Some have perhaps been unfortunate enough to partake in the title conversation. Irrespective of which part of that dialogue you participated in, it is a quintessential moment of personal responsibility and a metaphor for life. One’s response and action at that moment can spawn a life changing epiphany regardless of which decision you made. The effects can be physical, emotional or philosophical. Did it make you bitter, angry, confident or proud? Are you more dependent on others, less trusting or regretful? One prevailing issue is certainly inescapable; that moment taught you something about individual accountability.
Specific to this issue, we certainly see some positive signs but there are others which are less comforting. In the end, many parents may blame themselves. Did they do enough to help their children make responsible decisions? Were they too concerned with their own lives? Do they still continue to deny and demur writing it off as a sign of the times and societal change? Are they dismissive and part of an oleaginous cultural shift which passes events off as the ultimate responsibility of our government? These are certainly all pertinent questions in the unsettled countenance of our upcoming elections. Why you might ask?
Please read on.
We are by our very nature as Americans a very generous and giving people. That is unfortunately not the self image Democrats and in particular Mr. Obama tries to project. The core principles of their philosophy require a dependence on government charity. This is proliferated by the substantial dispersion of government funds, our funds, for the purposes of facilitating social and structural changes. Their objective is to build a more intrusive federal system and generations dependent on its largesse. This in turn inculcates society with their liberal social and political agenda. That institutionalization of tyranny results in taking away our freedom and choices, one issue at a time. Ask yourself, when has the government returned to the people rights previously usurped? There is nothing but a long and sustained pause in response. Is this the philosophy we intend to prolong by electing more Democrats?
That liberal posture is therefore nothing more than self serving and a leap beyond the Constitutional vision of our forefathers, who foresaw a future in which personal freedom was balanced against specifically elucidated federal powers. I am reminded that James Madison said the following;
The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.
Or this articulation by Thomas Jefferson;
Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated
This recitation of the past has fallen mostly on tone deaf ears of an electorate either too self absorbed with their own lives to see a forest through the trees, worn down by broken political promises or swayed by electoral rhetoric, demurs. We are, by our very nature, prone to care for our families and ourselves as primary responsibilities. However, forgetting the very nature of this cherished Republic, many seem ready to shed the bounties of freedom for the accoutrements of intrusive government and cradle-to-grave stewardship. Meanwhile our Constitution and its authors weep.
Conversely, the forces of ideas and ideals gather somewhat unnoticed. This makes Thomas Paine's following refrain a contemporary maxim;
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph....
As enemies seek to invade our soil, branches of government run amuck of their responsibility and destructive forces gather on the horizon, it is a time for great repose not yielding to the sirens of fallacy. Where will you stand a generation from now? Will your descendants be curious if you were a voice for freedom or tyranny? What will be your legacy? It is time to turn off the TV, separate from the rhetoric and reflect on that very salient question.
Cross posted at Redstate
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