Often I write about the state of the republic and our constitution. We live in an age where both are threatened by the ignorance of average voter and forces in government who want to fundamentally transform our constitutional republic. The below article is one I wrote a week ago and feel it’s important enough to publish again here at Political Realities.
How will history judge this generation if we let our republic slip away?
In 1787 citizens gathered outside of Independence Hall as delegates emerged after the Philadelphia convention closed. As Benjamin Franklin made his way through the crowd a Philadelphia native Mrs. Powel asked Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
The other night when I was watching President Obama give his State of the Union address, he opened his speech talking about his grandparents and their contributions during World War II. This generation is often referred to as the “greatest generation.” This was the generation that held the country together during the great depression. This was the generation that stepped up and saved the world from the forces of evil. This was the generation that came home from the war and helped transform America into an economic powerhouse. They were a generation with innovative ideas and a free market economy to grow them. They were shining examples of rugged individualism who believed in free market principles and limited government intervention. Contrary to popular belief, they were not fans of Social Security or Medicare. Most viewed any kind of government program claiming to offer security in exchange for liberty with suspicion. They believed that more government meant less freedom. I know this because my grandparents were a part of this generation and they loved liberty.
Today we live in unprecedented times. America’s debt has spiraled out of control. The dollar is no longer the preferred currency of the world. Our credit rating has been downgraded. Our economic indicators show a weak economy growing at a snail’s pace with an unemployment rate of 8+ percent. Our education system is a complete failure. Our elected officials have doubled down on stupid by implementing terrible policies that have hampered economic growth and shackled individual liberty. They pass unconstitutional legislation and spending bills that create new and prop up old unsustainable government entitlement programs with borrowed money from China. Our growing national debt is over $15 trillion and is now 100+ percent of our GDP. Backroom deals and dirty politics have become the norm in D.C. as our elected officials raid the treasury to enrich themselves and fund pet projects. People are clamoring that the system is broken. There’s talk of reform and fundamental transformation. Folks we’re losing our republic and no one in Washington D.C. has the integrity or courage to save it.
This is not the first time in history that a great republic has fallen. We have the fall of the Roman Republic as a blueprint to examine. Rome like us was saddled with a massive amount debt due to continuous wars and corrupt politicians. Men of ambition rose to power through their military conquest and political maneuvering. The institutions and traditions that made the Roman Republic great were poisoned from within and fear grew within its citizenry as these same men of ambition promised reform to fix the system. Unemployment was high and a large portion of the population was much more interested in the games than reestablishing their constitution. A few champions of the republic stepped forward with cries to restore it and warnings that the end was near, but for the most part these pleas fell on deaf ears. Most Roman citizens were looking for the least painful solutions to solve their problems. They were looking for a leader to save them instead of looking to themselves for the answers. Rome turned into a mob and surrendered their liberties to an empire because it was the least painful solution. 2,000 years after the fall of the Roman Republic we find ourselves at the same crossroads and we’re making the same mistakes.
There is talk of a system in dire need of reform. I agree. We need to reform the system in a manner that limits the ability of ambitious politicians from obtaining more power to infringe on our rights. We do this by reestablishing the constitution as the law of the land. One candidate will not save the republic. It will take the effort of all liberty loving people to do the things required of them to hold our elected officials feet to the fire. As we look at the crop of candidates the process has selected for us to choose from, I must say I’m extremely disappointed. We need a liberty loving mindset in D.C. and this means we need a candidate who is willing to reestablish the constitution as the law of the land and deconstruct the unconstitutional agencies that are regulating our lives. We need a candidate who has the courage to repeal unconstitutional laws and deregulate so that our market can be a free market once again. We need a candidate who will decentralize control and give the power back to the states and people. We need a candidate who is willing to make themselves and government an irrelevant factor in our lives.
Do we have a candidate who is willing to do these things? The answer is yes. Is he leading the field? The answer is no. Why is he not leading the field? Because people are comfortable with big government in their lives and like the Roman citizens of old, they’re choosing the path that is least painful. And this is why we’re going to lose the republic folks. This is why America will lose its exceptionalism and we will be no different than any other nation in the world. We will go down as the generation who allowed the republic to slip away. I wonder how history will judge us.
Will history be kind to this generation or judge us harshly? Will history view us as weak or strong? 2,000 years from now will students be examining and discussing the glaring mistakes we’re making today? Will they wonder how we could be so stupid and let a good thing slip away? My guess is yes. If we fail now I believe history will be unkind to this generation and we’ll deserve it. You see we have very little time to reverse course and save the republic. If we don’t change our ways and change them within the next couple of years there will be an economic reckoning unlike we have ever seen before band we will wonder what happened. Many people will be blindsided by these economic events and will look to a leader or the government for more flawed solutions and trust me the government will be more than happy to offer them up. This equates to less liberty and more central planning by an imperfect government and that’s the kind of environment that will eventually lead to tyranny.
So this is where we are. How do we act? Do we take the painful and necessary steps needed to save the republic or do we take the path of least resistance? By the looks of who is leading in the polls we already decided. So much for keeping the republic our founders gave us.
Ben Franklin would be so proud of this generation…
Liberty forever, freedom for all!
Nothing is as dire as you, and many others, try to make it out to be. Compared to what this country has been through in the past, what’s going on now is fairly tame.
I know, I know. Liberty is at stake! Well, liberty is always at stake. People can be fairly stupid, but we know there is a limit to what sort of things people will tolerate before they get restless and start rioting. People today might be less civic-minded than they were 50 years ago, but they’re not any dumber. Yet.
Nations change over time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. In a thousand years, this country will likely not look anything like you want it to look, because we have no idea where the progression of human ideas is going to take us.
The history of ideas doesn’t stop with what you think is the best of all possible worlds. I like to think that not every good idea has already been thought of. To think that we’ve figured it all out is pretty arrogant, in my humble opinion.
Nothing is as dire as you, and many others, try to make it out to be.
The problem is that the troubles we’re facing can’t be solved overnight, and they’re going to continue to get worse the longer we ignore them. The budget is a mess, and the baby boomer retirement is going to make it worse every year for the next 20-30 years.
We’re racking up debt faster than during WWII, and this is a relatively peaceful, prosperous time. What sort of position are we to defend ourselves if the world goes mad as it has so many times in the past?
$15 trillion national debt is not dire? No budget in over 1,000 days in not dire? The constitution being consistently ignored by our elected officials is not dire? Liberty lost is not dire? Overregulation of the free market to the point where it cannot correct itself is not dire? Real unemployment at 22.5 percent is not dire? I can go on and on here. Perhaps you and I have a very different understanding as to meaning of dire.
John, you foreshadowed my post for tomorrow! I address the Constitution and the three candidates we can expect to see on November’s ballot – Obama, Romney and Johnson. You can probably guess where I’m headed with it. I may be a lonely voice right now when it comes to Gary Johnson, but someone had to go first. I siincerely believe a lot of people will come around by November (especially when Romney tacks hard to the left after he locks up the nomination).
Romney is nothing more than Obama lite.
A really outstanding post, John. There is no painless solution to the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Sadly, a significant percentage of the electorate do not recognize how serious the problem is. We and the rest of the so-called Western countries are bankrupt. The illusion that we are not broke can not continue for much longer.
Thanks Jim. You are so right. So many are blind to the problems we’re facing. They’re going to get blindsided and unfortunately turn to the same people who caused the problem to solve the problems. Absolute insanity!