Two Paths Diverged in a Wood

I am seeing more and more articles in papers, letters to the editor and writings in blogs comparing the current state of our nation to the times of the Revolutionary or Civil Wars. While I don’t think we have reached that degree of disagreement yet, there are some valid points and comparisons. And I am certainly not calling for a violent revolt or overthrow of our federal government. However, I do disagree with those who posit that such an eventuality could never happen here again. Or, that some States might choose separation in lieu of remaining in a socialist or fascist nation. In my estimation, human nature, emotions and passions have not changed in thousands of years. The same ideas and fears that launched those conflicts are still very real and very much alive today. As the writers of the Declaration of Independence related, we Americans are very tolerant and disposed to suffer rather than take hasty action. There is a point, though; at which something must be done. The United States has been slipping free from its constitutional moorings for decades due to the natural tendency of governments to amass more power and the refusal of the States to squash such efforts. We have suffered higher taxes, bloated deficit spending and ridiculous government regulation and intervention in business and the marketplace for far too many years. The current Obama administration has taken this effort to new heights with ferocious speed. We now have trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, government takeovers of banks and automobile companies, pay czars, diversity czars, insane Cap & Trade bills, an attempted takeover and socialization of our health care industry; in short nationalization of the private business and lives all American citizens. This is blatant fascism! I firmly believe that the current administration does not like the way the United States of America is constituted and seeks to completely remake American in its perverted image. This administration regards the Constitution as a bad joke perpetrated upon the American people. Seeing the States unwillingness to hold its feet to the constitutional fire, this administration essentially ignores the Constitution and its restrictions, laughs it off as an old, irrelevant, living, evolving, pliable document (written by white male slave owners) and ridicules anyone who actually still holds to its tenets. The philosophy in D.C. is that the federal government can do anything it wants to do and no one and nothing can stop it. If the Constitution gets in the way, trample and ignore it. After all, what are the consequences? Well, up to this point, none. If the Supreme Court (a bunch of political appointees with personal agendas) or the States won’t enforce the supreme rule of law upon the Congress and the President, what are the mere People to do? Thus, the stage is set for fascism, tyranny and ultimately, anarchy. Yes, the People elected this President and Congress; but with the expectation that they would act within their legally defined authority under the constraints of the Constitution. Now that we are beyond that point, we very quickly are becoming a nation of men, not laws. Don’t forget, we are a Constitutional Republic with democratically elected representatives, whose power and authority is bound by the limits of the Constitution. We are not a pure democracy; which always leads to the tyranny of the majority over the minority. When the highest elected officials of the land will not obey the most sacred and fundamental laws of our nation, why would they expect the People to act any differently (or better)? The question of 2010 is whether the ballot box will be able to stop and reverse this dangerous slide we have begun into fascism and tyranny. If a major reversal occurs in that election, followed by another in 2012, we may avert a constitutional disaster. That would require the undoing of decades of creeping lawless socialism in our federal government, regulations and statutes. This would amount to a bloodless coup to overthrow the Obama/Pelosi/Reid troika. If this juggernaut is not stopped at the ballot box, however; the path to secession movements or other action may fall into place. I fervently pray this does not happen.

“"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men." -Samuel Adams”