassin's veto over your freedom of speech. Of course, all of them want to take away your ability to defend yourself from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit by and let it happen? Or are you going to stand and fight? Failing to do so when the problems were only beginning has led us to where we are today. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." The Right's collective failure over the course of several decades to vigilantly defend liberty allowed the Left to run wild, which means it will be that much harder now to regain our lost liberty. I believe that we can still recover this republic, through diligent prayer, diligent repentance, and diligent jealousy for our natural liberties, by peaceful means – but it will require an end to the laziness, the excuses, and the fighting amongst ourselves. There may well come a time where the tree of liberty will be watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants – but it would be much wiser to seek to make sure that that day never comes by getting busy now.
The failure is one of the will. It is high time for the good and decent people of this nation to regain their nerve and find the will to defend their freedom.
If you don’t patrol it, you don’t own it.
“Welcome to the USSA, comrades!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVskENPjjs
Six-minute video
It is coming.
We should make sure that liberals do not escape to Europe.
They MUST be forced to pay for their sins.
With their lives.
Nailed it!
I’m sure some General Patton quotes are appropriate here!
Thanks for posting this article! It gives me hope. Americans who actually remember what freedom is supposed to look like may realize what keeping it might involve. It might require doing some things that our forefathers had to do. Modern day Americans are loathe to think that actual violent upheaval may just be necessary to right the things we have lazily allowed to go so, so wrong. When the government is at your front door, you’re on your own and it’s probably too late. Better to fight in an organized way while there is still time.
With the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Amendments under sustained attack, we have to remember this. We have to fight back against the efforts to tighten a one-way ratchet. Just as important, we have to roll back the gains that America’s enemies have made in the past.
And that, right there, starts without violence. The fact is, however, that there will not be a CWII. There will be no resistance. And why is that? We are far too concerned with being able to go to work in our new/semi-new cars, getting our check, paying our mortgage and grabbing a six pack to drink while watching the game on the big screen TV.
Freedom isn't free, but that means a whole lot more than most people believe. Most would say, "Yes, freedom isn't free, which is why I'm so grateful to our military for securing our liberty!" This is fine, however, it entirely misses the point of the original statement. "Freedom isn't free" doesn't simply apply to the military. It applied to all of us, and it means that, in order to secure our liberty for ourselves and our posterity, we must live in such a fashion that those liberties CANNOT be taken from us. I give some examples.
The Declaration of Independence says it all:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
So, let's talk consent. The idea is that, if you participate, you consent. If you work for an employer, you consent to tax withholding. When you file your taxes, you consent to a (corrupt) tax system. See how that works? Ultimately, it is OUR FAULT that things are the way they are, and it extends far beyond our votes every 4 years. It really comes down to our daily actions, when you think about it.
Likewise, we consent to the existence of the Federal Reserve every time we spend or accept a federal reserve note. We also consent to the destruction of our 2nd Amendment rights every time we walk into a gun store and submit to an UN-Constitutional background check.
In order to effectively secure our liberties against those people and organizations that want to take them from us, we must be willing to make certain sacrifices. Those sacrifices won't be light. They will cost a whole lot. Freedom isn't free. The question we need to ask ourselves is:
Am I committed enough to liberty to make the necessary sacrifices?
If we are unwilling to make those sacrifices now (after all, gotta have that big screen TV and nice, new car!), what makes anyone think we'll make the BIG sacrifice later on down the road?
“The fact is, however, that there will not be a CWII. There will be no resistance.”
I’m sad to say that I must agree with that. I suppose I must be happy that I got to live in the greatest nation that ever was while it still was.
It's true. There are many sacrifices we could be making now that don't involve death or violence, but we refuse to make even those sacrifices, because it would make life much less "comfortable". Can't have that now, can we? Apparently, we think we're somehow better or more important than the Founders were. I daresay they would knock the crap out of us were they able to. I can see Franklin saying,
"You idiots! You lost it!"
And yet you flame those who support Ben Franklin, who would use peaceful means, Article V to keep our republic.
I never said Article V was a bad thing, but I DID say it won't be all rainbows and unicorns like you more die hard supporters are suggesting. There WILL BE liberal proposals that get through the Convention and get ratified, and then we're going to be sitting here going how did this happen?
There are other things we can do BEFORE going that route. I would say that Article V should be tried prior to any violence, but there are still things WE can do TODAY, to change the path we're on. My point is that, unfortunately, no one is willing to make the required sacrifice, so instead, we promote turning the responsibility over to the state instead of taking it ourselves. That is precisely what Article V will do - it will put all faith and credit into state governments, who will NOT do what us peasants ask of them, and who will pander and roll over to lick the heels of the left.
It's time WE start taking responsibility, even if it means giving up the $100k a year job, or losing the 4 year old car, or the mortgage, or the big screen TV.
1. We get a couple items passes, perhaps even term limits. In return, the left gets larger controls on the 2nd Amendment or similar leftist issue, or
2. Neither side gets anything they set out to get, making it a complete and utter waste of time.
If you think somehow, someway the GOP is going to stand firm and NOT pander to the left, well, that's just crazy based on established history.
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