R.I.P. America

I remember the last time I ached for my country like I do today.  It was a Tuesday morning, and I was sitting in my office watching television.  The date was September 11, 2001.  I watched fellow Americans leap hundreds of feet to their deaths to escape the flames.  My pain that morning was quickly overshadowed by anger, a desire for vengeance against the perpetrators of such evil.

Today is different.  I feel the same kind of pain and anguish for my country, but I'm all out of anger.  In its place is shame and resignation.  Shame that we have allowed this to happen to the magnificent gift we were given by men like Washington, Adams, Madison, and Jefferson.  Shame that the lives my children have in front of them are now colored by socialism and federal tyranny rather than freedom and personal responsibility.

I feel resigned to the idea that the statists have won.  There are too many people in our country who now expect the government to provide for them cradle to grave, too many who have learned what de Tocqueville warned about.......

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

Three months ago in this space, I wrote the following line...

 If the individual mandate is upheld by the court, then the great American experiment is over. 

And over it is.  Next Wednesday would have been the 236th birthday of that experiment, but we didn't quite make it.  Of course, tomorrow morning the map will still read "United States of America", but that is in name only.  I've heard all the pundits and analysts today down in the weeds of Obamacare, talking penalty versus tax, pre-existing conditions, employer responsibilities, rising premiums, blah blah blah.  

None of that crap matters one whit.  What matters is that the Supreme Court has said that the federal government can now tax you for not doing something.  The federal government can compel you to purchase a product.  It's health insurance today, what will it be tomorrow?  

Those of us who love the Constitution, and believe in the idea of limited government, have been lied to.  We have been told that we should fight for our ideals at the ballot box and in the court rooms.  I never really believed that, but I was willing to play along. Not any more. The federal government has become a living, breathing monster, one that will never allow itself to be defeated by the mere act of voting.  We must now realize that the fight for freedom will require more stringent measures, just as it did almost 236 years ago.

Happy Patriot's Day!

I know all these days of celebration can get confusing, what with Dear Leader issuing a Presidental Proclamation that 2 days ago was National Equal Pay Day, Dyngus Day was this month, National Talk Like A Pirate Day coming up in September, AARRGGHHH!  

Long-time readers know that I am a Founding Father aficionado.  We have talked about overlooked dates in our history before, read about Constitution Day here.  Today, April 19, is another such date.  It is known as Patriot's Day, not to be confused with the designation of September 11 as Patriot Day.  Patriot's Day marks the 237th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the initial engagements of the American Revolution.  

On April 19th, 1775, Emerson's "shot heard round the world" was fired at the Old North Bridge,   This was the first outbreak of open military conflict between Great Britain and the colonists.  It was the moment of conception for this great American experiment that President Obama is trying so hard to abort.  

The commander of the milita at Lexington, Captain John Parker, had this to say when British troops were sighted... "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they want a war let it begin here".  And begin there it did.  

Imagine the fears, passions, and spirit  those revolutionaries carried in their souls during the long, bloody war for independence.  None of them asked to become Founding Fathers of a new nation.  They were "just" men of honor, achievement, and principle, who found themselves and their communities suffering intolerably from the oppression of a central government.  They came together, defeated the most powerful nation on the planet, and established a republic that became mankind's greatest hope.  

They knew what Edmund Burke knew...."All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing".  Instead of doing nothing, they acted, and the bell of freedom begin to ring.  

This Patriot is ashamed at what we have allowed our country to become.  I wonder how it all happened, but I bet Edmund Burke knows.  Mostly I wonder this.... When and where will the NEXT "shot heard round the world" be fired?