At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
-Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838, Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
Don’t worry – this isn’t another article on the ancient Mayan calendar ending next year and a possible worldwide apocalypse, although I fear that the events in the next 16 months might test the unity of our Republic and our very way of life. When I was an undergraduate student in 1979, I was also very concerned with the future of our Republic, partly because of the deep recession of the late seventies, but mostly because of the great threat posed from the Soviet Union and our postVietnamera military weakness. Today it is a much different and much more dangerous threat; this time, the threat comes from within. The government is marginalizing our liberties, and our faith in our governmental institutions has fallen to an historic low.
A recent Rasmussen poll shows that just 17% of Americans believe that theU.S.government has the consent of the governed, which is astonishing. The Congressional approval rating in that same poll is at an historic low of 6%. Pat Caddell, a Democratic pollster who has worked for President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Joe Biden, has said that these results indicate that the American public is in a “pre-revolutionary” stage. Caddell has been a huge critic of both his Democratic party and the GOP for several years now, and says that Americans are on the verge of rising up against a system they have lost trust in. Last November, he remarked that “a sea of anger is churning” among Americans who want to take their country back. He also stated these feelings are not just partisan rhetoric.
Is the federal government viewed as a threat to Americans’ freedom?
It isn’t just polling by Rasmussen that’s showing an historic shift of attitudes toward the federal government; a Gallop Poll published on September 26 shows more shocking results. It asked whether the federal government poses an immediate threat to individuals’ rights and freedoms. The answer was a shocking 49% – a new high since the question was first posed in 2003. The partisan figures broke down as follows: 61% identified themselves as Republican supporters, 28% as Democratic supporters, and surprisingly (in my opinion) 57% as independents.
All levels of government are losing respect among voters, especially the federal government. This shift has been slowly occurring since the Vietnam era and the Watergate scandal of the 1970’s, and has accelerated over the last few years with the backhanded deals pushing through “Obamacare,” the exponential increase in “Crony Capitalism” through bailouts of the financial and auto industries by both parties, and the recent “good old boy” bailouts of companies that have ties to top donors of this administration and to members of Congress.
In my lifetime, I have never seen the polarization of opinion that has arisen lately.
I am heartened by the rise of Libertarian thought and a genuine hunger to return to Constitutional government. More young people, as well as the older portion of our population, who once accepted the Progressive philosophy of an all-powerful central government exceeding the Constitutional limits set forth by the founders, are now waking up and embracing and the original intent of the founding generation. They are realizing that the Progressives’ dismantling of the Constitution for almost a century must not only be stopped, but reversed.
Opposing this rebirth of Constitutional limited government are the Progressives, along with their Marxist-Socialist allies in the Democratic Party, and Statists, along with their Neo-Con Establishment in the Republican Party.
The Statists want to preserve the status quo, hoping they can appease Tea Party and Libertarian groups. They want to use them to regain power while giving lip service to promises of smaller government and doing absolutely nothing to achieve it. If establishment GOP candidates win the White House and Senate, they will quickly dump the Tea Party and isolate any Tea Party members of Congress. There is an on-going campaign stoked by the GOP hierarchy to marginalize non-establishment presidential candidates – this campaign started against Ron Paul and has now shifted to Herman Cain. An election of a Statist Republican candidate will give us the status quo of big government, bequeathing our children an enormous debt and therefore, economic slavery.
Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922. a socialist turned Fascist he was supported by many Crony Capitalists
The Democratic Party is slowly being devoured by the Marxists and Socialists in their ranks. The Democratic Party is no longer the party of FDR, JFK or even Hubert Humphrey. The Progressives are using radical fringe groups to stir up those who they have made dependent on government in order to support their agenda of maintaining control. Unions and special interest groups such as the SEIU, AFL-CIO, Code Pink and others, are getting in our faces and taking to the streets. The recent occupation of the Wisconsin Capital building was the start of things to come. The Democratic Party establishment thinks it is in control of these groups, but just like a frog in a pan of slowly heated water, does not realize it will be burned alive. The collation of Crony Capitalists who despise the free market, their Progressive apologists and mainstream media lackeys do not realize that they are being used. The radical left will end up tossing them aside. As with other periods of economic turmoil, the elite think they can control and use radical elements to further their political ambitions, and this always ends up with disastrous results. Two examples of this can be seen in the first half of the last century – the industrialists in the 1920’s and 1930’s inItalyandGermanysupported Mussolini and Hitler, respectively to bring “order”. As history shows, the Crony Capitalists who made deals with the Fascists and National Socialists and thought they could control them were disastrously mistaken.
The President and his Progressive supporters will use identity politics and class warfare to polarize the electorate in hopes of regaining reelection. If the economy continues to stagnate or worsen, the radical fringe elements that support this administration will call for greater action. Former Obama Green Jobs Czar and self-proclaimed Communist, Van Jones, has said recently in a speech that the President needs to be pushed to do the right thing. One just has to look across the Atlantic to see what’s coming – look at the recent riots in theUnited Kingdom and Greece.
The left has branded the Tea Party and those who respect the Constitution as racists and Fascists and will employ any trick they can, including using their mainstream media allies, to convey this lie. We should not give them any opportunity to do this by our words or actions. We should stand strong for our Constitutional principles without resorting to violence of any kind; remember that truth is on our side. We must take our country back by our vote, our activism and ideas. If a major crisis occurs in the future, we must be the light to lead our country back to its founding principles. We must be like the early Christians who gained followers and strength by leading their lives through example, not the sword. Let us return to the Constitutional values of freedom that were codified in the Constitutional convention of 1787 and not the Progressive revolutions of the last century. As Abraham Lincoln stated in his quote listed at the beginning of this article: “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Just my opinion – D. B.
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