I’m not one to be defeatist, but the closest thought that threatens my optimism is the notion that the American people could potentially fail at the ballot box again in 2012 just as they did in 2008. The outcome of the 2010 elections gives me hope, yet considering that Harry Reid and Lisa Murkowski were reelected to the Senate and that Jerry Brown was elected as Governor of California leaves room for angst about what could go wrong in 2012.
Thomas Jefferson believed strongly that a well informed electorate was necessary in order for our system of government to work properly. He also recognized that there would be times when the citizenry would not be well informed. He wrote:
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty....Many of Jefferson’s statements would be considered radically right wing by today’s liberal standards. In fact, many of our founders’ ideas are attacked regularly by progressives and undermined by President Obama’s policies. The mere thought that people would be in such open opposition to the ideas of our founders would have been political heresy 25 years ago. Today, this opposition is not only open, it is in power.
Our presidential elections are no longer a national referendum on patriotically based competing ideas. They have become an up and down vote on the actual letter and intent of our nation’s very founding. The fact that we are even talking about the possible reelection of a man who has filled his administration with people who think like Van Jones is just bone chilling.
Alexis deTocqueville may have written about tyranny of the majority, but what about tyranny of the minority. How is it that we ended up with ObamaCare against the will of the people? If he was alive today and asked, he would probably observe that the judicial branch would eventually be the check on that tyranny as well in the same way by overturning it (which it is in the process of doing now). But would he or any of the other great analysts of the American democratic experiment ever foresee its demise in the complete and utter collapse of its very underpinnings and the outright ignoring and dismissal of its foundation documents?
World history shows us a disturbing pattern when examining the rise and fall of global super powers. From ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome through the British Empire, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, history is littered with stories of the rise and fall of powerful nations. The only two countries which have not succumbed to this trend are China and The United States (although The United States is showing signs that it’s next).
China is not the best example of a government which values human rights and affords its citizens a wide array of freedom, but it is an example of how a country that remains true to its historical and traditional roots is able to survive for eons in a world as volatile as ours. If America is to survive as long as China has, it too must remain true to its founding values and historical traditions.
America, though, seems more intent on following the model of ancient Rome where the empire grows to the point of complacency and decadence before losing its nature and status. N.S. Gill at About.Com The Fall of Rome writes:
Many say the Fall of Rome was an ongoing process, lasting more than a century. Since Rome still exists, it is argued that it never fell. Some prefer to say that Rome adapted rather than fell.The scariest word in that quote is the word adapted. The Fall of America is an ongoing process, lasting more than a century. Since America will still exist if Obama is reelected to a second term, many will prefer to say that America adapted rather than fell.
The America that adapts will also lose its economic and military superpower nature and status as well. America’s founders loathed tyranny and warned against it emphatically and repeatedly. When historians look back on the 2012 election, will they mark this time in our history as confirmation that 2008 was the time when tyranny triumphed and American exceptionalism died or will they see it as a wake up call which America heeded just in the nick of time?
Liberals and statists think big government is good because it can save us from ourselves by controlling our behavior right down to the french fry we eat or the lightbulb we use. But like chemotherapy, government bureaucracy and nanny state laws make no distinction between bad cells and good cells; nor does statism cure the ill it is designed to stop. It is this scorched earth policy of regulating everything for the good of all that strangles our small businesses and eats away at the dollars we earn and the productivity that allows us to earn them.
Jay Clarke at American Thinker gives more examples of how tyranny has grown under Obama. He writes:
By definition, tyranny is the "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power." Whether it's Congressional oversight, court orders, or the American People, Obama is well-versed in circumventing any authority that may seek to limit his acquisition of power.There are still too many in the electorate who fear the media perpetrated myths and misperceptions of what a deregulated business environment or entitlement reform would look like under a conservative president than fear the reality of skyrocketing unemployment, the destruction of the housing market and the ever growing dependence on foreign oil at the expense of our ability to create jobs, wealth and security by drilling more here at home.
Though unpopular, unwanted, and un-Constitutional, he rammed a $2-trillion healthcare bill down the throats of an unwilling American people and then defied court orders restricting its implementation. He has violated the War Powers Act in Libya and has ignored court orders regarding his moratorium on offshore drilling.
In a move worthy of any would-be tyrant, Obama has proposed illegally requiring businesses competing for government contracts to disclose their political contributions.
Clearly in violation of the 4th Amendment, Obama and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano applaud the TSA's warrantless groping of men, women, children, the elderly, and the infirm during airport screenings that reek of police state tactics.
The Justice Department has gone rogue too, ceasing defense of The Defense of Marriage Act and prosecution of hate crimes when the victims are white. Attorney General Eric Holder refused to prosecute the New Black Panther Party when members brandished clubs, made ethnic slurs, and threatened white voters attempting to enter the polls.
Obama's federal power-grab has expanded into suing and threatening states. He sued Arizona for daring to enforce immigration law and joined a lawsuit against Indiana's defunding of Planned Parenthood. The ATF is pressuring Montana and 7 additional states for passing the Firearms Freedom Act which restricts Federal regulation of firearms made and sold within the states' borders. Obama even threatened to declare the entire state of Texas a "no fly zone" should the Texas legislature criminalize TSA screening procedures.
As a raw, political tactic Obama has refused to secure the southern border while Americans die on American soil at the hands of criminal illegal aliens. Undaunted, lawless Obama used executive powers to enact immigration policies through the back door, bypassing Congress and the rule of law.
When Obama's Cap and Trade carbon-taxing scheme failed in Congress, he simply had the EPA declare carbon to be a toxic pollutant and open to regulation.
Defeating Barack Obama in 2012 should not be viewed as having to chop off our leg to save our body. It should be viewed as making a difficult but rewarding change to American life similar to that of an addict who faces his addiction head on, seeks help and comes out a better more successful person. America can be like Glenn Beck or it can be like John Edwards. It has a choice.
Luckily for America, voting trends show that Americans vote their pocketbooks. In 1992, it was the economy, stupid. In 1980, Americans voted against Jimmy Carter more so than they voted for Reagan during that disastrous economy. What’s puzzling, though, is that the complicit media and uninformed citizens still believe Obama can win in 2012 despite presiding over what appears to be the beginnings of a depression. I share Newt Gingrich’s assessment that we are in a depression. The housing market is worse than it ever was during the great depression and real unemployment is anywhere between 16% - 22% depending on which economist you talk to.
Republicans should use this opportunity to renew and restore its party just as much as our nation has an opportunity to renew and restore itself. If the GOP doesn’t present a gutsy and clear contrast to what Obama stands for, the message will be muddled and the voters will go about the election as if it’s business as usual or become apathetic. It will be important that the Republican nominee articulate the conservative philosophy effectively and renew and restore the party’s platform while exciting the country about solutions that can bring an end to our economic woes.
Despite concerns about the “electability” of some of the candidates, whoever gets the GOP nomination is going to win it because they are the hardest worker, most effective campaigner and has the most energized and enthusiastic base. If It turns out to be someone the establishment is uncomfortable with, too bad. We have had over a century of leadership from elites and establishment types and look at where we are. Returning to business as usual after Obama is out is not going to fix our problems long term.
But, at the same time, regardless of whom the Republicans nominate, if the people don’t recognize Obama’s disastrous presidency as an existential threat to the future of America as we know it, it won’t matter. If Obama gets reelected, you can fold the board up and go home. The game will be over.
The Republicans will not lose the election because of who they nominate. The only way they will lose the election is if the American people allow themselves to be duped again the way they were in 2008. We may wake up the morning after the 2012 election and see Reagan-like electoral numbers or we may wake up the next morning and begin our new lives in a declining European socialist-style democracy, learning to live the way people do now in Greece.
It’s imperative that our electoral strategy should focus on educating the public on the current state of the economy and linking it to Obama’s radical agenda. Republicans should focus on defusing media myths and convincing the public to do their own research. The only way to make this sale is to make sure the American people know that the media lies.
Choosing a strong, energizing and charismatic leader that can bring the Republican Party back in line with its Reagan roots and the basics of Constitutional government is not only key to victory in 2012 but key to long term recovery and return to excellence. In the general election, the stakes will be high. Whoever defeats Obama will have to take on the daunting but feasible task of restoring America.
Ultimately, whoever wins the presidential election is going to win it because America is going to make a final choice as to which direction it wants to go in: Constitutional limited government or big government nanny state. Ronald Reagan said that given the facts the American people will make the right decision every time. Let’s hope he’s still right.
Now let’s talk about Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin Has Walked the hot coals.
We need a time tested warrior to fix our country. Don’t be fooled by the demagoguery that lurks in the Republican Party. Replacing Obama with just another Republican, or a generic Republican as the polls suggest, may end the socialism and reckless spending, but it won’t fix our systemic problems long term. Returning to business as usual means a continuation of crony capitalism – a false brand of capitalism that relies on the lobbying and the legislative process to choose winners and losers based on who you know rather than what you do. Crony capitalism exists under both traditionally Democrat and Republican systems. A truly conservative system with a libertarian flavor almost came into full existence under Ronald Reagan, but was not allowed to take root and grow past the elections of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. We need to pick it up where Reagan left off.
It will take the election of a citizen politician like Sarah Palin who has run businesses, regulatory agencies and governments in order to de-institutionalize all the nonsense we have in our system and re-institutionalize in our culture a sense that governing ourselves from the bottom up rather than the top down is the key to restoring American exceptionalism and to providing a perpetual path for growth for future generations.
It will take someone who has already been battle tested and has who survived the ridicule of the Left and the doubters in the establishment to prove beforehand that they have the courage to flip the tables and upset the apple carts that need to be upset in order to clean house so that a new philosophy and strategy can take root. It will take a spine of steel for our next president to make this happen. We can’t roll the dice on unproven candidates or those who have not walked across the coals already.
If We Fight, The Future is Bright
As we journey toward our future, we take solace in one great notion: socialism and statism is a failure. Under the regulation of liberals, our financial system collapsed and we now head more and more towards government control over our economy. Punishing, over-taxing or over-regulating honest businesses or destroying the capitalist environment in which they flourish is not the answer. If an incompetent, corrupt and insolvent government regulated the private sector into incompetency, corruption and insolvency, what makes anyone think the government is still the solution?
We must remember, many of these banks failed because of government regulation, not because of the lack thereof. Government forced them to write bad loans. We must consider how many businesses fail because they are overly regulated or because they were destroyed by ruinous legal proceedings that occurred in the grey areas and fringes of the regulatory and legal tort system. These are the techniques liberals have been using to encourage the destruction of the capitalist system since the New Deal. They now call on their messiah to finish the job.
Because of capitalism's cyclical nature, recessionary periods are viewed as prime opportunities for the destroyers to come back out of their holes and repeat the same old Keynesian failures of the past. They bring their old style socialism dressed in a new style suit. Once again, they offer no new alternatives, just recycled garbage dressed as something different.
Sarah Palin writes in her latest Facebook post "The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders":
The same “experts” who got us into this mess are now telling us that the only way out of our debt crisis is to “increase revenue,” but not by creating more jobs and therefore a larger tax base; no, they want to “increase revenue” by raising taxes on job creators who are taxed enough already! As Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That’s where we are now. Hard working taxpayers have been big government’s Sugar Daddy for far too long, and now we’re out of sugar. We don’t want big government, we can’t afford it, and we are unwilling to pay for it.The stimulus plan has failed. That flushing sound you heard in 2009 was $800 billion dollars in stimulus money going down the drain. As Mark Levin said on his radio show Friday, we pissed that money away. The next flush you hear are jobs going down the toilet.
Conservatives are optimists. We believe in the American people and confidently await the day they wake up and reject this "Obamanation." We must realize deep down inside that's where we're headed if we don't stop Obama's radical agenda with a positive and courageous message that can capture those who are soon to be disillusioned. We can optimistically tell our fellow country men that there is a correct way to do things, and if we are willing to embrace the correct way of doing things, we once again can rise to the greatness we once were.
The first step is to defeat the media. They lied to us. They gave us Obama. The next step is to be courageous. If we are willing to take the risk to go with a leader who is gutsy enough to take the system apart, renew and restore it, we can win. If we are willing to fight, our future is bright. Sarah Palin is that leader. The new movie, The Undefeated explains why.
Rob Cunningham at American Thinker nails it dead on.
The Undefeated "brilliantly serves as a modern-day case study, and clearly illustrates how our agenda-driven news media, entertainment industry and political power brokers brazenly operate, in plain view and with cold-blooded intentionality, in a tireless attempt to destroy a very decent fellow citizen. When presented with basic facts, Americans will recoil in disgust."Despite our election loss in 2008, we take solace in the words of Ronald Reagan: "Don't get cynical because, look at yourselves and what you were willing to do and recognize that there are millions and millions of Americans out there that want what you want, that want it to be that way, that want it to be a shining city on the hill."
If you don’t listen to anything Sarah Palin says, listen to this one part from her Facebook note. The entire answer, yes the entire solution to our economic problems is in this one paragraph. It not only gives us the answer, it gives us the reason to be optimistic. Remember this line, go to her Facebook Page and study it, and understand why this is exactly what Ronald Reagan meant about unleashing our industrial giant when he give his inauguration speech in 1981. Sarah Palin writes:
Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.It’s time to wake up, America. The binge is over. Had we had the fortitude to go through the shakes and withdrawal symptoms necessary to fix our problem three years ago, we’d be through the worst part of the pain by now. But because we kicked the can down the road, it’s only getting worse. It’s now or never. Fix it or die. The answer is common sense and it’s right in front us.
Go take people who are not yet convinced about Sarah Palin to The Undefeated this Friday. Go online and look up where it’s showing and where you can get tickets. It’s imperative that we convince Americans why Sarah Palin is our next great one and why it’s so important for her to lead us as our president.
This is not a fan club. We’re not campaigning for Sarah Palin because she looks good in a jogging suit on the cover of Newsweek. We’re campaigning for Sarah Palin because our country’s life is on the line. This election is do or die. While there are other good strong conservative candidates out there, Sarah Palin is our best and greatest hope.
" REVIVE-RENEW-RESTORE "
ReplyDeleteI'd fight under that banner !! Go for it !!