The Gentle Snowflake-Cupcake Rant

     Finally, finally, finally the 2016 Presidential election is over and, of course, “The Donald” emerged victorious.  Mr. Trump is now officially and formally President Elect Trump.  Republicans, Conservatives, and untold numbers of Independents are decidedly pleased and many are absolutely gloating over this unexpected result.  The “pollsters”, pundits, and mainstream media types are dazed, confused, and literally mortified.  How could they have got it so wrong?  Who will ever trust their judgement and so-called expertise ever again?  If you remember, right up until about nine o’clock on election-day the “smart money” was predicting Hillary by a landslide.  Additionally, we must not forget that so-called, “hidden vote.”  You know, all those folks who swore they’d never vote for Trump – never – but once in the privacy of the voting booth, they did so.  Apparently, there were millions of them.  This loud, brash, pugnacious, and oh so politically incorrect “outsider” surprised and stunned the nation.  Our Founding Fathers would have thoroughly and heartily approved.  You see, in their view politics was never supposed to be a life-long profession.  Citizens would spend their lives toiling and laboring away at their chosen vocations and might spend a term or two serving their nation.  When their political stint came to an end, back they would go to the private sector to resume their normal lives, duties, and responsibilities.

     Trump is cut from the same mold.  After spending his entire life competing successfully in our free market system, the man looked around at the state of affairs existing in our country and decided to get involved.  Think back to that day in 2015 when he announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the Presidency.  He was universally mocked, ridiculed, and caricatured by virtually everyone from the pundits on down.  No one took the guy seriously.  His rivals in the Republican primaries felt he was at best an oddity and at worst a bad joke told in poor taste.  The Democrats and especially the feared and loathsome Clinton Machine “poo-pooed” him as a guy with too much money and time on his hands who was simply looking for a new hobby with which to amuse himself.  His Republican rivals violated the very first rule of combat – never, ever underestimate a possible adversary or enemy especially one who has proven to be immensely successful in the real world.  Well, when the dust settled and the smoke cleared Trump was the only Republican left standing and became, of course, the party’s nominee.  This gave rise to a new political phenomenon among the Republican elites-insiders: the Never Trump Movement.  The members of the “CLUB” just weren’t having this newcomer – no way, no how.  He hadn’t paid his dues.  He hadn’t come up through the ranks. And he certainly hadn’t kissed the right asses!  Not just a few of them, if memory serves, said they’d vote for Hillary rather than cast a ballot for the upstart.

     On the other side of the aisle, of course, the Democrats were absolutely jubilant.  They simply could not contain their glee.  It was assumed from the get-go that the next President of the United States would be a washed-out, dried up old hag named Hillary.  Of this there was no doubt.  Hillary, Bill, and the Clinton Crime Family Foundation were a lock and Man did the money come flowing in – rivers of the stuff!  Her “pay-to-play” antics as Secretary of State would pale into insignificance compared to the influence she could peddle as Madame President.  The Clintons were literally drooling with greedy, glutinous anticipation!  The Talking Heads in the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and the so-called “press” – both print and electronic – became nothing more than shills and “butt-boys” for the Pant-Suit-In-Chief wannabe.  Finally, after enduring the pain and embarrassment of a marriage that was never more than a business arrangement she would be rewarded big time!  At long last, she could put the scandals and the womanizing of her philandering dog of a husband behind her.  After all, she would soon become the most powerful woman on the entire damned planet! 

     Forget about all the shame, embarrassment, and humiliation of her marriage that really wasn’t.  Forget about that saxophone-playing, hillbilly-redneck from Butt-Fuck, Arkansas!  The country and the world would soon be at her feet and she would not merely be inaugurated in January of 2017, she’d be coronated!  After all, it was no more than her due.  She and her Democrat buddies made the same mistake that Trump’s Republican primary rivals committed.  She underestimated the novice politician and couldn’t bring herself to take him seriously.  Her advisers and allies in the biased media also misread the Republican nominee.  They tried to pigeon-hole Trump into the same political mold from which they were cut.  Unfortunately for them, he does not fit that mold.  He was their so-called Monkey-in-the-Wrench.  He was that sinking curve ball when all they could hit was a chest-high fast ball with nothing on it.  Hillary and the “Dems” simply did not know what to make of this guy and they certainly didn’t know how to handle him.  Instead, Trump handled them.  He out campaigned the heir apparent in every way imaginable.  He faced a decidedly hostile media which treated him at best unfairly and unobjectively.  They threw away even the slightest pretense of reporting the events of the day but instead shamelessly prostituted-prostrated themselves at the throne of the Ice Queen.  So, what did Trump do?  He did the same exact thing that Ronaldus Maximus did in the 1980’s.  He ignored the press, went right over their heads, and took his case directly to the American people.  You remember all those “tweets” and his expert use of the so-called social media?  The man is a brilliant communicator and just as importantly, knows how to read his audience.

     Well, it’s all over now and has been for a number of weeks.  We all know that.  It’s a done deal.  Kaput, finished, through.  Our President-Elect is now involved in putting together his cabinet to help him implement the promises he made to the electorate.  The Executive Branch, I’m told, will have to hire over four thousand employees to keep things running smoothly once the transition takes place.  All president elects are faced with this challenge and it is, therefore, nothing unusual.  It’s routine, normal, and it’s been going on for over two hundred years.  All of us have lived through this process and all of us, of course, have lived through elections in which we’ve been pleased by the outcome and, conversely, have been terribly upset by the results depending on which horse we backed.  This too is nothing at all unusual or surprising.  I distinctly remember how terribly disappointed I was when old William Jefferson was twice elected.  I was distressed.  I was miffed.  I was angry.  And the next day, the alarm went off and I got up and went to work.

     In 2008, I was utterly convinced that Barry Boy didn’t have a chance at winning the Presidency.  I was obviously wrong.  I remember going to the gym and beating the living shit out of the heavy bag to vent my frustration and then got on with my life.  In 2012, after four disastrous years of Obama and his pledge to fundamentally transform our country, I knew in my heart that the “Brother” could never win a second term.  Remind me never to bet any sizable amounts on my election picks!  I coped with the outcome, vented a little bit, and moved on.  I’m sure we’ve all been through this depending on party affiliation, personal preferences, and who we felt would be better at steering our ship of state through troubled waters.  We’ve all lost at times and moved right along.  We’ve all won at times  and moved right along.  Sometimes we did so happily and at other times – well, not so much.  Now that Trump has emerged victorious, we should expect the same or at least similar attitudes to prevail.  The family squabble is over and it’s time to go on about our business.  It’s time to lick whatever wounds have been opened by this admittedly contentious election.  It’s time to come together once again and unite as Americans who are proud of our past and confident in our future.  We must never forget that this election, no matter how hotly contested, is yet another brilliant example of American Exceptionalism.

     We were literally the first nation in history that devised a Constitution that allowed for the peaceful transition of power.  None of us must ever forget that unique and special lesson.  Prior to 1776, and in far too much of the world today, when elections are this hotly contested we see rivers of blood running in the streets, mass graves, torture, mayhem, rioting, and bedlam.  Look to Africa, the Middle East, or Latin America if you have any doubts here.  It was the new United States of America that once again threw off the shackles of the past and set the example – the benchmark – for the rest of the world to follow if it only would.  This is but one more example of America’s gift to humanity but sadly, most Americans are pathetically ignorant of their own history and our historic role on the world stage.  It appears that far, far too many of those who championed HRC’s bid for the Presidency will not and cannot let go and accept the fact that they lost.  It’s a fact of life, the contest is over, they fought hard, and they freaking LOST!  What’s the old expression?  Oh yeah, Shit Happens!  Your side won’t always win and, in fact, there will always be winners and losers in our system.  We have a very competitive political system and competition dictates that someone will always win and therefore by definition someone will always lose.  It’s a given.  It’s an unavoidable and immutable fact of life.  Competition has come in a very real sense come to define us as a people and a nation and it’s a very cornerstone of America’s heritage and tradition.  Without competition in all fields of life and in every facet of endeavor, progress as we have come to define it simply isn’t possible.  Without competition, we as individuals and as a nation stagnate and atrophy.

     Far too many of our fellow citizens, however, eschew the very concept of competition or the fact that it is healthy, necessary, fulfilling, and meaningful.  Competition is the cause of all advancement in this country on any level you can imagine.  It causes us to strive, to struggle, and to succeed.  If at times we fail – as will always happen – competition allows us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, learn from our mistakes, and jump right back into the fray.  Yes indeed, competition can be painful and it can be a very, very messy affair but in the end it makes us better both as individuals and as a nation.  Look at the progress we as a country have made in our relatively short tenure as a national entity.  No country can hold the proverbial candle to us in any meaningful way by any meaningful measure.  That’s what competition has done for us and if we ever lose that competitive edge, we will have lost a defining element of what has made our country so great.  Unfortunately, even tragically, there exists among us an entire segment of our population that simply cannot handle or deal with the rigors and results of competition.  These folks have been taught, brainwashed if you will, that competition in our society must be rooted out and destroyed.  They have been taught that competition simply has no place in our enlightened and “wussified” 21^st Century America.  Competition represents the old order, an outdated mode of thinking, and an antiquated construct that simply must be done away with.  This, sadly, is what our young folks are being taught literally from the time they have learned to walk.  Our young people have been fed a constant diet of anti-Capitalism, anti-Americanism, and anti-competition from pre-K right up on through college and university.  By the time they become young adults, whatever competitive spirit they may have once had has been overcome, vanquished, and sacrificed on the altar of equality, fairness, and “Kumbayah.”

     You think this is an exaggeration or perhaps something of an hysterical overstatement?  Think again.  Look at what’s going on in our schools all over the country.  Games that were once considered normal and healthy when many of us were young can no longer be found in the school yard.  I give you as but one example that old favorite, Dodge Ball.  Remember that one?  Sure you do.  If you got nailed by that ball – and boy, could that sting - you were OUT and had to go sit on the side-line while the game played on.  Remember how the game ended?  That’s right, one side was completely vanquished.  All their players were hit by that ball until there was no one left standing.  They were the LOSERS and the other team was the VICTOR!  No more.  You see, the losers might leave the game with hurt feelings, bruised egos, and shattered self-esteem.  Well, we simply can’t have that now can we?  Children must be protected, coddled, and pampered lest their feelings get hurt.  You try and find a game of Dodge Ball today and let me know how that goes.  We are not allowing kids today to experience the “agony of defeat” and are depriving them of one of life’s most valuable lessons:  how to lose and then learn from it.  Those who don’t learn this lesson will be at a decided disadvantage as they move into adulthood.

     The same attitude can be seen in the precipitous decline of another old playground favorite – the game of tag.  Remember playing that game all those years ago?  It personified the concept of competition and everyone who participated knew that there would be winners and losers and we were taught to deal with it, accept it, and move on.  In other words, we were taught how to handle life’s ups and downs, life’s victories and defeats, without damaging our delicate and fragile psyches.  We were taught to be strong, tough, and resilient.  In fact, one of the worst things that could be attached to someone all those years ago was the opprobrium of, “Sore Loser.”  That was something to be avoided at all costs.  To be perceived as a sore loser was to be stigmatized, ostracized, and ridiculed.  This is no longer the case for we are moving to a future where there are no winners and therefore, of course, no losers.  I’m sure you’ve noticed the fairly recent trend in which all participants receive trophies for, well, just showing up.  First, second, and third place have been sacrificed to the very dangerous concept of Political Correctness which dictates that no one must walk away with hurt feelings.  Everyone must walk away feeling like a winner even if they don’t deserve it.  This, folks, is dangerous because it means that as a society we are no longer preparing our young ones to face life’s realities and disappointments.  We are turning our young folks into a generation of emotional cripples who are simply not ready or able to deal with adulthood.

     What’s all this have to do with Donald trump’s victory on November 8^th?  Absolutely everything.  Have you noticed the reaction to Hillary’s loss on our college and university campuses since the election?  Have you digested how utterly unhinged, discombobulated, and hysterical students at some of our most prestigious and revered halls of higher education have become?  It’s absolutely and thoroughly disgusting, pathetic, and does not bode well for our country’s future.  America and Americans have always been characterized by an inner toughness, fortitude, and resolve.  We have since our inception been known as problem solvers, as people who let no obstacle stand in our way.  Our pragmatism and practicality has been an American standard and hallmark for as long as there has been an America.  Those folks who have been fortunate enough to attend our institutions of higher learning have always produced a disproportionate number of our nation’s future leaders who could be relied upon to take the country confidently and optimistically into the future.

     Judging from the reaction of those attending our colleges and universities, we are certainly not producing the next generation of America’s future leaders.  Rather, we seem to be producing a generation of cream-puffs, cry-babies, and spineless and mindless “wussies”.  I have never seen such a pathetic, collective display of utter and total immaturity and infantile behavior exhibited by supposedly rational, highly educated, and reasonable people.  Our young folks have become completely and irrationally unhinged.  They are throwing hissy-fits and temper tantrums.  They are holding their breath and stomping their feet like so many spoiled six year-olds who didn’t get what they wanted from Santa!  Are you aware that some of these institutions cost Mommy and Daddy as much as fifty to sixty thousand dollars per year?  If I were them, the money gets cut off immediately, the little Bastards are forced to come home, get a job,  join the real world and find out what it’s like not to be coddled, cuddled, and catered to.  They’d have to learn real damn quick that whining, sniveling, and crying just don’t cut it in a competitive environment and if you don’t learn to swim, than you’re damned well gonna sink!

     An article entitled, “Scenes From The Liberal Meltdown (http://nypost.com),” is illustrative in this regard.  The author notes that days, “after Donald Trump stunned the world by winning the presidency, liberal America remains in the throes of a massive and emotional meltdown.”  Additionally, “Anti-Trump protests have spread to more cities and continue to turn violent.  In Portland Thursday night, rioters stoned police and vandalized businesses and cars.”  Furthermore, “Anyone who expresses support for Trump has become the target of unrestrained venom: there are calls to boycott New Balance – its sneakers have been publicly burned – because an official said Trump would be better on trade issues.”  Yeah, that’s certainly a justifiable excuse for the destruction of property and placing lives in danger.  Many in the private sector have gone off the deep end because Mr. Trump is going to be our next President.  The CEO of Grubhub, for example, “demanded that employees who agree with Trump resign, because you have no place here.”

     Apparently, if one disagrees politically with the boss then you don’t deserve to be employed.  So much for respecting our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression if you happen to express an unpopular opinion or position.  The author of the piece seems to be especially interested in the reaction to Trump’s victory on college campuses.  He notes that the esteemed University of Michigan, “offered its traumatized students coloring books and Play-Doh to calm them down.”  Coloring books?  Play-Doh?  Are these young folks attending college or are they sniveling, whining, pathetic losers who don’t know how life actually works?  At the University of Kansas, students were reminded that therapy dogs were available so they could cuddle with something warm, fuzzy, and non-judgmental.  Meanwhile, Cornell University, “held a campus-wide cry-in, with officials handing out tissues and hot chocolate.”  I wonder if those little marshmallows were served with the soothing cocoa?  Similarly, “Tufts University offered its devastated students arts and crafts sessions,” while at, “campuses from elite Yale to Connecticut to Iowa and beyond, professors canceled classes and/or exams – either because students asked or because instructors were too distraught to teach.”  The author opines that, “Collegiate sobbing and wailing . . . shouldn’t be tolerated – especially by the parents who are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to pay for it.”

     Yes, indeed.  The parents.  While it is an undeniable truth that as the child grows and matures, the parents have less and less control and influence over the behavior of their progeny.  It is equally true, however, that if they had raised their offspring with an eye toward producing mature, responsible, and reasonable adults-citizens, we would not be witnessing the infantile behavior we see on college campuses all over the country in the wake of Clinton’s defeat.  Well Mom and Dad, I hope you’re proud of the behavior of your little darlings as they rant and rave, fume and fulminate over the fact that they simply can’t handle the vagaries and disappointments that life regularly throws at us.  They weren’t raised right!!  You got that, Mom and Dad?!?  You blew it big time and the country’s going to pay for your failure and your complete parental incompetence.

     I’m willing to bet the entire damned ranch and everything I own that these parents were of the “enlightened” variety who raised their little brats as their friends, buddies, and equals.  That is not what’s been referred to as, “good parenting.” These young ‘uns were raised with no sense of self-discipline, responsibility, or consequences.  You know it’s the old, “if it feels good – do it,” school of raising the kiddies.  Protect and coddle at all costs and never, ever let them be scarred or damaged by life’s inevitable ups and downs.  They must never experience even the mildest form of trauma, disappointment, or angst.  There’s an old adage that well-intentioned but clueless people are some of the most dangerous on the planet.  They have always and inevitably caused far more harm than good but are completely oblivious to the fact that their failure as parents will have far-reaching and devastating consequences on both a personal and national level.  What we’re seeing on our college campuses is merely the tip of the proverbial ice-berg and we all remember the Titanic.  Our so-called best and brightest haven’t been raised or taught to lead.  They have been taught to whine, blubber, and blather.  They are mindless, non-thinking, emotional cripples who simply can’t handle with equanimity anything that doesn’t fit their thoroughly myopic and narrow world view.  Well done, parents, well done indeed!

     A piece entitled, “Who Raised the Snowflake Generation? (http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com),” is particularly useful here.  The article observes that as, “we watch college students melt down over an election, as we watch them regress to infantile states, as we watch them advertise their weakness in the media . . . we naturally want to know who we should blame for the debacle.”  The author continues and points out that there are, “18-year olds (in other words, grown-ass adults) curled up in the fetal position in collegiate safe spaces rocking and crying because their favorite candidate lost an election.”  The article notes that, “this generation of emotionally overwrought children was created by Baby Boomer parents.”  You remember the Baby Boomers?  I sure do since I am of that generation.  They were the folks who cut their political teeth on protesting the Vietnam War, protesting the police, and generally having virtually no respect for authority of any kind.  They have raised their precious cupcakes in their own image and they have done an absolutely bang-up, stellar job of it!  The author queries, “What have you done, parents?  I’m speaking to the parents of the current college-aged child.  What have you done?  Was it the participation trophies?  The helicoptering?  Never letting them lose?  I want to know so that I do not make the same mistake when raising my own young brood.”  Additionally, “Like most things the Boomers unleashed on the world, their millennial children are profoundly despicable, immature, entitled, privileged, volatile, ignorant brats intent on getting their way despite rules, laws, and the rights of others.”  Not exactly a pretty picture, but it’s accurate as Hell.  We are raising a generation with no spine, no guts, no fortitude, and no discipline whatsoever.  God help this country when it’s time for the gentle snowflakes to step up to the plate and lead this country during troubling times.  God help us when these completely useless and pampered cupcakes must deal with our country’s enemies who loathe and despise weakness and will always take advantage of it.  If these weak-kneed, lily-livered, morally deficient, and totally gutless Liberal Pukes are America’s future leaders, we are truly fucked!

     The article asks, “Are you proud yet, Boomers?  Does your heart just sing with joy when you see your little Suzy marching around cities hurling invectives at people who disagree with her politically while spray-painting profanity on private property?  Do you give her an extra cookie when she comes home to your basement each night for being such an impassioned little monster?”  The writer correctly accuses those parents of raising, “a generation of incompetents who can’t build anything, invent anything (except for false narratives and accusations), hold jobs, write decent sentences, or hold debates beyond screaming that you’re a racist at their opponents.  Some of them are even trying to frame innocent people for hate crimes in the name of social justice.  You did this, Mom and Dad.”  Yeah, you parents out there certainly must be bursting with pride as you realize that your little darlings must retreat to “safe spaces” to protect them from any form of speech or ideas that may offend them and cause them to weep hysterically.  Way to go!  It used to be not all that long ago, that the entire purpose of a nation’s educational system was geared toward one thing and one thing only: to prepare the younger generation to become useful, productive, and proud citizens.  Our educational system was designed to produce the next generation of America’s leaders.  It is not supposed to produce an entire generation of simpering, spoiled wimps who completely melt down and implode at even the slightest hint of adversity or even differing points of view, attitudes, and priorities.  Our educational system has obviously failed and failed miserably in this all-important regard.

     A piece entitled, “The Hysteria of Progressive America (http://libertyunyielding.com),” is useful here.  The author observes that, “We have a situation here that doesn’t compute.  A bunch of people – 60+ million at last count – went to the polls and peacefully voted according to due process of law, to elect Donald Trump president of the United States.  These people are now going about their daily business, engaging in no public displays other than maybe wearing a ballcap or a T-shirt, or high-fiving the odd fellow Trump voter here and there.”  In other words, Trump supporters – the winners – behaved normally.  They didn’t in their victory riot, destroy property, or even castigate their political opponents.  They understood that once again the genius of the American political process worked magnificently and proved once more just how much we still owe to our Founding Fathers for the system and indeed the nation they created.  These folks recognized that the elections were fairly and honestly held and that our electors in the Electoral College once again took their duties and responsibilities seriously and acquitted themselves honorably and admirably.

     Unfortunately, this behavior was not replicated by the LOSERS in our most recent Presidential election.  Those on Hillary’s side went completely bat-shit, berserk, and ballistic.  While they may have been pro-Clinton, their attitudes and actions were decidedly anti- and un-American.  They rejected our time-honored and sacred institutions and opted instead for lawlessness and anarchy.  The piece goes on to note that in the, “72 hours since election Day, other people in various parts of America have surged into the streets to shut down traffic, have turned their demonstrations into riots, have attacked people they assumed were Trump voters, have attacked the dogs belonging to Trump voters, have tagged public monuments with slogans like Die White Die, have fabricated fake hate crimes to defame Trump and his supporters, have called for the assassination of Donald Trump, . . . and have defecated on a public sidewalk and smeared a Trump sign with feces.”  Yes, indeed.  Maturity personified.

     Why did the LOSERS react this way?  The answer is not all that difficult to divine.  It’s really rather simple and can be summarized in one word:  Liberalism.  Liberalism is the complete antithesis of everything this nation has come to stand for and represent over the centuries.  Liberals despise this nation as historically founded and presently constituted and their current standard bearer has famously – or infamously – vowed to fundamentally transform our country into something it was never intended to be.  This so-called Lame Duck has plowed through our Constitution like the proverbial hot knife through butter and has ravaged our precious Bill of Rights like that demented bull in the china shop.  Liberals and their totally mindless minions have no appreciation for the greatness that is America and the very concept of American Exceptionalism is just something they absolutely cannot abide.  Whatever they can do to tear our nation down and bring it to its knees is their primary if not exclusive goal.  They are statists, authoritarians, and they loathe the very idea and ideal of a smaller, less intrusive government responsible to the electorate.  The LFE (Liberal Fucking Elite) issue marching orders to their completely brain dead, thoughtless, and brainwashed followers who like good little Storm Troopers do their bidding.

     The Liberals among us completely control our so-called institutions of higher learning and have so indoctrinated their “charges” that those young people are no longer capable of free, independent thinking or critical thought.  They have been trained to do as they are told by their Liberal professors who have successfully turned them into America’s very own home-grown saboteurs.  I am thoroughly convinced that our college students’ last original thought died a death of absolute and horrible loneliness.  Liberalism is America’s number one internal enemy and it is eating away at the very fabric and foundation of what has made America so great.  It is perfectly fitting that those in the LFE are compliant in creating generations of emotional cripples, delicate snowflakes, and inconsolable cupcakes!  The author continues that, “other people have had to seek psychotherapy to cope with the outcome of the election, producing a remarkable upsurge in client applications for practitioners.”  Psychotherapy, indeed.  The piece continues that, “on college campuses across the country, exams and classes have been canceled so that students can grieve, process, and administer self-care over the election of Donald Trump.  Some students have reported being so deeply shaken that they vomited and fell prostrate.  Universities are offering counseling and safe spaces.”  Are you getting all this?  Psychotherapy?  Canceling classes and exams?  Vomiting?  Safe spaces?  All this over the fact that Donald Trump won the election.  These are the people to whom we are entrusting our nation’s future?

     The piece continues that if, “you come from Mars, and all you understood was the difference between having a tantrum and not having a tantrum, you’d recognize that the Trump-haters are the ones having a tantrum.  Trump haters who are not acting out in violent and destructive ways are melting down psychologically, unable to cope with a simple, due-process political event.  This kind of rejectionist, hysterical meltdown is as characteristic of a toddler’s tantrum as is physical acting out.”  Additionally, all of this is, “very different from the way Barack Obama’s opponents reacted to the elections of 2008 and 2012.  Their forebodings about an Obama presidency were deeply felt and clearly articulated, but at no point did the supporters of John McCain or Mitt Romney ever do anything even remotely resembling this mass tantrum.” The author explains that we’re, “seeing something of extraordinary importance: that an awful lot of people who advocate progressivism are not grown-ups who agree to play fair and remain dignified and tolerant.  They literally can’t take it when they don’t get their way.  They become hysterical and unruly.”

     This, of course, is not passion but rather, “uncalibrated childishness.  If something is terribly wrong, you don’t flail around in hysterics.  You take thought, gather courage, plan to right the wrong.  Find allies.  Develop a strategy.  Keep your spirits up. Have a positive goal - and make sure it isn’t about sticking it to anyone else.  Seeking vengeance, while calling it justice, is the surest road to ruin and annihilation.”  This is a very strong sentiment and many at first glance would simply dismiss it as a wild overstatement.  We must not, however, forget that the number one goal of those on the Far Left is exactly that: ruin and annihilation.  This is not mere opinion but rather a clear and explicit statement of fact.  The LFE in our midst wants to destroy our country as it has historically existed.  They want to turn our nation into a utopian, Socialist “paradise”.  They loathe and despise everything about the United States and want to turn us from a nation of limited government in which ultimate power rests with the citizenry into a country in which all power, all authority, and all decision-making resides in the tentacles of a huge, centralized behemoth of a government in which the individual is completely subordinate to the state.  In order to accomplish this goal, it is necessary to create as much mayhem, madness, and chaos as possible.  There must be constant protests, rioting, destruction, and utter mindlessness.  How better to realize this goal than to enlist the aid of our current sad-sack, pathetic, and mindless crop of college and university automatons who are easily led, controlled, and corrupted?

     A piece entitled, “Clinton and the Return of College Crybabies: A CEO’s Musings (http://newbostonpost.com),” offers an interesting perspective here.  The CEO proclaims, “Enter: the tender snowflakes.”  He continues that, “I’m not just talking about college students.  I’m also talking about their pandering, whining, spineless gender studies professors who are ensuring that a generation enters into the real world that can’t cut their own meat without a safe space and a counselor.”  This is merely a continuation of the way these pathetic, gutless, spineless, and overgrown babies were raised.  They were coddled, cushioned, and overly protected at home and that is exactly the way they are treated at university.  Instead of being taught to experience ideas and viewpoints they are opposed to and learn how to react to adversity in a mature and adult-like fashion, the infantilism they grew up with is reinforced and replicated in academe.  How are these pathetic and spoiled young “twits” ever going to take their place as national leaders and policy makers in an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world?  The simple answer is they won’t because they can’t.  They have not been taught to behave like mature adults who are ready to take on life’s responsibilities.  Instead, they have extended their childhood into adulthood and have been allowed to retain childlike attitudes and behaviors for far too long.  This cannot help but do great harm to our nation at a time when we desperately need level-headed and clear-thinking adults at the helm.  Given what’s been going on at our colleges and universities today, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that the nation is indeed facing troubling times.

     The piece continues that apparently, “mommy and daddy, who in many cases are paying for your college education, neglected to tell you that when it comes to this thing called the Presidential Election, nobody cares how you FEEL the next day.”  The writer points out that according to many of our hysterical little cupcakes the views he expresses automatically make him, “sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, xenophobic and a whole slew of other words that make students feel like they got daddy’s money’s worth of school.”  Have you ever noticed that when confronted by people who oppose them, Liberals cannot rationally and reasonably respond but instead engage in irrational name-calling and ad hominem, venomous personal attacks  that have absolutely nothing to do with the issues at hand?  The piece continues that, “Liberals can’t wrap their heads around the fact that political disagreement doesn’t make you a racist.  If anything, it makes those of us who disagree with you and actually listen to your feelings more American than you.”

     Those of us on the Conservative side – you know, the Right side – do listen to those on the Left.  We digest and analyze what they say and do, we assess their behavior and their lack of tolerance for views that differ from their own and shake our heads in disgust.  We wonder how these emotional cripples who can’t even walk a straight line and chew gum at the same time ever got to the point where large swathes of the American people actually take them seriously.  This phenomenon has everything to do with our biased and completely Far Left media that delights in headlining anything and anybody who completely loathes and despises this country.  Anything they can do to paint a negative picture of this country is certainly not beneath them.  The piece goes on to point out that there, “are reports from all over colleges about students who voted for Trump who are in hiding.  They are being shamed . . . But there is something you should know about these students.  They will one day be your bosses.  If, of course, you can get a job.”  That last is a very serious and prescient observation. Are you aware that for approximately a decade, about half of college graduates can’t find employment in their major fields of study?  Talk about a waste of Mommy and Daddy’s money!

     The piece goes on to talk about different groups that voted for Trump even though they weren’t “supposed” to.  The writer addresses his LGBT friends who voted for Trump and explains that, “You’re not just gays.  You’re OUR gays.  And when you were at the polls, you were there as Americans.  You’re our brothers and sisters.  Voting for the Don was a vote against the extremist policies of countries that donated to Hillary Clinton that would choose to throw you off a roof because of who you love.  We will fight for you.  We will stand by you.  Because we’re all Americans.”  We’re all Americans.  That’s not a concept that those on the Far Left can possibly grasp.  You can’t possibly be an American if you don’t stand one hundred percent in lock-step with them.  The author also addresses African-Americans who voted for Trump.  He notes that, “you voted against a party that has told you that you are less of a person for the color of your skin . . . and a party that the pushed our brothers and sisters of color into jobless environments and horrible poverty.  We will fight for you.  We will stand by you.  Again, because we’re all Americans.”

     Do you get it here?  This Trump supporter, this obvious Conservative, couldn’t give a flying rat’s ass what your sexual preferences or your skin color might be.  He cares that you are an American who loves this country, reveres its past and greatness, and wants to see the United States continue to prosper and progress.  Well then, am I saying or inferring that Liberals and Liberalism do not feel this way about our country?  You got that fuckin’ right, Skippy!  He then addresses the spoiled brats who are rampaging through our universities.  The author declares, “Listen, college students.  And let’s be clear.  I’m not talking about the students who are hustling their faces off.  Who are busting their asses.  Who are going to class and working their way through college.  I’m talking to you sniveling, crying, thin-skinned little oversized toddlers who are looking for any excuse to skip class.”  He has a message for these overgrown infants.  His message is simple – they have already failed.  He explains that, “You have failed because you aren’t fighting to preserve a democratic process – you are fighting to destroy it.  You have failed because instead of trying to unite us as a country, you are busy trying to get more Instagram followers by posting pictures of you wearing your Stronger Together shirt while crying.  You have failed because you don’t understand that America didn’t just make a statement – it made a Goddamn roar – that will put America first.  We will put our families first.  Our legal citizens first.  Our healthcare first.  Our faith first.  Our freedom first.”  He further insists, “That doesn’t make us racist or sexist or any other title you want to hit us with in the absence of a strong argument.  That makes us Americans.”  The piece concludes, “But cry on liberal America.  We’ll send you tissues.  You’ll need them as the legacy of your fearless leader is shredded before your very eyes.  We’ll need tissues too – for ours are tears of joy.  And perhaps hopefully, somewhere on the other side of it, we can all come together.  We can stand side by side after Donald Trump has burned the corruption and the anti-American policies to the ground.  We can rebuild with our neighbors. We can rise to new heights and be less divided than we could ever have dreamed of.  Or, perhaps not.”  I am of the “perhaps not” camp.  The Far Left – the Liberals – are not interested in unity, cohesion, or love of country.  They are interested only in division, disunity, and tearing America down!

     An article entitled, “College Crybabies Need Maturity 101 (http://lifezette.com),” also lambasts the behavior exhibited by our young adults fortunate enough to attend our institutions of higher learning.  The author correctly maintains that our crybaby generation has moved from disgusting, maudlin, and infantile behavior into full-blown and undisguised criminality, a refusal to acknowledge that our Frist Amendment doesn’t only apply to them, and a complete inability to deal with adversity without breaking down into full-fledged hissy-fits.  The author explains that the anti-Trumpists out there, “are now mobs destroying public and private property across the country.  The special snowflake temper tantrums are hurting not only innocent citizens, but also police forces who risk their own safety to quell the violence.”  I hope these damned fools are proud of themselves and I certainly hope their loser Mommies and Daddies get the opportunity to witness the mayhem and madness that their spoiled and infantile progeny are inflicting on the rest of us as they watch the evening news.

     The article continues that, “President-Elect Donald Trump’s historic and unexpected win last Tuesday, which trumped protestors’ strident hopes for Hillary Clinton, has exposed a hateful insincerity that’s burning down city blocks from the West to the East – all in love, of course.  But how does destroying a Portland, Oregon, Toyota dealership, for example, have anything to do with loving and wanting to protect one’s country?”  Obviously, the antics of those at the center of the madness we are witnessing has absolutely nothing to do with loving and protecting our country.  It has everything to do with mindless, gutless, and emotional reactions of those who have failed to get their way and have never learned that defeat – losing – is a normal part of life.  These “types” are easily led and controlled and they will blindly follow the marching orders of demagogues who all too easily whip them into blind and violent frenzies.

     The author continues that the, “backlash isn’t just on city streets.  Even college students, who should be adults by now, are behaving as frail, coddled children –or worse, as rioters.  The self-esteemed-based participation trophies that millennials have effortlessly earned for the past 20 years have not prepared them for real life.  In the face of disagreement, they wilt.  A tangible post-election pall hangs in many college hallways.  Students talk about how they slept little or fitfully on election night.  Counselors are on hand to help student bodies cope with the intense feelings of sadness and panic and with the challenging weeks ahead.”  Sadness?  Panic?  These fine young folks are truly and utterly pathetic and the fact that far too many of them will be moving into leadership positions in our country is to say the least just a tad bit unsettling.  If these weak-kneed, lily-livered, emotional cripples are the nation’s future, we as a country are pretty much fucked!  In fact, “some campuses encourage students to bring their pets to class for emotional therapy.  Others are even posting the National Suicide Hotline number in case students or teachers need to talk through their fears and desire to end it all.” 

     Apparently, we have emotional cripples teaching our emotional cripples.  Do you believe this shit?!?  As the article notes, “In many cases, professors aren’t any better behaved than students.  They enable the pouting.  From Berkeley to Yale, professors have canceled classes in the name of helping people recover from the trauma of Trump’s election.  Deans and other faculty are sending emails detailing how to handle students’ fearful emotions gently, with concern and wisdom in the face of such distressing political times.”  Distressing political times?  What’s so damned distressing about the fact the ingenious political system crafted by our Founding Fathers continues to work better than any other system in the history of history?  The only thing that is distressing here is that so many of our fellow citizens don't appreciate it or that it is a defining element of American Exceptionalism.

     An article entitled, “The Liberal Meltdown Marches On Into Oblivion (http://usdefensewatch.com),” sums up the reaction to Trump’s victory by the Liberal Snowflakes among us.  Author Ray Starmann observes that, “It’s day eight of the liberal meltdown in response to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States,” and that, “Across the nation, from San Francisco, to Austin, to Orlando and New York, thousands of college snowflakes, freeze dried hippies, illegal aliens and professional Soros funded anarchists are marching, melting down, marauding and causing general mayhem because one man has been elected President.”  Furthermore, “on the nation’s campuses, liberal college cupcakes are coping with the trauma of a future Trump Presidency by holding cry-ins and hiding out in safe spaces with Play Doh while moronic administrators, aided and abetted by Marxist professors provide therapy dogs and safety pins to a generation of voting adults who are incapable of dealing with anything.”  Furthermore, “For young people raised on the ideology of everyone getting a trophy, the election of Trump over Hillary is as a traumatic event as the death of a parent, or the impact of a great asteroid.”

     The piece notes that from, “Miami to Maryland, high school students walk out of school and join protest marches.  In some cases, the students are being led by activist teachers.  In others, the students have simply taken matters into their own hands.  It is truly a case of the inmates running the asylum.”  Unfortunately, we have far too many inmates running around out there who have absolutely no sense of what they are doing to our country.  These people have been raised, educated, and brainwashed into believing that the United States is inherently evil and not deserving of the power and influence that we wield in the world.  They, following the lead of their Liberal Masters, are perfectly willing to rip America apart in the name of doing business as usual much to the detriment of our nation’s future.

     Here’s a newsflash for you snowflakes and cupcakes out there.  It’s over, done, and through.  Donald Trump will be our next President and it’s time for you to suck it up and move on.  Maybe, just maybe you ought to think about getting off the streets and back into your classrooms and earn the education your parents have paid for.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for you to appreciate what you have and the country that allows you to have it!

Much Luv Y’all and Have a Great Day!

The Fifth Horseman

(Dr. David M. Rich, Ph.D.)  

       

           

                    

The Founding Fathers Would Be Ashamed Of Us Rant

     How many of us ever think about our Founding Fathers?  How many of us ever reflect on their magnificent accomplishments and the supreme sacrifices they made over two centuries ago?  How many modern-day Americans are even the slightest bit grateful or thankful for the gifts of liberty and freedom which they bequeathed to us?  How many Americans alive today ever reflect on names like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John and Sam Adams, or Ben Franklin and George Mason?  These names should be familiar to all Americans regardless of the fact that we have not seen the inside of an American history classroom for decades.  When’s the last time anybody out there took the time to actually read our Declaration of Independence, our magnificent Constitution, and the superbly crafted Bill of Rights?  Who among us can actually explain what is included in the First Amendment, the Second, the Fourth, or the Eighth?  I’ll guarantee you that it amounts to no more than a handful and I find that not only inordinately sad but indescribably tragic.  These men of so long ago vowed (when a vow actually meant something) to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to throw off the shackles of tyranny and establish a new nation dedicated to and predicated upon the concepts of liberty, freedom, self-determination, and self-rule.  We were to be a nation of laws and not merely a nation of men.  We were to be a nation not governed from the top down as had been the case throughout all of recorded history.  Our nation was to be governed from the bottom up where the citizens actually had a say in how they would be governed and who would do the governing.  The new United States of America was dedicated to the proposition that government did the bidding of the people – that government served the people – and not as had always been the case that the people served the government.  For the first time in history, government was held accountable to the people and the concept of limited government was born.

     Ponder that for just a moment – Limited Government.  Today, most folks hear that phrase and yawn.  If you try to explain it or what an absolutely radical concept it was at the time, eyes glaze over, faces go completely blank, and the conversation inevitably switches over to football, baseball, or soccer depending on the time of year.  The history of this great republic is of absolutely no interest to most of our population and that is at the very least troubling in the extreme.  We are becoming a nation without a past and without a memory.  We are becoming a nation completely unfamiliar with the history, institutions, and traditions that made this country the greatest national entity in the history of mankind.  No other country on earth, past or present, can rival the United States in any meaningful way by any meaningful measure.  The very idea of American Exceptionalism has been denied or at the very least completely misconstrued by far too many of our fellow citizens.  Those folks –especially the Liberal Democrats amongst us – believe that we are not exceptional in any manner, shape, or form.  In their minds, we are certainly no better and probably far worse than any other national entity that has come before us.  According to them, there’s nothing special or unique about America or Americans.  Our DNA, our genetic make-up, is the same as any other group of Homo Sapiens that has ever populated the globe.  American human nature reflects the same qualities and characteristics as any other nationality we can think of.  These folks demand to know what’s so special about the United States and ridicule the concept of American Exceptionalism as exceedingly arrogant, pompous, and hubristic.  In other words, they have not even clue number one what the term and concept of American Exceptionalism means and encompasses.

     American Exceptionalism does not refer to biology, chemistry, or physiology.  It has nothing whatsoever to with DNA or genetic make-up.  It has everything to do with the unique form of government created by our Founding Fathers.  We as Americans were indeed the exception to every system of governance that had come before us.  We were the exception to the rule of tyranny and oppression that had been mankind’s lot since at least forever. We, and only we, were the exception to the long-standing rule of the people having absolutely no freedom, no rights, and certainly no choices.  We were the exception to the age-old rule of authoritarian-totalitarian forms of government that had dominated the history of mankind since shortly after our species learned to walk upright and use tools.  American Exceptionalism has everything to do with the concept that government existed to serve the will of the governed and the radical concept that the people have the ability and the obligation to choose their own government and governors.

     When viewed properly and objectively, the concept of American Exceptionalism is real, palpable, and a defining element of who we as a nation are (see the American Exceptionalism Rant of 11/7/11).  How many of you out there know that after our tiny, weak, and upstart nation beat the living shit out of the most powerful empire on earth that George Washington was asked to become America’s first king?  That’s right.  After all the death, bloodshed, carnage, and destruction that was the American Revolution a fairly sizable segment of the American public wanted Washington to become our first king.  Monarchy, after all, was the only form of government that these folks had ever experienced or even heard of.  They were familiar with it, comfortable with it, and even reassured by it.  Mr. Washington’s answer was an absolute and unequivocal, “No!”  He told his fellow Americans that our new nation was, in fact, a radical break with the past.  The United States was a new and different concept and ideal.  We would put the individual above the state and individual rights and freedoms ahead of an all-powerful and all-consuming government presided over by one man whose authority must never be questioned or doubted.  Even after our first president served out his second term and was asked to run for a third, the great man declined the opportunity.  He set the precedent for the for the two-term limit for American presidents that was later enshrined and codified in our Twenty-Second Amendment.  I wonder how many of our modern-day presidents would refuse a chance at a third term if the possibility existed?  Certainly not the current Tyrant Wannabe nor his possible successor, “The Shrieker.”

     The Founders, however, knew full-well that in order to keep our Revolution alive, vibrant, and relevant for future generations of Americans, the citizenry must be ever vigilant, educated, and well-informed.  Those men knew that what they had wrought at such a great cost would wither and die if the populace ever became complacent, lethargic, and neglectful.  Should the American people fail to jealously and vigorously guard and protect our hard fought for and precious rights, liberties, and freedoms we would lose them and once lost, liberty can never be regained.  While our Founders knew and understood this, present-day Americans seem to have developed a collective case of amnesia and I fear it is irreversible.  Not only have we failed to protect the rights, liberties, and freedoms passed down to us, the entire radical and revolutionary concept of a limited government with strictly enumerated powers beyond which it must never go seems to have been lost.  This crucial idea is enshrined in the Tenth Amendment which basically says that the government shall never, ever have more power than was granted to it by our Constitution (see the Tenth Amendment Rant of 9/20/11).  That is simply no longer the case.  Over the decades, our once limited government has become a grotesque, intrusive behemoth that literally attempts to micro-manage each and every aspect of the lives of the citizenry.

     There is absolutely no aspect of life that you can think of into which the federal government’s tentacles don’t reach.  The concept of local autonomy and control has been virtually decimated and destroyed.  The concept of an overly intrusive and all-consuming central government has become the norm and it seems that most Americans are perfectly fine with this state of affairs.  Most folks today are no longer cognizant of the fact that our American Revolution was in large part fought to end the tyranny of BIG GOVERNMET and most of us living today are more than happy to live with the concept of BIG BROTHER!  The geniuses who wrote our Founding Documents all those years ago knew full-well how utterly fragile representative government could be and placed any number of safeguards into our Constitution in order to prevent the new nation from losing sight  of the fact that we were to be a country with a very limited central government.  For this reason, the Founders created three separate but co-equal branches of government:  the Executive Branch; the Legislative Branch; and the Judicial Branch.  I’m sure you remember learning about this all those years ago.

     Additionally, they created a system of checks and balances to ensure that no one branch of government would become more powerful than the other two.  These wise men went even further.  They devised a system in which certain powers were granted only to the national or federal government known as delegated or enumerated powers.  Other powers were granted solely and exclusively to the states known as reserved powers while still others were shared by both the states and the central government known as concurrent powers.  All of this and much more were to insure that our federal or central government never became too intrusive or too powerful.  These men distrusted government – even the one they created.  They absolutely knew that if given the opportunity, government would garner as much power unto itself as it possibly could and the only thing that could prevent it was an ever vigilant populace who valued their freedoms above all else.  They understood human nature only too well and were fully cognizant of the fact that certain men among us would always seek and covet power of the unlimited variety.  They knew this because they had witnessed and experienced it in their own lives.  They knew this because they were students of history and history had always told the story of strong men grabbing the reins of power and holding on until someone stronger came on the scene.  The government they created guarded against this as best it could, but the Founders also understood that in the end it was up to the people of the new nation to keep the dream of the American Revolution alive, vibrant, and meaningful.

        

     And therein lies the fucking rub!  We as a people have failed and we have failed miserably.  The concept of a limited government has been virtually extinguished and has been replaced by what the Founders feared above all else.  Our government today seems far more powerful, intrusive, and arbitrary than the one the colonists rebelled against all those years ago and it is the Executive Branch that has gone completely rogue.  Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. aptly termed it, “The Imperial Presidency,” and quite frankly, it should be more than just a tad obvious to all but the most obtuse among us that presidents like Barack Hussein O don’t want to merely govern but instead want to rule with the proverbial Iron Fist.  Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution mean less than nothing to him and his ilk.  Our Bill of Rights which told the government what it could not and must not do to the American people is seen as nothing more than an obstacle that must be ignored or removed in the constant quest for ever more power and control.

     The American Revolution means less than nothing to these folks in their never-ending quest for more and more centralized control over our nation and its citizens.  These folks are far more comfortable and at ease with the Communist Manifesto than they are with our own Constitution and their heroes are not the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison but rather Stalin, Lenin, and Mao.  They loathe and despise the United States as historically founded and presently constituted and have famously vowed to fundamentally transform America into something it was never meant to be.  Who are these folks? They are the LFE (Liberal Fucking Elite) and are bound and determined to bring this country to its knees.  They loathe and despise our history, institutions, and traditions and view our country as the world’s greatest and most pernicious scourge.  They are the Far Left in America and they reside almost exclusively in the Democrat Party.  In their quest for power, they have undermined, coopted, and subverted all of America’s major institutions.  They completely control our educational system from pre-K right on up through college and university.  They are not in the business of educating our young folks but instead are in the propaganda business and have literally brainwashed our nation’s youth into hating their own country.  The LFE also has a death-grip on our media, both electronic and print, and our entertainment industry is almost completely dominated by those on the Far, Far Left.  Our so-called news outlets are anything but fair and objective – as they should be – but instead have devolved into nothing but screeching shills and fellow travelers for the Liberals in our midst.

    

     This is how far we’ve come and how far we have fallen.  If our Founders could see what has happened to the new nation they created they’d be spinning in their graves at warp speed.  If these extraordinary men could somehow find their way back here, they’d demand a second American Revolution that would restore what they created at such a great cost.  The sacrifices they made were seemingly for naught as we contemplate the fact that what was to be a very limited government in which the ultimate power rests with the people has morphed into a humongous centralized government in which the people are virtually powerless and exist only to serve the needs of a huge, out of control government.  At the Constitutional Convention all those years ago, the founders took a break from their labors.  As Benjamin Franklin emerged from Independence Hall a woman approached him and asked what kind of government he and the other members of the convention were going to give us.  He answered, “A republic, Madame, if you can keep it.”  Much to our shame, we haven’t kept it but instead have given it away.  No foreign enemy has taken it away from us because no foreign enemy is powerful enough to do so.  No, we have voluntarily surrendered our precious rights and liberties because we have utterly and shamelessly failed to protect our rights and freedoms that our forebears fought so long and hard to win for us.  The wonderful and exceptional legacy they bequeathed to us has been squandered, wasted, and sullied.

     A piece entitled, “Prophetic Warnings From America’s Founding Fathers (http://thepublicslate.com),” speaks to the points made above.  The author queries, “Is it possible that the early witnesses of our country’s birth had the insight to look into the future to our day as they provided prophetic warnings of the danger they saw coming?”  The Founders knew that what they had created could all too easily self-destruct if the American population stopped appreciating the unique and exceptional gift that was our new nation.  The article quotes Alexis de Tocqueville who came here from France and wrote his Democracy In America.  In his tome, he recorded certain dangers and vulnerabilities that he saw as possible threats to the new nation.  One of the dangers he identified was that of affluence.  The Frenchman noted that, “When the taste for physical pleasures in such a nation grows more speedily than education or the habit of liberty, a time occurs when men are carried away and lose self-control at the sight of the new possessions they are ready to grasp.  There is no need to wrench their rights from such citizens, they let them slip voluntarily through their fingers.  The exercise of their political duties seems to them a tiresome nuisance.”

     Look around you, folks, and tell me this remark doesn’t apply to current-day America.  Participation in elections at all levels is way down while participation in “entitlement” programs has reached dizzying heights.  We’ve become a nation of “gimme’s” and there is apparently no end to the “hands-out generation’s” thirst to be provided for from cradle to grave.  For generations now, the accumulation of more and more “goodies” seems to have become the top and all-consuming priority of far too many of our fellow citizens.  Even those who are deemed poor in our country are fabulously wealthy compared to the poor in other nations.  It seems that even those in our lowest quintile possess flat screen TV’s, sound systems, micro-wave ovens, a stove, a refrigerator, and even a dishwasher.  We must not, of course, forget the ubiquitous and ever present cell phones, Kindles, I-Phones, and lap top computers that abound in even the poorest of neighborhoods across our country.  This is not poverty.  This can only be described as affluence when measured by global standards.  This kind of affluence, our forefathers warned, could spell the death-knell for our representative republic.  When raw materialism began to outweigh civic duty and responsibility, moral decay creeps in and the body politic is infected with a virtual dry-rot that eats at the very fabric and foundation of American society.

     The author of the piece notes that like a prophet de Tocqueville, “saw past the amazing new adventure in democracy as he visualized its potential disaster.  His ominous, prophetic warnings of a time when the citizens of a free republic may become carried away and lose self-control when the developing taste for physical pleasures overwhelms their commitment to participate in the democratic process.”  Alexis de Tocqueville warned that this constituted a serious threat that citizens of a democracy must constantly guard against.  The author of the piece observes that when, “one considers the anemic participation in most of our recent elections it appears that we have come to the precipice of that peril.”  Indeed, “people seem to be taking for granted what a free society has secured for them and mistakenly think that these thing are guaranteed.  The line between liberty and entitlement is quickly disappearing.”  This foreigner who came here so many years ago to observe this phenomenon, this Great Experiment, was at the very least extremely prescient if not actually prophetic.  He accurately noted that, “a citizenry could become overly concerned about the perks they can receive while forgetting the principles that made the country great.  He feared that voting citizens would begin to elect leaders who would provide these perks.”  The author asks, “Is it possible that America has reached that point as a nation?”  Care to ponder that question for just a moment?

     The Founders of this great nation also warned of conditions under which the new republic could be corrupted and destroyed from within.  They realized, for example, that to veer away from the Constitutional precepts and principles of our Founding could and would prove utterly disastrous.  One of the things that George Washington warned about are what have come to be called Executive Orders which are in reality no more than fiats and edicts.  Do you remember Obama’s threat if Congress failed to pass legislation that he deemed important?  He actually threatened to by-pass Congress and thereby the American people when he reminded us that he’s always got his pen and his phone.  Who needs the will of the governed or our Legislative Branch when our Socialist-in-Chief can sign an executive order that has the force of law?  Thus far, Obama has literally ignored our Constitution purposely, gleefully, and with malice every single time the opportunity has presented itself.  Thankfully, he won’t be around much longer and even more thankfully “The Shrieker” won’t succeed him.  I’m willing to bet the ranch, however, that in his remaining time we’ll see an absolutely dizzying array of Executive Orders emanating from the White House as he prepares to leave office.

     Our first president, “foresaw a time when controlling leaders would bypass the Constitution for the sake of instituting what he called an instrument of good.  He clearly believed and predicted that ignoring the Constitution would be the weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”  The author is absolutely correct here.  Our Constitution is, in fact, the supreme law of the land and without it our nation is akin to a rudderless ship at sea.  Without our Constitution interpreted according to the original intent of the Founders, the magnificent nation they created crumbles and falls.  No building can long stand without a strong and stable foundation and that is exactly what the Constitution provides for our country.  It is the solid bedrock upon which the United States was built and has prospered.  Those who constantly and continually chip away at that foundation are fully cognizant of the damage they are doing and these are the very types against whom the Founders warned.  In his Farewell Address, Washington spoke directly to this point when he said, “If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates.”  He continued and warned, “But let there be no change by usurpations; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”

     Make no mistake here, folks.  Our freedoms and our government are most certainly being destroyed and, unfortunately, the enemy is us.  American citizens on the Far Left have absolutely no respect or reverence for the oldest functioning written Constitution in extant.  They see it only as a product of a past that no longer applies to America in the 21^st Century.  To them, our Founders are no more than a bunch of long dead white guys who have absolutely no meaning in today’s world.  According to the LFE in our midst – who are decidedly anti-America – the Founders, our Founding Documents, and all of the traditions and institutions that made America great must be scrapped and discarded.  They should be completely ignored, distorted, or perverted by our educational system so that our young folks will never be taught the magnificence of their own heritage and birthright.  It is a tragedy of epic proportions for without an America as historically founded and presently constituted, the world will have lost the single greatest force for good in the history of mankind.  The world will become far less stable, far more chaotic and dangerous, and immensely less charitable and humane.  This is exactly and precisely what those on the Far Left in our country demand.  If George Washington could see what we have allowed to happen to the country he was so instrumental in founding, he’d be reduced to a state of tears.

     The same piece referenced above also noted the fears for our nation’s future expressed by the Father of the Constitution.  If James Madison could somehow find his way back here, he’d be both disgusted and nauseated.  He’d realize immediately that the sacrifices endured and experienced by his revolutionary compatriots had all been for naught.  If he could witness the extent to which our limited government has grown, he’d be sickened.  If he could witness how intrusive and grasping the federal government has become, he’d be heart-broken at the way American citizens had forsaken and foresworn their duty and their diligence.  The piece notes that, “James Madison, referring to a bill to subsidize the cod fishing industry in 1792, sounds like he is describing the overreach of the federal government we are witnessing in the twenty-first century.”  Madison warned that if, “Congress can employ money indefinitely, for the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, the establishing in like manner schools throughout the union; they may assume the provision of the poor were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.”  You’ve got to read Madison’s warning one more time and do it slowly.  Talk about prophetic!  Talk about understanding human nature and the nature of government!  Madison knew the dangers and pitfalls that would befall the Republic if the populace failed in their duty to guard against the growth of government.  He absolutely knew and understood that once a people stopped guarding and protecting their rights and freedoms, they would indeed lose them and lose them forever.

     Madison’s dire warning has particular relevance for conditions in our country as they exist today.  Every facet of American life that Madison elucidated has come under the jack-booted control of our completely untethered and unfettered central government.  Look around you and see for yourself.  Under the auspices of the Far Left, for example, Americans are once again getting paid for sitting on their asses and doing nothing but holding out their hands.  Way back during the 1990’s, we went from welfare to, “workfare.”  It used to be that in order to receive what you didn’t earn or deserve, you had to prove that you were at least looking for gainful employment – for some way to improve your condition and become less of a burden to your fellow citizens.  No More!  With the stroke of his infamous pen, Obama permitted the lazy and the slothful among us to continue to be so.  There is no more work requirement and the welfare rolls in this country have sky-rocketed to dangerous levels.  Welfare is now generational and this was something that was never intended.  If a citizen needed a temporary hand-up for a limited period of time then so be it.  We have always been a compassionate and caring people and charity comes naturally and comfortably to us.  Welfare, however, was never intended to become a permanent way of life, but under the Bamster and the Far Left it has become just that.  Madison knew that this could easily happen if the American people lost sight of their Founding and their traditions and unfortunately and tragically, they have.

 

     Care for another example of Madison’s vision?  Certainly.  I give you Obamacare.  Our nation used to have the finest health and healthcare systems on the planet until, of course, the federal government under the Far Left decided to decimate and destroy it.  The unconstitutional Affordable Care Act now controls over one-sixth of the entire American economy.  Once the government controls your health and healthcare, it controls every aspect of your life and I mean that literally.  After all, can you think of any single activity that can’t in some manner be related to your health and healthcare? You can’t, can you?  Going to work can put your health at risk, as can driving your car or riding your bicycle.  Playing football, baseball, dodge ball, or tennis can be dangerous and therefore must be controlled and regulated almost out of existence.  Literally anything you can think of can be related to your health and healthcare and what most dunder-headed Americans don’t seem to realize or appreciate is that the more control the federal government has over the lives and activities of its citizens, the citizens become that much less free, independent, and autonomous.  This is exactly what the LFE amongst us want and need.  They demand a population dependent on government for all of its wants and needs which the government would provide.  This Socialist utopia, however, would come at the cost of freedom and liberty.  All of the Founders knew this and valiantly guarded against it.  Success, however, depended on a population that took freedom and liberty seriously, valued their importance to our very way of life, and did not take them for granted!

     The author of the piece accurately maintains that Madison’s, “powerful statement was prophetically precise.  In his prophetic warning of the danger of subsidizing an industry, Madison is basically asking where the line would be drawn.  He fears that such a policy would lead to government intrusion in religion, the educational system, and the provision for the poor. His concern was over Congress for the general welfare as a way of expanding the overreach of the federal government.”  Anyone out there who takes an honest look at conditions as they exist in America today, can’t help but agree with the concerns Madison expressed.  His vision for America is all but dead and buried.  We have succumbed to the Liberal prescription of how countries and people should be organized and run.  We have come to the point where we more closely resemble socialized Europe than the nation our Founders bequeathed to us.  We have literally betrayed and rejected our Founding, institutions, and traditions and it is no one’s fault but our own.

     It didn’t have to happen.  It was not predestined or preordained.  We let it happen and it may be too late to return to our roots and reclaim our glorious and unique history as an exceptional nation.  The author continued that the, “man often referred to as the father of the Constitution apparently felt that this would lead to a destructive transformation of the constitutional concept of limited government.”  Well, we certainly don’t have that limited government any longer and tragically most Americans alive today have absolutely no idea that the nation was created on the basis of a very limited, non-intrusive, and distant federal government.  Most of us today are more than comfortable with government intrusion into all aspects of life in the United States.  It is the “norm” and the vast majority of citizens have never known anything else.  They are completely unfamiliar with the Founders and their theory of governance.  Our educational system no longer teaches these things or they present them in such a distorted fashion that they have not the slightest resemblance to the truth of American history.  The piece concludes that, “the controversy surrounding the amount of power to be granted to the government is the primary issue in modern American politics.  How much power shall we grant the government to manage the welfare of its citizens?  That is the question that divides the country into liberal and conservative camps.  Madison saw it coming.”

     What Madison saw coming was a sea-change in the nature of the American people.  One of the Founders’ most important and prescient messages was that government was never, ever to be trusted.  The governed must always be suspicious of government – all government at all times.  Government should in fact be feared if it ever became too powerful or too intrusive.  If our population ever became docile, complacent, ignorant, and disinterested, government would pounce like a beast of prey on a defenseless and unwary victim.  If the American people ever let their guard down, the government would literally devour them.  If the governed ever learned to trust government, then our Great Experiment would come crashing down and with it our hard fought for rights and freedoms.  These lessons that the Founders passed down to us have been completely lost, forgotten, and ignored.  Far too many of us have ceased to be concerned over the out of control growth of government and what it means for the future of the country.

     Far too many of us now view government as our friend and protector.  We want government and depend upon it to provide for all of our wants and needs from cradle to grave.  We have given up.  We have surrendered.  We have capitulated.  After all, raising the white flag is far easier and less demanding than vigilance, courage, and fortitude.  Our Founders would be horribly ashamed of what we’ve become.  We no longer value such quintessential American traits and characteristics like rugged individualism and self-reliance.  We have completely trashed and trampled concepts like depending on ourselves for our own happiness, success, and fulfillment.  The vaunted and fabled American Dream has turned into a vivid and horrifying nightmare because we as a nation have abandoned our birthright as proud and free Americans.  Far too many of our fellow citizens no longer have an appreciation for the greatness and goodness that is America.  Almost no Americans value the tremendous sacrifices made by the Founders and others of that generation.  Those that forged and founded our great country would be ashamed of us if they could see what has become of their glorious creation.

     A piece entitled, “Are Our Founders Rolling In Their Graves? (http://www.federalobserver.com),” is relevant here.  The author believes that the Founders are indeed rolling over in their graves and that, “the reason is rooted in shame.  I believe that our founders are deeply ashamed of us, their posterity, for allowing the government they created to become this monster that assumes power it was never intended they possess, and at the same time stripping the people of their God-given rights.”  The writer assumes that we the people have been stripped of our rights while I believe it is we the people who have abandoned and thrown those rights away.  We simply didn’t care enough to cherish and protect them but foolishly presumed that we would always have them.  If something is worth having then it’s certainly worth protecting and, conversely, if it’s not worth protecting then it’s certainly not worth having.  We have become so used to having things handed to us that we don’t appreciate or cherish them but rather we take them for granted.  Once liberty and freedom are taken for granted, they will soon disappear.

     Once the rights and the ascendancy of the individual are no longer valued, a rapacious government will happily move in and assert the ascendancy of an all-intrusive and all-powerful state.  This is inevitable and it is happening in our country right now.  Under the “stewardship” of Obama and the LFE, the state has assumed more and more power over the lives and prospects of the citizenry than it has since we gave old King George the boot all those years ago.  No wonder the author of the piece believes that our Founders would be ashamed of what we have become.  He notes that people, “seem unwilling to accept the fact that our founders entrusted us, the people of this country, with the responsibility of watching over our government.  It was our sacred duty to ensure that it stayed within the limits imposed upon it by the Constitution.”  We have completely abandoned that sacred duty and because of our inattention and neglect, the last eight years has witnessed the expansion of the federal government not seen since FDR’s so-called New Deal.  Under the Obama Monarchy, we have witnessed an abuse of power that would have made old King George literally green with envy.

     The author of the article notes that George Washington once declared that the, “preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”  Perhaps Mr. Washington placed too much faith in the wisdom of the American people.  We have not lived up to the promise that was the American Revolution and we have literally spat upon the supreme sacrifices suffered by those who made it possible.  Indeed, “Sadly, many people today are of the belief that the Constitution no longer holds any relevance.  They are of the opinion that since things have changed in the two hundred plus years since it was ratified, the Constitution is open to broader interpretation.”  Who are those Americans amongst us who believe this kind of pap?  Who are those that want to completely undermine and destroy that which the Founding Fathers created at such a great cost?  Yup, you got it.  Those would be the saboteurs on the Far Left who want to destroy our representative republic and replace it with a statist, top-down, Socialist form of government that ignores the individual rights, freedoms, and liberties that are protected by our Constitution.  These folks just don’t like America and they are bound and determined to rip it apart starting with its very foundations.  They want to completely destroy the very concept of American Exceptionalism which has sustained our nation since its inception.

     If those of the LFE are successful in their never-ending quest to destroy America as historically founded and presently constituted, the world will have suffered a loss from which it will never recover.  The forces of tyranny, despotism, and authoritarianism will be unleashed as never before and the world will become a dark and foreboding place the likes of which we can only imagine.  The author of the piece referenced above notes that Henry Clay explained that the, “Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity – unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.”  Clay had it right.  Our Constitution is the very bed-rock of our nation’s character and foundation.  Without it we are no longer the United States as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.  Samuel Adams agreed and noted all those years ago that the, “liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards, and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.  It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”  OF FALSE AND DESIGNING MEN.  There are no more false and designing men in our nation than those on the Far Left and our Founders would have deemed them just as dangerous as the Red Coats who tried to put down the American Revolution.

     The author of the piece correctly maintains that the United States has veered radically from its original course and that, “the government we have today is far more oppressive than that of King George.  This change did not occur suddenly, or by way of violent usurpation of powers.  No, the steps taken to get us to this point were small, incremental, yet nevertheless designed to place us under the thumb of a tyrannical government.”  Our present-day tyrants are the Far Left Liberals who have never understood or appreciated the utter collective genius of the men who founded this amazing nation.  The statists in our midst want to see the end of the world’s last and best hope and if they succeed, a new Dark Ages will befall the planet that will make the original seem like the Age of Enlightenment.  The article explains that with, “each unconstitutional law our government has passed we have strayed slightly off course.  Each time we failed to heed the advice given us by our founders has caused us to lose our bearings.  Now what we have is a government that regulates, restricts, and taxes almost every aspect of our lives.”  This cannot be denied by anyone possessing the intellect of a half-bright ten year-old.  Even those on the Far Left don’t deny these facts but instead, they gleefully celebrate them for this is exactly and precisely where they have plotted and planned to bring us.

     The election of our current Tyrant Wannabe eight years ago proves this point beyond any shadow of a doubt.  The author continues that what, “is even sadder is that the government, often by popular demand of the people, has been stripping us of the very rights our founders sought to secure for us.  I just can’t understand why people would willingly ask their government to pass laws that limits their freedom.  Even if the people plead ignorance, the fact remains that their ignorance, or apathy is reducing them to slavery.”  Ignorance and apathy describe far too many Americans in the 21^st Century and it seems that there is no end in sight.  Too many of our fellow Americans have been dumbed-down and brainwashed by an educational system that has been completely corrupted and controlled by the LFE in America.  Those graduating from our high schools and colleges have learned to loathe and despise the United States and all that it stands for and represents.  When young citizens no longer know or understand their own history, the nation is doomed – literally doomed.  They have been raised and suckled at the teat of BIG GOVERNMENT which is seemingly growing ever bigger and all-encompassing with every passing year.

     Our Founders warned us about the growth of government and it was Thomas Jefferson who said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”  That’s the whole point here.  Too many of us have come to depend upon government and have completely abandoned even the pretense of rugged individualism and self-reliance.  Those qualities have virtually no place in our socialized and bloated government.  President Ronald Reagan not all that many years ago explained what he called the eleven most dangerous words in the English language which are, “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”  These words are the absolute and utter antithesis of what our Founding Fathers created.  They are anathema to a free and independent people who value and cherish their history and traditions.  The author of the article notes that our, “nation is corrupt, not only morally, but we have corrupted the principles upon which it was founded.  We no longer have a limited government, but a government which we look to for assistance to solve all our problems.”  We depend upon the government to provide us with safety, security, and everything in between.  Remember, folks, Old Ben warned us about this and he was absolutely right.

     Whose fault is it that we have come to this point?  Where does the blame lie?  It lays with us – all of us.  We let it happen by abandoning our history and precious birthright.  We have ignored and denigrated our amazing traditions and institutions that set us aside from and above every other nation that has ever existed and we have done so at our own peril.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.  In the words of one Michael Liu @RepublicanChick, “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.  It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgement to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.  The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America.  Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.  The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is after all, merely a fool.  It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

     Our Founding Fathers would indeed be ashamed of us for what we have allowed their creation to become.  They would be aghast at the way we have discarded First Principles and given up even the pretense of being a free, independent, and autonomous citizenry.  They would be ashamed – and so am I.

Much Luv Y’All and Have a Great Day!

The Fifth Horseman

(Dr. David M. Rich, Ph.D.)