Restoring the American Character
After a year of protest, many are wondering “What’s next?” Many found their tax day protests less well attended than last year and with the passage of Health Care Reform over our vehement and organized resistance, discouragement is a real possibility. This is a function of the narrow focus conservatives as a whole have taken for decades, a focus that determined statists/progressives have been able to overcome with relative ease, until this last year. That focus is on politics and policy. Conservative publications and talk radio have been opposing our socialist creep with passion and eloquence for years yet every year government gets bigger and more intrusive. Every year government takes more of our money and liberty. The only thing that has changed in the last year is that by accelerating their agenda under the Obama administration, the statists have woken many more people up but the focus, for the most part, is the same. We argue policy and play politics, we try to influence increasingly detached and determined politicians, hoping throwing the bums out and putting in a new crop of politicians will solve our problem. How did that work in the eighties with the “Reagan revolution” and the nineties with the “Contract with America”? Is government smaller? Were they any more than a bump in the road to totalitarianism?
We need to attack the root of the problem and that goes far beyond politics. Ultimately, the problem lies with our attitude. We have come to believe that the proper application of government is the solution to any problem. Some have criticized the statists for following a failed model, mocking them for believing that the socialist/communist system would work if it was just done properly by the right people. Yet the Republican party and other conservatives believe if we just “reform” the system, properly applying government, they will restore liberty and reduce government. Tinkering with a microwave won’t make it into a blender. Socialism is socialism and it cannot be ‘reformed’ to restore liberty because a statist system is diametrically opposed to freedom. The only way of restoring liberty is to dismantle the system we have and, in our case, reestablish the constitutionally limited government our founders envisioned.
It is the fact that we have allowed the growth of government, particularly in Washington, that is the cause of almost all our ills. Consider the constant complaining about how “divided” America is. The reason for that division is that the government solutions we want are being applied almost exclusively at the national level, creating a set of winners and losers on every issue nationwide. Abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, spending, health care, just about any social issue you can name is being handled at the national level and that creates anger and feelings of impotence among the losers and arrogant gloating among the winners. The federal government was not designed to handle social problems and our attempts to do so have resulted in the wasteful behemoth that now sits beside the Potomac. The states, and more importantly, the people in their private organizations and religious associations, are much better equipped to handle social ills and they do so without angering half the populace with waste, fraud, corruption and improper application of their tax dollars.
More importantly, the more we either allow or expect the government to do for us, the greater the destruction of our individual and corporate moral character. Socialism is designed to create weak and dependent people, the complete opposite of the characteristics of the people that made this country great. I would define the American character as a mix of rugged individualism, inventiveness, moral strength, compassion, honesty, frugality and a puritan work ethic. These things are required of a free people. Freedom creates these characteristics. Ultimately it comes down to this quote from the Bible. “If a man does not work, he should not eat.” If failure is an option, and I mean real failure where basic necessities like food and shelter are in jeopardy, men and women need to value hard work, they need to be inventive. Occasionally they will be reduced to relying on the generosity of friends and families but that generosity will be controlled by private individuals who will expect a lot form the recipient. If the “safety net” is only provided privately and reduces those who need it to “beggars” the motivation to do whatever is necessary (the jobs Americans just won’t do) to stay out of that position will be strong. In a free society there should be no top or bottom to the ladder of achievement and no government interference with our ascent or descent upon it. That was what took America from a few colonies on the Atlantic seaboard to a world power in a century and a half.
Socialism, looking to the government rather than to ourselves to solve problems, is just the opposite. Socialism destroys good character because it creates dependent, expectant, people. It has made the states and the people beggars and removes them from responsibility for their actions. Consider welfare. If the government forces people to give through taxes to support people who have made bad decisions in life, it destroys the character of the people on both ends. The one who is forced to give resents it because government applies and wastes money in ways that are foolish and destructive. Seeing this, he becomes less inclined toward productive enterprise. The one who receives it becomes comfortable and has no motivation to make correct choices. Family responsibilities, proper child rearing, and any work ethic whatsoever go out the window when the safety net is perceived as a right rather than a privilege and we can see the results of this everywhere.
It is not only the poor that suffer the detrimental effects of socialism. Family units are weakened by the expectations we have of government. Once upon a time the family unit was paramount. It was the family that was the primary caregiver and educator of children and of the aged. With public school and social security we have allowed individuals in the middle to behave selfishly and evade responsibility. Instead of creating value among families and communities, socialist governments remove our responsibilites to each other and appropriates them to itself. Ultimately, this means that society places little value on the people at both ends of the spectrum. The old are warehoused on the public tab until they die and children are not taught to be exceptional but government automatons who will give their loyalty and support to the state until they reach the end of their usefulness. It also destroys neighborhoods and communities because our primary relationships are not with our neighbors but with the government and it is the relationships that affect us most that we spend the most time on.
Short term and long term we need to reverse this trend. This is where the tea parties should broaden their efforts outside of politics and teach people within and without to become what Americans used to be. It is the restoration of the American character that will save this country. It will not be easy because we are swimming against the tide, socialism is all around us. It needs to be done, however, if for no other reason than the safety net is developing some serious holes. There are a number of very real scenarios in which the government will no longer be able to pay the largess we have become used to. Some may happen suddenly-the inability to borrow any more money, hyperinflation, total collapse of the housing and stock markets due to a crisis elsewhere, war with Iran and a reduction in the oil supply-or slowly-the interest on the debt eating up all our money, continued attrition of the tax base. The unfortunate thing is that most of us have lost the skill sets our ancestors took for granted that allow us to meet our basic needs when our all mighty government cannot.
Here are my suggestions for going beyond protests among the tea party adherents and concerned citizens everywhere. Politically we need to be the people of no. No more socialism, no more government solutions. Repealing health care is just the start. No more welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Education, Labor or Energy departments, or any other activity government is currently engaged in that is not in the constitution. Reduce Washington to a sleepy little town that requires a few hundred billion dollars to run. We can do that voluntarily or it will be done for us through economic collapse. Unfortunately I doubt we have the will or the time to do it voluntarily.
We need to develop a comprehensive program among our families, neighbors and communities. We must become the leaders who will be prepared to rise up when the whole thing comes crashing down. Among our families we need to make correct and moral decisions to be able to meet the needs of ourselves and our loved ones. Have things of value other than dollars or bits of information in a computer somewhere. Store food and learn how to provide for yourself. Make sure you have the means to protect yourself from the looters. All of us can do these things now and they are smart actions regardless of what happens.
Then we should become educated in the things that our grandparents and great-grandparents took for granted. Learning to be resourceful and repairing things rather than replacing them constantly in our throw-away society. Knowledge of medicine and first aid beyond band-aids and trips to the emergency room. Learning how to produce our own food. Educating ourselves so we can educate our own children. The creation of contingency plans in case we need to protect ourselves from the looters or the government. The point is to be able to acquire our basic resources locally and make ourselves independent of government and its foolish actions. There is a wealth of knowledge among patriots, particularly those who have been around the block a few times, that needs to be coordinated and disseminated among all of us. This should be done among neighbors and communities, organized at the local level. And it needs to be done on a personal level, face to face, with as little reliance upon impersonal communication as possible. In order to create tightly knit communities, we need to get to know one another and that only happens when we can look one another in the eye.
By emphasizing personal actions at the local level, tea party participants gain a sense of accomplishment, something often missing in the political arena where things happen slowly, elections have to we waited for and, as we have seen, the higher one goes the more insulated politicians are from reality and our voices. Creating independence from government at all levels will, in the short term, prepare us for the time in the near future when governments are no longer able to provide all the things they do today. That is already happening among states and local governments who can’t pull all the financial tricks Washington can. When the Washington ponzi scheme comes apart, states and local government will not be in a position to pick up the slack and we will be on our own whether we like it or not. Long term, by creating a sense of independent pride rather than dependent expectation, those who will rebuild this nation will do so with a great appreciation for the vision of the founders and the essential nature of an American character rooted in liberty and personal responsibility.
We need to attack the root of the problem and that goes far beyond politics. Ultimately, the problem lies with our attitude. We have come to believe that the proper application of government is the solution to any problem. Some have criticized the statists for following a failed model, mocking them for believing that the socialist/communist system would work if it was just done properly by the right people. Yet the Republican party and other conservatives believe if we just “reform” the system, properly applying government, they will restore liberty and reduce government. Tinkering with a microwave won’t make it into a blender. Socialism is socialism and it cannot be ‘reformed’ to restore liberty because a statist system is diametrically opposed to freedom. The only way of restoring liberty is to dismantle the system we have and, in our case, reestablish the constitutionally limited government our founders envisioned.
It is the fact that we have allowed the growth of government, particularly in Washington, that is the cause of almost all our ills. Consider the constant complaining about how “divided” America is. The reason for that division is that the government solutions we want are being applied almost exclusively at the national level, creating a set of winners and losers on every issue nationwide. Abortion, gay marriage, gun rights, spending, health care, just about any social issue you can name is being handled at the national level and that creates anger and feelings of impotence among the losers and arrogant gloating among the winners. The federal government was not designed to handle social problems and our attempts to do so have resulted in the wasteful behemoth that now sits beside the Potomac. The states, and more importantly, the people in their private organizations and religious associations, are much better equipped to handle social ills and they do so without angering half the populace with waste, fraud, corruption and improper application of their tax dollars.
More importantly, the more we either allow or expect the government to do for us, the greater the destruction of our individual and corporate moral character. Socialism is designed to create weak and dependent people, the complete opposite of the characteristics of the people that made this country great. I would define the American character as a mix of rugged individualism, inventiveness, moral strength, compassion, honesty, frugality and a puritan work ethic. These things are required of a free people. Freedom creates these characteristics. Ultimately it comes down to this quote from the Bible. “If a man does not work, he should not eat.” If failure is an option, and I mean real failure where basic necessities like food and shelter are in jeopardy, men and women need to value hard work, they need to be inventive. Occasionally they will be reduced to relying on the generosity of friends and families but that generosity will be controlled by private individuals who will expect a lot form the recipient. If the “safety net” is only provided privately and reduces those who need it to “beggars” the motivation to do whatever is necessary (the jobs Americans just won’t do) to stay out of that position will be strong. In a free society there should be no top or bottom to the ladder of achievement and no government interference with our ascent or descent upon it. That was what took America from a few colonies on the Atlantic seaboard to a world power in a century and a half.
Socialism, looking to the government rather than to ourselves to solve problems, is just the opposite. Socialism destroys good character because it creates dependent, expectant, people. It has made the states and the people beggars and removes them from responsibility for their actions. Consider welfare. If the government forces people to give through taxes to support people who have made bad decisions in life, it destroys the character of the people on both ends. The one who is forced to give resents it because government applies and wastes money in ways that are foolish and destructive. Seeing this, he becomes less inclined toward productive enterprise. The one who receives it becomes comfortable and has no motivation to make correct choices. Family responsibilities, proper child rearing, and any work ethic whatsoever go out the window when the safety net is perceived as a right rather than a privilege and we can see the results of this everywhere.
It is not only the poor that suffer the detrimental effects of socialism. Family units are weakened by the expectations we have of government. Once upon a time the family unit was paramount. It was the family that was the primary caregiver and educator of children and of the aged. With public school and social security we have allowed individuals in the middle to behave selfishly and evade responsibility. Instead of creating value among families and communities, socialist governments remove our responsibilites to each other and appropriates them to itself. Ultimately, this means that society places little value on the people at both ends of the spectrum. The old are warehoused on the public tab until they die and children are not taught to be exceptional but government automatons who will give their loyalty and support to the state until they reach the end of their usefulness. It also destroys neighborhoods and communities because our primary relationships are not with our neighbors but with the government and it is the relationships that affect us most that we spend the most time on.
Short term and long term we need to reverse this trend. This is where the tea parties should broaden their efforts outside of politics and teach people within and without to become what Americans used to be. It is the restoration of the American character that will save this country. It will not be easy because we are swimming against the tide, socialism is all around us. It needs to be done, however, if for no other reason than the safety net is developing some serious holes. There are a number of very real scenarios in which the government will no longer be able to pay the largess we have become used to. Some may happen suddenly-the inability to borrow any more money, hyperinflation, total collapse of the housing and stock markets due to a crisis elsewhere, war with Iran and a reduction in the oil supply-or slowly-the interest on the debt eating up all our money, continued attrition of the tax base. The unfortunate thing is that most of us have lost the skill sets our ancestors took for granted that allow us to meet our basic needs when our all mighty government cannot.
Here are my suggestions for going beyond protests among the tea party adherents and concerned citizens everywhere. Politically we need to be the people of no. No more socialism, no more government solutions. Repealing health care is just the start. No more welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Education, Labor or Energy departments, or any other activity government is currently engaged in that is not in the constitution. Reduce Washington to a sleepy little town that requires a few hundred billion dollars to run. We can do that voluntarily or it will be done for us through economic collapse. Unfortunately I doubt we have the will or the time to do it voluntarily.
We need to develop a comprehensive program among our families, neighbors and communities. We must become the leaders who will be prepared to rise up when the whole thing comes crashing down. Among our families we need to make correct and moral decisions to be able to meet the needs of ourselves and our loved ones. Have things of value other than dollars or bits of information in a computer somewhere. Store food and learn how to provide for yourself. Make sure you have the means to protect yourself from the looters. All of us can do these things now and they are smart actions regardless of what happens.
Then we should become educated in the things that our grandparents and great-grandparents took for granted. Learning to be resourceful and repairing things rather than replacing them constantly in our throw-away society. Knowledge of medicine and first aid beyond band-aids and trips to the emergency room. Learning how to produce our own food. Educating ourselves so we can educate our own children. The creation of contingency plans in case we need to protect ourselves from the looters or the government. The point is to be able to acquire our basic resources locally and make ourselves independent of government and its foolish actions. There is a wealth of knowledge among patriots, particularly those who have been around the block a few times, that needs to be coordinated and disseminated among all of us. This should be done among neighbors and communities, organized at the local level. And it needs to be done on a personal level, face to face, with as little reliance upon impersonal communication as possible. In order to create tightly knit communities, we need to get to know one another and that only happens when we can look one another in the eye.
By emphasizing personal actions at the local level, tea party participants gain a sense of accomplishment, something often missing in the political arena where things happen slowly, elections have to we waited for and, as we have seen, the higher one goes the more insulated politicians are from reality and our voices. Creating independence from government at all levels will, in the short term, prepare us for the time in the near future when governments are no longer able to provide all the things they do today. That is already happening among states and local governments who can’t pull all the financial tricks Washington can. When the Washington ponzi scheme comes apart, states and local government will not be in a position to pick up the slack and we will be on our own whether we like it or not. Long term, by creating a sense of independent pride rather than dependent expectation, those who will rebuild this nation will do so with a great appreciation for the vision of the founders and the essential nature of an American character rooted in liberty and personal responsibility.
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