The State of Dysfunction

Obama's fifth year in office. Never thought I'd see it, but here it is, and here it is going to remain until it becomes a sixth year of Obama in office. Like it or not, he's entrenched himself (and his Marxist politics) into the very fabric of America. It's not likely that many will have the guts to rise up and bite the hands that are feeding them. Record numbers of citizens and non-citizens are dependent upon the government for their daily sustenance, for their livelihood, and for their shelter. Human nature dictates that it is a rare occasion for a slave to rise against a master even when the yoke of slavery chafes and discomforts the wearer. Fact is, so many in America have been born into this form of slavery that they know of no other way of life.

A few years ago two college professors, Cloward & Piven, introduced the radical theory milking the American taxpayer to the point of near bankruptcy. It was the perfect symphony of need and greed, all designed to literally tax the system to death. Indeed, today we're seeing the payoff of this radical line of thinking in that our debt (at $16 trillion and climbing) will never, ever be paid off. Methuselah would be proud! He could live his life several times over and visualize this debt as it continues to rise. The interest alone costs more than the worth of the entire planet! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

In recent weeks I've heard the President and the puny-headed moronic numb-nutted sychophants in the media and government chatter and blather on and on about reducing gun violence. That's right! Pass more laws for the law-abiding citizens to follow and ignore the lawbreakers who have their sights set clearly upon defying any additional laws. Laws? Those are meant for the little people...this said in context with Leona Helmsley's audacious and highly inflammatory comment when asked about taxes. I'd like to see the President take a drive through Watts, Liberty City, or the Bronx without his motorcade of bulletproof vehicles and Secret Service attachment. I'll wager those leather seats will be slick with his sweat after just five minutes on those mean streets. The streets of my neighborhood are somewhat safer, I won't lie, but only marginally.

But I digress. George Washington said, "Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." What does this mean? It pretty much means that if corruption is permitted to run amok a society cannot survive.

Our Founders knew instinctively that unrestrained power held in the hands of a few would lead to corruption, and to tyranny. Think about the order of our Amendments to the US Constitution. We all know the First Amendment - Freedom of Speech, of the Press. Yea. Stick with me here.

The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms in a method which was to be uninfringed, was meant as a support mechanicsm for the First Amendment - not the other way around.

How about the Third Amendment? "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

Our Founders established a militia of the people, by the people, and for the people. They knew that if each individual citizen had a stake in the security and future of the nation that all of the people would prosper under the flag of unity and security. When each individual is responsible for the conduct of none other than himself and is held accountable for his or her behaviors, society has no alternative but to flourish and prosper. We didn't need a standing army to control our own citizens because we were self-reliant and self-governing. The Second Amendment protected us against the abuses of an overbearing, gluttonous government then, as it should now.

Now I come to the Fourth Amendment, arguably one of the Amendments most often cited in our Court system as a means to absolve most criminals of their crimes. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Again, without the support of the Second Amendment can this Amendment exist?

Today our society decries the use of waterboarding as an interrogation method against terrorists while closing our eyes to the weaponized, unmanned drone aircraft flying overhead. We are ordered to immunize our children by penalty of law, knowing that a zealous minimum-wage social worker can effectively remove our authority as parents with little more than a few keystrokes. We permit our government to regulate our food, our media, our press, our thoughts. We live in fear of Big Brother. As our neighbors lose their liberty so too, shall we.

It's very simple, really. We're all slaves. We just don't feel the sting of the whip like we used to. There is, of course, the frog in the boiling pot analogy which comes to mind, and I won't deny that I've become quite comfortable living in a hot tub with the other toads.