"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -- JP Curran, 1790

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Liberty, Security, and the Wildcard

Oftentimes people like to reduce complex issues to the most overly simplistic, simple representations of their own biased beliefs. I pretend to do no different most times, while I still strive for an objective approach to most things. It's easy enough to offer up an example of pork-laden legislation on this site, but having anyone truly care about it enough to act is a little more complicated. I've found that people often establish some sort of pendulum with two diametrically opposed sides with almost everything in their lives. Individuals do this. Groups of people do this. Entire nations live and die by the swinging the pendulums that affect us.

We hear about "balance" and the need to play both sides of every issue to be truly objective. Reagan, like no other, spoke about the idiocy and weakness inherent in those (namely European nations) that removed themselves from the arguments between the free United States and the enslaved Soviet Union. Those equivocators among us do nothing to help the argument for goodness, justice, and our cause. Evil plus inaction equals more evil, and the sooner that everyone realizes this applies to the political arena, the better off our children will be, if not us. The spending, the over-reaching by our federal government into every aspect of our lives, the calls for purely socialist ideas (even if they don't have the courage to call them by the name) are all more than warning shots across the bow of freedom. They've landed direct hits, and the country (and the DOW) is reeling from the blows.

The armchair warriors, pretenders, and fake leaders need to now step aside, as you have been nothing but ineffective. We, the freedom loving Americans, have grown weary of your ineptitude, and you're beginning to see a true change. Tea parties across the country are happening, and we're really, for the first time in a while, seeing the citizens demand the freedoms mentioned in the Constitution be protected.

You can't solve the problems of over-regulation in a free-market with more regulation. You can't solve the problems of violent gun crimes by limiting gun ownership for citizens. You can't preach about accountability and responsibility while doing everything in your power to ensure that those who don't want to be accountable are able to murder babies in the womb, or shirk their responsibilities to pay their debts, or run a sound business.

We have some things in this country that are uniquely American. Our strong belief in the rights to free speech, and in the fact that government works for us, rather than the other way around, usually bring us together. Yet, we've seen a shift in the debate, the general discourse of politics, that suggests otherwise. This nation has allowed the pendulum of liberty to shift to "security," while proclaiming that this is for our own good. The absence of opposition to evil, breeds evil. Without a dissenting voice, the "social norm" becomes tainted, biased, and overpowering.

Maybe it's time to acknowledge that the time for civility is over. It's time to speak up for the values that we hold dear: self-reliance, freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I fear that we may now be embarking into a dark new territory in this country, as my generation is among the first in our young nation's history to inherit less opportunity than the ones before us. To buy our loyalty, the ones in power (who are older than I am by decades) have asked us to simply pass the costs on to our children and grandchildren. "No" is my simple answer to their complicated reasoning for such preposterous ideas. Our answer is the wildcard...the thing they weren't considering in Congress.

What say you?

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I believe in the 1st Amendment. Say whatever you want. If you're a moron, I may point that out...if I have time. :P

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