Civil War or Civil Decline? Can America Save Itself?
So rather than foreign invasion sending our obese population into guerrilla warfare, the current direction of America is best summed up in Other People’s Money: “Down the tubes. Slow but sure.”
The national actors of our political life have no desire or ability to address the cultural and economic problems leading us to ruin. Social Security is a disaster that has passed into the red, but no one dares to touch it. The federal Department of Education has, in thirty years, succeeded primarily in wasting money, but we can’t abolish it, lest the public think we are against education because we abolished an overbearing federal agency that’s wasting tax money rather than solving problems.
Freedoms in America are declining through a process of curtailing existing liberties and creating brand new “freedoms” out of whole cloth. Americans will always claim to be free, but we may only believe we are free because we don’t know what freedom is. Would America’s Founders think we are a free people if they knew that, in the 21st century, Americans are required to report every penny of income earned and its source? Or if they knew that every citizen is required to purchase a product according to the government’s specifications or else pay a fine? Would they think it’s okay that thirteen-year-olds can be transported across state lines to get abortions without parental consent?
The state governments will be little help in reclaiming liberty. When I was running for office in the Republican primary, a Republican stated Medicaid was a good deal for our state because for every dollar we spent, we got three from the federal government — as if those federal dollars were coming from Fairyland.
There is much saber-rattling about the Tenth Amendment, but do state leaders really want the federal government to stay within its constitutional guidelines? Do they want the federal government to stop spending money on building schools, paying for museums, and subsidizing state and city governments so that these governments can take credit for bringing government money back home without actually having to raise taxes to fund popular projects? Those that clamor for states’ rights seek for the federal government to stay within its constitutional bounds only on those issues which the state doesn’t want the federal government to step over the line.
This is the path we’re on: a decreasing amount of opportunity coupled with decreasing personal liberties, with all politicians too self-interested to actually do anything about it. The danger for America is not so much that we will become Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia, or even Chavez’s Venezuela, but that we will become America the ordinary, a nation no different than any other Western nation, with absurd levels of regulation (such as Sweden’s baby naming law) and incentives to live like the government owes you a living. Will we soon walk on eggshells to avoid being dragged before a human rights commission for offending an atheist, a homosexual, or an Islamic fundamentalist?
3. Restoration
This is the hard road. National decline is a tailspin nations don’t usually pull out of. It is not because decline is physically irreversible, but because it requires a mental toughness that nations in decline usually have lost.
The challenge for American conservatives is to confront the crisis that faces us and do it in a way that rallies the American people behind the idea of saving our republic.
While the reasons for hope are few, they do exist. There’s Governor Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) tireless campaign against government spending. They call him Governor Wrecking Ball, and a wrecking ball is what is needed right now against a welfare state so large and onerous that it threatens to destroy American liberty.
There are millions of Americans who are homeschooling their children and teach them traditional American values. They and others are sending their children to schools like Hillsdale College, Liberty University, Regent University, and Patrick Henry College. These schools are preparing their students to be the leaders of America’s renewal.
Two big questions will decide whether these bright spots will be able to push back the dark clouds. First, will we elect statesmen who realize the need to stop our decline, or will we continue to elect politicians content with politically easy half-measures? Second, will Americans who have emerged on the political landscape remain active?
In Blinded by Might, Cal Thomas urged Christians to retreat from the political arena, as twenty-five years of pro-life activism had failed to yield the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Never mind that twenty-five years is hardly yesterday for political movements seeking long-term change.
I’ve been in rooms where 200 people have loudly pledged to stand firm no matter what and then witnessed that number dwindle to a precious few against the withering force of the political left.
The most important question for the future of our nation could be how many folks who’ve entered the political process are here for the long haul, and how many are only Thomas Paine’s “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.”
What would happen if the President and Congress authorized the creation of a para military organization that was funded as well as the US military to control conservative districts?
And what would happen if that approach was heavy handed?
What would happen? Conservative districts would go on strike (or passive resistance). And since conservative districts are NOT relying on the leftist ones (only leftists are dependent on those who feed them!), all those leftist districts and their paramilitary army would starve and be get away with!
I would fear an atmosphere of open rebellion were that to happen. Personally I think we are engaging in movie land fantasy with these scenarios. However whether reality comes to meet fantasy depends in large measure on the next 2 or three election cycles beginning right now for November 2010. We have enough Republicans in the US Senate to force Obama to appoint recess appointments only to the bench. We have enough Republicans now to force every controversial measure to be strictly a partisan enforcement upon the nation. If we can meet the challenge, Obama can become a true lame duck President, fangs removed after November 2010.
If the approach was that heavy handed, the resistance would behave just like the Iraqi or Afghan resistance; IEDs and ambushes. But we will also be inside, causing barracks fires, food poisoning in mess halls, armory explosions and numerous “accidents” happening to the occupiers. It matters not that they be blue helmets or home trained thugs.
Election 2010? Like Nixon said in ’68: “This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.” It does.
The USA either elects a Republican congress in 2010, and a Republican President in 2012 or I really think the USA is locked in to third world status; behind Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea et al…
If the dollar stopped being the “world currency” the USA economy would collapse over night; and the green back would resemble the German Papiermark; which essentially was a non gold standard nothing.
Last first as is my wont.
An American renaissance may happen, but only if non-leftist stay the course and not only retake control of Washington but then de-fund it’s leftist institutions and pass a few Constitutional amendments. Such as clarifying that “Liberty” requires one to own the fruits of one’s labor.. all the fruits. Income redistribution must be outlawed in the Constitution and voting restricted to productive members of society.
Likewise a few amendments need repealing or further clarification. The 16Th need repealed and the IRS eliminated. A free people cannot abide a Gestapo style agency like the IRS and the BATF. To much power.. to much tyranny in those two groups.
However the mushy middle will, I feel, again betray America and soon hand government back to the left. The left controls too much media and the middle is too prone to it’s leftist propaganda after the course of say eight years of non-stop pounding like we just had.
Which brings us to the decline of America, most likely scenario is that this is where we are headed. The few who would actually fight are likely too few to matter, most will accept their leash and live in socialist thrall.
Of course it is quite possible that some/several/many States will declare their freedom from Obamunism. Reject the lefts mandates and taxes and give the boot to the feds agents. Not quite open secession but it will provoke an armed response from the Obamunista’s. And that armed occupation will be contested.
You are right that there will not be defined front lines, well maybe occasionally local ones will develop. At least at the latter stages. It will be more of a “Sons of Liberty” action. A lot depends on how the military comes down in this. But no matter, eventually the left would be defeated as the food , water and electricity is cut off from their cities. After months/years(?) of starvation and depredation upon each other I am sure the minorities, who the left is counting on to fight their battles, in the cities will gladly round up the surviving progressives and hand them over for a restoration of food.
Then I hope justice would be meted to those progressives as they are tried in the Free States of America , convicted, and hung in a public square for treason to the United States.
Which is to say I do not feel a renewed America will happen unless we hit the reset button on our Republic.
Now who has that list of moveon members?
SIGNS OF CIVIL WAR?
November 4, 2008, the day Barack Obama made history and became America’s first black president, saw the uncanny, unprecedented, foreboding convergence of two powerful Republican election cycles that started with the election of two Civil War heroes. Could this be an ominous sign of a coming Civil War caused by the near dictatorial presidency and soft tyranny of Barack Obama and the Dems? I hope not. But given Obama’s reckless determination to implement his socialistic agenda the outcome could be a violent and tragic one reminiscent of Chile 1974 with the downfall of the Marxist senator turned president Salvador Allende.
Google my name ApolloSpeaks (one word on Townhall) and read my piece: Barack Obama, the Great Republican Election Cycles and Signs of Civil War.
Breaking up is hard to do!
Permanent decline is easy. It’s already underway.
Decline unto Mad Max territory will make breaking up easy. Five republics: NE, NW, SW, SE and Midwest.
Restoration? What a joke. By whom? Suntan Beaner? Howdy Doody McConnel? Ryan, the good guy, who has the nutty idea of a two step progressive income tax that breaks at $100K so that no one will have salaries between $99K and $125K, and we’ll be off again on a 60K page exceptions booklet?
These clowns are no better than the Bolshis in the Demogoguic Party.
My Libertarians may have the right answers, but they deliver them in the nuttiest fashion.
Run for the exist ramps. Only Mad Max ahead.
We need bold conservative leadership. It is so painful that we have had 3 terms of Bush since Reagan. Stand up to the Marxist left and a solid majority will fallow you.
“The future may look bleak, but there is hope in the coming crop of conservative leaders who must embrace the Constitution and pull us back from the brink.”
I’m sorry Dude, but this is the same thing we have heard for decades now. No one pays attention to it because without exception all of the elected officials, both parties keep right on screwing the country into the pits.
I’m not sure that there is a correct answer anymore as to how and/or if America can save itself. Can we start somewhere like, “What came before our Constitution and work our way forward through history in baby steps that actually produce something worthwhile?
Okay, let’s start with God. Where do we plug God into the mess that America has made of itself? God was the guide-on and universal standard that Americans of every faith and walk in life accepted from the beginning until the mid 1950s. Now He is gone and everyone is left to his or herself to be the judge of what is right and what is wrong.
Where God used to be the reference for everything, everything now begins and ends with the individual while God takes up space like a shelf decoration or a miniature concrete statue stuck in the mud beside the house.
Someone come up with a solution to answer the question of, “Where is God in all of this crap?” and people might begin to believe that there is a future ahead worth fighting for.
Meantime we have a country that lives by, “Whoever has the most lug nuts wins.”
Led by a Muslim morphed into a Black Liberation Theologian that was taught to hate and destroy America, Caucasians and Jews, the advantage must go to the Democrats because they now rule and outright own the country.
No God, no Constitution, no will to go on.
Some people call this Change and Hope.
Are we at the brink or already at the bottom of the pit?
Mr. Graham:
“That and the popular Jesusland map both suggest that some on the left would like to take the other half of the country to divorce court.”
Oh, really? Odd that when they don’t get their way, they want to secede, but when Southerners tire of the protected and promoted cultural bigotry against White Christian southerners, they insinuate violence all over again.
I say let ‘em stew in the authoritarian socialist cess-pool of their own making. I want none of it.
End the occupation of Confederate lands acquired through Lincoln’s Illegal War.
“The red state and blue state maps fail to capture that there are pockets of liberals and conservatives, secularists and traditionalists, in every region. If there were attempts to secede, the resistance wouldn’t be a northern army marching against the southern rebels, it would be ugly street warfare between neighbors in every state.”
It was exactly so during the War for Southern Independence, Mr. Graham.
West Virginia seceded from Virgina, Maryland was militarily occupied to keep it in the Union, and the western Carolina/ eastern Tennessee mountain regions had a large Unionist population…for all the good that it subsequently did them in the post-war period, when their loyalty was not rewarded by representation in the Congress.
It was also so during the Revolution. Benjamin Franklin’s son was a Tory, as was George Washington’s mother.
But what would be preferable? To stay and be bankrupted and persecuted by people who despise us because of our faith and our nation of origin?
For myself, I say not. And it would be better that the task fall to us, rather than bequeath it to our children.
To riff on one of their cherished Liberal memes:
You don’t have to be ruled from Washington to be an American.
Don’t you bet your life Civil war won’t happen…My mother said Barry is the culmination of the communists from the 1960′s Student Protests against Vietnam War…Dear Leader Barry has done more to divide than ANY President in history, and what’s more that is what he wants…He wants the US to explode…
Listen to your mother. Your mother is right.
What if there are no elections in 2010? Consider the possibility that they could be cancelled because of some “crisis?” Never happen? Just look at what has happened already. Do not underestimate what the current government is capable of doing.
The 2010 elections will happen, alright. But they will be about as honest as those conducted by Hugo Chavez or Vladimir Putin.
Sign up with your local board of elections, take the training and become eligible to work the polls. Then volunteer to serve anywhere needed, even as a short notice substitute. The more commited conservative thinking folks we get in the system, the harder it will be for the left to do their usual thing (“finding” boxes of votes days after the fact when they know how many are needed, disqualifying non-leftist ballots and the military, etc.).
mudboss: I’ve been saying this all along. Can’t you just hear it in the Washington backrooms. “Don’t worry about the elections in November if you vote for healthcare. I have that under control. They will never happen.”
Just saying.
There will be blood if that happens. I pray that they aren’t that stupid, but if they cancel the elections, or if they steal the elections, and the Supreme Court is unwilling or unable to stop such tyranny, then it means war. An unelected government is not a government that this nation recognizes, so if there has not been an election and this Congress attempts to retain power after January 3, 2011, when their tenure has expired, they are not a government, but a pretender to the title, indeed, an occupying power and a domestic enemy of the Constitution. That is not a usurpation of power; that is an act of war.
America as a whole cannot be saved — much of blue state America is too far down the road to Marxism and will not turn back.
It will be up to Red State America to save itself. And that will mean secession. Does Obama really expect the Armed Forces to fight the rebel conservatives when the military is conservative itself?
When will this happen? It could happen as soon as this fall, if, as I think, the Obama junta, backed by its propagandists in the media, use massive voter fraud to retain control of Congress. When attempts to expose that fraud are made by Fox, talk radio, the internet, etc., the Socialists (Dems) will proclaim a national security excuse for silencing opposition media, likely by staging a violent attack and blaming on the right (the walk past the Tea Partiers, with the false claims of racism, was a warm-up for that).
It will then be up to the Republicans and up to some red State governors (and Rick Perry jumps to mind) to simply refuse to recognize the new Congress, and if necessary, declare an alternate Congress that the conservatives recognize.
I would not expect the military in that situation to back Obama.
Ah, but Obama will not use our military. They will be deployed overseas or effectively decommissioned just like those at Ft Hood. A million military without weapons is just another million well trained conservatives like the tens of millions already in skivvies.
Look to U.N. troops doing the occupation.
Don’t discount what those million well trained soldiers can do, even if at first they don’t have the heavy equipment of the military.
First off, thanks to the 2nd ammendment, they won’t be unarmed.
Secondly, look to Iraq, a bunch of barely trained militia types have been able to inflict serious damage on the US armed forces. Now replace the militia types with our highly trained forces, and replace the US armed forces with whatever Obama is able to scrap together.
Even with the mismatch in equipment, our guys will slaughter their guys. It won’t be long until our guys over run a supply depot or two, then our guys will also have heavy equipment.
When I was running for office in the Republican primary, a Republican stated Medicaid was a good deal for our state because for every dollar we spent, we got three from the federal government — as if those federal dollars were coming from Fairyland.
This is one of the major issues regarding any sort of working within the current system to carve out a space for a center-right regional government, which is that the central government in DC is the only one authorized to print currency. So the states spend themselves into oblivion then have to run to the Feds to get the dollars to cover that spending.
When CA gets its bailout, I expect support for an amicable split to increase. The great age of “centralization” has come to an end around the globe, so why wouldn’t it also come to an end in the US? Whatever “economies of scale” there were in centralized decision-making in DC have been overrun by bad “economies of scope”, making them a net drag on the economy.
The people in DC who run all these Federal programs aren’t actually as capable as they like to think they are. The Greeks called this “hybris” and I can’t think of a single instance in history when it was rewarded.
The key thing to remember is we’re actually NOT “all in this together”. That’s the Left’s “big lie”. A “Center-Right States of America” consisting of all non-Leftists, although smaller in population and size than the current configuration, would actually be more stable and powerful globally due to the reduction in rent-seeking parasitism and subsidized consumption to a minimum.
As for what it would look like geographically, I say this is the most accurate representation of the red-blue divide and since we already have government apparatus set up at the county level, would make for the most efficient transition:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/countymapredbluer1024.png
I think it’s coming. I hate Leftists as much as I hate America’s foreign enemies and, conceptually, I don’t actually distinguish between the two.
The problem is all of the wealth in this country is controlled by the greedy rich. The government needs to default on the debt owed to the 1% richest Americans and then seize their remaining assets. Then, we could provide health care, education, housing, food, and jobs for all ans always stay solvent. A coterie of greedy billionaires controls all of the nations’ wealth. If the coterie is crushed, all the problems could be easily taken care of.
That’s a great idea! We can do it! We all ready have a glorious example of it working too! It’s called Cuba…..
You are little more then jealous and bitter that you failed your self in life to achieve success.
There is no love in you, only hatred and greed.
If the everything owned by the top 1% of Americans were to be seized by the govt, it would only be enough to run the govt for a week or so.
Finally, were do you get the notion that those who have earned great wealth, are responsible for your problems?
I am more then ready to be a traitor to my government if it means being a patriot to my country.
With Sarah Palin as POTUS, and Rick Perry as governor of Texas, the stage is set.
Perry is the most important man in the country. If he quietly and effectively lays the groundwork for Texas to secede, and Sarah, if not for it outright believes Texas has grounds for secession, she will be lukewarm in forcing them back into the union.
If Texas seceded, the other Red States would follow for sure as they would be left in a Blue Country electorally that would then make the final moves to transition the other 49 to a western europe style socialist state.
Now that would be a blockbuster movie that would pack them in.
Russell Crowe as Gov. Perry. Angie Harmon or Sandra Bullock as Sarah.
The Trailer would show Sarah and Rick at night walking together at the Alamo. They agree that the only way at this point to save the Republic is to start a new one as it is apparent that the USA cannot be saved and kept together in its present form of 50 states.
Trailer 2 shows a shipment of Chinese weapons arriving across the Rio Grande. A convoy of Oklahomans crossing the boarder with rifles, ammo, food and water, and their families. The thirst for freedom is too much. Wealthy Leftists in Austin live in fear not knowing their future in a free Republic, begin to pack for another state.
Like the birth of India and Pakistan, the dual migrations begin.
Mudboss: I have thought about them cancelling elections in ’10 but that would be hard tyranny as opposed to soft tyranny which they are now exploiting. While they have all the sources of information, if they elected (excuse the pun) to go the route of hard tyranny, the public would revolt and they don’t want that kind of confrontation.
No, they will stick with the soft tyranny until the tipping point is reached and that is when the producers cannot afford to provide for the entitled and protected persons.
Igor Panarin is a former KGB agent. His specialty was information warfare – using propaganda to subvert enemy nations. He is also a dedicated irredentist who keeps map showing Alaska as part of Russia on his wall at home.
Why would anybody treat anything he says about the U.S. breaking up as anything but deliberate information warfare? You may as well quote Kruschev promising to bury us, or Marx blathering on about the inevitability of the revolution at that rate.
Not just that, but note that his map shows California and Arizona being under Chinese influence when there is an active irredentist movement to “restore” them to Mexico, while the South beyond the Mississippi River is assumed to want to be under the control of Texas and thence Mexico with no real connection. (Never mind of course Mexico heading for collapse sooner than the U.S., and the absurdity of Texas happily becoming a client state of Mexico.) Never mind it being raw information warfare, its not even good information warfare!
I hate to sound like the pessimist, but no matter how positive and pastel-like I try to paint things, reality steps in, plucks the brush from my hand and dips it in tar.
Many point hopefully to the Reagan years as a time when the country rallied back. But these are very different times, I’m afraid. Back then, America was still a manufacturing country. Now we are a consumer country. Americans were still basically patriotic; today patriotism is a bad word and target of derision. How is patriotism viewed by the left? Joe Biden summed it up well when he said, “Paying taxes is patriotic!” And so, the more taxes a person pays, the more patriotic he must be, right? By this logic, the top 25% of wage earners who pay 86% of all taxes must, by Joe Biden’s definition, be the most patriotic. 50% of Americans wouldn’t be patriotic at all. Hmm, maybe he’s on to something after all…
When Reagan was President almost no one tossed around the word ‘trillion’. It was a fantastic number, used only for hyperbole. Today 1 trillion dollars is considered chump change. U.S. debt is now so preposterously high that there is no way we can pay it down without an enormous slashing of the welfare state. What we see happening in Greece is a small brush fire compared to what would happen here. America’s major inner cities that have known nothing but government handouts for fifty years will explode with outrage. It’s a learned response. Victimhood is the one of the only things a great portion of Americans have learned in school.
Today we have an entire generation that has been raised on liberal fallacies and fantasies. The greatest generation who helped put Reagan in office has almost disappeared. Few alive today remember the Great Depression. The veterans from WW2 and the Korean War are almost extinct. They have been replaced by the “boomers,” the college-bred radicals of the 60s and 70s, the most spoiled, self-righteous, and hypocritical generation that America has ever known.
So much liberal indoctrination has taken place over the past 50 years that it is impossible to stuff that genie back into its bottle. The media, went from being an obscenity to an abomination. Journalism has been almost completely co-opted by academia, the intellectual elite, and the Democrat party. Most all journalists today are Statists, just like in the Soviet Union or Hitler’s Germany. And without a free press, it is almost impossible to hold politicians accountable.
The country has not been this divided since the time of the Civil War. We are now in the midst of a cultural civil war, but it won’t end there. At some point, the 50% of Americans who are left without a say in what the Federal government is doing is going to rebel. There is no telling how this feeling of disenfranchisement will express itself, but I think that when things get bad enough half of Americans will have given up any hope that Washington can be repaired. Tens of millions of people will want to return to the basics—the Constitution and the vision of the Founding Fathers. They will want to start over again. People will have concluded that there is no way in hell that Washington D.C. will take any meaningful steps in such a direction. A secession movement will form, and one by one States will exert their rights.
I think Texas will lead the charge, but it would soon be joined by a number of southern States, as well as northern States like Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, and the Dakotas, forming alliances, and eventually a new America with the original founding documents as their basis. These States, rich in natural resources, will set up their own energy and commodity markets. Unburdened by high taxes and oppressive regulations, they will be pro-business, and friendly towards investor capital They will thrive while the rest of the country sinks. They will do away with unions and encourage all liberals and progressives to leave, to go to States like New York, Massachussetts, Illinois, and California where they can frolic in their progressive utopias. They will dump the dollar, print their own money and go on a gold standard. They will build their own army, navy, and air force. Upon doing so, most of the currently serving military will resign working for the Socialist regime of Washington and move to the new America.
So sure of their progressive agenda, leftists might even embrace the idea. They will say good riddance, and give the people they so despise the one finger salute. “Good luck with that, losers!” We can only hope so.
It sounds far-fetched today, but if Obama and the Democrats maintain congress and the White House for another seven hellish years, such a direction will go from impossible to probable, and then to inevitable.
How can you remain so cynical in the face the spontaneous resistance which errupted in year one of Obama? Do you realize that Obama has deliberatly – after comming into office with almost 70% approvial – GIVEN FEWER PRESS CONFRENCES THAN RICHARD NIXON DURING THE HEIGHT OF WATERGATE?
Why? Because other than Brent Bair @ FOX he handpicks compliant MSM idiots to facilitate his version of FDR’s fireside chats.
He’s lost the single biggest UP FOR GRABS constituency that put him in the White House to begin with – Independent voters.
You are wrong wrong wrong Star Thrower – America is wide awake and paying attention.
They who, by self-serving greed, overspending, and corruptions, now beg for our votes to save us from the liberals. The so called conservatives handed over the White House ,Senate , and House of Reps. to the Obama crew. So will the people now vote them / incumbents in again ? Most likely. It seems that people are getting what they deserve en mass. If there is to be any salvation from the Chicago Marxist wanna-be thugs in congress then it will come through individual responsibility. The liberals fully understanding this will make a huge push to weaken or undo the 2nd ammendment, find ever new ways to punish free speech, extract more money, and create more indebtedness (the new slavery). If you want to have a chance at choice #3 for “Restoration” then it better start with cleaning house in the next and many subsequent elections, ie vote out all incumbents every time you have a chance. Otherwise stop whinning and get comfortable with the government leading you around by the nose. We won’t have Mad Max, but we will have Mad Marx.
I am an agnostic, vietvet, patriot. I live in Jesusland. I am 60 and more than willing to fight to the death for my country. I would hate to see a civil war, but I am prepared to prosecute one. You people write as if conducting an intellectual exercise. I hope that your high-minded rhetoric holds the day, and our constitutional republic is restored. I am not holding my breath. Has talking ever wrested power from politicians? Of the three pre-determined possibilities in this article, I am hoping for restoration. Option 1 is acceptable, as I already live in Jesusland. The one that I find most likely, is the 2nd option. I have never lived in a free country, and I despair that our kids will never know even the limited freedoms I have enjoyed.
Paden Cash; Another Vietvet and I’m with you on this. I see no way that voting is going to change this but I wish it was so.
Why is it so easy for everyone to itemize the symptoms so well, but fail completely and utterly to identify the cause..??
The US Dollar has lost 99% of its value in the years 1973 – 2010. It was 1973 that President Nixon took the US dollar off the Gold standard and instituted Petro Dollar support. This is the cause of currency and economic collapse, there is no hard asset backing the US dollar, only the ability of American Taxpayer to make good on debts created. It has been a straight decline since 1973 for the US economy, wages and Dollar.
When people can take the blinders off, reinstate hard asset backing for the US Dollar, then we will have our Nation back. If a Nation does not control its own Currency, it cannot control its destiny.
conservative and liberal be equally damned for placing the US into its precarious economic situation. It was a joint effort, and joint avoidance of the real problem; allowing foreign system to pull the strings of US banking system
Perhaps it is just the pessimism of cynicism and old age, but for a Renaissance to take place we need a whole new incoming class of knowledgeable, committed and honest representatives in Congress, representative of the people who can espouse our basic, traditional principles—and truly mean it, formulate policies and vote them through, representative who can carry out the arduous and likely very unpopular work of drastically paring back the current overbearing Federal government, its enormous control apparatus and its ruinous spending—moves to be fought by every special interest group and individual recipient of federal largess–and I sure don’t see a whole new crew of such Patriots on the horizon.
Let’s face it, the power and perks of being a Congressman today are usually as addictive as “crack,” and it has been my observation that, even if you come to Washington with principles and good intentions, these are soon overtaken by the imperative of doing anything and everything—the non-stop deal-making and fund raising–that will keep you in office, a member of our very own new ruling class, our “nomenklatura,” and on that “gravy train,” which—from the evidence—very few people want to get off.
Rebellion and secession? The Federal government has the upper hand these days, and as has been pointed out, States are addicted to Federal money. So, absent Obama & Co.’s applying the whip too hard and too early—his call, deliberately ignored or downplayed by the MSM during the campaign, for a massive “Civilian National Security Force,” which may now be taking shape under the guise of massive, newly created “public service organizations,” is particularly ominous–I do not think such a rebellion is in the offing—Texas excepted, but I do think the key to how developments will play out is how our military—now the most trusted of our institutions—reacts, if it is ordered to support a growing Tyranny.
People on the Left, implementing the ideas and tactics of pre-WWII Italian Communist Party member and theoretician Antonio Gramsci, and the Postmodernism that is the product of those ideas, have devoted many decades of widespread and careful work—via what has been termed “a conspiracy of shared values”– to preparing the “battlespace of ideas,” in propagandizing, weakening, confusing and misdirecting our citizenry via their captive educational system, the MSM, the entertainment industry, and many fellow travelers, working tirelessly to subvert/destroy, and/or take over the fundamental building blocks of our culture and society—the family, the school, the church, the law, politics, what Gramsci called a bourgeois society’s “ruling hegemony” i.e. the class from which our politicians and those who lead and direct our society traditionally came from, and our basic civic organizations, and the values they represented and taught.
As a result, over the course of six or seven decades since the end of WWWII, we have developed into a far less religious, moral and ethical, a far more violent, a far less cohesive, a fractured and more hedonistic and anonymous society—one increasingly focused on individual pleasure (the ol’ bread and circuses ploy) and on ephemeral things like American Idol, the new IPod, sports, the latest celebrity scandal, and “bling.” We have developed an electorate that increasingly views America and its heritage and values—when it even knows what they really are–with disdain, a population that is deliberately and increasingly “Balkanized”–by sex, by race, by nationality, by language, by religion, by social and economic status–a deliberate pitting of each group against the others, so as to fragment and reduce that electorate’s overall power, or as Saul Alinsky would say a “rubbing raw of the wounds of discontent.”
A population which now contains within it, as well, twenty million and likely many illegal aliens—mostly Hispanic–whose allegiance, according to polls, is overwhelmingly to Mexico or their other home country more than it is to America, plus another 2 million or more Muslims, who are taught by Islam that they are to be and are the eternal enemies of us “unbelievers”; Muslims who have been told by the Qur’an and Muhammad that they have a religious duty to go to war against us, to work for our overthrow, and for our conversion,or subjugation, or death. Could these circumstances be any more destabilizing or more dangerous?
We have developed an electorate that is much less informed and involved than in the past, an electorate with increasing percentages of functionally illiterate and innumerate members, and, thus, one much less able to read and write, to analyze and reason clearly, an electorate much less sure of and valuing their heritage and their rights, and a much more controlled and dependent citizenry, in which the roughly 50% of citizens who are taxpayers are increasingly subsidizing the increasingly close to 50% who are not—a recipe for disaster. In sum–after six or seven decades of effort by the Left–a population now much more easily duped, and led, and controlled.
Given all these developments I have seen unfold over the last six plus decades, I very sadly and reluctantly vote for decline as the likely future course for America.
Did I mention that I am probably crazy. Wanting our political class to remain true to the Constitution pretty much describes insanity. I am not crazy enough to fire the first shot. I think the left will do that if stymied by losing control in the upcoming election. Stop and look at which side actually acts unhinged when out of power. They have never actually been out of power, even when Republicans held the majority. For restoration to actually occur would drive the left mad. If it even looks like constitutional fealty might occur, that’s when the shooting will really start.
“Limited government as set forth by the founding fathers in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence is key to the longevity of the country. The government is there to serve the people, not the other way around.”
Doug Keller. This is why I support his run for congress in the 1st Congressional District of Oregon. We need more people like him in Washington. New faces, old ideas….that work.
It is becoming clear which side will start the coming civil war. The Democrats and lefties are whipping themselves into a characteristic hysterical frenzy. They aren’t paying attention to which side has the guns.
As for the hope that the upcoming elections in 2010 and 2012 will “throw the bums out,” and in view of Obama’s close ties to ACORN, I offer a quote attributed to Stalin:
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything”
Folks, all this is pie-in-the-sky thinking. There will be NO renaissance and there will be NO civil war.
For a renaissance to occur, a substantial percentage of the population must be cognizant of its history and heritage. The public school system has ensured that Americans know nothing of the founding of this country, other than that the Founders were racist, sexist, homophobic slave owners. Consider that terms that had positive connotations in our early history (e.g., “militia”, “patriot”, “Tea Party”, “constitutional”) now are considered pejorative (e.g., “teabagger”), a nuisance or an obstacle (e.g., “constitutional”) or as a metaphor for evil (e.g., “militia”).
As for a civil war, it will NOT happen peacefully. The Progressive Left believe it is their duty to tell you how to live. Do you really believe they will allow the liberty-minded to leave the Union without a fight? They need your wealth and your labor to make their utopian society come to fruition. Your rights, plans, or wishes are irrelevant to these people.
If a civil war does take place, be assured that the majority of the military will side with the federal government. Do NOT doubt it for one second. There are individuals here and there who might disobey orders, but not nearly enough to turn the military in favor of any rebellion. As long as the federal government maintains the forms of a constitutional regime, the military will remain (by inertia) loyal to that government. The only way the military will disobey an unconstitutional regime is if that government openly and loudly declared the constitution null-and-void; Progressives are NOT that stupid. They will keep the Constitution as a piece of paper behind a glass case, knowing that its provisions effectively dead. They will call for the military to obey its Oath to the Constitution, and the bulk of the military will obey because to most of them “constitutional” is whatever Congress and the President says it is.
“As for a civil war, it will NOT happen peacefully.”
No, I think it might, but it will have to be handled delicately, and many provocations will have to be withstood.
Like last time, it will come down to how many US military installations are “marooned” in now-foreign territory. Beauregard did not open fire on Ft, Sumter until he had confirmed that Lincoln was going to reinforce and resupply it.
“he Progressive Left believe it is their duty to tell you how to live. Do you really believe they will allow the liberty-minded to leave the Union without a fight?”
As far as thir parasitism goes, you are correct, but I think they WILL let the South, (especially), go.
The regional make-up of the US Armed Forces is heavily Southern, and wherever their political loyalties might lie, their families are in Dixie.
This means that the Left will have to step forward personally and stop the bullets with their own bodies…and they are not exactly renowned for this kind of sacrifice, are they?
They will not risk the fighting and dying unless their meal-tickets and health care will be cancelled otherwise. This does not make for dedicated soldiery.
“If a civil war does take place, be assured that the majority of the military will side with the federal government. Do NOT doubt it for one second.”
Further to the demographic make up I pointed out above, the military will only do what their political masters tell them to.
Let’s be clear on something, the Left, given it’s druthers, would have allowed the US military to be run out of both Iraq and Afghanistan by no more than 25,000 besandaled insurgents.
They think they could win a Dixie Insurgency?
And who says that Southern Patriots would choose only to fight defensively on their own soil?
Al Qaeda effectively defeated the Spanish with one horrific train-station bombing.
D’you think that that lesson was lost on everyone?
They’d make some noise, and there would be some very ugly local skirmishes, but where the rubber meets the road, they haven’t got the stomach for it.
“I’ve been in rooms where 200 people have loudly pledged to stand firm no matter what and then witnessed that number dwindle to a precious few against the withering force of the political left.”
That is because few people are perfect, and Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals reigns supreme when the people of your movement are called out for past errors in judgment and none of the other 200 stand up to stand with the one who failed at some point in time. That one will fold under pressure from the outside, because no one was there on the inside was giving support. Then you have 199 and they pick the next target, freeze it and personalize it, and you have 198 … and you have 10.
If you will not stand up for the guy who was caught cross dressing for a charitable cause in the past, he can not stand up for you. If you will not stand up for the guy/gal who failed to pay taxes for something once or twice in the past, but has corrected his errors, he cannot stand up for you. If you cannot stand up for the guy/gal who was promiscuous in younger years, or cheated on their spouse at some point, he cannot stand up for you. How many people who have made mistakes in the past just sit on the sidelines, because there is only a 1 in 100,000 chance that those they would support and stand up for would return the favor when their prior failures are learned?
You allow Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to have power, because you fail to support those who would be your allies. You allow yourselves to be weakened by lack of numbers because you shun potential allies. I am one of those with a checkered past, but one thing about me is that I am hard core pure by the Constitution in the meaning of those who wrote and voted it into existence. You will not see me as a leader, or a high level player, because I already know how I will be treated by people who should be my ally, and if I am not worthy of your respect for the person I am, you are not worthy of my direct support. Find a way to support those who have a failure in the past, and get a proven track record, and you will see your numbers go from 200 to 200,000 instead of from 200 to 10.
you couldnt be more right!this is one of the most important comments ive seen on this site.i hope youll be able to work it into others as well.its a message that needs to be widely spread
I agree with Larry that this is a very important post. The cause of liberty is just that, and those that would like to make it something even more pure do not realize what we are up against. All those who believe in individualism (as opposed to collectivism) need to rally, and you know who you are. Just like those that stand with the totalitarian scum that are shredding the Constitution and have been doing so for a century know who they are. If you are part of the former group I am with you and you are with me. And hopefully in the end that will be enough.
I expect the 2010 election to be horribly fixed
And if that happens, load up your guns
The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 34 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born.
Currently, 1.6 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year; 350,000 immigrants leave each year, resulting in a net immigration of 1.25 million. Since 1970, the U.S. population has increased from 203 million to 306 million, i.e., over 100 million. In the next 40 years, the population will increase by 130 million to 439 million. Three-quarters of the increase in our population since 1970 and the projected increase will be the result of immigration. The U.S., the world’s third most populous nation, has the highest annual rate of population growth of any developed country in the world, i.e., 0.975 percent (2009 estimate), principally due to immigration.
Immigration, legal and illegal, has had and will continue to have a major and far-reaching impact across a broad spectrum of existential challenges that confront this nation, e.g., national security, the economy/global competitiveness, jobs, health care, taxes, energy independence, education, entitlement reform, law enforcement, social welfare programs, physical infrastructure, the environment, civil liberties, and a continued sense of national identity/shared sense of endeavor. Immigration policy is the defining issue of our time with enormous implications for the future of this nation and the preservation of our patrimony.
The Hispanic Challenge By Professor Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard University
“The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream. The United States ignores this challenge at its peril.”
The divide will be cultural and linguistic. By 2023 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as classified by the USG and half of the country will be minorities by 2042. And by 2050, one in three will be Hispanic. We are being colonized
The ideologies that are destroying America are the long term result of nihilism.
The blind faith in the absolute nothing leads the human beings to a deep despair and to complete irrationality, all the rest are consequences.
People are destroyed by the black breath emanating from nihilism: they live their lives in despair.
Without God, Who Is Infinite Love, we cannot stand as individuals, nor can we stand as a strong Nation.
Let us pray, to open again our hearts and minds to the Infinite Love of God.
We will find Wisdom if we silence our folly and pray for Wisdom.
And to silence our folly we must act compassionately all the time.
One Nation under God,
or a mass of slaves, under the heel of satan.
I have no need for make believe gods and stand as an individual just fine. I get my wisdom not from praying to a god that isn’t real but by learning truth.
“One nation under god” was not originally in the pledge that was written by a minister. He left it out for a reason.
Please post a picture of yourself. Not that I care what you look like, I just don’t want to be standing within arms reach of you when judgment day comes!
Figure God has bad aim?
You will never get America back if you insist too exclusively on a traditionalist belief in God. The Constitution is our foundation, not the literal dogmas of your creed, even if some of their moral implications contributed. If you imagine that the jealous or even loving god that you picture is identical with the absolute, your “restored” America will already be riven between believers and nontheistic political conservatives. Do you want to start with such a split, or are you imagining that once the mooching nihilists are gone, you will convert those whose firm self-reliance and ethical principles are not derived directly from your book?
Blah, blah, blah, colonized, blah, blah, blah, sheeple, blah, blah, blah. I guess we are all doomed. Very few here seem willing to risk their lives, fortunes, and honor , whether sacred or not. I still have hope, not that it can be done easily or without bloodshed. History gives few clues as to where we are going, as there has never been a nation with the right to keep and bear arms in the straits we are in currently. All the socialists have to do is stop making blunders, like the current regime. Time is on their side. Another generation or two and they win. They can collect the guns and do as they please. Patience has been their winning principle, and yet they seem ready to abandon it while within throwing distance of their goal.
Michael – The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 34 seconds…
During the past 40 years Edward Kennedy often openly professed why he fought hard to turn the ’65 act into reversing the prior 20 years of slow & no immigration – because he saw importing successive waves of immigrants as a key to defeating conservatives.
Yet it was these years after WWII that helped establish America as the premire economic superpower. These were the years when standards of living for all americans continued to rise; when our k-12 AND post-secondary education was the envy of the world.
The one immigration issue faced during Eisenhowers era – in part because of the civil rights demands of blacks – led to deporting 12 million plus – overwhelmingly latino’s who stayed (and continued to come) after the war year labor shortages.
Another inconvienet truth – this was the apex of Hoffa led unionism.
Contrast that with who is continuing to push for high HB 1 imported labor – using the invasion of illiterate latino’s as a ruse when obscuring the true costs and dangers of our current insane folly on immigration instead of sound domestic policy.
The well-oiled lobby for the myth that maintaining our economic power depends on the continuation of constant immigration as in the 19th & 20th cenruties flies in the face of common sense, sound logic, and plain facts – Which Michael does a fine job of outlining from the onset.
What else has changed since 1970 – when immigrants accounted for 1 in 21 of us? Well look at the drop out rate – and even worse – the overall performance OF THOSE THAT STAY IN GRADUATE! Look at the spike since the 80′s of the numbers we incarcerate (many of whom are now ending their sentences from the drug war years – about to attempt to stay ex-cons). The shift away from low skilled manufacturing jobs…
In short – immigration isn’t just about a lot of peeved south westerners. Next to Obama’s reversion to the failed liberalism of LBJ thru Carter, and the indebtedness incurred through declining wages and the assault by greedy American banking, immigration IS THE BIGGEST direct assault on the middle class today in America.
But most importantly – it is the one assault that we are best capable of directly defeating.
Fire Nancy Pelosi and any appeassement Chamber of Commerece lacky in favor of open boarders and shamnesty.
On 11/04/08 America died. The cause of death was the cancer of the radical left, that started in the 60s and went untreated for more than 40 years.
What will happen to the current “meta” America setting? Only God knows.
Most likely, it will converge to a Worldwide average of poverty and dispair, in a de-populated, de-developed world as envisioned by some of the current czars. Not a pretty picture.
I’d like whoever challenges Obama in 2012 to force him to articulate his vision for America – not fluffy generalities, like he’s gotten away with so far, but the nuts and bolts of it: who is going to pay for all the entitlements that exist, how will that affect the country’s economic productivity, what impact will it have on America’s standing in the world, and how will that affect global stability? Push him, and push him hard. The left can’t be allowed to get away with a vision no longer than a single congressional session any longer.
Take a look at this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7553511/Deflation-on-the-prowl-as-Bernanke-shuts-down-his-printing-press.html
One – actions have to be accountable. When was the last time this was taught anywhere in the US without confused looks?
Two – When it comes to treasuries, isn’t that an indication of deficits?
Adding debt to debt is not the best option for the US, and yet what option is Barry O communicating?
Hmmm, sounds serious. What would we be saying if we had the societal unrest of the Great Depression? How did we ever survive that, and four terms of Roosevelt?
I don’t deny that we have problems, but most of the posters here are so full of hot air and secessionist fantasies, that we are getting nowhere. We have moderately tough economic times, leaving people time to spew Tea Party fantasies. Were times really to get really tough, ie the Great Depression, we would have a higher per cent asking how can the government help us MORE.
Bilgeman is ready to have the southern states secede again and expects strong support from the military (which is what % minority these days?) But, what the hell; it is Easter, lets just keep on babbling and fantasizing, rather than trying to think of any half-way realistic, or likely scenarios or solutions.
I’ve got a “realistic” solution and a number of scenarios under which this can happen: BHO resigns, effective immediately!
The majority of the people don’t want him, and he’s dividing the country by staying there, driving it into a ditch. Almost all agree with the second statement, and at least half the country agrees with the first.
“Bilgeman is ready to have the southern states secede again and expects strong support from the military (which is what % minority these days?)”
Uh-huh. Be honest with yourself. There are likely as many folks as I on the other side who are more than ready to let us go our own way again, but peaceably this time.
Can you deny that being a white heterosexual Christian Southerner is pretty damned near the only remaining group whose culture is NOT celebrated, but rather openly jeered at?
Can you deny that OUR contributions to this nation are not only ignored, but are actively discounted?
Why in the world would we WANT to stay with you, when the role we would be confined to would be that of the designated “racist po’ white trailer-trash KKK redneck”?
Thanks, but no thanks.
I fully understand why YOU would WANT us to remain…
You seem to place some kind of child-like faith in the fact that there is a large percentage of “minorities” in the armed services, and you presume that their loyalties would automatically lie with Washington and the culture of the people that it would prefer to represent, if it came to bayonets.
Apparently, you have learned nothing from the California Proposition 8 referendum result.
The Southern culture is one that is an admixture of European, African and Meso-American, FAR more so than what manifests in the ethnic and racial ghettoes of urbanized America that Liberal Statist policies built.
And all share one VERY important common denominator…an adherence to Christianity that also far outstrips the rest of the United States.
We have had our differences in the past, but by God, we all put on our shoes and are in the church pews come Sunday!
This is not to be lightly discounted.
I’d invite you to review which cities exploded in racial riots in the late 1960′s and in which regions of the country they were largely located.
Illuminating, that.
“How did we ever survive that, and four terms of Roosevelt?”
Simple, and you gave half the answer already…FDR became a socialist-lite dictator.
He was far preferable to the rest of the dictators in power at that time, and he was, for a socialist, a fairly realistic fellow, but he was a dictator nevertheless…and the harm that his policies, and his philosophy did are with us to this day.
There are many things now enshrined in US law that we all take for granted which are not listed under the enumerated powers of government in The Constitution.
From Social Security to child support to welfare and food stamps to marriage licenses to property taxes to the ‘war on drugs’ and much, much more – Without twisting the words and phrases of The Constitution out of all context, the rationales for such things simply cannot be found in The Constitution or in the writings of the Founders of this nation.
Under the radar, we also see American homes invaded by local, state and national LEO agencies w/o warrants or any previous sign of wrongdoing. Around the nation, Americans are now arrested and held without charge or arraignment. Still others are being incarcerated and tried while evidence proving their innocence is not allowed in the courtroom. ..and I am not talking about the treatment of foreign nationals or Islamic terrorist supporters. I’m talking about Americans just like you.
the examples just go on and on and on and range from your local town council to the ‘legalization’ of most traditional forms of political corruption.
Anyone who sees — or welcomes — a “civil war” (nothing civil about war, but I digress) over a pretty modest health insurance reform package has probably been playing too much Call Of Duty.
I am making a request to all the hotheads and internet tough guys here to take it down a notch.
May posterity forget that royalists like you were our countrymen.
If you think this is about one thing you haven’t been paying much attention. And if trillions of dollars in debt spending is modest to you then you haven’t been paying attention to economics at its most basic level.
Someone is a bit edgy. No one here is talking about starting one, just which side they are on and who they might see as allies if one happened. It is far better to be prepared for something severe and have it not happen than it is to sit ignorant of impending doom and be swept aside before you knew what was happening.
Sure thing Neville.
“Pretty modest health insurance reform package.”
I can only imagine what an AGRESSIVE health insurance reform package would look like, given that O’care basically assumes that the commerce clause gives the Feds authority to mandate private citizens do ANYTHING that the pols decide is necessary to protect the “village” from those horrible capitalists with the temerity to make a profit.
I hate to tell you, Mr. Modest, but there is nothing modest about the Democratic Congress’s recent intrusions. I suppose one could make the argument that what has occurred is only a small step from previous intrusions (Medicare, Perscription Drugs, etc.). From a certain perspective that is true.
Two issues, however. One is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Jefferson writing in the Declaration of Independence emphasized that for a time abuses can be tolerated, but a “train” of abuses, once having passed a certain degree, become intolerable. A sober look around the countryside will suggest that the recent mandates have lead the train onto the tracks of insufferability.
The second is the sheer nastiness and fraudulancy that saturated the very process of the passing of the bill. All the obfuscations, pay-offs, and misdirections packed into this monstrosity can serve only to certify the opinion that the government, with no constitutional sanction whatsoever to meddle in medical affairs, has entered into the arena with all its penchant for handing out privileges to its favorites in tow.
Better and/or hotter heads commenting in Pajamas Media have suggested some dramatic remedies to Obama’s socialistic adventures. Frankly, I am not savvy enough to assess the value of these proposals, but I am quite certain that socialism does not accord at all with our Constitution. If the Obama Administration and the Democrat majority in Congress insist on passing laws that defy the spirit of our Constitution, a stern response becomes inevitable.
I for one have been dreaming of a national split-up for years. Yes, there are no easy ways to divide the country, with pockets scattered all over. But I think that there will probably be prerequisites for each nation:
1. The new country must be contiguous
2. The new country must stretch from coast to coast
3. Proportional land and cities must be allocated according to the country’s new population.
And let me be the first to offer a possible solution:
Conservatives take everything south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Libertarians get Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Upstate New York, then a narrow strip to Michigan (jumping over the upper peninsula then straight across to Washington State.
Liberals get the rest.
Jeff Cooper, US Marine author, gun instructor related the story of how really few good men there are.
Of 30,000 Germans caught behind lines after WWII in a Russian prison, with very few guards, only 10 mustered courage to escape………1 out of every 3000. The rest preferred staying and starving to death, while be worked to death. He stated that is the ratio that can be looked at when the schumer hits the fan.
I’m afraid in this modern USA the ratio is worse overall, but stronger in Red states than in blue.
Military…..I expect you will see military personell from the southern states being stationed in the North…and vice versa in attempt to encourage govt. support.
I think it is sheer folly to expect a new crop of freshman congressmen and a few new senators to reverse 150 years of tyranny. Newt Gingrich was swept to the majority in 1994 and squandered it. Leadership in the GOP is far weaker now than it was in ’94. Plus you have a Dem president that will fight their every move.
The most crucial and important consideration is that the Constitution has been dead for 150 years, and new people squabbling over it won’t repair it or restore it. The states must restore their primacy and sovereignty by secession, not by nullification efforts.
I think the future involves generational shift, that is what has brought us to today. If key tenets of Republican governance remain intact I believe things can come full circle.
H.R. Haldeman or J. Ehrlichman (of the Watergate era, I’m not sure who of the duo) used to say that “once the tooth paste comes out of the tube it’s rather hard trying to put it back in.” It’s quite interesting that this sort of discussion is taking place now (just over a year since Obama became president.) One can only guess what will be discussed by the end of his (first?) term. This might be the tip of the iceberg.
Or…we have always had loud-mouthed blusterers among us.
Not that everyone in this discussion has been that way, but my God; we had a liberal win a Presidential election, face a financial meltdown toward which the Repubs had already thrown billions, and he threw billions more. Then, after most said it would never happen, he got a health bill passed. The moaning, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth is impressive. Truly, the end time days must be upon us…or we just don’t want to be bore on an Easter Sunday.
Human beings are addicted to drama, or maybe it is just that those who have lost, lost, and lost again in their vision of a strictly Constitutional United States of America want to say anything to avoid feeling powerless. What did the Constitution have to says about Hamilton’s national bank…and how long ago was that? And how many “violations”of the sublime document have happened since then?
Glenn Beck and Tea Partiers seem to be appealing/retreating to a Golden Age…that never was. Maybe the perfect time for them would be the time when we were fighting the Brits, but really had not yet formed a government of our own. Ever since then..the deluge.
In the crisp Spring morning of 5th April 1931, while sitting next to her Luftlmalerei in her impecable kitchen, watching her manicured back yard, on Hillernstrasse in Oberammergau at the southernmost tip of Bavaria, Frau Emma Fuchs-Knoebel was enjoying her breakfast, totally unaware and willfully oblivious to a bunch of thugs, only a few miles away, conspiring to “transform” Deutchland and the World.
You think this is fiction? I bet you do.
This is how we engineer mutinies.
Mutinies are management tools, (in more ways than one).
To wage a succesfully genuine bottom-up mutiny, you must present your Captain with the alternative of his losing his ship, or his ship losing him and all of his loyalists.
The point is to isolate him within his own saloon, and have his exercise of command circumscribed and moderated by those that he perceives as loyal and bound to him.
You don’t accomplish this by bluffing. You must be ready, willing and able to eject him and his mates from the vessel and command it yourself, or desert the ship en masse so that he and his remaining crew cannot sail it.
This is essentially what the barons confronted King John with at Runnymeade, which resulted in the Magna Carta. They were not known to history as “mutineers”, but this they were nevertheless…in fact they were revoltionary.
I know of no-one attempting anything so unprecedented here, but rather the general dissension seem to be that the government has exceeded its limits vis-a-vis the states and the citizenry.
We are labeled already as insubordinate,(a flogging offense once), and will no doubt be labeled “mutineers” since no “manager” likes being second-guessed by his “subordinates”…even when he has clearly exceeded his contracted authority,(yet another way in which mutiny is a tool of management).
This, if we are to be so labeled,(and don’t think for a minute that we won’t be), then we’d best be prepared to go the whole hog.
And frankly, if we cannot get the government restored to within hailing distance of it’s rightful limits and Constitutional function, then the rust-bucket ain’t fit to be at sea upon, and we’d do better by taking to the boats.
I want to see America restored, your third option.
To that effect, I suggest that you pay more attention to your Primary and Secondary education. They have been a mess for so long.
As a result they produce radicals and illiterates. Such people will drag US down into oblivion.
ethicMinds
george kyaw naing
In the first part of the piece this quote “No government has ever survived and no economy has ever survived when the national debt hit 90% of GDP. We will hit 90% in a few years.”
was cited – I would like to know when Senator Jim Risch made that statement …
I am CERTAINLY not challenging when and if he made it, rather that part of the statement – ” … a few years.” – A few months ago – the debt to GDP ratio stood at just over 83% – this morning – the debt to GDP ratio is just over 88.88% – If Risch made his remark recently – he was being grossly OVER optimistic.
Great piece, by the way and matched by the GREAT comments thus far.
Unless he was referring to debt held by the public, as opposed to various government trust funds.
Well a few years ago the president of Iran stated that he would destroy United States from within now I not saying that Pres Obama is Islam or Muslim or a commie, I just saying that since he has been in office for just these few months of his term he has brought the US into a state exactly like the Iram pres said he and Iran would do to the US. We are moving fast to a breakup, I have read he is still working on his pet project of private army defending it by saying our military cannot defend the US alone, Bull. But if the christians in the US don’t quit being seperate faiths catholic-bapist etc. or even one church saying their better than another church of the same faith example one bapist church say their better than the bapist church down the street. If christian do not stop this and unite together and bring this country back to a better moral standard as before and force our opinon in the gov. we a sure to be overrun by a foreign power or will break up into separate states as russia did, SO folk wake up and voice your beliefs to who in office and don’t just say he is the president you can’t talk about the president or congress don’t you have pride in America yes have pride and kick the people out of office that don’t do the job for the people would you not fire a employee who did not do as you say. The president and congress are hired by the people and suppose to work for the people IF THEY DON’T PINK SLIP. THANK YOU
America, love it or leave it!!!
Great to read all these comments. I have not been entertained by such crazy in awhile.
Crying babies, paranoids and angry sore losers all.
Facts: Most Red States get more not less from the Feds than they put in. Most Blue States put in more than they get….look it up free loaders.
The rates of divorce, adultery and illegitimate births are higher in the Red than the Blue States. So much for Red State moral authority.
You guys are angry, paranoid free loaders, yelling get off my lawn while you polish you guns with government check that I pay with my taxes.
Since Obama took office: Stock market up approaching 70%. Up to the end of 2009, job losses had decreased 95%; now 4 of last 5 months have shown JOB GAINS. This month’s national job report is the best in almost 3 years, % increase in new home sales best in 9 years (data out today), manufacturing up the best in 3 years. The economic is getting better but you would rather have America fail than Obama succeed.
On the GWT, Obama TRIPLED the US troops to Afghanistan and his orders to increase Predator drones strikes have killed more high value terrorists in the last 3 months. than Bush did in 8 years…look it up. But the Taliban agents on this page do not care because they hate America.
Oh, BTW, those upper class tax cuts from Bush that were claimed to pay for themselves and create 15 million new jobs; instead they INCREASED the deficit by over 2 TRILLION dollars while job growth under Bush was only 11,000 a month for a crappy total of 1,00,000 over 8 YEARS! Under 8 years of Clinton there were 22,000,000 new jobs created. Think of these fact when you bray like sheep for more tax cuts for the rich. Your economic theory is like a religious belief, can’t you even remember reality because you do not believe in it. There is no such thing as faith based reality my little friends.
In closing, get a job, stop your crying/bed wetting and taking my tax dollars. If you do not like America move to Somali where there is NO effective central government….look it up.
That’s the ACORN propaganda we all know quite well: 3,000% savings, in all 57 States, and written in Austrian by the great leader, Obama-Bin-Lying (aka Obeyme, aka Barry Soetoro.)
“Undocumented” propaganda or labor or officials seems to be in vogue with this regime in power.
The options are totalitarianism or anarchy?
Excellent article. The only point I would argue with is the one about the non-existence of foreign conquerors. While a conquering army may be a stretch, legal and illegal immigration is the new form of invasion. Western Europe has been undermined from within by foreign immigrants who have no intention of adopting the values and principles of their adopted country. France and Italy have both lost control of internal territory controlled by immigrants. We may slowly go the way of the Roman Empire with a combination of all three alternatives you listed.
Obama and crew may use a “crisis” to keep control….but i think most likely they are not worried because they can use the czars, EPA, ect to maintain control.
Slowly but surely surely the power of congress and senate is being eroded while the presidency gains. Eventually it wont matter who is elected to those bodies. The pres will have enough power to sidestep them anyway.
Kinda worried that others have not seen this and its not talked about enough. Eventually Roman senators lost much of their power(why/how dosnt matter)the effect is whats important. IF conservative take over either body this is one thing they must look out for, the pres sidestepping them and doing what he wants without votes and such.
Bobo:
“Since Obama took office: Stock market up approaching 70%.”
A stock market that has no basis in sound fundamentals. The gains are nothing more than a massive “pump and dump” scheme controlled by a few large traders, all of whom have their tendrils deep within the federal government.
“Up to the end of 2009, job losses had decreased 95%; now 4 of last 5 months have shown JOB GAINS.”
If you believe the BLS and their asinine birth/death model. If you consider massive increases in federal hiring actual jobs and not a giant sucking sound on the private sector. Then sure, the job market looks downright rosy.
“Oh, BTW, those upper class tax cuts from Bush that were claimed to pay for themselves and create 15 million new jobs; instead they INCREASED the deficit by over 2 TRILLION dollars…”
Tax cuts do not cause deficits, you weak-minded simpleton. Spending does. The federal government is now funding two-thirds of itself through issuance of new debt, NOT through taxation. Explain how we’re going to make up the difference by taxing the same evil rich people and corporations that provide jobs to the middle class. Explain how we continue to extract golden eggs from the goose after its throat has been cut. Oh, and while you’re at it, name for me one poor person that gave anyone a job.
“Under 8 years of Clinton there were 22,000,000 new jobs created.”
Explain to me exactly how he was responsible for this. Government DOES NOT CREATE JOBS. The market does. The only thing the government creates is uncertainty in the market and unnecessary regulations that make everything more costly.
“..but you would rather have America fail than Obama succeed.”
Obama succeeding MEANS the failure of America. The man has no interest in seeing anything “succeed” outside the influence of the bureaucracy. Control of the people is his religion, his faith in central government absolute.
“But the Taliban agents on this page do not care because they hate America.”
Possibly the stupidest thing ever written. Kudos sir.
People like you, who labor under the delusion that government and political leaders drive innovation and economies (rather than quash it), who view singular leaders as the sole savior or destroyer of private sector wealth, are ripe for tyranny. You, sir, are what Lenin referred to as one of the “useful idiots”.
Did it ever cross your mind MightyMonarch that BOBO could actually be BHO himself? I wonder if he reads some of these posts and responds under an alias (which by the way wouldn’t be totally out of character, as he seems to have a few.)
Wow, what an insight. Why don’t you ask him what he thinks of the Resnick book which just came out?
If it should ever come to secession, it won’t be a “amicable divorce.” Lefties are foolish enough to kill the goose that lays the golden egg but not so stupid as to allow it to fly away. The killing occurs slowly enough that they can satisfy their envies by pretending it isn’t happening. The latter frees the goose from their spiteful grasps and leaves them behind to begin carving at each other.
When you have this: The endless parade of technicalities and analyses are all very absorbing and relevant, but as the financial playing field tends to shift markedly within a week, yet another set will have to be published … ad infinitum. It looks to me, rather too much like running on the spot.
So, let us try and stick with the basics, which are usually simpler. The so-called ‘Western’ World (actually a euphemism for a more accurate term that is routinely censored by fearful newspaper editors) has become a giant pyramid scheme. The transition appears to have begun during the 1970s, soon after the US Dollar jettisoned its last tenuous links to the Gold Standard. This process then accelerated during that ridiculous “women wearing shoulder pads and fuzzy hairstyles” decade of the 1980s.
40 years ago, people used the Stock Exchanges to invest real money in real companies that were making real and tangible products. Everything was invested for the medium and long term. Many companies took seriously their implied responsibilities to the communities they were situated in, and also the nationality of their origins. Then came the Machiavellian sea-change (a coup by white collar gangsters).
Derivatives, as they are understood today, were invented in 1973 with the Black-Scholes pricing formula (named after the two academics who invented it). This handed “the markets” a sophisticated system for setting the price of instruments derived from cash markets. US banks and securities houses (aka Wall Street) were the first to exploit this fraudulent arrangement and have been elaborating their pricing mechanisms (to the Nth degree) ever since. The expression, “disappearing in a vortex up their own bum holes” comes to mind.
The existence and potential returns from Derivatives converted investing in Stocks & Shares from a conservative occupation into one characterised by gambling and a casino mentality. People who frequent casinos are intensely immature, lack any productive credentials, and are emotionally unstable. The last category of person you would want determining the health of an international financial system! Imagine, if you can, 500 x Tony Blairs and 600 x G. W. Bushes each with fist-fulls of Blue and Red chips, let loose in Las Vegas. That is your stock and financial system today.
Every pyramid scheme must, by definition, have someone sitting at the top, reaping all the largest profits. Surely a very addictive occupation! A culture infested with pyramid schemes (of one kind of another) is by definition headed for oblivion. Such beleaguered societies must carry ever more unproductive parasites using the resources of ever dwindling numbers actually engaged in wealth creation through the adding of real value. Engineers of all stripes have historically been the most efficient creators of real added value yet in Britain (and now America) engineers are its least valued members.
We shall not end this cycle of glamour and cocaine driven destruction until those at or near the top of these various pyramids are identified, arrested, and their ill-gotten gains (acquired at the expense of everyone else, and the environment) confiscated. Prison (or worse) should await these sick and evil folk, else they will drag all of us down into the proverbial abyss. It’s them or us folks!
The best “first move” Britain could make would be to cut all its cultural ties to the United States because the USA has been the ideological engine behind this global insanity. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington have made themselves the enemy of mankind. We should therefore be declaring war on these cities and all they have stood for, before it is too late.
Viking
and this, All the playing around with monetarist this, and Keynsian that, ant the assumption that the actions taken have done anything but prop up the system a little longer so that the connected can make off with the loot whilst landing the bill on the taxpayer, is not going to alter the basic predicament.
Real recovery is not possible until debt is paid down or written off.
Just as in the 30′s the economy will relapse – it can’t do anything else, and fancy footwork won’t save it.
What it has done is prop up the rich at the expense of everyone else and ruin the credit of the country.
David Martin
on April 06, 2010
at 04:45 PM
found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7553511/Deflation-on-the-prowl-as-Bernanke-shuts-down-his-printing-press.html?state=target
time is of the essence.
Good grief, are you attacking the MARKET? C’mon, David, Don’t be confusing the minds of the folks here who are ready to pick up their guns and go out to march across the open ground into the teeth of Federal cannon. Obama, like Lincoln, is an evil dictator. This is all they know, and all they need to know.
But not to worry; hopefully, they have enough common sense to TALK about Civil War, but not to actually fire on Fort Sumter. Who says that humanity has not smartened up at least a little? Slavery? Women’s rights? Humanity is still corrupt, of course, but not quite as blatantly, in at least a couple areas. Can we have three cheers from some righties for said liberations?
Maybe not, because some of them think that said liberations are at the root of our problems. Let’s see if we can hear otherwise.