Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, March 12, 2009 7:52:59 PM
The United States of America is in deep trouble. Jobs have been lost by the millions, banks, brokerages, insurance companies and blue chip corporations are closing or facing bankruptcy and voters, like lemmings rushing toward the cliff's edge, are hoping against hope that Barack Obama's social democracy will bail us all out. This is like embracing snake oil as a remedy for snakebite. But for many, it is preferable to facing the brutal truth that the moral bankruptcy that has overtaken us is the root cause of the fiscal bankruptcy that looms in our future.
Bernie Madoff, Allan Stanford, Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skillings, Sam Waksal, William Jefferson, Charlie Rangel, Tom Daschle, Rod Blagojevic -- all names that ring a bell. Why? Because all have become public examples of the private moral decay that infects America. They are examples of those who employed lying, cheating and stealing to game the system for personal wealth and power, and who got caught, at long last, with their hands up to the elbows in the public cookie jar.
Unfortunately, they are but public examples of what is undoubtedly a widespread private epidemic of "doing whatever it takes to get ahead." Wall Street has done it in the private sector, fabricating "securities" from investments that were anything but secure, and then selling them to unsuspecting Americans through mutual funds and bank investment vehicles. The government has done it by forcing banks to loan people money for houses they could never afford, then looking the other way while those loans that were always destined to fail do so. The tax cheaters, for whom Barack Obama seems to have a special fondness, have cheated their fellow Americans by making the private decision that the (tax) rules that apply to you and me do not apply to them. Politicans have done it by adopting Saul Alinsky's rules for radicals that charter followers to grasp power by whatever means possible, including lying, cheating and stealing, and then use it. The Democratic party, currently the party is power, seems to have learned, and employed, that dictum better than any.
So what are "American values?" On the surface it appears that getting ahead and getting power and wealth by any means possible trump all other values. And if that is true, the list of public figures who have been found out are just notable public examples of a private immorality that touches us all. Lying, cheating and stealing has become the American way.
Is there a "way back?" Yes. but as with most genuine cures we will not realize the gain until and unless we are prepared to endure the pain. The question of how to make people behave morally and ethically is age old. The only remedy mankind has found is the law, and America's journey back needs to begin with enforcing it. Our new president says that he is looking for judges who are compassionate. Whatever happened to judges who were impartial, just and followed the law? His administration proposes to solve the illegality of marijuana use and living in the country illicitly simply by legalizing them. What a novel idea! If people insist on breaking the law, just change it so that their behavior is no longer illegal. So what happens when rape, kidnapping, hard drug sales, extortion and murder become the objects of "civil disobedience," and Obama's "compassionate judges" just can't bring themselves to hand down harsh sentences on offenders, thereby de-fanging the bite of law? A government so bent on assuring that citizens can do whatever they please with impunity is only one step removed from no government at all. When tax cheaters become cabinet nominees and legislators, one of them (Geithner) has the say about collecting taxes and another (Rangel in the House) has the main say in setting tax policy, why should ordinary Americans give a flip about paying their own taxes? It is abundantly clear that this government is not the answer to America's most serious problem. It may very well BE America;s most serious problem.
Along with actually enforcing the law, we need to have a conversation about values. Obama wants a "conversation about race," and a "conversation about healthcare." But concerned Americans need to demand a conversation about values as a "pre-condition" to other discussions. What kind of values does a president have whose campaign gave cheating, lying, stealing ACORN over $800,000 to help him get elected? What kind of values does the man who has been labeled "the abortion president" by a New York member of the House, have when he removes bar after bar to abortion on demand, sanctioning the killing of infants at ANY stage of the pregnancy? What kind of values does the man have when he says "no more earmarks," and then signs bill after bill loaded with them? And what kind of values do WE have when 60% of us say he's doing a good job? We need to have an honest conversation about values for a change, and if Barack Obama's values truly represent the values of the American people, then look for this nation to descend swiftly through social democracy into the oligarchy of communism (Alinsky's goal). Is that what we really want?
Americans need to exercise th power of dissent. While a great many people like Obama, fewer by the week support his extremist policies. Are all of us condemining ourselves to silence because we fear the unpopularity of being the one to say "the messiah has no clothes?" This president proposes the most egregious taxation of Americans since the American Revolution. That's absolutely true. Look at his new budget proposal, cap-and-trade, etc. Who do you think is going to pay THOSE taxes? It's not the upper 5% of earners. It's every last one of us. His people gave a New York Times reporter the impression that they would accept increased taxes on the bottom 95% of taxpares as "part of a total package." And note the blatantly dishonest verbal sleight of hand as Democrats give "tax rebates" (welfare checks) to those who never paid any taxes in the first place. How much "spreading the wealth around" will Americans tolerate before teaching Barack Obama the lesson of King George? That needs to be done while it can still BE done at the ballot box. But make no mistake: Barack Obama has no interest at all in American values. His only interest is in re-making our values after his own socialistic ones. We need to be a much harder sell!
But no remedy will suffice so long as Americans continue to passively accept lying, cheating and stealing as acceptable tools for living, nor should we complain or be surprised when we are oppressed by those who do those things best. In the end, cleaning up America's act begins with each one of us. And there are "none so blind as those who will not see."