For twenty years after Ronald Reagan left office, we've basically held it all together, somehow. Now, it appears we're ready to drive full speed off the cliff. What happened?
Of course, the socialist demagogues in the Congress deserve much of the blame. The enablers who continually, and sometimes perpetually send them back to Washington are a big part of the problem. These enablers have shrugged their shoulders as, piece by piece, our civilized society has been dismantled. Many millions of Americans have acquiesced, if not participated in the coarsening of our culture and the degradation of our values. They have consumed the vile television shows and insipid, violent, propaganda-filled movies pushed out by Hollywood. They have neglected their children and addicted them to video games. They have sat and watched as avowed communists, anarchists like William Ayers "promote" education by destroying it. Popular culture, public education, a business sector infected with political correctness, the legal system, our political system--all have become so rotten that one need only kick out the rotted timbers so that the whole thing will come crashing down, to be rebuilt by the likes of Barack Obama and William Ayers.
In his famous "Time for Choosing" speech, given during the 1964 presidential election campaign, Ronald Reagan told a story of a Cuban immigrant who told his story to two friends of Reagan's. One friend said to the other, "We don't know how lucky we are." The Cuban responded incredulously, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." Reagan went on to explain that America is the last stand on earth. There is nowhere else to go, nowhere else to escape to. God help this country if we are foolish enough to elect a determined, cold-blooded, soulless communist as president.
But where have the protectors of the nation's dignity, our Constitution, and our cherished traditions been while all this has been occurring? Where has the conservative party been? The sad answer is that they have lined up right behind the socialist left, raiding the treasury, disregarding the Constitution, establishing gigantic new entitlements, and now, worst of all, buying up entire industries with money that we don't even have. Not only do we not have it, we can't even borrow it anymore. We're looking like some banana republic, run by demagogic socialists, followed and supported by a bunch of stupid, greedy dolts. The last resort of a country in such a condition is simply to print money, thereby cheapening our currency, like Weimar Germany of the 1920s, or Zimbabwe of the present.
Regardless of who wins the presidency, we in the sane minority, the "rump" United States, have a lot of work in front of us, because we have nowhere to go, and we won't give up or give in.
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6 comments:
Well put. There are frustrations aplenty and more than a little blame to go around.
If the truth be told, the blame for our present state lies not with the left, not with the Obamas or even the Ayers of the world - they have been true to their principles all along. The blame lies with the weak and lazy - and I don't exclude myself from this - who have sat quietly by while every one of our institutions has been subverted under our noses. And I don't think can say we didn't know what was going on. We did and we do and we have done nothing.
That will no longer do.
TJ wrote in 1801, "Wherever there are men, there will be parties; and wherever there are free men they will make themselves heard. Those of firm health and spirits are unwilling to cede more of their liberty than is necessary to preserve order; those of feeble constitutions will wish to see one strong arm able to protect them from the many. These are the Whigs (Conservative Constitutionalists) and Tories (Liberal Democrats) of nature." How do those of "firm health and spirits" wrest power back from the "feeble" who have infiltrated their party and absconded with its torch and mantle.
This is the great difference between us and, for example, Russia. We know freedom; they did not. We won't stand for what is coming.
I understand what you're saying, Brian, and the passion which you bring to the issue, but I have to disagree. I think "we" will stand for it, "it" being a turn toward hard socialism. Granted, there will be the diehards who still think the Constitution is not fundamentally flawed; there will still be those who think the US should be a nation for, by, and of the people; there will still be those who consider Am erica to be the last best hope of mankind, the place, as you remind us, to escape to. There will be all those people. But they won't be enough. We will slip under the waves on a crystal clear, dead-still night of no moon and no lights other than stars on the horizon. We will slip under the waves, break into pieces and settle to the bottom, a romantic memory lost to history. Musicals will be written about who we were, about once there was a spot . . . A few of us will bob to the surface, able to avoid the undertow as the great ship (of state) goes down, but we will be alone in the frigid waters, calling out to each other in the darkness. But our cries will grow faint and no Carpathia will steam to our rescue.
Melodramatic? Of course. But it's how I'm seeing things just now. Surely, though, there have been times in our history where Americans felt as I do now and yet . . . and yet, America has survived.
That's some beautiful prose, Bill. I've certainly had my moments of despair. As for myself, when I slip beneath the surface, a fire will be extinguished, having clung, until the last second, to the longest hair on my head.
Man-o-man, Bill. You're makin' me want to cry. I keep seeing Jack Dawson sinking down into the dark frigid waters of the North Atlantic. I once heard that someone painted on the bottom of the Titanic, "This ship is unsinkable and there is no God." It's probably just some urban legend, but it makes for a convenient object lesson. I don't know if we're at the point you describe or not, but if we are, then all I have to say is, "Come quickly Lord Jesus. Come quickly!"
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