Posted by
TOTA on Saturday, November 01, 2008 7:17:34 AM
In Ayn Rand's remarkable book, Atlas Shrugged, the most ingenious and productive members of society flee to their own Shangril La, a refuge from the statists who are busy dismantling the country and persecuting the prosperous.
We have no such refuge.
It is impossible for Americans to go anywhere else to find freedom. This is our Shangri La, and it always has been. That it is now under assault is no surprise. The movement against American traditionalism has been well underway for decades.
Long ago, the left foresaw the difficulty of inculcating Americans with the necessary dependency or contempt required to dismantle the country. They undertook to remake America's consciousness in a number of ways.
First, they specifically targeted for takeover America's consciousness forming institutions: media, Hollywood, academia, foundations, and local community organizations.
Second, they changed America's immigration laws to insure that the bulk of people arriving here would not be well educated, and would not be required to show any particular fidelity to America or American traditions (for instance, we allow dual citizenship and do not require proficiency in the national language).
Third, they recognized that the key to long-term power in a democracy is to hold the purse strings, and to make the populace dependent upon government for support. Part of this is making sure voters believe that the left's enemies will take away their benefits. This is not problematic for a democracy, so long as only a small minority are affected, but Social Security and Medicare reach right into every home, and sure enough, every election we hear that Republicans will destroy or cut these programs. It's gotten, already, to the point where something close to half of all American voters are receptive to giving lavish government benefits to middle class citizens who have always been free and independent.
Fourth, they have relentlessly pounded the 'racism' and 'classism' drum, so much so that things like naked voter fraud are excused, and citizens cannot be expected to be able to identify themselves when voting. The left has diminished our most sacred right and responsibility.
Fifth, by relentlessly proposing government action in response to every problem, the left encourages people to think in these terms. Insidiously, they create crises through government action - things like the credit crisis and soaring health insurance costs - and propose more government as the solution. Some problems are so large now that many think only a massive solution of some sort will solve them.
Sixth, they talk down every tradition, institution, and success that make America great: When Americans work hard and want to keep the bulk of the money they earned, they are greedy. When America liberates 25 million men, women, and children from the rule of a genocidal madman, we are imperialists. When America is attacked, we deserved it, when we are at war we will lose, when the rest of the world is against us, they are right. When we find the poor and downtrodden amongst us, as Obama has said over and again, we do "nothing" for them. The existence of free talk radio is the result of ______, and it ought to be controlled by government regulations and censors because it is so biased and unfair. The visceral reaction to all of this thinking is, "You people are literally insane", but there are some fairly intelligent people making these arguments, and some, like Obama, are hypnotic demagogues. Many are listening.
Finally, they quietly undermine or dismantle every other institution in society upon which individuals have always relied, and which have traditionally been at the center of their existence - family, marriage, child-rearing, work, the military, education, religion, local government, and free associations. They want to drive wedges between the individual and every other element of support in society, so that individuals are left standing 'naked before the state'.
It's clear how these forces have combined, at this particular juncture in history. Forty seven years ago, when the democrats' hero JFK was leading this country, these radicals had scarcely reared their heads. JFK was, by modern standards, a relatively conservative president. He would almost certainly have been a republican were he running today. His running mate, however, was not a traditional democrat, and he proved it by opening wide the door to radicalism. The radicals are now in charge of the democrat party, and there is no sign that the sane democrats who are left are capable of dislodging them.
The only reason we are now a weakened nation is that we have allowed America and
its constitution to be undermined from within by radicals. We'd never have allowed
a foreign power to damage us in this way.
This makes things crystal clear for conservatives: No matter what the outcome of this election, we are literally fighting for the existence of a free country, and possibly, a free world. If America goes the way of Europe, our light will wane, and the darkness will advance. It's not merely a matter of whether our children will grow up in a free country. Now, as we seriously contemplate the ascendancy of radical leftists to the highest levels of world power, the question literally becomes whether, a generation from now, any children, anywhere, will be born into freedom.
The left and unchecked power are not a good mixture, they are like fire and gasoline. Whatever they control is consumed, or left burnt-out and dessicated. If they are stopped in this election, they will be back in four years. They will never go away, so we must make them powerless.
No matter what the outcome is on election day, our future as active conservatives is clear: These people must be thoroughly discredited, and if possible, their policies must be made illegal. The constitution must be changed to place explicit limits on taxation and federal spending. A separate Amendment may be justified later to re-affirm basic freedoms and address judicial activism. The debate, even if it is ultimately lost, will help to re-affirm the centrality of the constitution, and will engage the nation in a long-overdue discussion about its foundation and its future.
The alternative, as we will all admit if we can bring ourselves to face it, is to watch our country slowly deteriorate under the rule of increasingly radical political demagogues.
It is said that no democracy can endure for long. Thankfully, we do not live in a pure democracy. It is also said that no civilization can endure for long, regardless of its basic structure. But there has never been an America before, and there has never been an American Constitution before. America has long been the exception to many rules, and if we are still a serious people, we can prove these rules wrong as well.
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