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.)