Monday, January 21, 2013

It's Time To Shore Up, Not Neglect, America's Foundational Values




Our Founding Fathers knew that the decision to pledge their lives, liberty and sacred honor for the opportunity to birth the greatest nation in mankind's history, could cost them their lives. To them it was something worth dying for. Those values which spurred them forward are still the foundation of America over 237 years later.
The question we must ask ourselves today is the same one they asked of themselves two centuries ago: Are we willing to pledge our lives, liberty and sacred honor in defense of the country they gave us? The reality is that unless we switch our mentality from one that simply allows us to enjoy the liberties of America, to one which demands we protect those freedoms, we will surely lose them.

No different than the foundation upon which we build any structure, the soundness of that foundation will determine whether the house built on it continues to stand or falls. The cracks we see in America today are the result of stress, strain, and pressure being exerted upon that foundation. Foreign regimes, inhumane philosophies, and corrupt political practices at home are chipping away at it. Its erosion will inevitably affect the nation and influence its ability to survive.

Foundations are built first, before any actually building of the structure can begin. America's foundation is essentially the fundamentals that have shaped the country from the beginning. One can tell much from looking at a foundation, how large and expansive the building will be, how tall it can go and how well and for how long it will be supported.

In 2008, when then Senator Barack Hussein Obama, proudly proclaimed his intention to change those fundamentals, he was declaring his plan to stop building on the foundation and start dismantling America. Changing the foundation changes the final outcome, what is to be built upon it.

Sadly, too many Americans cheered the prospect. Ignorance of those fundamentals by too many voters secured for him the opportunity to begin the demolition process. It still continues today and too often it is not effectively challenged.

America is not the physical structures that dot the landscape or the soil within its boundaries, but the people themselves. "We the people" still defines America and that places the burden of protecting it squarely upon the shoulders of the people, all people, We must resist those who work tirelessly to chip away at all that is good and replace it with a patchwork of defective ideals.

When we sit idly by and allow fundamental changes to be made to the America God has blessed us with, we indirectly aid in the process. There will always be some in America, a remnant, that still cherishes the values which define us and set us apart from an ever-collapsing world. But the silent rarely make much of a difference in anything, and the silent are ineffective in preserving America as well.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease" still holds true. The ones that demand it are the ones that have their issues addressed. Wishing and hoping doesn't get it done. Wishful thinking is an exercise in futility. Every country in the history of man that eventually fell at the hands of evil designs, had within it a remnant of people who saw the mistakes being made but were made powerless to stop it by their own apathy and/or inaction.

Sometimes corrupt and oppressive regulations or laws made their resistance ineffective and as such should not have been allowed to be implemented in the first place. The confiscation of weapons makes a populace weak and has always preceded the eventual take over of a country by men with evil intentions, whether at that point in their history or one not far into their future.

 Likewise, the erosion of our First Amendment, giving us Freedom of Speech, will limit our ability to confront any corruption while debate is still an effective tool. Remove it and an entire nation of people can be bullied into submission. Civil, honest debate is the first line of defense against evil taking a foothold. Once that is eliminated, defense becomes an uphill battle.

 The job of preserving America lies with those who wish it strongly enough to get their hands dirty, to pitch in and make their voices known, demanding attention be paid to them. America belongs to the ones with the strongest determination to win. There is a battle going on for the soul of America. There will be a winner and there will be a loser. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking.

In almost every sport we have seen a team with the best record going into a game feeling they cannot lose and yet walk off the field two hours later with heads hung in defeat. "It can't happen to us" is not an effective defense and doesn't allow for the implementation of a successful offense. America's survival cannot be left in the hands of an "It can't happen to us" mentality. The history of the world has proved that repeatedly.

A generation grew up knowing the threat Russia imposed upon the United States and it shaped our actions and defined our cautiousness. More recently, Islam brought its Supremacist ideology to our side of the world and in a day we saw landmarks fall and almost 3,000 lives erased. Instead of recognizing that enemy, we embraced their philosophy in the causes of Diversity and Tolerance and became determined to welcome and understand it and we work today within the parameters shaped by that ignorance.

Now we are being assaulted from the inside by an administration eagerly chipping away at the foundation that we have depended upon to exist. More dangerous than that is the mentality that cheerfully placed that leadership in power and continually hides their agenda, defending even their most aggressive attacks upon our liberties. Unless that tide is reversed no one but the disconnected powerful will approve of the result.

President Obama sees his goal of fundamentally changing America more important than the Constitution. He sees it as his duty to go around the Constitutionally empowered law-making body to get his way. It displays his contempt for and a lack of understanding of the very system that put him in power. He will effectively burn the bridge behind him which others will one day seek to cross to be legitimate servants of the people.

He is a game-changer whose first step into politics will forever be a dark day for America, looking back. Whether history will hold him accountable remains to be seen. He certainly hasn't been held accountable for very much in the past four years.

What one doesn't value will eventually leave his/her life. That works the same for countries as it does for personal and business relationships. What we neglect to value and protect will leave, and the door will remain open for other liberties to follow. Once lost, they are rarely given back, a lesson we would do well to never forget. Preventing loss of freedom can be more effective than trying to reinstate it once it has been stripped away.

We cannot solve the massive problems we face using the same people that add to them. The mindset that created many of the challenges we abhor cannot be successful in eliminating them. We need fresh blood. We need fresh ideas. We need a fresh commitment to return to the foundational truths that gave birth to America. We need to replace the politicians in Washington, who call themselves Conservative, that have settled into a lifetime position of ease but do little to advance the cause they were sent to Washington to promote, old men who wake up in the morning closer to the Liberal philosophy than they were when they went to bed.

Becoming governed by the politics of popularity and keeping their jobs, they inch toward the Left to get votes. Compromise is sometimes necessary in politics but it appears that only Republicans submit to compromising. That is little more than betrayal. Soon there will be no telling the parties apart. We don't need another Democratic Party nor do we need to expand upon the existing one by adding members calling themselves Republicans. There must be a clear and distinct difference, obvious to all Americans, between Democrats and Republicans.

The answer is not to form a third party, which would in effect only guarantee future Democratic election wins, but to regain control of the only party that stands between them and total control. Understanding what built America and returning to that foundation is the only hope of saving America from being devoured from the inside out.

Fighting back is the only solution we have to the rising tyranny we see today. For a century there has been the desire by some leaders to move us toward Socialism and they made sure we were creeping in that direction. There exists now, however, politicians not satisfied with watching America creep toward anti-American ideals but who insist we race toward them. It is the new twisted "patriotism" when it is anything but patriotic.

Waiting to win the next election is not a viable option. Watching to see who comes along that can upset the Liberal apple cart is not a definitive strategy. We must live in a state of action, not reaction. We must choose an offensive movement and not simply settle for being on the defensive. Defense is needed to stem off some attacks upon our freedoms but, as in any game, defense doesn't put points on the scoreboard. The desire to win must be greater than just the desire not to lose.  

There are many liberties being assaulted in America today. First and Second Amendments are under attack. Fiscal responsibility is being neglected. Success is being demonized. Religious freedoms are being eroded. All Americans are encouraged to choose one or two freedoms dear to their hearts and get behind efforts to rescue them before the are relegated to the dust bin of history. If the future does indeed belong to the fittest and the strongest, we cannot allow our efforts to come up short.

The time for timidity is past. Apathy is as much an enemy to America's survival as evil agendas are. Failure to resist the destruction of our foundation will result in the collapse of the nation that rests upon it. Cracks need to be repaired and weaknesses shored up. Too much is at stake for us to engage in wishful thinking. Only effective, determined action can guarantee America's survival.


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