Whether it’s baloney or just heat, much of it is spewed about the preference for “socialism” over “capitalism” among a large fraction of young Americans. Few are responding with the right counter-arguments. The debate has typically conflated socialism, which is fundamentally a GOVERNING/control system, using economic control to control groups of people, with capitalism, which is 1) human nature; and 2) a means of wealth creation AND RETENTION that is individual. The real enemy of socialism is CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLICANISM, not capitalism, per se… socialism simply destroys capitalism. In the United States we utilize democratic selection to choose our representatives and executives, BUT WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY! Those who insist on referring to the United States as “our democracy” and similar phrases, are those who wish it were.
Government by “democracy” is a ticket to ride into the tunnel of tyranny – tyranny by the majority. In the new era of instant communication and widespread ignorance of history, civics and economics, tyranny sometimes takes only a few tens of minutes to destroy peoples’ lives, livelihoods and reputations. Imagine if every public policy were promulgated the same way. Temporary “majorities” could strip hated groups of rights and empower preferred majorities with privilege and wealth. Imagine what it could do to tax policies and welfare. Democracy is a scorpion in the digital bottle, requiring sophisticated and unbreakable controls in order for it to serve a free people. An educated person can appreciate the sublime protections against unbridled democracy that are built into the Constitution; he or she will also recognize the changes that must be amended to that sacred document to stop the unbridled theft of representation under which we suffer, now.
The real contenders for the future of mankind are socialism morphing into communism, and Americanism, including all that set of concepts means.
Right now we are not enjoying the miraculous advantages of individual capitalism, responsibility and morality. We are being crushed, inch by inch, by OLIGARCHY, which is a horrible, though impressive, perversion of capitalism: a concentration of financial power in the hands of a tiny, tiny number of people, to whom flow political and even intellectual power. That is, obscenely wealthy people have come to believe they are not only smart in business and finance, but, since all their minions and obsequious politicians repeatedly tell them so, that they are also WISE – a grievously dangerous belief. One need only investigate the actions and beliefs of the odd Bill Gates to see the dangers possible.
These oligarchs are not patriots – not a single one of them. Oligarchs are insatiable: there are never sufficient “markets” in which to sell, there is never enough revenue, never enough power in their hands. Their abiding fears all are based on the loss – even slightly – of any portion of any of those aspects of their existence. This forces them to purchase, as it were, unlimited political influence so as to protect their levels of accomplishment in markets, revenue, and power. Political philosophy is none of their concern. They are just as happy to deal with communist and other dictators, probably more so, than with elected, representative governments, the latter being hard to control and, occasionally, “suffering” changes of leadership.
The U. S. has acted as the “world’s policeman” since World War II. Despite forming the “United” Nations, most of the “policing” fell to the U. S. – most of the waste of treasure and sacrifice of young men and women has also been borne by us. All the while, the global leftist pressure has infected the American body politic and the institutions designed by our founders and those added by both good- and bad-intentioned politicians. Those who think we are not socialist already, are blind. Socialism is not about to sweep in and improve our system… our system is already fouled up by socialism. The likelihood is that we will become MORE of what the ‘woke’ generation rails against.
Conservatives – traditionalists – have no love for the corrupt, partially socialist mess we survive in. Our problems stem not from a lack of socialism but from a lack of Americanism. We have literally voted-in our own destruction. There is a narrow window of freedom left, but the Biden administration has chosen to accelerate the damage instead of beginning to repair freedom and individual responsibility.
If nothing else, every American patriot should stop listening to or sympathizing with the gross, broad-brush claims made by Communists in our midst (like “BLM”) or by committed “socialists.” By those irrational statements those anti-American fellow-travelers are advertising their ignorance – largely willful ignorance – of history and of the basis for the creation of our founding documents and principles. They don’t deserve our attempts to understand nor will they debate or analyze the views of any other “side.” America used to work quite well for the maximum number of people, here and across the world. However, since the “Great Society” and the Viet-Nam loss, our system has become corrupted by socialists and, with the closing of the “gold window,” by the insatiable creation of debt to buy ever more and more votes.
Monopoly Capitalism is not the model for freedom, it is the antithesis. Wise people, educated and informed, should, through their representatives in Congress, refine our institutions to break up monopolies and to prevent new ones. Unfortunately our ruling elites have shifted closer and closer to Fascism, where huge, monopolistic and global companies, no longer American companies, are “bribed” in effect, BY THE GOVERNMENT, to carry out control policies the government lacks the legal ability to effect: socialism by corporate proxy.
We, meaning the Exchange Club of Lawrence and the Andovers, and a bunch of wonderful volunteers and relatives thereof, installed the “Field of Honor” for the third time on the North Andover, Massachusetts Common, this past Saturday. It is a labor of love and patriotism and, in fact, a most serious community service, part of two of Exchange’s Four Pillars of Service. To do a lot of what a “full-calendar” Exchange Club wants to accomplish each year requires money, and mixed with our forms of service to our communities are some vital fund-raising events; the Field of Honor is a four-way winner on that calendar. With a single project we fulfill “Americanism,” we raise needed funds, we unify our Club and we provide “Community Service” for all of those who sponsor flags in memory of loved ones or in honor of them, who recognize first-responders, health-care workers, coaches, teachers and other personal “V.I.P.’s” in their lives.
Each sponsored flag has affixed a colorful, laminated “Tag” that names the honoree, field of service and heartfelt commentary by the sponsor about this very important person. The first time we “did” a Field of Honor we followed the lead of a nearby Exchange and tried to read all the dedications on the day of ceremony at the end of the Field’s term of display. We messed it up fairly well since we didn’t have a good database, but the hearing of one’s dedication was very important to the flag sponsors, a fact made abundantly clear to us by those who did not hear their own, or who missed the reading. That is when the nature of the service we were suddenly responsible to provide properly, became clear.
We’ve fixed that database problem. We’ve also fixed our lack of recognition among the communities we’ve served for, now, 75 years. Both our Club members and the Club, itself, can be identified with this beautifully visible display, now of three-week’s duration. But, the “Field” is still greater than the values already noted. It’s a unifier when Unity in these “United” States is under its greatest stress. This is the larger part of the story.
Dis-unity is the most potent weapon there is in the hands of an enemy of a democratic republic – a republic built on personal morality and personal responsibility and above and beneath all, FREEDOM. In the past dozen (or five-dozen) years, or so, we have witnessed the coalescing of “liberal,” socialistic tendencies toward dictatorial government, around the always-tender concerns about race and attendant hatreds. There is very little within the non-discussive discussions about race in the U. S. that involve truth. Among intentional, often political LIES about race or racism, exist often-repeated – shouted – non-truths that are based upon beliefs that are just not so. That is, many, mostly guilt-ridden liberals, repeat statements they believe are true, but the premises of which are false. They have no intention to lie, per se, but become greatly exercised as they parrot non-truths. We should stipulate some truths.
One – Different races are not limited compared to any other race in terms of ABILITY, only by BELIEFS. Within those beliefs are familial, parental and social expectations that are imprinted even before birth, as to what constitutes propriety and success for an individual.
Two – Mixing races together, including by force, as with slavery, ALWAYS carries the risk of continuing division because of conflicting BELIEFS, not because of mental or physical abilities. Humans are much more alike than not, despite oft-repeated untruths we may have grown up with. Diversity, in and of itself, is a weakening agent to the cohesiveness of a society, to a nation. Similarity is the great strengthener, and, when reinforced by diverse experiences, a tremendous strength to the United States nation. Diversity for its own sake is a source of social divisiveness, yet now governs our economic and social constructs, including valuations of one another as “sufficiently diverse” enough in our daily lives and actions. No nation can survive, no society can succeed if its interactions are biased toward the non-traditional beliefs of newcomers, rather than the newcomers being required to live by our traditional moral standards, no matter their personal beliefs.
Three – Shared morality is essential to social unity and to economic success. America’s economic success is based on fundamental honesty in contracts written and unwritten, from marriage to multi-year leases, commodity pricing and delivery, and in covenants between the people-formed governments and those governments, themselves, local state and federal. Together with honesty in contracting, our sense of – belief in – sacrifice for a better future for our children and for people unknown, made our phenomenal growth and wealth possible. Welcoming, or allowing establishment of, moralities alternative to the historical, traditional morality of a society, is a first step to social suicide. Americans, in our folly, are not merely tolerant of other beliefs, which is relatively harmless, but we fail to require all citizens to live by our own fundamental moral traditions. Indeed, we have managed to talk ourselves out of living by them.
Four – There are two genders: many feelings about one’s place and purpose and pursuit of happiness, but only two genders. That so much heat is generated over “trans-genderism” or “trans-sexuality” is based on those individuals who desire so much to believe in two contradictory ideas at the same time, that they will endure a host of suspicions and fears among “straight” populations. Others who desire acceptance of aberrant lifestyles, AND those who are mainly interested in the dissolution of the United States, seize upon those who believe in trans-genderism and employ their suffering – which is real – as a further wedge to separate the vast majority of Americans from their traditional morality. Sadly, ultra-progressive parents, themselves, are changing their own beliefs to accommodate the popularized mental incongruity that two diametrically opposed concepts may be true at the same time. Small children who claim to be other than their actual gender are encouraged in this incongruity even to the point of chemical – EVEN SURGICAL – modification of growth and maturation (with untold consequences, nearly all of which are negative). Supposed psychologists, scientists of a sort, including “child” psychologists, have bent their attitudes towards normality and no longer advise maintaining traditional roles for children until maturity. Most minors “grow out of” dyspohric fantasies. Unfortunately, a less and less morally constrained population has created political pressure sufficient to have draconian laws passed requiring society to accommodate these incongruities, to the direct affront of not only honesty, but of all traditional moral codes, including religious codes, and to our peril as a democratic republic, which, as noted, can function only amidst a population self-controlled by shared morality.
Five – Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd. Oh, he was “convicted” of murder, much like Joe Biden having been certified as President. The Chauvin conviction was mere confirmation of what weak, jittery politicians had agreed with mobs to do. The nearly sainted George Floyd was on an express bus to an early death that day, before his antics even gained police attention. Chauvin, not the brightest bulb in the string, could have feigned great concern and demanded that people taking videos go find a doctor instead. He could have laid George’s big head on his lap and tried talking to him while they waited for the EMT’s. He’d still have his job, Minneapolis would still be a city, and dozens of businesses and thousands of jobs would still be supporting families in Minnesota. No, Chauvin didn’t kill Floyd, but he caused the deaths of many others and many more to come as idiotic, fearful, politicians attempt to buy favor from Communists and fascists by weakening police departments.
Six – To say that “black lives matter” is to state an obvious fact; all lives matter in a non-communist society: our morality informs us of the sacredness and sanctity of human life. To adhere to the “Black Lives Matter” organization as some sort of leaders in the mattering of black lives, however, is to put the lie to every aspect of the sanctity of black and every other life. More than in any other “advanced” culture, lives matter most under a system of freedom and personal worth. Religion has a lot to do with that, Christianity most of all in this Prudent view. To latch on to anti-Christians for leadership in this area of humanity, is utterly nonsensical. Misguided blacks, in fact, are at the forefront of DISCOUNTING the values of black lives! Let us count the ways.
Blacks are solidly Democratic in their politics, evidently expecting expansive government to make their lives better. Yet it is they who have the most to say about the betterment of their lives and the lives of all blacks. After 60 years of federalized welfare and the concurrent dissolution of the black family, wise blacks can readily describe the negative impact on black lives, a gift from Democrats. The incessant turning away from success by so many black youth, consumed in hatred for anything “white,” like educational excellence and personal merit, is also a product of political divisiveness employed by the great protectors of blacks: Democrats.
Just as was done in South Africa during apartheidt, unions have been strong promoters of unionization and minimum wage laws – the net effect of which have been to make it more comfortable to hire whites instead of blacks. Black youth, more likely to be lower-skilled, unfortunately, are denied their best marketable quality: willingness to work for less to get started up the ladders of success. We have made it illegal to work for less. Alternatives on the streets and gang associations where all the leaders are non-white, are made much more attractive to disaffected youth. Keeping blacks unskilled and inexperienced serves to make unionized jobs more white… just like in South Africa. Who are the strongest proponents of unionization and minimum wages? Democrats, who are trying their hardest to improve the lot of blacks, just ask them. Those are they who celebrate success of black Democrats while heaping scorn upon blacks of other political views. Black lives matter, so much.
President Joe Biden, race-baiter in chief… and great “unifier,” has authorized the flying of “Black Lives Matter” flags at American embassies around the world. It is a move so utterly offensive to so many, and so essentially diametric toward everything the United States has ever professed, fought-for or relied upon in its founding ideas and ideals, and so stupid, as to expose the rank folly of this man’s being president of this nation or of virtually any organization of alert humans. Nothing he does is to be trusted. Nothing he has done as president is pro-American… or anti-racist.
Seven – Education is the primary business of parents: not of the government at any level, or of teachers unions or of mediocrity contracts with arbitrary groups of teachers. Teachers are hired, fundamentally, to teach our children how to be honest, literate, knowledgeable about science, mathematics and the natural world, and knowledgeable about our culture and founding, governing principles. Educators need not teach religion, per se, but about religion as part of World History. Nor should they teach against it. They should teach common decency and respect for others, good manners and propriety in all things within the school campus/environment. Sports and other team functions and competitions are relevant for good health and good adjustment to the individual strengths and weaknesses of others. Exposure to the Arts is also essential for becoming well-rounded individuals, armed with some choices of direction to follow after the first 12 years of instruction. Elective courses should include “manual arts” and tool use, carpentry and basic trade skills. It is not the business of educators to expose minor children to unusual sexual practices or any sexual practices. The subject matter of any “Health” class should be vetted by the parents of children in the school system, else their children may not attend said class. Any school or “system” unwilling to collaborate with parents at that level about sexuality or any other area of controversy, perhaps with open petitioning by a certain percentage of parents, requiring such vetting, does not deserve access to students or to the tax monies that follow them.
Ideally, every school should be a Charter School, and every child should be expected to excel… and to behave.
Eight – The breaching of the Capitol Building on January 6th was not an insurrection. It was several things, but “insurrection” was not one of them. There was no attempt, or even hope, to overthrow the sitting government or our governing “system,” EXCEPT where said system was lying to the American people. The mealy-mouthed half-truths and outright lies tossed around in the hallowed halls of Congress, ostensibly to do “the people’s business” has become so offensive and off-target that people wanted to talk to their erstwhile “representatives” who were about to certify a most questionable election of one of the most crooked presidents-elect to ever reach that level. The actions of some who assaulted the building were clearly unrelated to the President’s words; those are they who entered the crowds at the Capitol and who had not attended the rally.
Capitol police, oddly, had not, despite advance notice for days, made any reasonable attempts to make such a breach difficult and, in fact, made the breach easier, even to helping people enter the building once the physical breaches had occurred. Offers of reinforcement from the Trump administration were refused because of “optics,” we’re told. Yet the entire period since the rather silly impacts of the vandalism and broken windows, has been nothing but “optics,” as conservatives and Trump voters, generally, have been branded as “white supremacists” and “terrorists” and greater threats to “democracy” than “9-11.” What hogwash. The greatest threat to “democracy” in the past several decades exists among those who engineered the 2020 Elections that led to certification of the electoral College votes that propelled Biden-Harris to be sworn in on January 20th. To say that the January 6th events were not a legitimate “protest” against perceived government mendacity is to rewrite history and word-meanings simultaneously. Long before the 2020 elections, sufficient reasons to protest the actions within the Capitol were accumulating: things like $27 Trillion in debts.
Breaching the Capitol was foolish, obviously, and illegal in its own right, from which a host of other crimes and misdemeanors flowed. The worst crime, committed by a Capitol Police officer, was the point-blank murder of Ashli Babbit, who was not assaulting any person or presenting a threat to the officer who shot her. Ms. Babbit was unarmed. Four months later we can finally identify the police officer at fault, despite video of the incident. He is a Trump-hater, reportedly, but not charged with this crime. Can we suppose that had the breach been the work of “BLM” that the entire congressional leadership would have taken a knee on their Communist behalf in the Rotunda? Fourteenth Amendment, anyone?
Back to the Field of Honor in North Andover: Exchange attempts to gather good people to a common purpose, much of which is helping, serving, others. Through scholarships, recognitions of excellence and of overcoming tough challenges, and through Americanism, we attempt to remind our fellow Americans of the qualities that are worth emulating, honoring and teaching. In our experience, people need that reminding; they need to remember or recognize and honor those who were raised with those vital qualities; people truly want the reminding: it affirms that the best of being an American is still true and worth emulating, including to whatever extent, in their own lives and in the lives of those around them.
To all those who, for whatever reason or untruth you are convinced of, teach our children, and who convey that America and its entire history and purpose is to be hated and discarded for a socialized, anti-Christian system that has failed wherever tried, stop! You have no right.
Forever in a field they wave… In rows and columns true; Each soldier’s memory proudly etched – Loyalty, dressed Red, White and Blue. Deeds of Honor recognized… Of times not long ago; Field of Flags wave proudly. History written in hearts aglow… Offer silent reverence, quiet prayer; Noble servants rightly praised… On through time pass forever grateful. Remembered with Flags unfurled and raised. By Mike Sousa, North Andover
In a summer marred by urban insurrections and variously excessive and unconstitutional, official pandemic fears and dicta, community service clubs, pillars of society, all, “Zoom” notwithstanding, continue their often unheralded works raising money to give away, along with countless hours of volunteer time. So it is with chapters of the Exchange Clubs of America who “Exchange our Service today to build stronger communities and a better Nation tomorrow.” This concept would be moribund if Exchange (and Rotary, Kiwanis and others) did not believe in the likelihood of stronger communities and a better Nation tomorrow. In fact, service clubs’ heartfelt faith in America’s striving for a more perfect Union – and Unity – is so directly opposite, and in opposition to the sea of hatreds that some stoke for anti-American ideologies, that the distinctions are quite sharp in the Summer of 2020.
Exchange in the lower Merrimack River Valley of northeastern Massachusetts is one of those chapters: the Exchange Club of Lawrence and the Andovers, sponsored in 1947 by the Exchange Club of Lowell, Mass., 8 miles up the river, just a few months after the Exchange Club of Haverhill was chartered, 8 miles down the river from Lawrence. Many Clubs were formed or grew significantly right after World War Two, as Americans returned from battles in terrible places and conditions to recognize how great the promise and premise of the United States of America truly were then and, Exchange members believe, still are today. Americanism is one of the 4 pillars of Service that define Exchange Clubs of America.
Following the September 11th attacks in 2001, a flag company, at the urging of Exchange members in Sandy, Utah, created the first “Healing Field” of nearly 3,000 flags for those killed in the 9-11 attacks. The idea became a National Exchange project and over the past 20 years has been a focus for 9-11 and for other events that cry out for attention and memory across the country, promoted by various Exchange Clubs and by many other organizations.
Despite Covid-19 shutdowns and restrictions, the Town of North Andover, where Exchange did its first local “Field of Honor” in 2019, encouraged us to do a Field in 2020, as well, although without a closing, crowd-attracting ceremony on the Common where 500 flags were displayed. Local access TV created a video of the many parts of the ceremony that we would have done, and created a You-Tube video for anyone to watch:
The value of the Field of Honor is not mere patriotism, as essential as patriotism certainly is, it is a set of focused remembrances. Whether “In Memory Of” or “In Honor Of,” the person(s) to whom a flag is dedicated is an important part of who the flag sponsor is, now, today. The first time our Club installed a “Field of Honor,” we were not ready for the importance to our “customers” of this simple act of stating – printing out for all to see – the name and “heroic” worth of their relatives, antecedent or descendant, or even of great, somewhat sacrificial friends, even acquaintances. In every case, the honoree associated with each flag is important to the flag sponsor and the fact that he or she or they remember or take note of the honoree and are in some way affirmed in their own lives by the excellence, value or sacrifice of the honoree. It is intensely important that their own lives are acknowledged through the best connections that comprise them. It’s spiritual.
Every flag is about love and many about the deepest love: respect. Each tells a story about the sponsor and about the honoree, living or passed. The Field of Honor is merely a focus for manifested love and remembrance, but oh, so crucial – something the club was not prepared for the first time we installed a Field in 2019. Even more, we were not prepared for the importance of reading, saying, the dedications out loud. Spiritual.
For the Town of North Andover and for Andover and Lawrence as well, the Field created a statement of normalcy against a backdrop of Marxist anti-American hatred in the spring and Summer of 2020. There it was okay to be patriotic, okay to recognize goodness and honor and duty. There were so many outpourings of gratitude to the Club when the gratitude belonged to the flag sponsors… at least as the Club members saw it. Yet there they were, steadily, thanking us for erecting the Field. Humbling, spiritual.
For those who don’t share the views of rioters and insurrectionists, the Field is a comfort. It’s presence is an affirmation of America, of the Constitution, of what we hold dear in our families, and of what we hold dear in our faiths. The American flag, itself, is simple, by itself… no more complex than any other national flag, and we display it and hundreds of others very simply. A cheap PVC pipe is the flag-pole, slid over a short piece of steel rebar we try to pound vertically, we hope, into the soil. Tie-wraps hold the flag in place through holes we drill through the pipe, and a cheap golden bulb is stretched – coaxed – over the top. The flag is a printed one of decent quality, metal grommets and sewn edging. We tell sponsors that it will last eleven months and two weeks.
But for patriots the flag is a history, a heritage, a dream and a promise. Those who dedicate one to an Honoree of their choice, feel all of these aspects of this amazing symbol and yet more – things they can’t put into words. As we install them, straighten them, put dedication tags on them, and straighten them again, we feel those things, too. Together, we not only feel that history and heritage, and hear those dreams and promises, we make them, anew.
At the beginning of our You Tube video our senior member, a virtual pillar of these communities – his children following his example – recites a somewhat famous, somewhat poetic statement entitled, “I Am The Flag,” by Howard Schnauber:
I am the flag of the United States of America.
My name is Old Glory. I fly atop the world’s tallest buildings. I stand watch in America’s halls of justice. I fly majestically over institutions of learning. I stand guard with power in the world. Look up and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice. I stand for freedom. I am confident. I am arrogant. I am proud. When I am flown with my fellow banners, My head is a little higher, My colors a little truer. I bow to no one! I am recognized all over the world. I am worshipped – I am saluted. I am loved – I am revered. I am respected – I am feared.
I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years. I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox. I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy. Guam, Okinawa, Korea, KheSan and Saigon, Vietnam know me. I was there. I led my troops. I was dirty, battle-worn and tired, but my soldiers cheered me and I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries I have helped set free. It does not hurt for I am invincible. I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country. And when it’s done by those whom I’ve served in battle – it hurts. But I shall overcome – for I am strong. I have slipped the bonds of earth and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon. I have born silent witness to all of America’s finest hours. But my finest hours are yet to come. When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battle field, when I am flown at half mast to honor my soldiers, or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,
I am proud. I am the flag of the United States of America.
Al Torrisi is a natural leader and a forceful speaker at any time. Yet his voice has a stronger, more commanding timbre (good for the 50-year owner of a large lumber company) than at other times when he recites these words. Years of patriotism, loyalty and love of country spill forth as he speaks, infecting and affecting his listeners. Truth is the most spiritual statement of all. It is the truth of America and of every flag sponsor and honoree, and of the Field, itself.
As this is written the Exchange Club of Needham, Mass. has experienced vandalism of its Field of Honor with some 30 flags being burned. The empty, sinking feeling a fellow Exchangite and field of Honor afficianado feels is hard to articulate. Clearly the membrane of civilization is thin and easily sundered for those who cannot judge the presence of hatred for their own country that such an act exposes. For shame.
Much is made, of late, about “white privilege” and “racism” and about some sort of racial “hatreds” that must exist, all bumper-stickered into the term, “fascism.” By denigrating everyone who is not negroid in appearance, the loose forces that aim to destroy the ideas of America and this nation/society/culture, itself, cause many to question everything about our heritage. The attacker always has the advantage until a true counterattack can be mounted.
What the “antifa” is fighting is not hatred or even racism, it’s anger – anger to which “whites” have no evident right – anger about the loss of the actual, historic, fundamental and incompletely codified American Dream: that all kinds of people can live and thrive together, sovereign in their God-given rights and responsible to themselves and others for the consequences of their own actions. That’s the “Dream.”
The dream isn’t home ownership, or multiple cars or too much to eat… and, it isn’t universal welfare (slavery) either. It’s freedom, a dream that is a nightmare for government types and other tyrants. It’s a nightmare for one-worlders and financial globalists whose ultimate wish is to control production and every producer/worker through taxation and sufficient consumerism to keep them quiet.
All that individuals need to do to become “an American,” is to adopt the culture of freedom and responsibility, and to respect our laws. It is the world’s winning-est formula despite all the flaws it is growing out of. The Dream is worth saving and preserving against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
There’s a common saying, that if you wait for all the lights to turn green before you back out of your own driveway, you’ll never get anywhere. It is infinitely more advantageous to everyone else, along with YOU, the driver of your life, if you will take responsibility for guiding your vehicle through the myriad traffic jams and delays on your way to YOUR OWN personal goal – your pursuit of happiness. Waiting for a government-type to provide both your goals and means is to adopt a new slavery that is attempting to trap every one of us in its web of when and how to live. God forbid.
Do you think the death-panels of socialized medicine are a form of freedom?
The anger that has been rather hidden through the fourth civil war and its consequences since the early 70’s, began to surface for certain during the Obama years. Perhaps a tiny fraction were angry because he was black (by choice, not genetics), but most cared not about his “blackness” but about his “pinkishness.” A virtual communist, Mr. Obama led us away from the true Dream as rapidly as he could, a goal that deserved the anger of those who still choose to be free.
Enter Mr. Trump. Sometimes the best expression of wisdom for a political leader is to recognize where the people are headed and run to get in front of the movement. America was, and is, uneasy. We like to “tolerate” exceptions to Protestant ethics and traditions; we DON’T like to have them forced upon us and, worse, protected by new laws that coerce us to adopt new ways of life. We are angry about having to fight century-old battles again, when there is no possibility of victory – at least, no victory that is good for the country. We are angry about being accused of being born guilty of other people’s sins.
Trump isn’t president because he’s the great leader a majority of Americans admire – far from it, as polls indicate. He is president because he speaks his mind and is not afraid of causing silly offenses. He favors what a majority favor; he points out duplicity that a majority can see; he stands up for what a majority will stand up for. Mrs. Clinton represented things a majority fears in government, and a direction a majority do not want to follow. It’s pretty simple; writing a book was not needed.
There is no “Trumpism.” The existence of the Trump administration does not represent a new political force focused on Trump, himself, nor will his family be slobbered over like Kennedy’s, sufficient to propel relatives or offspring into other offices. But the ideas, beliefs, loves and fears behind him will bring others into office. That’s not “Trumpism,” it’s Americanism.
