Posted by
Recreational Ranter on Saturday, August 30, 2008 4:11:35 PM
I think we're done here.
America as we know it is crumbling, not primarily from external threats, but from the rot at the very center. I have been plagued by these thoughts for some time now, feeling as if I'm watching two trains on the same track, obliviously bearing down on one another, throttles wide open. I am equally plagued by the thought that I'm succumbing to obsessive, doom-and-gloomism, sounding more and more like an Eeyore. The problem is, I'm in good company. All too many friends and acquaintances whom I respect are seeing some of the same things - and are arriving - disturbingly - at the same conclusions.
Our government, especially at the Federal level, is out of control. Regardless of Democrat or Republican monniker next to the name, DC is hell-bent on increasing both power and profits at We-the-People's expense. The Constitution? A collection of some nice, quaint thoughts whose form they make a show of honoring, but the substance? Let's just say that for the last 140 years or so our Federal masters have increasingly ignored, broken, and flouted the compact of the Founders'. Madison and Jefferson's state sovereignty, strict-constructionism lost; Hamilton's (And brought to fuller fruition courtesy of the likes of Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR) vision of the strongly centralized, imperial, and mercantilistic leviathan we have today won.
We are more offended now by our government than our forebears were under King George and Parliament.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Education, the Fed, $700 billion in debt (Held largely by China, no less!), open borders, over extension overseas . . . (pant! pant!) All of these are unconstitutional or the result of unconstitutional programs and policies of our dear Federal Government! And you and I - not to mention our grandkids - are saddled with the bill with no end in sight.
And I'm not even going to start on the moral decay of our society with the attacks on Natural Law, represented by such things as abortion, homosexuality, euthenasia, etc.
As impressive a VP choice as Sarah Palin represents, I have no hope in Washington, D.C. Of course Barack Obama is no friend to anything I value, morally or constitutionally, being a corrupt insider of machine politics and a Marxist; Joe Biden the same! John McCain's record is marginally better - yes, I understand he's been better than 'Bama on abortion, but the fact that he even floated that trial balloon regarding a pro-choice pick for VP leaves me cold. And let's not get started on the justices he voted to approve (e.g. Ginsberg and Breyer). He's all too eager to compromise on the un-compromiseable for the sake of getting legislation through.
I spouted the "lesser of two evils" mantra for awhile, but I'm coming to the realization that that's a false dichotomy; there are far better candidates out there who respect Natural Law and the Constitution, namely Chuck Baldwin and Ron Paul (How I regret my past rejection of his candidacy!). "But they don't have a chance!" you say. If indeed we only had two choices come November, you might be right. But we do have better choices; if they don't have a decent chance, it's because too many of us have given up on them and given our unqualified support to the Republican Party.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not holding my breath for either Baldwin or Paul, but I also don't have any hope that we will solve our nation's problems via the Federal Government. It's plumb broke and past fixin'!
I do see signs of hope, though. When Gov. Perry basically told Washington and the U.N. to pound sand in the Medellin execution case, I sensed the stirrings of our Founders' original idea of state sovereignty. God bless Texas!!! I read more and more about folks supporting local economy and agriculture. And I see the serious discussion of secession rising again as a viable alternative, and not just from the South! Get online and view the Middlebury Institute's website (based in Vermont!), or DixieNet.org. Lew Rockwell's Libertarian website, lewrockwell.com, has wonderful articles and columns, many from the Mises Institute. While there, read the likes of Thomas DiLorenzo, Clyde Wilson, Thomas Woods, or Paul Gottfried et al.
As a Christian, I understand my ultimate hope is not in any form of worldly government, but I want to avoid the equal error of many of my fellow evangelicals that it's all gonna burn anyway! We're still here on this earth with a Great Commission to accomplish and a "garden to tend". We are to be salt and light until the Trump. That means to me that we have to do our best to work for a just and free society.
Washington's done! It may take a little time for things to start falling apart - although it could disintegrate faster than you might think - but its finish is sure.