There Is None Better

Govern-ments can be placed roughly into two broad classes: those that trust their citizens and those that do not. Governments that trust their citizens want to include them fully in the decision-making process. Governments that do not trust their citizens want to exclude them entirely from the decision-making process. This is because the leaders of oppressive regimes are elitist who always believe they know what is best for ordinary people like you and me. And besides, oppression is a highly profitable enterprise for the oppressor and his gang of cronies and henchmen.

It is only natural, however, for human beings to want some level of control over their destiny, so most normal people, if given a choice, will gravitate toward the former class of government.

Of all the democratic governments in the world there is none better than the one we fortunate Americans have inherited. Our government not only provides mechanisms for real citizen involvement but it also offers us a great many personal freedoms. And what’s most remarkable of all is that the privileges and freedoms we enjoy and often take for granted are guaranteed in writing.

But liberty is not sustained merely through the preservation of a few old documents at the nation’s capital. It also requires the people to faithfully preserve the spirit that brought those documents into existence in the first place. That spirit consists of three essential human qualities: a sense of self-worth, self-confidence and self-determination. It is a spirit that boldly proclaims to government: “We made you. You are our creation. You were created to serve us, not the other way around. Stay in your place.”

Make no mistake about it, masters will always rise up, even in a democratic society, if citizens exhibit even the slightest willingness to be controlled and dominated. The weak and timid invite oppressors and oppression. In fact, one might go so far as to say that the weak and timid form the fertile, nurturing soil in which oppressors take root and grow. On the other hand, a nation of assertive, self-reliant citizens make a poor soil for the production of tyrants.

If we wish to remain free, if we wish to preserve the government we inherited and are so fortunate to have, we must rekindle and hold fast to that special spirit that blazed so fiercely in the hearts and souls of our freedom-loving ancestors.

On this Thanksgiving day, let us be truly grateful for the freedoms so liberally provided to us under our unique system of government, and let us offer up a sincere prayer to God to bless our land and all its citizens.

Political Pollution

I am told by Al Gore and others that our planet is warming. This may be so. The planet has a long history of climatic ups and downs. As recently as 13,000 years ago, for example, a massive lake covered a large portion of what is currently northwestern Nevada. It’s gone now, but the area it once occupied is presently populated with thousands of happy, thriving people. And many of them do not know or care that they are living on the bottom of a dried up lake.

I am fully aware that the pollutants we daily spew into the atmosphere are damaging our planet. The stuff that comes out of the tailpipes of cars, after all, is poison. But what is also troubling to me is the noxious stream of virulent sludge that oozes every day from the mouths of unprincipled, power-hungry politicians. That too is poison. That too is deadly. We must understand that misguided, opportunistic politicians are every bit as dangerous to the world as climate change is. And personally, I’d rather take my chances with the unknowns associated with climate change.

Even if I thought politicians had the best of intentions, which I don’t, most of them are clearly a bunch of bumbling idiots, ill-equipped and ill-suited for taking on any serious or important tasks. They have tried for 75 years to manage the nation’s economy. And look where we’re at. Now they want us to turn climate management over to them. What do these pompous fools take us for?

If we are sincerely interested in survival, what we must recognize is that global warming is not our most immediate problem. Our most immediate concern is to understand, appreciate, revive and preserve our great nation’s heart--the Constitution. Nowhere else in the world does such an extraordinary and precious document exist. To preserve it, we will need to participate fully and faithfully in every upcoming election, and methodically cull from high office our most toxic politicians, those who are steadily and maliciously injecting vile, anti-American poisons into our political system. These polluters must be quickly and systematically replaced, replaced with true, freedom-loving Americans, principled men and women who cherish America’s rich and noble heritage. Then, when we have cleaned up the filth that has been defiling and destroying our political environment, we can begin addressing our climate problems, and do it in a manner that preserves our national sovereignty and keeps us from being swallowed up by a rapacious and despotic leviathan.

We simply cannot permit our political leaders to continue violating and ignoring the ingeniously conceived political principles contained in our Constitution. We simply cannot permit our political leaders to continue transforming limited government into unlimited government. We simply cannot permit our political leaders to further contaminate and degrade our beloved and long-held political ideals. If we do, we’re setting ourselves up for a disaster, a disaster that will likely overtake us long before global warming does.

Remember the insightful words of Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Our Founders fully understood this critically important aspect of human nature. You see their understanding of it in nearly every paragraph of the Constitution. We, the current trustees of the United States of America, must never loose sight of what a valuable and irreplaceable national treasure our Constitution is. Our Constitution, carefully designed and crafted by wise men, is what makes our nation unique among all the nations of the world. Our Constitution is the vital barrier that stops oppressive and tyrannical influences from entering our democratic system of government.

If we continue to allow unscrupulous politicians to punch holes in it and break it down, our country will soon be like a world without an ozone layer.

Hey, that gives me an idea. I wonder if we could persuade Al Gore, with all his political might and expertise, to get involved in a “save” the Constitution campaign?

Well, it was just a thought.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. Our veterans are the courageous men and women who, over the many decades, have been called upon to settle our nation’s most serious disagreements with foreign powers, disagreements that often were the result of a poorly formulated foreign policy and defective diplomacy. When the faulty work of diplomats and politicians breaks down and fails, as it frequently does, the armed forces are called into the breech to lay their precious lives on the line and to put things right again. But the men and women of the armed forces, unlike the politicians, are expected to succeed, for their supreme effort constitutes the final roll of the dice. Upon their skill, courage and determination hangs the nation’s fate.

Consider what took place immediately following the end of World War I, the “war to end all wars.” When that protracted struggle was won at great cost in human lives, a “peace” treaty was drafted by a collection of career politicians and diplomats from the conquering nations, men thought to be the most experienced and capable of the age, yet their treaty contained within it the seeds of the next war. In the ensuing years, further war seeds were heedlessly scattered and sown through a series of naïve disarmament agreements and severe cuts in military spending, cuts that left us wholly unprepared when war finally fell upon us. The war that came as a result of those tragic missteps is now referred to as World War II. World War II completely engulfed the very next generation of young Americans and consumed many of them. Aside from the cosmic cataclysm that gave birth to our planet, there never has been a greater upheaval.

During and following the Second World War, decisions were made by our political leaders that led us into the so-called Cold War, with notable and bloody flair ups in hotspots like Korea and Vietnam. And at this very moment, we are desperately locked in two savage foreign conflicts, one in Iraq, another in Afghanistan.

Today we pause briefly to salute those who have fought, and those who now are fighting, our nation’s wars. They, old soldiers and new soldiers alike, seldom question or debate the faulty diplomacy that placed them on the field of battle. All that matters to them is that their duly elected and appointed leaders called them to serve in a perilous hour, and to their everlasting credit, they valiantly and unhesitatingly answered the call.

Let us all pray that someday, in the not too distant future, our political leaders will develop the same sense of duty, honor and genuine patriotism that has always been so nobly and abundantly displayed in our brave fighting men and women.