Requiem for a Republic-Part 3

By William L. Garvin

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”  Abraham Lincoln

When you look at the leading contenders for the presidency, it is difficult not to ask: “Is this the best that we can do?”  Did the devolution start when candidates started playing sax on television talk shows and answering questions about whether they wore boxers or briefs?  Did it start when being cool took precedence over being competent?  Did it start when charisma replaced character?  Was it because we became involved in nation building in countries that prefer Neanderthal social policies?  Did it bottom with a president engaging in sordid sexual relations in the oval office and then blatantly lying about it on national television?  Or was it when emotions became paramount to reason and rhetoric superseded rationale?  Was it all of the above or none of the above?  Maybe it’s not them; maybe it’s us….

Thomas Jefferson noted that “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”  Apparently, fewer and fewer people should be trusted in contemporary times.  If you think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court, you can’t be trusted.  If you don’t know who the vice-president is, you can’t be trusted.  If you don’t know how legislation becomes law, you can’t be trusted.  If you think a president increasing the national debt by $4 trillion is “unpatriotic” but think it’s okay if “your president” runs it up by $9 trillion, you can’t be trusted.  If somebody chalks “Trump 2016” on a sidewalk on your campus and you are “traumatized” or “terrorized” and have to run to your “safe space’ where you demand prosecution of the “aggressors,” you can’t be trusted.  If you think it’s “okay” for a president to release thousands of felons who have been convicted and imprisoned by a jury of their peers, you can’t be trusted.  If you think it’s “okay” for a governor to give 206,000 felons voting rights solely by executive order, you can’t be trusted.  Seriously, prisoners who have committed crimes against society are now being given the right to elect the people who define the crimes against society?  If you think it’s okay for attorney generals to investigate “global warming deniers” then you must think it was okay for Lois Lerner and her IRS cabal to target conservative political groups and you can’t be trusted.  At least the attorneys will be happy since the 31,487 scientists (which includes 9,029 PHDs) who have challenged anthropomorphic global warming will now have to hire legal representation for defense of their right to think and disagree.

One should always remember the words of John F. Kennedy: “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs.  Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”  One should also remember Dwight David Eisenhower: “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”  And what about when Ronald Reagan noted that “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives” and “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many people are added.”  With record numbers of people receiving food stamps and in poverty, with record numbers of people leaving the work force, fewer and fewer are in the position of having to support more and more and their ever-increasing entitlements. Thomas Jefferson also noted that “Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” 

Why is this happening?  As George Washington said: “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”  Politicians of all stripes have concocted a system of political convenience to secure their own survival and the public be damned!  That’s why Trump and Sanders both resonate in their condemnation of the “corrupt” and “rigged” systems and the ability of rich entities such as labor unions, the Chamber of Commerce, George Soros and the Koch brothers to wield disproportionate influence.  Trump has always bought access and Hillary has always sold it.  Two-thirds of America thinks Hillary is a liar, dishonest, and untrustworthy but Democrats will vote for her anyway.  The only candidate with higher unfavorability ratings than Hillary is Donald.  So the question remains, is this the best that we can do?  If so, it’s goodbye freedom, goodbye America!

Requiem for a Republic-Part 2

By William L. Garvin

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Last week the American left clearly showed that they are willing to allow transgender men into women’s bathrooms thereby subjecting women and girls to potential risk.  If you think this is hypothetical or nonsensical speculation, the University of Toronto has already experienced abuse. The left also now portrays the corporate support for their position as “brave” and “heroic.”  Weren’t these same companies greedy, evil, exploitive one-percenters just a week ago?  All of a sudden, the enemy of my enemy is my friend!

This hypocrisy is typical of far too many on the left.  As has been frequently noted, they will tolerate anything but dissent.  Kirsten Powers, a liberal Democrat, has an entire chapter (“Intolerance 201: Free Speech for Me but not for Thee”) in her book THE SILENCING: How the Left is Killing Free Speech devoted to this subject.  Professors and small groups of leftist university students have successfully shut down and eliminated conservative speakers and conservative ideas from many campuses.  Powers quotes Michael Bloomberg as remarking that “…conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species.” The concept of “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is as passé in academia as “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”

This censorship, intolerance and intellectual schizophrenia can be seen in full force at Donald Trump’s campaign events.  Like him or loathe him, there is no doubt Trump is a modern political phenomenon and draws huge crowds that want to hear what he has to say.  In Chicago and elsewhere, he also draws large numbers of protestors.  True to the form of the Occupy “movement”, Black Lives Matter, and other anarchic gatherings, they are not peacefully assembling but deliberately stifling the rights of others to participate in our political process, to avail themselves of freedom of their political speech and to petition for redress of grievances against the current administration.  Many of the anti-Trump forces complained that his rhetoric “incites violence.”  However, where are the Trump storm troopers goose stepping all over the Bernie, Hillary, and Ted rallies?  It doesn’t happen.  The violence and confrontations come from protestors and outside agitators at the Trump rallies.  Trump’s supporters are threatened, cursed, given the finger and have their signs grabbed and ripped apart by rabid forces.  Protestors shout that “their voices are being heard” but seem incredibly oblivious to the fact that they are silencing others and denying them their God-given and Constitutional rights.

Trump is also accused of being “vulgar” in his speech.  Trump is Emily Post in comparison to the language being used by the protestors.  By the way, the epithets scribbled on your signs in Spanish makes them no less obscene.  What is actually obscene is the inability of protestors to articulate exactly what and why is the motivation for their antics.  Kierkegaard noted that “People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have, for example, freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation.”  This should probably be combined with Plato’s observation that “An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”

Our national debt is over $19 trillion and well on its way to twenty despite record tax revenues; Russia is buzzing our ships with fighter planes; Iran still chants “death to America-death to Israel”; North Korea continues testing long range missiles; terrorist activity is increasing around the globe; the Middle East is a disaster; we have record numbers of people on food stamps and out of the work force; and our immigration policies and border security is ineffective.  It’s time for problem solving not giveaways.  It’s time for free and open discussion of ideas.  It’s time for character not personality.  It’s time for competence not charisma.  It’s time to carefully evaluate all the alternatives before it’s too late!  Stand up or bow down!

“America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln

    

Requiem for a Republic

By William L. Garvin

Abraham Lincoln presciently noted that “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”  If we carefully survey our political scene, both macro and micro, our republic may be ending, “…not with a bang but a whimper.”

The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….”  Let’s fast forward to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Much abuse and hypocrisy surrounds these simple statements in our current culture.  If you are two Muslim truck drivers and refuse to drive a truck carrying alcohol because of “sincerely held religious beliefs,” the Federal Equal Employment Commission will jump in with both feet, with full force and fury and extract a $240,000 award from their employer.  However, if you’re a baker and don’t want to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding because of “sincerely held religious beliefs,” then you will find the government jumping all over you, tying you up in court for years at an exorbitant cost and eventually fining you $135,000!  You are free to argue the legal distinctions but the bottom line is the same.

Georgia passed a state law to protect religious officials from having to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies because of “sincerely held religious beliefs.”  It would also permit faith based organizations to deny service or employment to those who violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”  Disney immediately retaliated by promising never to do business in that state again.  So much for states’ rights, the Constitution and the First Amendment!  That should have been a harbinger of things to come for North Carolina.

North Carolina had the unmitigated gall to pass a law that requires a person to use the same bathroom as their biological sex.  It’s simply science and biology.  If you have a penis, you use the men’s bathroom.  If you have a vagina, you use the women’s bathroom.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to put common sense into common practice in contemporary culture.  PayPal immediately pulled the plug on a $3.6 million expansion into North Carolina.  Being sensitive to the needs of the “transgender community,” The PayPal CEO said the new law “perpetuates discrimination.”  He had nothing to say about the fact that PayPal does business in twenty-five countries where homosexuality is a crime!  He also did not elaborate on why he thought it was a good idea to allow men into a bathroom with women and girls.  Lt. Governor of North Carolina did elaborate however: “If our action in keeping men out of women's bathrooms and showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested or assaulted, then it was worth it. North Carolina will never put a price tag on the value of our children.  They are precious and priceless. If a corporation wanting to do business in North Carolina does not see the worth of our children in the same light, then I wish them well as they do business somewhere else."

Bryan Adams jumped on the celebrity bandwagon and immediately canceled his concert in Mississippi where there is also a “religious liberty” law.  Apparently his conscience has “evolved” since he never canceled his concerts in Egypt and Qatar where homosexuals are arrested and imprisoned simply for being!  Then again, he was only following Bruce Springsteen who also had a fit of conscience and canceled his North Carolina concert a few days earlier.  Apparently, the “Boss” has “sincerely held personal beliefs” against providing services in a state that holds views contrary to his own.  Good thing he’s not a baker, a florist, or a photographer!