Back to Basics

This weekly column, which I have been privileged to submit for your consideration for the past three years, elicits many comments and questions. The most common of which can be summed up as, “I agree with your analysis, appreciate the Historical context, but how about some practical suggestions.”

If you are one of the many who have sent me those emails, posted those replies, made those phone calls, or asked me in person this column is for you.

To fully address these questions we have to look at two levels: the macro and the micro. We need practical suggestions for the very large and the very small. We need practical suggestions for the societal and cultural level and the personal level.

First of all we need some historical context for our current situation. In some ways we are unique, we are America after all. And in some ways what is happening to us has happened many times before. As I have often said in these columns if History doesn’t actually repeat itself it does rhyme.

The French Revolution occurred between 1787 and 1799. It was the first to try to replicate the phenomenon of the American Revolution which overthrew the age old tyranny of divine right kings and landed aristocracy replacing it with a federal republic operating on democratic principles based upon limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.

The American Revolution inspired the French to believe they too could break free of the chains and breathe the fresh air of freedom. However, it lost something in the translation. Perhaps because the French didn’t have the centuries long tradition of limited self-government and human rights which had grown up in England since the Magna Carta had been forced on a reluctant King John in 1215. Perhaps it was because the French had endured centuries of the cruelest servitude under the most absolute of absolute monarchs.

Whatever the reason once the French broke free of the cultural, societal, and personal restraint of the Old Regime which had persecuted and exploited them for so long the French people sought to exact revenge. They sought to cut the former ruling class out of society and while they were at it establish a completely new regime in its place. The French, always famous for philosophers, had produced one who had a tremendous influence on the thinking of the Founders of our country and the Framers of the Constitution: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

However, Rousseau had two sides. On one he eloquently expressed the idea that government was established upon a social contract between the rulers and the ruled and that to have any legitimacy government must base itself upon the consent of the governed. Thus empowering the governed to decide when that contract has been violated and giving them a philosophical basis for change. Our forefathers based their work upon this side.

On the other side, Rousseau argued against private property. And that it is the role of the state to impose freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state regardless of the view of the majority.

Dear readers,

We began this website to report on Islamic threats to our nation shortly after 9/11. Over the last several years, we’ve witnessed the growing threat from our own government leaders, while they use the cult of Islam to advance their globalist agenda. They have co-opted the security of our country by allowing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, for providing support to the terrorist group Hamas, and other related organizations, to infiltrate nearly all government sectors and numerous police departments. Islam is being positioned to replaced our Judeo-Christian values and to act as a pit stop to national secularism as our defining national “religion.”

To facilitate this, a Marxist sits in the Oval Office. Please do not send us e-mail that makes this a racial issue, as it is clearly not about race, nor is it about political party.  The issue transcends the now false Republican-Democrat paradigm as illustrated by the actions of many so-called conservatives in Congress. It is now obvious that the enemies of our great nation are well entrenched, and are inside the gates.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) W.G. Boykin talk about Marxism in America:

America needs a heroes. And we need them badly. In the 1984 Bonnie Tyler, on the subject of needing a hero opined, “Where have all the good men gone?” Sadly, there is not hero for America coming. Not in 2012 anyway. America will have to wait. Even sadder than that though is that it may not be able to.

The Republican slate of contenders are desperately, and rightfully might I add, vying for the privilege of trying to unseat President Obama and his vile, failed ideology of class warfare, anti-Americanism and Marxism. As the only other major party that has proven capable of fielding a candidate who can get more than a few percent nationally in a Presidential Election they are, like it or not, where anyone who is going to bring down Obama is going to come from. But no matter how much the pundits tell us how “great” the choices are among the GOP field and how “happy” we should be with any of them as potential choices, the reality remains the same. There is no, “white knight upon a fiery steed” among them to save us.

And this is not an issue of whether or not a candidate is “perfect” or not. Only fools seek perfection. It is merely an issue of who these men are. And who are they? They an assortment of liberals, barely right leaning moderates and one very, very dangerous crackpot.

Months ago I started to try at least inform people as to actual track records of their chosen candidate among the GOP field. Most people were not, however, willing to take off their rose-colored glasses. Some were. But most people simply were not. Arguments have ensued and people are obviously unwilling to see the warts on the nose of their chosen challenger to the President. Of course, every one of the still standing GOP candidates for President is “better than Obama.” That hollow argument seems to be the final one. It comes up any time the facts get presented and the blind partisans, who now loathe me for staining the pristine veneer they have coated their candidate in, and is thrown out there to justify their stance. But the paper weight on my desk would be a better President than Mr. Obama as would the empty soup can my co-worker threw in the trash after lunch today. I certainly would not vote for either of those two items though if given the choice.

The car that is America is no longer careening towards the cliff. It is now through the guardrail and hangs suspended in mid air waiting only for the force of gravity to overcome momentum and pull it down like the Wile E. Coyote after chasing the Road Runner. Think I exaggerate? Look at the facts.

America has a debt to GDP ratio of over one-hundred percent. We have hundreds of judges on the bench without a care for the Constitution and who no one is willing to impeach for their ineptitude. We have a level of government spending that, if brought back to reality as it should be, would strip a trillion dollars out of the economy and cause pain that would make the Great Recession look like a holiday at the beach.

In 114 BC, Rome was a democratic Republic. Representatives elected by popular vote filled the Senate, and the Senate ran Rome. The Empire was conquered in the name of the Senate and the People of Rome, symbolized by the ever present SPQR seen on every Roman standard in every gladiator movie you have ever watched.

At the beginning of the first century BC sovereignty in Rome resided in the People, which may have inspired the most famous attribution of sovereignty in American History, “We the People” as the proclaimed authors of the Constitution. The power in republican Rome resided in the people. In a revolution that was by then legendary, they had banished their kings and established themselves as a free republic where the people assembled together to elect the Senators, the magistrates, and made all major decisions such as whether or not to go to war. And far beyond mere words much of what was early Rome was the target the Founding Fathers shot at when they established our later day republic.

And yet, by 14 AD, when Augustus died, popular elections were but a memory. Power was no longer located in the people, or in their assemblies, or their representatives in the Senate, instead power was concentrated in an Imperial Palace which was guarded, unapproachable, and foreboding.

How did this revolution occur? What led the freedom loving Romans to lay down their liberty and put on the yoke of oppression? Later Romans who longed for the freedom their ancestors had discarded pointed to 133 BC when a rich young man named Tiberius Gracchus bought his way into the office of Tribune, an executive position one step below magistrate that was meant to protect the interests of the poor. Gracchus used his office to curry personal power by giving bread and circuses to the people paid for by the public treasury. Eventually he hit on a very popular plan. He proposed to seize the lands of the rich and give them to the poor and he imposed this under his own authority, an authority he lacked under the Roman constitution. Later when he put himself forward for a second term in opposition to custom and law he was assassinated by a group of Senators.

Several generations of corrupt politicians using the same formula sought to buy personal power and popular adoration by looting the public treasury to give the people ever increasing benefits. Finally another rich young ruler arose by the name of Julius Caesar. He rose through various public offices eventually gaining the office of Proconsul or Governor of Gaul (France). He knew that to be a true Roman hero and paramount leader he needed to be a successful conqueror, so that is what he spent the next nine years doing. He conquered not only all of Gaul but much of central Europe even leading the first Roman expedition to Britain. While he accomplishing this he sent back well written dispatches to Rome which were published and widely distributed recounting his bravery and skill as a general.

All of this was too much for his political rivals in Rome. They gained enough votes to have him branded a traitor which meant little in Gaul where he had absolute power thanks to his well trained and veteran army.

I have a glimmer of hope that the people of this country are waking up to the tyranny of the U.S. federal government. Obamacare contraception mandates have woken the 70 million Catholics along with millions of other Christians. The NDAA has stirred many state legislatures into action to stop federal over-reach. Even the FAA funding bill has passed the Senate with a measure to allow airports to replace the TSA gropers and thieves.

Freedom of Religion

It’s nice to see Catholics waking up after their implicit support of Obama in 2008. Tea Partiers and constitutionalists tried to get them to wake up when Obamacare was being debated and ultimately passed. Better late than never. As the Heritage Foundation reported today:

Yesterday, the head of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, warned that the nation’s 70 million Catholics are ready to go to war with the Administration’s dictates, saying “Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church. This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.”

You can bet that the Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists, Jews, among others, are right there with them. It is truly the sleeping giant that has been awakened. Bearing the full force of worldwide support and money, this coalition has the power and clout to make the U.S. government miserable in the courts, at the voting booth and in the streets. You think the Tea Party was noisy and effective? They all belong to one of these churches. And they are bringing their friends.

States Defending the Constitution

And of course the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) codified indefinite detention of U.S. citizens. Hell, even the ACLU says as much. Bad legislation makes for strange bed fellows I suppose.

Well thankfully the states are defending the constitution. Tenth Amendment Center reports that Virginia was the first out of the gate last week with House Bill 1160:

“Prevents any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency or the armed forces of the United States in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of a United States citizen in violation of the Constitution of Virginia.”

Today the Tenth Amendment Center sent out an alert indicating that a similar bill, HB1629 and SB2669, is working its way through the House in Tennessee.

The legislation would effectively nullify the detention provisions in the NDAA and would also require federal agents making an arrest in the Volunteer State for any reason to first obtain written permission from the county sheriff.

Oklahoma is also moving legislation to stop the federal government tyranny.

It’s about time the states stared protecting us from the imperial federal government.

TSA Days of Groping and Thieving Could Be Over

I was also happy to see that embedded in the latest FAA funding bill was a provision that would force the TSA to reconsider applications from airports to replace TSA workers with their own privately hired screeners.

No, the TSA wouldn’t be disbanded which would be the optimal solution, but at least going through airport security you wouldn’t have to worry about sexual misconduct and theft of your possessions.

Barack Obama has gone from the “one we’ve been waiting for” to the one we can’t wait to kick out. No one ever thought one man could bring the nation to its knees, but here he is living in the White House. And on our knees we have been praying for the day that he leaves.

The audacity of a president hell-bent on destroying our great nation has truly been a stunning spectacle to observe. No lie is too ridiculous to tell about anyone who opposes him. With a compliant media behind him, the smears this Demagogue-in-Chief promises to unleash on his opponent this fall could divide the county so badly that it becomes ungovernable.

The societal tensions Obama promised to ease have worsened by his politics of envy. The racial healing he promised has been made worse. Despite overwhelming opposition, he forced a health plan on the people that few want. He has trampled on the Constitution, and infringed on powers granted to Congress. He has bailed out auto companies, investment bankers and insurance companies. He has given Constitutional rights to terrorists.

Obama’s greatest transgression, however, has been the explosion of government spending to the point where we are enslaved to a mountain of debt that can never be repaid. He has given us $1.6-trillion deficits, and will have added more than $6 trillion to the debt by the end of his term. He has risen the percentage of GDP consumed by government to 25 percent. And all his spending has stimulated nothing.

If you believe what the government reports, total unemployment is currently 15.2 percent as measured by U-6. During Obama’s tenure, true unemployment has been running greater than 20 percent and is near Depression Era levels. In sum, Obama’s presidency has hastened a financial disaster upon the nation.

Obama calls his policies “transformation.” In an earlier age, they would have been considered something akin to treason. Our enemies could not have planted someone to have caused more damage. And now, with financial collapse on the horizon, our very way of life is threatened.

Altogether, Barack Obama will probably go down in history as the worst president of all time. Until now, historians have long given that dubious distinction to James Buchanan, who left office to Abraham Lincoln as the nation was falling apart and headed toward civil war. It is no exaggeration to say the 2012 election is every bit as important as was the 1860 election. James Buchanan at least had good intentions. The same cannot be said for Barack Obama. His intent is not to build up, but only to tear the nation down, and then to cover his tracks. There is no other way to explain his actions.

Millions of Americans, however, have finally had enough. A counterrevolution is rising to a level rarely seen in our history. There hasn’t been this intensity of grassroots activity since the abolitionist movement of the 1850s. People are making themselves visible in the community. They are organizing rallies and call-in campaigns. They are studying the Constitution, and will not be silenced by charges of racism or any other falsehood uttered by the Left.

And when the new president is sworn in, collective relief will be felt across the land.

Sarah Palin was just about to drag the Progressive John McCain over the finish line. Then the economy collapsed and Senator McCain suspended his campaign to fly back to Washington and add his, “Me too” as President Bush said, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” An economic downturn, a weak contender, and unpopular never-ending wars let Barak Obama win the presidency with vague promises of hope and change.

I personally met people who voted for Mr. Obama because they thought he was for lower taxes. Ones who thought he was pro-business. I even met people who voted for him because they thought he was pro-life. His blank slate promises were interpreted by many to be whatever they thought they wanted. He was the “Anyone would be better than what we have now” candidate. Combine that with some of the best political theater in American History, slick advertising, a complicit media and a community organizer from the most corrupt community in the country becomes the most powerful man in the world.

The information about who Mr. Obama is, where he comes from, and what he stands for was readily available before the election to anyone interested enough to look. Instead of researching, a majority of voters relying on television ads and sound bites, disgusted with the way the country was going under Bush the Younger, decided to give the unknown and untried man from Chicago a chance.

Flash forward three years and many of those who thought they could vote for anyone and the country would survive realize they may have placed that bet once too often. It is now obvious for all to see Barack Obama is a strident left wing ideologue who applies the political strategies of the late Chicago communist Saul Alinsky, strategies he used to teach his followers in Chicago. He uses the Bully Pulpit to advance a radical agenda of class warfare. He is at war with capitalism and dedicated to spreading the wealth around. Our President is no longer hiding behind vague platitudes. He is no longer trying to sell us a pig-in-a-poke. Instead he is now trying to sell us a societal bridge to nowhere as he campaigns openly on transforming America into a country based on centrally-planed redistribution and social planning as he channels the grandfather of Progressivism: Teddy Roosevelt.

The gloves are off. The false fronts have been discarded, and we have come face-to-face with the ultimate goal of the Progressive agenda: an America that has evolved past the Constitution leaving limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom as mere memories. A new America confined by regulations and intimidated by an ever more intrusive security apparatus. A new America hostile to Christianity where being successful invites attack.

If President Obama wins re-election with this blatant appeal to class warfare and interest group divisions with no need to worry about re-election and having already said he will impose his agenda without Congress, there will be no check and no balance. He will claim a mandate to complete his vision for a completely transformed America.

Congress has already shown that it will not stand up to President Obama’s naked power grabs. When he initiated an illegal war against Libya without even consulting Congress the perpetually re-elected did nothing.

Many people make resolutions to start the year, but I think a list of things that must be done to protect and preserve the Republic should be tallied.

1. President Obama must be defeated in 2012 and the obstructionist Democratic Party must lose power in the Senate to ensure both houses of Congress will be Republican and in a position to initiate real change.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency must be reined in with increased Congressional oversight and legislative limits on its rule-making capacity. Having fulfilled its 1970 mandate to clean the nation’s air and water, it should be scaled back to the maintenance of these functions.

3. Americans, despite the administration’s efforts to redefine and distract us, must keep clearly in mind the threat of Islam to the nation and the world. A Middle East in turmoil lays ahead for 2012.

4. To jump-start the economy, taxes and spending must be reduced across the board. A tax on consumption, rather than income would be a good start. Only 49% of Americans currently pay income taxes, the lowest in decades.

5. Obamacare must be repealed should the Supreme Court fail to rule that the Commerce Clause takes precedence over its requirement that Americans must purchase health insurance or be fined for not doing so.

6. A serious restructuring of Social Security and Medicare must be undertaken. Older Americans who have paid into the system—it is involuntary—must be ensured their benefits will be paid, but younger citizens should have the freedom and responsibility to structure their own retirement and health plans.

7. Access to the nation’s vast reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil should be increased and encouraged. Oil companies should be encouraged to build more refineries via tax credits and removal of “environmental” obstacles.

8. Congress needs to identify and fund the repair to the nation’s aging infrastructure.

9. Utilities should be encouraged via tax credits and other incentives to expand the national “grid” for the distribution of electricity.

10. Term limits for Senators and Representatives should be added to the U.S. Constitution in the same fashion the presidency is limited. Salaries, pensions, and perks should be capped. A permanent political class is a danger to citizens.

11. The Federal government should be downsized with the elimination of the Departments of Education, Labor, and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency. These powers should be returned to the individual States. (10th Amendment)

12. The nation’s military which has been significantly reduced in size and structure should be expanded with attention to the upgrade and increase of its naval fleet and aircraft.

13. Congress should reject and rescind all legislation based on “global warming” or “climate change” as the former has been demonstrated to be a hoax and the latter is meaningless insofar as the climate is beyond the control of humans.

14. The United States should significantly reduce its contribution to the United Nations and refuse to ratify any of its treaties.

15. Tort reform should be instituted to reduce the costs of health care.

16. The corporate tax rate should be significantly reduced from its present rate, one of the highest in the world, to increase expansion, new jobs, and competitiveness.

17. Public service unions should be illegal.