A Case for American Liberty: Rand Paul's CPAC Speech

Senator Rand Paul at CPAC: "[President Obama]’s got a pen, he’s got a phone, he doesn’t care what the law is. A tyranny will ensue, and we must stop this President."

As Rand Paul points out in his outstanding CPAC 2014 speech, our liberties are not respected by the Obama Administration, and their lawless actions must be stopped. Senator Paul (R-KY) fired up the CPAC audience, not simply by his speaking ability (which is considerable), but by the compelling content of his speech. It is one that should not be missed or overlooked by Americans who value liberty. The speech  deserves a hearing. Whoever you support for president or whatever your political affiliation, if you are someone who values our liberty, please listen.

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Obamacare: The Beginning of the End of American Liberty

Obamacare is not about health care, it is not about health insurance, it is not about helping the poor. It is about government control. This plan, for all its announced good intentions, and disclaimers about what it may lead to, is a Pandora’s box of evil consequences. It goes thoroughly against every good liberty-loving impulse of human nature and every decent American tradition of individual liberty and freedom. It is a plan by which essential liberty is to be removed and permanently replaced with government continually in your face, in your pocket and in control over you 24 hours a day. They lie when they say this is not true. They know that the so-called “myths” they are fighting are in fact the realities of their plan.

1. Under Obamacare, we must all be under some government-approved, government-controlled plan. We at least preliminarily, surrender our bodies to the government. Depending on what version of Obamacare is enacted, the full impact may come a little later, when government becomes both insurer and provider. The government will ultimately determine what can and cannot be done with and to our bodies, mostly in situations where there is no alternative and no appeal.

2. The “death panels” will become a reality. Since the government wants to be the single payer, the only way to hold down costs is to ration care. This is as plain as day, and being unable to discern this, a person must be considered lacking in skill related to this issue. Who gets rationed? Not the well and healthy. They cost very little. The elderly, the seriously ill, and the chronically ill will face the equivalent of death panels as bureaucratic “experts” decide their fate: denial or delay of treatment, or less effective (but less expensive) treatment. This is as certain as the law of gravity.

In some places in America, death panels are already a reality. The well-known story of the Oregon cancer patient, Barbara Ann Wagner, is a case in point. She was told that under their state health plan, no treatment was to be provided for her advanced cancer, although doctors wanted to use an expensive medicine. However, the state advised, they would pay for assisted suicide. At last, the maker of the medicine heard the story and provided the medicine to her at no cost. [1] Also, in the days when dialysis machines were just becoming available, community committees determined who could receive the government-controlled treatments, since machine time was limited. PBS had an interesting documentary on this called “Who Shall Live?”

People object that insurance companies are already rationing care. OK. People still have the right to pay for it themselves. Under Obamacare, this will not be the case. It’s possible a person might go to a foreign country for treatment. People are doing that quite a lot now to save money.

3. Since practically everything in life touches our health, the government will take unprecedented control over every aspect of it that they possibly can. We can already see the voracious appetite of liberal government types to rule over our literal appetite. No trans-fats, no sweets in the school vending machines, etc. Also, no smoking, no obesity, no this and no that. Nanny-state policies pretend to be for our good, but they are innately and incurably evil. Evil like murder, rape, and robbery are evil. The practitioners of these controls are not much better than criminals.

It is not unreasonable to compare Obama to Hitler. He even has his own “holocaust,” the abortion disaster, which he wants to promote further with the evil “Freedom of Choice Act.” But in terms of socialist “health care,” Germany can serve as his pattern. Hitler took the programs Bismarck started and used them to solidify government control over the everyday lives of the people. As you know, Hitler’s “health care” led directly to his eugenics program which also killed millions of people. The “undesirables” were systematically exterminated. Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is on record favoring the withholding of medical treatment from persons who are disabled. As noted above, government rationing (i.e., eugenics) will apply and there is no alternative.

It is interesting that Hitler’s eugenics program was inspired largely by America’s programs that were promoted by the Progressive movement and led to many involuntary sterilizations of people thought to be less fit for society. In Germany, Hitler simply took the next step and killed those people.

But if you don’t like the Hitler comparisons (although they are valid), you might try Mussolini, Stalin, or Darth Vader. Vader had a Death Star, Obama has Death Panels.
(As Mark Steyn pointed out on the Rush Limbaugh Show, the operative word is “panels,” that is, little bureaucratic committees that issue “rulings,” which must be obeyed and cannot be appealed.) These people will not be servants of the people, but rulers.

4. It is clear to me, looking at Obama’s total agenda as it has become known, that Barack Obama is a would-be fascist dictator. He wants America to be cut down to size economically and has taken steps to accomplish this. Witness the unprecedented levels of deficit and debt, and decades-high rates of unemployment. It is too late to blame George W. Bush. With Americans economically weakened, through taxes, unemployment, etc., they will be less able to resist and more tempted to look to the government for relief.
Which they won’t find. He has hoped to get his socialist-fascist program in place before his popularity dwindled too much, but, it is to be hoped, this will not happen. That is why he has claimed that it’s all a great “crisis” that must have immediate action, based only on his and a few cronies' statements. Instead of normal debate and discussion, he has tried to get his laws enacted under cover of darkness without public scrutiny. The public outcry has not allowed Obama to quite do this with the health care takeover.

Obama’s agenda items have been given the extra-fast-track treatment, but since this sort of broke down on the health care takeover effort, the president has taken to sending his thugs out to intimidate and beat up people for no worse offense than asking questions and expressing disapproval. Mussolini had his brownshirts, Hitler had his. Obama’s tend to wear blue shirts. Obama and the Democrats are in a political battle against the majority of the American people.

5. There should be no version of Obamacare enacted. Even if it’s an apparently watered-down version, it’s too much of a foot in the door. Republicans (and some Democrats) who vote for it are not likely to be back after the next election. The same with cap and trade. And they shouldn’t be back.

[1] http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102809.html

Reasserting Conservative Principles

When I say “conservatives,” I mean fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and national defense conservatives, all of whom have traditionally allied with the GOP, and conservatism is best represented by people who belong to all three types of conservatism.

Conservatives generally are, and should be, pro-life. Millions of babies, including whites and minorities, have been put to death in the womb, and some after they were born. This is a horrendous moral evil, and is disastrous in many ways. It desensitizes people to the kind of concern we should have for human life, and especially little life. When the president has opposed legislation that would require medical help for babies born after a failed abortion, we have an abominable example before us.

But beyond the profound moral failure that is abortion, it is also a costly economic fact. The generations that were supposed to pay for social security and medicare, etc. are largely not there because of abortion. And who knows what great discoveries and accomplishments are missing because the ones who would have made them are gone because of abortion. And how many mothers have suffered from having abortions?
Isn’t it a denial of the “right to life” the Declaration of Independence asserts?

Conservatives stand for individual liberty. They are not willing to sacrifice their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the great government (fascist, socialist) program of the left, which calls for renouncing self interest, cheerfully “volunteering” and “sacrificing” as the government may direct, and giving up rights that have been enjoyed for over two centuries in America.

These include (1) the right to be born once conceived, (2) the right to choose one’s own medical care and insurance, (3) the right to have the benefit of one’s earnings without confiscatory taxation, and (4) the right to choose not to support any labor union, political party, “community organizer” group or other group outside the proper realm of government. Also, (5) the right to speak, publish, broadcast, or otherwise promote one’s own point of view, political or otherwise and to read, view, and hear whatever one desires, without any government interference or harassment.

And (6) the right to believe and practice religion or not, as one’s conscience dictates, and one’s preferences and convictions guide, while respecting the same rights of others. The (7) right of self defense, and the individual right to keep and bear arms must also be maintained and protected. And all the other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, literally and definitely, not interpreted away by some collectivist authority. Conservatives insist upon, and are willing to defend these rights, confronting as necessary any who threaten them. These rights are not granted by government, but by God, and are not to be infringed.

As part of our liberty and constitutional rights, conservatives support free markets. We all know that free markets cannot mean perfect competition in many industries, but real competition and economic activity free from government control is the ideal. Government has the task of preventing and dealing with crime and abuse, and maintaining an environment which promotes free competition and trade. Government is not to take over or operate businesses in competition with the private sector.

Government ought to promote commerce and free trade by minimizing taxes and regulation. The free market has been shown consistently and in numerous examples to be the best economic form for general prosperity and freedom. No other system this side of the pearly gates comes close.

As suggested above, conservatives support limited government. Over the last seventy years or so, especially since the establishment of the Federal Reserve, then the New Deal, Great Society, etc., government has abandoned its constitutional limitations in many areas. American Progressivism promoted the idea of an activist government taking to itself the privileges of overbearing control of many things previously off limits. This peaked with World War I, but the activists tried to extend these controls beyond the war years. Warren G. Harding was elected largely because he opposed this, and the people were weary of Woodrow Wilson’s dictatorial control.

Wilson succeeded in making it a federal crime to criticize the government or the war effort. Harding’s first official act was to pardon Eugene V. Debs, who had been jailed for opposing a wartime draft.

In wartime, the government, with some justification, has sought to limit some freedoms, but usually went overboard, as in price controls during World War II. Some said that these controls worked well, but they worked well when the controlled price was in fact near the market price. Otherwise, there were unnecessary shortages. The gasoline shortages of the 1970’s were caused primarily by government price controls.

Conservatives believe in low taxes and responsible spending. It was said by someone that Republicans lost popularity when they “didn’t do what God put them on earth to do, that is, cut taxes.”

The Reagan tax cuts and later Bush tax cuts demonstrated their value, encouraging the 25-year economic recovery and leading to record tax revenues. Liberals pretend they can’t connect lower taxes to higher revenues, but the link is undeniable. Low taxes encourage economic activity, leading to higher employment, and more people paying taxes. Opposition to high taxes has two aspects, (1) the right of earners to keep their earnings, except for a reasonable amount to support legitimate government functions, and (2) the demonstrated value to the economy. Everyone prospers more when taxes are low.
Liberals can’t stomach the idea of very wealthy people not paying extremely high taxes. But it’s not poor people who provide the jobs or take risks that move the economy.

If taxes get too high, people have a disincentive to invest and hire. People and businesses begin to close down or leave the country. Many people and businesses are leaving California these days due to overwhelming taxes and government control. Yet the state government seems unable to believe this. And they themselves are responsible, and also the people who keep electing the tax and spend officials. The United States, under Obama’s agenda, is heading down a very similar path. The difference is that the U.S. can print money and California can’t. But even the printing press can’t supply the need because it all has to be repaid somehow. Or not, if it isn’t possible. What happens then?

Conservatives support a strong national defense, knowing that all our rights and prosperity are subject to suppression if we can’t maintain our sovereignty and protect our people. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!” Perhaps you have an opinion about the Obama Administration wanting to gut defense in terms of new weapon systems, and give up some missiles to hopefully impress Russia. And what about missile defense?
I would much rather spend on military systems and war costs than socialized medicine.

I believe most Americans support these conservative principles to a significant degree. To defeat the leftists in elections, the ideas of conservatism must be articulated, and there must not be a presentation of a simply watered-down liberalism, i.e., “we can run this socialized leftist government better than the liberals can.” That’s the formula for assured defeat.

Conservative principles, if followed, would greatly improve our economy and restore trust in our government and financial system. Also, it would help us to at least appreciate what has made America a great nation.

The Obama Administration now owns this awful economy. The President’s popularity is sagging. That’s why he wants to rush through his health care and cap and trade plans, allowing no time for scrutiny or debate. Again, we’re likely to see thousand-plus-page bills voted on without having been read (and maybe not even made available), much less posted on the web for the public to see. That’s the game plan. Will they succeed? If so, much more is on the way, and these two things alone are enough to sink our economy for years to come. But they’ll get even with those rich people.

Obama Cares So Deeply About … What?

Must we learn the hard way what Barack Obama’s intentions are? It should be painfully obvious by now that he is not particularly concerned with helping the economy. I think, rather, he’s trying to destroy it. And has “success” in his sights. Obama’s goals involve seizing as much power and control as possible, and redistributing as much wealth as possible. Once a good majority reaches non-taxpayer status, the remaining citizens can have their wealth taxed away to support the great fascist program. And there will be a majority willing to re-elect Barack, Biden, and their Congressional helpers. At least that’s what they seem to think.

1. The $800 billion dollar stimulus has thus far helped nothing. It is noted that only a small fraction of it has been spent so far, but it would be just as well, better even, if no more were spent at all. Now they’re talking Son of Stimulus which won’t help either, except for whatever benefit can be gained from pork projects and bridges to nowhere.

2. Cap and trade, if approved will be the biggest drain ever on our economy, not to mention our freedom. It will effectively “cap” any chance for economic recovery, probably for as long as it is in effect. As Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) observed, it could be called a stimulus bill for India and China. They are not going to allow these mindless restrictions and economy-destroying taxes, because they are trying to build their economies rather than tear them down.

The current employment situation is bad and getting worse. With cap and trade, we will see depression-era unemployment numbers and a steady exit of businesses to other countries, simply because they can no longer afford to stay in business here. Many of the ones that can’t move will simply shut down. Or maybe the government will take them over.

And all this activity, with its massive bureaucracy won’t help the climate one bit. The world of cap and trade is truly a fool’s paradise.

3. Health care and health insurance should not be the domain of the federal government when it comes to replacing private services. What is being proposed must lead to a single-payer government-controlled program with government eventually becoming the provider. If the government controls the insurance, they in effect control health care. The proposed plans seem to be comprehensive, placing all activity under some kind of government scrutiny if not direct control. As Mark Steyn pointed out on today’s Rush Limbaugh Show, an inefficient and unfair private system is far better than an inefficient and unfair government system, because under a private system, you can go somewhere else, but under a public system, you have to go where and when they tell you.

In health care, we are dealing with the most personal and intimate information. It has traditionally received a degree of privacy, protection, and choice. We may be about to give that up for a government system that has physical and decision-making control over our bodies. That is a serious and probably permanent surrender of freedom.

And people are worried about the government taxing our employer-provided health care benefits? That’s only a minor worry in the whole picture, but it is a problem. They’ll eventually be taxed out of existence and everyone will be on government health insurance, forcibly if necessary. “Competition” will be a forgotten concept in the health insurance field. Insurance companies will have to take up some other line of business. All of which is fine with Obama.

The hated pharmaceutical industry will be pressured to provide cheap medicine, which means they’ll have less money and less incentive to develop new medicines.

Oh, and cost? If you have some kind of coverage now, you will be paying more, since you’ll also be paying for a lot of other people’s insurance.

If you want to get treated for, say, a broken arm, you’ll be told when and where, probably put on a waiting list, restricted on any high-tech examining procedures (whatever your doctor might want to do), and all your records will be online for all and sundry to examine if they have the slightest connection with your medical care. Come to think of it, the North Koreans would probably be able to access it as well, along with your Social Security Number, etc., expert hackers that they are. If you’re old or chronically ill, look out for long delays and frequent denials of treatment.

Conclusion
The same folks that brought you Fannie and Freddie and FEMA are ready to offer you climate-saving cap and trade, plus cost-cutting health care insurance. And if you believe that, they might be willing to sell you a bridge somewhere in Brooklyn. Snake oil doesn’t sound all that bad by comparison.

Illustration: “Business Is Business”
From Squibs of California, Or, Every-day Life Illustrated by Palmer Cox, fig. 3, p. 171. This image is in the public domain. Found at http://books.google.com/books?id=Ri8PAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4

Barack Obama: Thoroughly Statist Politician

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” – Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

I have referred to Barack Obama as a fascist, even calling him Barack “Benito” Obama. I suppose that may be counterproductive and taken as simply an insult, when my wish is to show how the Obama Administration has apparently set out, with whatever motivations, to systematically destroy much of America’s social and political structure and free market and replace it with something they might think is more fair and equitable, but looks suspiciously like totalitarian and socialist things that have been tried and have failed before. At any rate, the Constitution, already seriously stretched, is being pushed toward the breaking point as the federal government in all branches far exceeds its constitutionally permitted powers.

Individual freedom is now under its greatest threat in a long time in the United States. Other than in times of world war, we have seldom seen such a broad based assault on personal liberty. Maybe it’s inappropriate for me to call it “fascist,” but it certainly fits the term “statist.” You may read Ayn Rand, or Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny to get a good idea of what statism is. Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism points out fascistic features of the Woodrow Wilson Administration, American progressivism, FDR’s New Deal, etc.

“The Fascist State organizes the nation, but it leaves the individual adequate elbow room. It has curtailed useless or harmful liberties while preserving those which are essential. In such matters the individual cannot be the judge, but the State only.”
– Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile [1]

That said, in what ways is Obama a thoroughgoing statist?
He pursues statist corporate takeovers and has succeeded in taking control of various commercial entities (auto makers, banks, insurance companies, etc.)
He is very sensitive to criticism and works forcefully to stop it.
He wants the government (i.e., himself) to dictate as many daily life activities of the American people as possible. The following items illustrate this. In many instances, the matter is nearly complete. Others represent the logical result of plans already in motion. Obama and the leftists in government control or want to control these items (partial listing):

Your home, your TV, your thermostat, your building code, your toilet tank, your water, electricity and gas, your pets, your landscape, your mortgage …
Your car, what you can and can’t buy, who you can buy from (including what dealer is still around to sell you a car), how much gas mileage it must get, quantity and type of emissions it can have . . .
Your travel plans …
Your healthcare, what procedures you can and cannot have, how much they should cost, who can and cannot perform them, when they will be available, who will be paying, what kind of insurance you may purchase or be forced to purchase, which and what kind of medical providers you may see and when…
Your sports, baseball’s steroid problems, the BCS bowl situation …
Your exercise requirements at school, work, and elsewhere …
Your nutrition, how much and what kinds of food you can buy, where and when you may buy them, how you may cook and eat them, what your and your kids’ body mass index must be …
What religious activities you may and may not engage in, what religious beliefs may be construed as “hate” …
What you may say and must not say, about what and whom, especially with reference to what may be deemed “hate speech” …
You will lose tax incentives to contribute to charities, but may be forced to provide “community service” if the 13th Amendment can successfully be overcome.
Your guns, your right of self defense (It shouldn’t be too difficult to eventually get the Second Amendment reinterpreted.)
Your reading material, radio programming, entertainment (Some variant of the “Fairness Doctrine” is being attempted)
Your bank accounts, 401(K) account, IRA (There have already been many changes, and more are planned, some of which could wipe out your investment accounts, remove pre-tax status, or replace stocks and bonds with new government “securities”)
Your job, determining whether your employer is a winner or a loser in the economy, based on things other than market forces. (Markets are subject to serious government meddling and manipulation.)

He has a program of maximum spending, that will achieve very little good and will cost trillions of dollars, burdening this and future generations, and causing massive inflation, and threatening our national security. (Cap and Trade, the “Stimulus,” Healthcare “Reform,” Financial Institution regulation, Fannie and Freddie expansions, etc.)

He seems to want the U.S. to become a Third World country, with the middle class being economically wiped out, they and the upper economic groups having their wealth confiscated to pay for his fascist program. When the wealth runs out, having been squandered by government, there will be a privileged few (political class and their supporters) with others being reduced to subsistence level standard of living. That seems to be the long-term plan. Maybe a few decades, assuming the leftists can stay in power or at least wield influence. Remember, Obama’s mentors are Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, and other radicals. His style is after the Chicago political boss methods.

Even though some people (for now) think he’s going to make things better for America, there’s often going to be a “crisis” to provide an excuse for failure and an occasion for even more expansion of government power. We have seen several examples of this since Obama took office. (At some point, they won’t be able to blame Bush any more.)

We now have the Census Bureau politicized and moved to the White House. We will, in effect, have ACORN and Black Panthers working the elections to defraud and intimidate as needed in critical areas. There will be armies of leftist lawyers to question any election of a conservative where the vote was at all close. (We saw some of this in the 2008 elections.)

The statists will do their best to destroy any effective conservative candidates they can, by investigation, harassment, and slander. They will attempt to criminalize any actions by authorities the leftists don’t like … (Think Sarah Palin and Scooter Libby.)

Obama appoints “czars” for many aspects of his program, and they are not subject to Senate confirmation and appear to be accountable only to Obama.

The free market has already taken quite a beating under Obama. It is conveniently blamed for problems that were primarily caused by government misconduct, meddling and incompetence, and not the free market. That is the statist tactic. We’ll see a lot more of it if Obama gets his way. The Administration has already asked for authority to seize any financial institutions as the government deems necessary…

Benito Mussolini’s motto: “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

I’m getting to be a little suspicious of the government. I don’t know anyone’s inner motivations, but we can evaluate their words and actions. Even if they have the purest motives, they are leading our country on a destructive and dangerous path.

“America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.”
– President Warren G. Harding

Maybe the Tea Party movement and the next two election cycles can influence the government in the right direction. But it may take quite a while to restore the Constitution to its proper place.

[1] The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932, at www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm, a website that seeks to educate for the purpose of promoting democracy.

Affirming America's Spiritual Heritage - II

“These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.” — G. K. Chesterton [1]

This quotation is exemplified by Barack Obama (assuming he is a Christian), who said the U.S. no longer considers itself a Christian nation.

Since its founding, the United States has always had people of various or no religious affiliation, but the nation as a whole has considered itself Christian. This does not mean that people aren’t free to practice whatever beliefs they wish or that they are forced to observe Christian teachings. On the other hand, our laws and founding documents have been written with Biblical principles in mind.

When Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced his spiritual heritage resolution, he drew criticism, as evidenced by comments in a Virginia newspaper web site suggesting that he is trying to force his religion on everyone and is a dangerous man who ought to keep silent, or at least be attacked. Any mention of God or Christ or Christian faith in the halls of government is an act of courage these days, it seems.

An article by David Barton at WallBuilders.com shows that Presidents Adams, Wilson, Hoover, Truman, Nixon and others referred to America as a Christian nation. Thomas Jefferson helped establish and attended weekly Sunday worship services in the U.S. Capitol. Chief Justice Earl Warren, hardly a right-wing conservative, said (as Attorney General of California), “I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country.”[2]

The organized and busy effort to drive religion out of the public square has sprung up in America mainly in the last half century. Some of its attention-getting efforts have focused on nativity displays, school prayer cases, and displays of the Ten Commandments. All these items have come under fire, yet they represent no threat to anyone’s freedom and have traditionally been around with little or no complaint. David Barton, quoted by Gary DeMar, wrote, “In fact, the Ten Commandments are more easily found in America’s government buildings than in her religious buildings, thus demonstrating the understanding by generations of Americans from coast to coast that the Ten Commandments formed the basis of America’s civil laws.”[3]

Space does not permit the listing of many other examples showing that Christianity is a vital part of the fabric of our nation. Christian and Biblical references abound in our official documents. Historical revisionists try to show that religion played no more than a minor role in our nation’s founding, and that the founders were not as Christian as we might think. The facts do not support this. True, not all were orthodox Christians. They represented various denominations. But almost all recognized the value of faith and Biblical morality. And they recognized the value of religious liberty.

In his introduction to his film The Ten Commandments (1956), seen on video and DVD editions, Cecil B. DeMille stated, “The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God’s laws or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Rameses. Are men the property of the State or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today.”[4]

Notes:
[1] The Illustrated London News 08/11/1928, quoted at http://chesterton.org/acs/quotes.htm
[2] David Barton, “Is President Obama Correct: Is America No Longer a Christian Nation?,” April 2009, at http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=23909.
[3]Gary DeMar, America's Christian Heritage, Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003, page 74.
[4]Ibid., page 69.

Sound the Alarm?

This is a joke I read several years ago.
Instructions in an Elevator:
In Case of Emergency
1. Do not be alarmed.
2. Press ALARM button.

That is something like the attitude I have about the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress. We have a government situation today which to me seems very alarming, but I don’t want to be an alarmist. It seems that if anyone calls attention to the scary and unconstitutional things going on, they’re accused of overreacting or just following some right-wing leader and not thinking for themselves.

I think the “right-wing leaders” are being very kind and patient toward Obama, much more so than he deserves. A right-wing leader as the term is used here refers to any non-socialist commentator who happens to be in the public eye. Based on Obama’s DHS report, I would probably qualify, certainly not as a “leader,” but as a right-wing extremist, though I certainly don’t consider myself extreme. But I have to consider the Obama government extreme compared to anything we’ve seen since Woodrow Wilson. Even FDR wasn’t as much of a fascist and anti-traditionalist as Obama. In a recent post, I listed 17 things that Obama has done/is doing to America that are destructive and cast doubt on our future. All of these things are still in play and I have noticed no improvement. In fact, a few more have come up, and there are one or two I forgot to list.

1. “We are no longer a Christian nation,” said Barack. All evidence suggests we are a mostly Christian nation. We are not yet anywhere near being an Islamic nation or an atheistic nation. To pander to his Islamic audience, Obama is ready to dump some important American traditions and customs, and compound the error with criticisms and apologies. See the preceding post for some information refuting Obama’s claim.

2. Obama wants “comprehensive immigration reform,” in effect an amnesty for illegal immigrants, and of course they must be provided with all welfare benefits, education, medical care. etc. This type plan was firmly rejected over George W. Bush’s advocacy. This time around, we’ll see. Like many of the Obama proposals, this one would be costly and practically irreversible. And irresponsible. Eventually this would lead to many more millions of immigrants and probably a “come one, come all” policy toward Mexico.

3. The Administration (through the FDA) is taking over the tobacco industry. Another Obama power grab. See The Silent Majority blog (link elsewhere on this page) for an excellent article about this (“Another Industry Up in Smoke”).

4. Obama wants to study ways to bulldoze parts of 50 U.S. cities. The cleared land would be “returned to nature.” This may sound good to some who are concerned about urban blight, but it is one of the most truly alarming ideas yet proposed. Where does Obama get the authority to do this? Whatever happened to the Tenth Amendment? the Fifth Amendment? This kind of thing is the business of dictators and despots.

5. They’re coming after our pocket knives. An attempt is being made by Customs to classify many common and legal pocket knives as “switchblades,” to prohibit them from being sold or imported or, presumably, possessed. This is a serious breach of Second Amendment rights. I wonder what their thinking is on pea-shooters. Read about this at http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49527

6. The Supreme Court, according to Obama, should use “empathy” in making decisions. But actually, they should go by the law. This reminds me of something that happened to one of my relatives recently. She had an ongoing dispute with her electricity provider over the fact that they went months without sending a bill, then finally sent a huge one – after numerous phone calls and letters over those months agreeing to get it straightened out, which they wouldn’t follow through on. Finally she was told, “We don’t go by what’s written down, we go by what we told you.” To which she could have said, “I’ll check with my lawyer and see what he would go by.”

Judge Sotamayor, like other liberal judges, would go by “empathy” rather than the letter of the law. Judges, especially at the Supreme Court level should focus on the law and not the persons involved in the case. They should not twist the law in order to get their desired outcome. The facts of their cases have already been decided at the trial level. The Supreme Court’s concern is the law.

Alarming?
Not all these items qualify as “alarming.” Some are simply objectionable. But when we take Obama’s program thus far as a whole, it is truly frightening. Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, objecting to Obama’s stiffing of secured creditors, including Indiana state pension funds and construction funds, in the GM takeover said it well: It’s “shock-and-awe statism.” Most of Obama’s agenda is based on “crisis” situations that supposedly need to be resolved very quickly so as not to allow much discussion or analysis.

My conclusion is that Obama is concerned with the economy mainly as a PR issue and it is entirely subordinate to the business of wrecking America’s political and social structure and free market private sector and replacing it with his fascist ideal. We’ll be working for the state’s great program and not for our own interests, thereby surrendering our freedom, property rights, and economic opportunities. In other words, it is slavery. God help us to somehow defeat this before it’s too late. It’s time to sound the alarm!