And how many of us would still be alive if, tomorrow, we started doing everything right to restore it?
Socialist tipping point
The only true blue dawgs are Parker Griffith (D-AL) in the U.S. House of Representatives, who voted against the Stimulus, Cap and Trade and ObamaCare and who vows to vote against Nancy Pelosi as Speaker if he wins re-election in 2010; and Huckleberry Hound in the Dog House. (My apologies to Hound for the past use of his image to represent such a sorry lot. This will be his last appearance in columns related to that mythical creature called the moderate Democrat.)
Yesterday's caving of Ben Nelson joining the other 59 yellow dawg Dem-o-bats on ending debate on socialized medicine, may well be the tipping point of no return from the end of the Miracle that began in 1776.
The fact is that America cannot be protected from the Left if they elect Democrats to make laws, and certainly the return of the Democrats to congressional power in 2007 and to filibuster-proof super-majorities in 2009 sealed the vote on ObamaCare.
The GOP can't do as a minority what they didn't prevent in the majority, but let's not delude ourselves that our GOP failures are the proximate cause of the precipice we are falling off of.
What set the stage for American voters to put this crowd in power, especially after the Reagan Revolution?
Was it FDR and New Deal or was it the Republican majorities and Ike who acquiesced in the fact of Big Government in the 50s?
Was it LBJ and the Great Society, or was it Nixon's expansion of same?
Was it the failure of conservatives to occupy positions in academia, the press and other cultural institutions before and after Rush Limbaugh?
Was it the puniness of Newt's Contract with America, or was it too late by then, not to mention was it too late by the time Dubya and Delay got power?
Do enough Americans have the right stuff to save us?
When even conservative members of the armed forces won't protect themselves from obvious dangers at Fort Hood; students instructed to draw a picture about Christmas are sent for psychiatric counseling for drawing a picture of Christ; and when even Sean Hannity buys into the liberal health care narrative so much that he favors forcing private insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, I have to wonder if the political correctness and economic ignorance long ago reached a tipping among We the People, that the slouching towards Gomorrah that Robert Bork wrote of was already inexorable.
McCain's honorable friends and Coburn as the atom bomb
Laws are made in Congress, where representatives cast votes. Most members cast votes like those in their party, and having the majority determines what gets voted on.
Since the 70s, the votes cast by the vast majority of Democrats have not only been wrong, but have been hostile to American values and usually in favor of policies already shown to be failures. The Party has also been un-patriotic in foreign policy.
Yet, Republicans still call those dishonorable Democrats their honorable friends and most of the public views the parties as not having a dime's worth of difference between them, which is a damnable lie.
But who can blame them when Democrats regularly accuse the GOP of being heartless towards the weak at home and warmongers abroad, while nice little Republicans shrug and suggest that their honorable friends just have a disagreement.
The death of moral outrage
A friendly disagreement? I guess that's what Patrick Henry had with King George? Not!
What passes for tough action now is when Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) forces a clerk to read a long bill, and then, only at the 11th hour. Couldn't we have shut down the socialist law-making machine via refusals to grant unanimous consent before Friday and even now?
The miracle may not have been sustainable
But I have to temper my criticism of our champions in elected office when I remember that America's past 200+ years is THE LONE Liberty miracle of the past 5000 years and that it has all been damage control since Eve bit the apple.
Affluence weakens a people. Liberty brings on affluence. See the problem?
And we certainly can't prolong the miracle when we won't draw the obvious moral and logical sharp lines between us and our opponents.
Pilgrim's Progress
As a Christian, I have felt a tension concerning how I should economize the use of my time for God's will. I am not of the school of thought that advocates isolation from the secular world. I am of the other school, yet, given that most Christians lived under circumstances alien to the 200+ -year mircale we call America, I wonder if it isn't time to re-evaluate my time management?
There are only 24 hours in the day, and given the cultural rot that made the Cornhusker cave-in and Hannity's ignorance possible, is it time for conservatives to spend more of their time addressing that culture, rather than politics and, not to mention, trying to make enough money to eat?
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Comments
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." James Madison
The later being the fault of the former!!
Once Democrats discovered they could get away with being Socialists and buy Votes with Govt. handouts coupled with times of ridiculous Taxation that provided plenty of Budget to use to buy those Votes without any regard for future consequences.
When did We The People lose it? When SOME let Those The Morons dictate the country's direction when those SOME decided to be equally lazy and not Vote based on firm knowledge/participation as to what the Elected folks were doing in the name of the "People!"
Further (from my other comment) the loss of the Moral value of PERSONAL Sovereignty....
We went from the Moral RESPECT of others to wanting to push other Moral values onto others when Prohibition was passed. That was the main turning point that people found/saw this could be a Imposition-Democracy rather than the Respectful Republic! That began the trend of what can I obtain from, or impose upon, others via VOTE rather than to work/earn it.
Further, that Personal Sovereignty was lost when anyone could Vote rather than those who owned Property. If one has no Real Property they have NO REAL vested interest in the United States' physical soil Sovereignty. Again, people decided that it would just be easier than to rely on Personal Responsibility to earn their way to owning ones own Property to How can One Vote someone to TAKE and REDISTRIBUTE their Property/Wealth over, again rather than earn it. Illegal Immigration is just another example of how this is detrimental.
I can never figure out why people insist on keeping the left right, red or blue, paradigm into play. Might as well throw them into the same group of people who use Race, Political Affiliations, Gender etc to keep dividing the nation.
"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.". John Adams
Got Constitution? We need to be demanding which Enumerated Powers give Congress the actions they are trying to perform. Impose Term Limits, and get rid of the bad laws that are all unconstitutional and Jail the ones responsible. Furthermore, When did the commerce clause give the evil banking cartel in congress the authority to tax citizens? See how the Industries like auto, health, transportation etc are all nationalized now? Fake Devalued Dollars, and continued WILLFUL IGNORANCE of the Constitution including taking self responsibility for your freedoms and defending them! The govt doesn't give them to you God does, they are called Natural laws. J
I can never figure out why people insist on keeping the left right, red or blue, paradigm into play. Might as well throw them into the same group of people who use Race, Political Affiliations, Gender etc to keep dividing the nation.
"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.". John Adams
Got Constitution? We need to be demanding which Enumerated Powers give Congress the actions they are trying to perform. Impose Term Limits, and get rid of the bad laws that are all unconstitutional and Jail the ones responsible. Furthermore, When did the commerce clause give the evil banking cartel in congress the authority to tax citizens? See how the Industries like auto, health, transportation etc are all nationalized now? Fake Devalued Dollars, and continued WILLFUL IGNORANCE of the Constitution including taking self responsibility for your freedoms and defending them! The govt doesn't give them to you God does, they are called Natural laws. J
we lost america when we let the zionist communist jews control our currency with the 1913 federal reserve act which made them wealthy with our tax dollars the ponzi shceme continues today.it is a private controlled and owned bank that charges usury fees for our money we allow them to print for our govt and then they tax us for it 60 cents on the dollar , what a deal, even bernie madoff would be proud. we lost it even further when we allowed the jews to halt all white immigration in 1965 and turn the tide and open the gates to 99% non whites and illegals. we lost more when they took control of the media banks and govt. now were screwed and jewed.
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