It's Over, You're On Your Own
What’s over? The election, sure. Barack Obama was re-elected to the presidency, the senate remained in Democrat hands and the Republicans are still the majority in the house of representatives. Some may say the status-quo was maintained. No...not exactly.
What is over? America as a free nation of unlimited opportunity, as a nation of rugged individualists responsible for their own success or failure, as a nation of free men and women whose private property is sacrosanct and hard work rewarded. Certainly the trend has been in this direction for a long time, a hundred years perhaps. But this election was it, the tipping point, the final nail in the coffin of the great experiment that was America. Lady Liberty has been toppled, not due to a knockout blow from the outside but from an insidious cancer that devoured her from the inside.
We now have confirmed that the majority desire a nation based on the theft of the property of the productive, that actions and behaviors societies have historically found destructive should be not only accepted but protected and subsidized, that it is acceptable to live at the expense of others, that the murder of innocents and those the government deems worthy of censure or without value is appropriate, that the solutions to any problems are to be found among government elites and that those very elites need not be held accountable for even the most egregious professional and personal behavior.
That is not the nation envisioned by the founders nor the one a sizable minority, including me and perhaps you, want to live in. We know that the fiscal, moral, and cultural path we are on can only end very, very....very badly. But we lost. The majority has spoken. They have found an autocratic, totalitarian government that promises to take care of their every need with stolen and counterfeit money to their liking. The myth of America as a “center-right” country has been exposed. It is over.
But for some, hope springs eternal. I have heard the usual platitudes; “Stand up for America”, “Hold fast to the Constitution”, “Fight for freedom”, “We need a new revolution.” Platitudes spoken by those who cheer loudly from their government regulated perches but are weak on specifics while herding us into “acceptable” but ultimately impotent responses. I heard immediate calls to work toward taking the senate in two years. Take for what and for whom? The Republicans? What a joke. Sadly a joke that continues to be played on many of those who love liberty and see no other alternative within the political process. For those of you who are putting all your hopes in putting the Republicans in charge, that they are the best or only chance for turning things around and restoring the republic, you are fools. The Republican “establishment” (a myth) is not going to change, as an opposition party Republicans are a mockery. Both parties are responsible for our negative trends and neither are going to do anything substantial to change it and reduce their power. If Republican behavior over the last twenty-five years hasn’t opened your eyes to that fact, you are just as bad as the kool-aid drinkers who follow the communist Democrats.
You need to understand that a republic will only survive if two of its pillars remain intact. One is the integrity of the system and the other is the wisdom and courage of its people. Notice I did not say that the republic was dependent upon the people elected to “serve.” Another joke, one the founders, perhaps the most virtuous group of men ever to lead a nation, did not believe it. Those who seek power do not do so for altruistic reasons. Ninety-nine percent of those who do are rarely the best and brightest and are the type of people who, at best, think they know how to run everyone’s lives most effectively, and at worst are without conscience, accumulating power for its own sake and for their own benefit. Bottom line, assume that those in power are corrupt, soulless tyrants just as the founders did.
What keeps such men in check? The people and their fidelity to the system. We have all heard the quote “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is not power itself that corrupts, however. It is power that is wielded without accountability. If those in power can do anything they want and know they will suffer no negative consequences, of course they will act as despots. We have seen this for decades, perhaps since the days of Andrew Jackson, but it has become so blatant under Barack Obama that we have become a caricature of a “banana republic.” While those in power will often seek to act tyrannically “under the radar”, president Obama has been clear in both his statements and actions that he has contempt for any restraints on his exercise of power. For this he was re-elected. This will do nothing but encourage him to act “with more flexibility” in his second term.
Accountability results from two things. First, is the “balance of power” in which each branch of government is a check on the others. The jealous self interest that is supposed to incentivize the check will work until the branches realize their collusion will enhance everyone’s power. That is where we are (and have been for a long time). The only time anyone is held accountable in government is when an individual refuses to “play the game.” Not only can they ignore the clear limits placed on them by the Constitution, they bend and ignore their own rules and laws with impunity. Even when their corruption or gross dereliction of duty leads to the death of American citizens, no one is held accountable, no one is impeached, no one goes on trial, no one goes to jail. Even resignations are rare these days. Bureaucrats are shuffled around and bribed to keep them quiet. Ethics committees rarely hand down meaningless censures. The parties, particularly the Democrats, rally behind their own, making excuses and elevating vices to virtues. Consequently, every year the corruption gets worse.
The second method of accountability is the electoral process. This depends on the wisdom, virtue and courage of the people who cast their votes to reward good behavior among their leaders and punish the bad. This requires several things. First , the people must have an understanding of our constitutional system and the responsibilities of both themselves and their government within its framework. Second, they must value those responsibilities. Finally, they must have the knowledge, wisdom and discernment to understand the issues within the constitutional system and our paradigm of American values, including individual liberty and responsibility.
This election conclusively demonstrated that the majority of our fellow citizens are ignorant, lazy and immoral, products of generations of government education, media bias and political deception. They do not understand the concept of liberty and responsibility, our system of government and its moral and constitutional limitations. They believe totalitarian regulation of their lives is not only acceptable but beneficial. They embrace life lived at the expense of their fellows. They think redistribution, reparations and socialism are American values. They don’t believe we are exceptional in the world of nations or care about the rise of murderous totalitarianism in the world absent any meaningful check. They think liberty is equivalent to consumerism, freedom only involves one thousand channels of mindless television, access to the latest I-pad and choosing between McDonalds and Burger King. They contribute nothing and think they are entitled to everything. As long as they don’t have to work too hard or suffer too much, that is not going to change. They are going to continue to vote to receive more of the same and now they are the majority determining the direction of the country and the limits of everyone’s liberty and opportunity. Add amnesty and legal voting rights for tens of millions of illegal immigrants and our country’s demographics will never support a return to liberty.
Even if the ignorant, lazy and immoral were not a majority, the system must work for those who desire to express their fidelity to limited, constitutional government and liberty. We cannot honestly say this is the case any more. We have already seen that politicians and bureaucrats are not going to hold one another accountable. However, our individual or corporate ability to make an impact through the electoral process is severely curtailed. First, most of the time we have a choice between the “lesser of two evils” because the parties exercise prodigious control over access to the electoral process. They share power and are not willing to let any other players in the game. They lie without thought or comsequence. They cheat and steal elections with impunity. Again, no one goes to jail, no one resigns, no elections are overturned even when fraud is rampant and unquestioned. When precincts turn out 99% or even 100% for one candidate, when more people vote than are registered or even eligible, when hundreds of ballots simply show up during recounts, when electronic machines miscount or malfunction, when military ballots or others are nullified or when ineligible people are allowed to vote, our ability to make an impact is annulled. Not only are our votes cancelled out by the ignorant and purchased but in some, or many cases, they are not counted at all.
When we cannot count on our leaders, our system of laws or our fellow citizens to value and protect our liberty, rights and humanity where do we turn, what do we do? Do we just get the country we deserve even though we didn’t vote for it? Are we condemned to suffer the consequences of an increasingly immoral and irresponsible society? Do we continue to fight a losing battle, pinning our hopes on a corrupt political process, celebrating small victories amidst the totalitarian flood? Do we look for somewhere else in shrinking world soon to be subject to the dictates of a corrupt United Nations once the United States surrenders her sovereignty, wealth and power?
Our problem is this-we have been duped into believing that our liberty, rights and humanity depend on our politicians, the law or the majority of our fellow men. “The exercise of our God-given natural rights should not, indeed it cannot, depend on the good will of the powerful or the erudition and courage of our fellow man. Just because the vast majority choose to live in meek, subservient ignorance is no reason for you or I to suffer the indignity of slavery.” (from American Revolution; A Philosophical and Practical Guide www.patricsamuels.com ) In this election we may have lost our country but that doesn’t mean we must lose our liberty. No election, no politician, no illegitimate law has the moral right to take your liberty from you. Your liberty is only lost when you choose to relinquish it, when you decide that the price for exercising your rights to life, liberty and property is too high. Your liberty is, after all, only worth the price you or I are willing to pay.
What we all now need to realize is this; once a hyper-regulatory totalitarian state is firmly established and the ignorant majority of the people accept theft and government intrusion as normal and beneficial, it will not be reversed through the electoral process. Too many have a vested interest in perpetuating it. The moochers and the looters will never vote to reduce government and its benefits. No politician will get elected promising to reduce redistributive payments. Listen very closely. No nation in history has ever reversed this trend and restored lost liberties and rights peacefully, the state will not allow it. Once we understand this fact we can begin to devise strategies that will actually have an impact.
Everything needs to be on the table; civil disobedience, revolution, secession. Radical actions, certainly. Scary, uncharted territory for most of us traditionally conservative, law abiding citizens. But it is clear that our liberty will not be restored through conservative, legal means. The electoral process and the courts are lost to us. If we do nothing and we avoid total fiscal disaster (impossible) the best we and our children can hope for is to live a highly regulated, unimaginative life on the edge of poverty without hope for advancement. At worst, due to modern technology, we will see a brutal and efficient totalitarianism only dreamed of by Hitler and Stalin.
It is time to say NO MORE! I say that not as a meaningless platitude but as an attitude adjustment, the first step toward recovering that which is denied us by our government. Then take responsibility for your own physical and financial well being. Make preparations for financial collapse and civil unrest. Take positive actions to deny our government’s control over our lives. Cement relationships among friends and family, people you know you can trust. If you want specifics, get a copy of “American Revolution; A Philosophical and Practical Guide” as well as the books mentioned in the back. Study the original American Revolution. We all need knowledge but we need to act on that knowledge. Without action, we are merely educated slaves. Without knowledge, our actions will be ineffective flailing. Neither will restore our liberty. The world we will live in will be the result of today’s choices. Not the choices our neighbors or government impose upon us but the ones we are willing to sacrifice for.
What is over? America as a free nation of unlimited opportunity, as a nation of rugged individualists responsible for their own success or failure, as a nation of free men and women whose private property is sacrosanct and hard work rewarded. Certainly the trend has been in this direction for a long time, a hundred years perhaps. But this election was it, the tipping point, the final nail in the coffin of the great experiment that was America. Lady Liberty has been toppled, not due to a knockout blow from the outside but from an insidious cancer that devoured her from the inside.
We now have confirmed that the majority desire a nation based on the theft of the property of the productive, that actions and behaviors societies have historically found destructive should be not only accepted but protected and subsidized, that it is acceptable to live at the expense of others, that the murder of innocents and those the government deems worthy of censure or without value is appropriate, that the solutions to any problems are to be found among government elites and that those very elites need not be held accountable for even the most egregious professional and personal behavior.
That is not the nation envisioned by the founders nor the one a sizable minority, including me and perhaps you, want to live in. We know that the fiscal, moral, and cultural path we are on can only end very, very....very badly. But we lost. The majority has spoken. They have found an autocratic, totalitarian government that promises to take care of their every need with stolen and counterfeit money to their liking. The myth of America as a “center-right” country has been exposed. It is over.
But for some, hope springs eternal. I have heard the usual platitudes; “Stand up for America”, “Hold fast to the Constitution”, “Fight for freedom”, “We need a new revolution.” Platitudes spoken by those who cheer loudly from their government regulated perches but are weak on specifics while herding us into “acceptable” but ultimately impotent responses. I heard immediate calls to work toward taking the senate in two years. Take for what and for whom? The Republicans? What a joke. Sadly a joke that continues to be played on many of those who love liberty and see no other alternative within the political process. For those of you who are putting all your hopes in putting the Republicans in charge, that they are the best or only chance for turning things around and restoring the republic, you are fools. The Republican “establishment” (a myth) is not going to change, as an opposition party Republicans are a mockery. Both parties are responsible for our negative trends and neither are going to do anything substantial to change it and reduce their power. If Republican behavior over the last twenty-five years hasn’t opened your eyes to that fact, you are just as bad as the kool-aid drinkers who follow the communist Democrats.
You need to understand that a republic will only survive if two of its pillars remain intact. One is the integrity of the system and the other is the wisdom and courage of its people. Notice I did not say that the republic was dependent upon the people elected to “serve.” Another joke, one the founders, perhaps the most virtuous group of men ever to lead a nation, did not believe it. Those who seek power do not do so for altruistic reasons. Ninety-nine percent of those who do are rarely the best and brightest and are the type of people who, at best, think they know how to run everyone’s lives most effectively, and at worst are without conscience, accumulating power for its own sake and for their own benefit. Bottom line, assume that those in power are corrupt, soulless tyrants just as the founders did.
What keeps such men in check? The people and their fidelity to the system. We have all heard the quote “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is not power itself that corrupts, however. It is power that is wielded without accountability. If those in power can do anything they want and know they will suffer no negative consequences, of course they will act as despots. We have seen this for decades, perhaps since the days of Andrew Jackson, but it has become so blatant under Barack Obama that we have become a caricature of a “banana republic.” While those in power will often seek to act tyrannically “under the radar”, president Obama has been clear in both his statements and actions that he has contempt for any restraints on his exercise of power. For this he was re-elected. This will do nothing but encourage him to act “with more flexibility” in his second term.
Accountability results from two things. First, is the “balance of power” in which each branch of government is a check on the others. The jealous self interest that is supposed to incentivize the check will work until the branches realize their collusion will enhance everyone’s power. That is where we are (and have been for a long time). The only time anyone is held accountable in government is when an individual refuses to “play the game.” Not only can they ignore the clear limits placed on them by the Constitution, they bend and ignore their own rules and laws with impunity. Even when their corruption or gross dereliction of duty leads to the death of American citizens, no one is held accountable, no one is impeached, no one goes on trial, no one goes to jail. Even resignations are rare these days. Bureaucrats are shuffled around and bribed to keep them quiet. Ethics committees rarely hand down meaningless censures. The parties, particularly the Democrats, rally behind their own, making excuses and elevating vices to virtues. Consequently, every year the corruption gets worse.
The second method of accountability is the electoral process. This depends on the wisdom, virtue and courage of the people who cast their votes to reward good behavior among their leaders and punish the bad. This requires several things. First , the people must have an understanding of our constitutional system and the responsibilities of both themselves and their government within its framework. Second, they must value those responsibilities. Finally, they must have the knowledge, wisdom and discernment to understand the issues within the constitutional system and our paradigm of American values, including individual liberty and responsibility.
This election conclusively demonstrated that the majority of our fellow citizens are ignorant, lazy and immoral, products of generations of government education, media bias and political deception. They do not understand the concept of liberty and responsibility, our system of government and its moral and constitutional limitations. They believe totalitarian regulation of their lives is not only acceptable but beneficial. They embrace life lived at the expense of their fellows. They think redistribution, reparations and socialism are American values. They don’t believe we are exceptional in the world of nations or care about the rise of murderous totalitarianism in the world absent any meaningful check. They think liberty is equivalent to consumerism, freedom only involves one thousand channels of mindless television, access to the latest I-pad and choosing between McDonalds and Burger King. They contribute nothing and think they are entitled to everything. As long as they don’t have to work too hard or suffer too much, that is not going to change. They are going to continue to vote to receive more of the same and now they are the majority determining the direction of the country and the limits of everyone’s liberty and opportunity. Add amnesty and legal voting rights for tens of millions of illegal immigrants and our country’s demographics will never support a return to liberty.
Even if the ignorant, lazy and immoral were not a majority, the system must work for those who desire to express their fidelity to limited, constitutional government and liberty. We cannot honestly say this is the case any more. We have already seen that politicians and bureaucrats are not going to hold one another accountable. However, our individual or corporate ability to make an impact through the electoral process is severely curtailed. First, most of the time we have a choice between the “lesser of two evils” because the parties exercise prodigious control over access to the electoral process. They share power and are not willing to let any other players in the game. They lie without thought or comsequence. They cheat and steal elections with impunity. Again, no one goes to jail, no one resigns, no elections are overturned even when fraud is rampant and unquestioned. When precincts turn out 99% or even 100% for one candidate, when more people vote than are registered or even eligible, when hundreds of ballots simply show up during recounts, when electronic machines miscount or malfunction, when military ballots or others are nullified or when ineligible people are allowed to vote, our ability to make an impact is annulled. Not only are our votes cancelled out by the ignorant and purchased but in some, or many cases, they are not counted at all.
When we cannot count on our leaders, our system of laws or our fellow citizens to value and protect our liberty, rights and humanity where do we turn, what do we do? Do we just get the country we deserve even though we didn’t vote for it? Are we condemned to suffer the consequences of an increasingly immoral and irresponsible society? Do we continue to fight a losing battle, pinning our hopes on a corrupt political process, celebrating small victories amidst the totalitarian flood? Do we look for somewhere else in shrinking world soon to be subject to the dictates of a corrupt United Nations once the United States surrenders her sovereignty, wealth and power?
Our problem is this-we have been duped into believing that our liberty, rights and humanity depend on our politicians, the law or the majority of our fellow men. “The exercise of our God-given natural rights should not, indeed it cannot, depend on the good will of the powerful or the erudition and courage of our fellow man. Just because the vast majority choose to live in meek, subservient ignorance is no reason for you or I to suffer the indignity of slavery.” (from American Revolution; A Philosophical and Practical Guide www.patricsamuels.com ) In this election we may have lost our country but that doesn’t mean we must lose our liberty. No election, no politician, no illegitimate law has the moral right to take your liberty from you. Your liberty is only lost when you choose to relinquish it, when you decide that the price for exercising your rights to life, liberty and property is too high. Your liberty is, after all, only worth the price you or I are willing to pay.
What we all now need to realize is this; once a hyper-regulatory totalitarian state is firmly established and the ignorant majority of the people accept theft and government intrusion as normal and beneficial, it will not be reversed through the electoral process. Too many have a vested interest in perpetuating it. The moochers and the looters will never vote to reduce government and its benefits. No politician will get elected promising to reduce redistributive payments. Listen very closely. No nation in history has ever reversed this trend and restored lost liberties and rights peacefully, the state will not allow it. Once we understand this fact we can begin to devise strategies that will actually have an impact.
Everything needs to be on the table; civil disobedience, revolution, secession. Radical actions, certainly. Scary, uncharted territory for most of us traditionally conservative, law abiding citizens. But it is clear that our liberty will not be restored through conservative, legal means. The electoral process and the courts are lost to us. If we do nothing and we avoid total fiscal disaster (impossible) the best we and our children can hope for is to live a highly regulated, unimaginative life on the edge of poverty without hope for advancement. At worst, due to modern technology, we will see a brutal and efficient totalitarianism only dreamed of by Hitler and Stalin.
It is time to say NO MORE! I say that not as a meaningless platitude but as an attitude adjustment, the first step toward recovering that which is denied us by our government. Then take responsibility for your own physical and financial well being. Make preparations for financial collapse and civil unrest. Take positive actions to deny our government’s control over our lives. Cement relationships among friends and family, people you know you can trust. If you want specifics, get a copy of “American Revolution; A Philosophical and Practical Guide” as well as the books mentioned in the back. Study the original American Revolution. We all need knowledge but we need to act on that knowledge. Without action, we are merely educated slaves. Without knowledge, our actions will be ineffective flailing. Neither will restore our liberty. The world we will live in will be the result of today’s choices. Not the choices our neighbors or government impose upon us but the ones we are willing to sacrifice for.
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