The progressive package deal we’ve been sold is unraveling, both here and around the world
By Bill Frezza
No, this is not another diatribe about the futility of many gun control
laws and the geographic correlation between the level of gun crime and the
hurdles law-abiding citizens have to surmount to provide for their own defense.
Nor is it a rant about the media exploitation of tragedies like the recent Navy
Yard shooting. It is a reflection on the home of the brave’s transformation
into a nation of sheep, wolves, pigs, and sloths.
The American character, at least until recently, was unique and considered
exceptional. What could be more obscene than being lectured to the
contrary by a Russian despot throwing our president’s
deprecating words back at him in the pages of The New York Times?
Despite attempts to argue away history, ours was the only national character
forged by millions of self-made strivers settling a new land under a unique
formulation of self-government that strictly constrained the state in its
powers, reach, and influence, leaving the people to thrive through the free
exercise of their inalienable rights.
Those days are gone, our birthright progressively squandered. Yet, the
Constitution’s constraints were not shredded overnight. First, it took getting
the American people accustomed to a view of government as unlimited and
ever-expanding, bringing the nation forward in an unstoppable march of
state-directed “progress.” That task of indoctrination fell to our media,
educational and cultural institutions. Judging by the evidence, they have
succeeded.
Our forebears took arms against a level of government oppression that would
be considered a Tea Partier’s dream compared to the burden of government we
carry today. What productive person would not trade our imperious IRS for the
comparatively light and distant hand of the mad King George? Why do we tolerate government intrusion into our
persons, houses, papers, and effects that are supposedly held sacrosanct by a
Bill of Rights? Why do we acquiesce when our government sends armed forces
abroad in search of monsters to destroy? Why do we look
the other way when fellow citizens are hauled off to rot in jail over the possession of a weed? How is it that
any proposals to reduce government benefits are met with an outpouring of
opprobrium, the most recent hue and cry raised over attempts to reduce the
planned growth of a runaway free food
program by five percent that has doubled in the last
five years?
We are just living up to our training.
The purpose of training citizens to become sheep is to make the world
easier for wolves. Wolves come in two varieties, the law making and the law
breaking. It is not a coincidence that the nation that has among the most laws
in the world also has the highest percentage of
its population in prison.
God forbid we should attempt to defend ourselves rather than resist
attacks. Can you imagine what would happen to a bunch of religious fanatics
armed with box cutters if they tried to hijack a stagecoach? What would James
Madison think of municipal police forces tricked out with military gear invading animal
shelters for the crime of nursing a baby deer? What would
Patrick Henry say if he saw the nation’s working people meekly lining up to be
shorn every April 15?
And let’s not forget the pigs clamoring for their place at the public
trough. Banks, energy firms, scientists, car manufacturers, sugar producers,
agribusiness, universities—hardly a category of commerce doesn’t host its share
of businesses on the dole, equipped with an army of lobbyists to keep the money
flowing. This does not happen without extensive education.
Washington, D.C.’s
transformation into a fountain of largesse has radically undermined Americans’
ability to even imagine how they might function under a government that permits
our natural industriousness to flourish. We settle for an economy that grows at
an anemic two percent rate because we listen to the admonitions of court
economists, the media, and our educational establishment that things would be a
lot worse without the Fed’s printing press working overtime. We sacrifice sure
and steady progress for an illusory promise of equality that can only arrive
when we reach the grave. Entire cities hide in their
basements upon command, disarmed and in fear of
confronting a couple of teenagers threatening us with pressure cookers.
The progressive package deal we’ve been sold is unraveling, both here and
around the world. The safety, security, and prosperity promised in exchange for
surrendering our liberty, self-reliance, and independence have proven illusory.
Stagnation, dependency, and decline lay ahead, unless we change course and
remember who we once were, and can be again.
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