“I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.” - Michel de Montaigne
When did obeying the rules become an option? When did the scales of our society tip in favor of those willing to question established law and thought in exchange for self-gratification over those willing to work within such a system for the sheer joy of accomplishment? When did we become so afraid to get our hands dirty? It was probably about the time that fear of getting your hands dirty was classified as a disorder and therefore entitling the afflicted individual to a government provided standard of living three times greater than the one in which the patient was living prior to the onset of such a crippling disorder. If you can sense the sarcasm, it’s because I was laying it on pretty thick. Those blinded by the promises of free stuff are always willing to sacrifice future for enjoyment today. Religion is a perfect example. Faith requires years of discipline and strength whereas denouncing God is now seen as cool and allows for a “fun” life here on earth. When did the idea that questioning God and His Divine Word was a tool of those more intellectually gifted than the lowly “faithful?” If anything, I would call the arrogance of those who publicly mock religion as a tool of the dimwitted. Even if you don’t believe in the version of God that has been allowed to fester in your mind, you have to be able to see the historical evidence that suggests a civilization ends shortly after its belief in God is abandoned. If nothing else, shouldn’t respect dictate that God’s word played a role in the forming of this country? So, what happened to respect? When did everybody become more important than everybody else? The weakest elements of our society seem able to expand with the greatest of ease. We find it entirely too easy to flee from perceived oppression even when the destination of that flight is uncertain at best.
Our founding fathers would not recognize the society present in America today. While many of the advancements would be fascinating to them, the condition of the government they designed would surely bring a tear to their eyes. There would be fleeting seconds when they thought they recognized a certain aspect of today’s legislative process, but then a decision would be handed down to make them shudder. Our founding fathers might even believe that they recognize a few prominent members of today’s government. Could you really blame them for getting Hillary Clinton and Ben Franklin confused? Have you seen the Princess of Pantsuits lately? She literally looks like she took a picture of Mount Rushmore into her makeup artist and said “THAT’S what I want to look like!” Unfortunately, it is with Hillary’s striking resemblance to Ben Franklin that the similarities between today’s government and the one designed by those great men comes to a screeching halt. The Constitution was certainly not written with today’s interpretation and application in mind.
The United States Constitution was written with the idea that it is a living, breathing, and most importantly a growing entity. Written into it’s brilliant structure was the need for flexibility and adaptability. The men who so carefully crafted the document and its place in our government meant for the laws they invented to be adjusted for advancements in technology, medicine, industry, and global infrastructure. It was meant to adjust to the changing needs of freedom and liberty. It was not designed or written so that government could one day assert its own free will on the people over which it presides. Complete government authority is not described in the Constitution. Those who believe such a notion is a good path for the rest of us should be disqualified from leading a government tasked with guiding a country to a Constitutionally described version of liberty. In fact, that’s exactly the kind of control our Constitution was written to defend against.
Why then do we flee? Why do we flee the common sense and wisdom of such a brilliantly conceived notion? It’s not because we’ve outgrown the ideas laid out in her framework. The problem lies in the fact that there are enough people willing to settle for dependence rather than work for independence. In a terrifying article by Alexander Tyler, a Scottish History Professor at the University of Edinburgh in 1887, it is noted that "a democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
Compare that rather bleak history lesson with the realities of the 2008 election. Obama won 19 states to McCain’s 29. Obama won approximately 580,000 square miles of land compared to McCain’s 2,500,000. The murder rate per 100,000 residents in the areas won by Obama was 13:2. For McCain, it was 2:1. This information was given by Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law who goes on to say that “an aggregate map of the area McCain won was mostly land owned by taxpaying citizens of this country. Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."
We’ve allowed ourselves to be ruled where government has no right to rule. We’ve exchanged our dignity so that government can provide us a life free of work. We’ve convinced ourselves that poor and dependent is somehow better than poor and ambitious. Where government sees dependence on something other than itself, it projects a stigma of weakness. Religion is a perfect example. Where babies were once viewed as a blessing, they are now seen as a choice.
The encouraging news is that I’m seeing a groundswell. I’m hearing the footsteps of all those people who foolishly fled to the scale littered with empty promises of “hope and change” in 2008. They’re all stampeding back to this side. Weight is being added back to our side of that social scale. The very emotions and greed that led so many over to the self-serving ideological side in 2008 is the very force propelling their return now. Shame has replaced greed. People are embarrassed that they allowed hype to control them the way it did. Many were lured by the glamorous appeal of the fairy tale itself but have since realized that fairy tales are not what made America great. America is at it’s greatest when applying the lessons learned in times of suffering. America is greatest when rising from the smoldering ashes of our own mistakes. No one can say that the last three and a half years have not been suffered through or that they were not littered with mistakes. Hillary Clinton’s Founding-Father-Figure aside, we have all made glaring mistakes in the past but none have been so egregious as those acts carried out by the ones elected to lead us. The damage done by their perpetuating dependency will take years to undo.
We find ourselves fleeing once more, but this time the destination is certain. Our destination is the pride once felt in simply being an American. Our destination is a version of freedom unidentifiable to His Barackness and his quivering little Press Secretaries. Our destination is a life where quality of work is far more important than size of paycheck; where freedom from debt via legal measures is more honorable than street cred. Our destination is a life where the size of your paycheck is earned by experience as is its expansion. Yes, the destination is certain…..the uncertainty seems to spring from what it is that we’re supposed to be fleeing.
Is it just Obama or is is the suffocating system if entitlement weakening our country by the day? I say both! If they have been successful in bullying us outside the polling stations, why can’t we protest loudly outside the welfare offices. They call us racist for wanting immigration reform, yet refuse to close loopholes giving billions of dollars to illegal immigrants. They’re blatantly choosing votes over future of country. These people must be replaced with common sense. These people simply must be replaced.
I beg of you…..don’t flee. Don’t flee this fight. Stay and welcome back all those lost souls who are now joining us to help load Obama’s belongings into a Chevy Volt in November and send him out of Washington for good.
As always, thanks for playing!
J Robert Giles
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