"Painful as it may be to hear it, there's nothing special about the people of this country that sets them apart from the other people of the world. It is the Bill of Rights, and only the Bill of Rights, that keeps us from becoming the world's biggest banana republic. The moment we forget that, the American Dream is over." ~ Alexander Hope

A few years back there was an article written from the liberal point of view stating that "Indifference Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction". Little did they realize just how truthful they were being in a reverse sort of way. Because, if that's the case, it seems to me we are being assaulted with lots of WMD's, in addition to indifference, right here at home; Ignorance; Apathy; Racism and Reverse Racism ("Black leaders and white liberals have kept black Americans so focused on superficial indications of racism, that we overlook the most pernicious and ruinous use of race, that is, as an economic weapon - not just to deter one's employment in companies created by others, but to hamper the ability to create employment for oneself." ~ Elizabeth Wright); Media Bias; Reduction of Responsibility; Reduction of Our Liberties; Increase in the Size and Reach of Our Government; and Nationalization of Our Industries. That is just to name a few, and most of it is being fostered by our own government!!

With unemployment nearing 10% (actually nearly 16% using real figures instead of "adjusted" figures), prices increasing due to inflation and taxation, and many other signs of economic downturn, this economy has suddenly become Obama's to own, though the left will continue to blame Bush. But it wasn't Bush who forced GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, or loaned them an additional $21 billion knowing they'd never be able to pay it back. And it wasn't Bush who forced them to restructure as a condition of the "loans", or changed the terms of the loans AFTER they were made. Nor was it Bush who encouraged GM to close 13 plants and Chrysler to close 8 (while keeping the Opel plant in Germany and the GM plant in India open), resulting in the firing or laying off of over 50,000 people including those of related supply industries for the auto industry in the U.S. while foreign plants are unaffected. And it wasn't Bush who forced GM to sell off brands to foreign owners, or to seat a union representative at the corporate tables of GM. And it isn't Bush driving government spending to record highs, projected to be a deficit $2 trillion for 2009. Sure, they'll say it was an inherited problem, but is it really? Isn't the size of government suddenly growing? And does government actually contribute, or does it drain and strain the economy?

I certainly wouldn't want to be in Ford's shoes right now, considering they will be competing against GM for government vehicle supply contracts, a very large portion of both businesses. Quite a penalty for NOT taking government money! And I promise there will be special consideration for GM by those in government when it comes to who wins a bid.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." The very concept that a business must be saved by government, and with our money, is contrary to the principles of free market, capitalism and of how this nation was borne and grew. Yet that is the prevailing thought and direction of the day, a welfare state for all, including industry. The goal of the founding Fathers was not to PROVIDE for the welfare of everyone, including industry, but to PROTECT the people who make up this nation.

And now we hear claims from Obama that his administration has "saved 150,000 jobs". Unemployment is still on the rise, so what jobs were saved? That's an easy one, government jobs, not private sector jobs. And those "saved jobs" do nothing to add to the economy, rather they require more funding from us to cover the expense. Now I know the left will claim that the "saved jobs" were those of union members related to the auto industry. But to what end? Those jobs are high paying, well benefited jobs, not the jobs of the average American worker. And they are a regional issue, while the rest of the country faces more layoffs and job losses due to closures. Certainly no balance made or accommodated there!!

It was Thomas Jefferson who said, "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." To divert our tax dollars from the operation of government to the extent that we must borrow money from foreign investors, then apply it to industry is taking "from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." Should we be expected to pay for the folly of poorly run and operated businesses simply because they have outgrown themselves and the control of spending has been lost? Or is it our responsibility to allow them to continue paying too much for labor and management to gain a profit? That we must not only pay too much for their goods, but allow our taxes to be used for private industry instead of what our government is supposed to be doing to protect us? Again from Jefferson, "The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills." Yet we are being told we should allow the government to assume the responsibilities for taking care of us? Isn't that what gun control, and a "public health care" plan, along with many of the "new" programs being presently touted, are intended to do?

Juan Williams, on FOX News Sunday, 14 June, 2009, made a comment that exemplifies the mentality of the left. Though I can't find the actual comment in any transcripts of that particular show (the round table discussions aren't available), I can tell you from actually seeing and hearing it that he said something to the order of the government needs to be more responsible for taking care of people. This is a common concept among those on the left, who don't think any of us are capable of taking care of ourselves without government assistance and intervention. Except the elite among them, of course. But let's take a fanciful step into the future for a moment, and assume that conservatives win control of Congress in the next election. What will our nation, and our government, look like in just over 18 months, and what will they have to overcome to set things back on track?

I predict unemployment will still be well over 10%, our National Debt will be approaching $17.5 trillion, and our budget deficit will be twice what the revenues will be. Government will have grown in size by over 20%, if not more, due to these new programs that have no guarantee of working, but will add to the cost of operating our government. The military will suffer some of the worst budget cuts of any agency, as well as a reduction in the number of troops. All at a time when we are still involved in Iraq, heavily involved in Afghanistan, and are heavily involved in Darfur as well. I also expect the dollar to lose over half of its global buying power, thus driving even more costs higher and higher while cutting the buying power of every American. Agriculture is already feeling the heat as this administration puts more constraints and pressure on an already stressed industry, and many more farmers and ranchers will toss in the towel rather than absorb the higher expenses of operation and operate at a loss. This, in turn, will force food shortages and higher food costs along with some higher fuel costs. The increase in fuel costs will be marginalized by the fact that demand will be down what with fewer farmers and ranchers using that fuel to power their equipment, but still expect $4.00+ a gallon gasoline. And our "free enterprise" system will be severely damaged. "Almost everybody, including most politicians, still give lip service to 'free enterprise,' but the plain fact is that American business is seriously hobbled by an ever-expanding network of restrictions, regulations, and interferences, especially at the Federal level, and the mechanism of the market, indispensable to a free economy, is limping badly and no longer giving effective guidance in the utilization of resources." ~ W.A. Paton

Additionally, we will no longer be considered a beacon of light for those who want a better life, which will have the indirect result of reducing our illegal immigration problem. That's about the only positive I can find in this entire mess. And we might as well accept the fact that the Islamic extremists will see our weaknesses as an opportunity to further assail and assault us, both abroad and at home, especially with the doors opening wider for student visas from Middle Eastern countries. It will take a Reaganesque effort to save us at that point, but there are a few things that obviously need to be changed from the Reagan plans of 2 decades ago. One of the biggest is forcing a balanced budget amendment, with a reasonable portion of the revenues applied to the reduction of our National Debt. "You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow." ~ Ronald Reagan

During Reagan's terms, in order to cover newly spawned federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the National Debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion. Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency, and we certainly don't need to add anything to it beyond what the Obama administration and current Congress has already done, and will do over the next 18 months. Reagan also ended the price controls on domestic oil which had contributed to energy crises in the 1970s. The price of oil subsequently dropped, and the 1980s did not see the fuel shortages that the 1970s had.Reagan also fulfilled a 1980 campaign promise to repeal the Windfall profit tax in 1988, which had previously increased dependence on foreign oil, and will again be the end result of the Windfall taxes this Congress is discussing. There is little doubt that Reagan's tax policies invigorated America's economy and contributed to the economic boom of the 1990's, the boom Clinton and his minions take credit for. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth grew during his eight years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year after 1982, sixteen million new jobs were created, inflation was significantly decreased, and the net effect of all Reagan-era tax reduction bills was a 1% decrease in government revenues. Utilizing the oil and gas under our own feet will also be required to stem our dependence on those foreign oils. Those are the type of efforts that will again be required to re-stabilize our economy, and our nation, if we are to survive.

From the teachings of Lin Yutang comes this little story, as true today as when it was penned. "Once Confucius was walking on the mountains and he came across a woman weeping by a grave. He asked the woman what here sorrow was, and she replied, 'We are a family of hunters. My father was eaten by a tiger. My husband was bitten by a tiger and died. And now my only son!' 'Why don't you move down and live in the valley? Why do you continue to live up here?' asked Confucius. And the woman replied, 'But sir, there are no tax collectors here!' Confucius added to his disciples, 'You see, a bad government is more to be feared than tigers.'" And higher taxes are definitely on their way, as this Congress is continuing to spend more and more, and will need to find a way to cover some of those expenses, just as Democratically controlled Congresses of the past have done. "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." ~ Abraham Lincoln

William Henry Chamberlain stated, "The proliferation of bureaucrats and its invariable accompaniment, much heavier tax levies on the productive part of the population, are the recognizable signs, not of a great, but of a decaying society. Historians know that both phenomena were especially marked in the declining eras of the Roman Empire in the West and of its successor state, the Eastern or Byzantine Empire." And what is it exactly that Obama has repeated since early on in his campaign through these early days of his term? That's right, higher taxes on the producing parts of our population, along with tax cuts that aren't really tax cuts at all. FA Harper may have said it best, "It seems that wherever the Welfare State is involved, the moral precept, 'Thou shalt not steal,' becomes altered to say: 'Thou shalt not steal, except for what thou deemest to be a worthy cause, where thou thinkest that thou canst use the loot for a better purpose than wouldst the victim of the theft.'" Though Frederick Bastait had a way not only to recognize the problem, but what to do about it. "But how is ... legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals."

There are a multitude of parables that we should be learning from when it comes to the current trend toward socialism and government "protectionism", but here are two that tell the tale quite well. "We must remember that the principal instrument of government is coercion and that our government officials are no more moral, omnipotent, nor omniscient than are any of the rest of us. Once we understand the basic principles which must be observed if freedom is to be safeguarded against government, we may become more hesitant in turning our personal problems and responsibilities over to that agency of coercion, with its insatiable appetite for power." ~ WC Mullendore. "The will of men is not shattered (by the welfare state), but softened, bent, and guided. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence. It does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, until each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville. "To preserve the independence of the people, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies, and to increase expense to the ultimate term of burden which the citizen can bear, may it never be seen here that ... government shall itself consume the residue of what it was instituted to guard. To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guaranty to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.'" ~ Thomas Jefferson. Barry Goldwater said it in much shorter terms, "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."

And that is the very thing that is occurring as we pass through this election cycle into the next, the robbing of America by our government. Our very freedoms, our long touted liberties are slowly being eroded, all in the name of "taking care of the people" by government instead of people taking care of themselves. I recognize that there are many who actually need help, especially during the hardest of times, but to allow the government to establish the very programs needed without including a "Sunset Clause" in those programs is foolish and will eventually completely destroy this nation. To that end, I will leave you with a series of quotes that should remind us all of what needs to be done to save us from ourselves, if there is still time. But first, the definition of Liberty from Black's Law Dictionary. "Liberty embraces freedom from duress; freedom from government interference; freedom of locomotion; liberty embraces the Right of self-defence against unlawful violence; right to acquire and enjoy property; Right to acquire useful knowledge; the Right to earn livelihood in any lawful calling; right to engage in a lawful business; Right to determine the price of one's labor; The Right to freely buy and sell as others may; right to live and work where one will. Right to marry and have a family."

"A society will remain as free or as enslaved as the conscious dispositions of individuals determine it shall be. Just as the roots of oppression are found in passivity, the foundations of our liberty reside in highly energized and focused minds that insist upon their independence. There are no shortcuts, no structures or doctrines that can be erected, no hallowed documents to be revered, to save us the effort of continually challenging those who would presume to exercise authority over our lives." ~ Butler Shaffer

"It is not the right of property which is protected but the right to property. Property, per se, has no rights but the individual has three great rights, equally sacred from arbitrary interference: the right to life, the right to his liberty and the right to his property. These three rights are so bound together as to be essentially one right. To give a man his life but deny him his liberty is to take from him all that makes life worth living. To give him his liberty but take from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty is still to leave him a slave." ~ Justice George Sutherland

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." ~ Justice Louis Brandeis

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle! Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either rods or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." ~ Frederick Douglas

"The story of the transformation of the fundamental principle of American government from liberty to democracy is compelling, partly because the powers embodied in America's twenty-first-century democratic government are those that eighteenth-century Americans revolted against to escape." ~ Randall G. Holcombe

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks ... It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." ~ Samuel Adams

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"'We the people' tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. 'We the people' are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which 'We the people' tell the government what it is allowed to do. 'We the people' are free." ~ Ronald Reagan

A final thought. Is our history already written? Are we doomed? Can we, once recognized as the most powerful country on earth, yet the most generous, survive against the ravages of time and "change"? Are the following words, penned over 200 years ago while the US was still a British Colony, in describing the fall of the Athenian Republic 2000 years prior, be our prophecy? "It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through his sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage."

WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

TAKE A STAND!!

SAVE OUR NATION, NOW!!!

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