How Did We Get To This Place?

I have been hearing several very credible people saying that our federal government has been violating the Constitution for a very long time, that it didn’t just start in the last year.  And it has been done with both Democrat and Republican administrations.  Of course, this latest push with the new administration has been…to my mind, a gigantic leap in  government interference in private business in the banking and auto industry, thereby increasing the scope, size and power of government over the private sector.  Next on the president’s agenda is energy and health care.  It is said by would-be reformers that if something is done slowly, it is less noticed, but I have to say, president Obama is certainly trying to turn this country’s free market system 180 degrees in another direction…and is trying to do it in a very short time, probably because he knows his time to do it is short.  And that is why there is such a severe reaction from the people.  We were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though some of us knew he was the most liberal senator in the senate.  Now the benefit of the doubt will no longer be forthcoming, because it has become quite clear what his agenda is.

But to go back to my initial question…I got my history book out and started doing some reading.  I suggest all citizens do the same…brush up on  history a bit.  I wanted to go back to Woodrow Wilson’s time.  There is a fairly new book out about him and I have been hearing some things about his ideas of government that I wanted to explore. For now I have to content myself with my old high school history book which has  limited  information  and online sources  until I can get the book.

It appears that the ideas we are lately seeing pushed on us have been around for a very long time.  Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt all tried to implement some of these ideas of government taking a larger role in the American life and economy, while strengthening power over its citizens.  Franklin Roosevelt even tried to replace the Supreme Court because he knew they would not go along with some of his “progressive” ideas!  He was stopped in that endeavor.  I was surprised to learn that during the early 20th century there were lots of Americans who were enthralled with Stalin and Communism, with Mussolini and Fascism.  They even visited the U.S.S.R. and came back and reported on how wonderful Stalin’s government was.  Of course, that was until both dictators started murdering millions of their own people.  Many of these formerly enthusiastic supporters  were horrified and disillusioned by these acts.  But some weren’t.  Some paid it no mind, preferring their allegiance to the ideas promoted by these regimes and denying what these ideas might lead to. (Definition of insanity:  doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.)

I suppose the idea of revolution has been around forever.  In the 60’s there was plenty of talk of it going on in some places.  I was just a grade school/middle school girl living a sheltered farm life when the hippies were staging protests, burning the flag, and getting high.  Yeah, I came of age and went to higher education through the drug filled 70’s.  I can’t say that I ever met a political radical of the likes of a Bill Ayers though.  I never had friends like that, that talked of overthrowing the government.  I can’t remember being around people who found fault with the freedoms of our country. Of course, I didn’t live in Chicago either.  Call me square if you like.  I guess that’s why today, in these times, I’m appalled to learn that for the whole last century there were actually people wanting and plotting and working for the actual demise of this nation, the demise of our systems of government and economy.  And now, it seems, we have elected a president with an administration that thinks this way.  David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager and advisor, is considered by some to be a “red diaper” baby due to his parents’ association with communists writing for a leftist newspaper.  He certainly grew up in a household wholly unlike mine.  I suppose that’s why I’m surprised to learn these things.

I just finished reading Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.  Jonah records this radical history from it’s beginnings in the late 1800’s to this point.  The book is fairly meaty with lots of terminology I have had to learn, since until recently I have been uneducated to the meanings of many sociological terms.  I probably missed some things in high school.

And here is where I think the problem lies:  the average American has been probably living just like me…unaware of this war going on in the background/underground.  Most Americans are busy raising families, working two jobs in a family, and trying to maintain and  get ahead financially, so much so, that they have been unable to focus on larger, national issues.  Sure, they may get educated around election time, enough to go and hopefully cast a somewhat informed vote.  But they then return home to continue life as before, never to play a part again until the next election.  And so all of these years, while most of us were working, paying taxes and living the things endowed by our Creator, that of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we were almost completely unaware of the insidious evil working behind the scenes to destroy those cherished American values.  Looking over the past 100+ years of the history of this movement, it almost seems to be conspiratorial in nature, steadily growing in intensity and power until today all I can see is the vast and overwhelming corruptness of our federal government in entirety, and my state government in particular.  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand portrays it so succinctly…cronyism and corruption ruling the day, and there is no one to stop it. Anyone who tries is crushed.  The Constitution is trashed and no one pays it any mind; it is no longer relevant.

So while a great many of us lived our lives and did what was right each day, our nation has arrived at a crisis point in time.  For me personally, it is definitely a wake up call.  There is plenty of blame to go around.  Selfishness and deception caused people not to become involved.  But we thought government was there for our good, right?  What reason was there to be constantly watching them?  At one time we mostly trusted and believed that our leaders knew what to do and would do it, except on those rare occasions when one would be caught in wrongdoing.  Now it seems the only way to get someone to pay their taxes in leadership, is to nominate them for the president’s cabinet! And of course the standards and consequences are different for them and “us”. Lately I’ve become acutely aware of the graft, corruption and misspending of tax monies in my own township and county.  These things ought not to be!  Say disenfranchisement three times very fast.

I guess I have to say that perhaps government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer exists.  If the people aren’t involved in it, it disintegrates into corruption.  President Obama fires independent Inspector Generals at will when they start touching his friends, and in violation of the law.  As long as corrupt government officials keep lining their own pockets while simultaneously killing businesses that provides jobs, who in his right mind would invest in the economy?  Barney Frank and others have plans already to spend returning TARP funds (taxpayer money) to create a new housing bubble and congress just can’t stop itself from giving corrupt partisan groups like ACORN taxpayer money to keep them alive. Since when are taxpayers required to fund groups working for the demise of the American system, by rigging elections and other mischief of intimidating community organizing? Who okayed that? I could go on listing more.  We are so far off course, I pray to God we can get back.

There is hope…there is a growing movement among the people to take back the nation away from the corrupt profiteers who pretend to be our leaders doing work not for, but against the people.  These pretend leaders should be tried for treason as well as their fiscal corruptness.  In the words of one patriot, “WE ARE COMING FOR YOU”.  I’m just sayin’…