We are Americans.
Ben Johnson once said that nothing focuses the mind more than the prospect of being hung in the morning. We are being led up the scaffolding.
I say that because I hear despair in a lot of corners that we are powerless against the behemoth; the most oppresive crushing economic and political devastation the country has ever seen.
I am a conservative libertarian — Never in the modern epoch have times been so perilous and our potential leaders so stunningly unprepared.
We carp about global warming, we fear it. It is a chimera, a monster under the bed that disappears when the light turns on. Yet, it is accepted as gospel despite so much evidence to the contrary.
We are going to transform and empower the federal government to unheard of degrees based on a lie. We wonder about Mark Sanford’s peccadilloes while our way of life is about to be transformed.
This happy morning while we carouse at parades, drink beer in the sun, wander around the new Mount Pleasant Park sated with hot dogs — remember this.
We are Americans.
We are a strong self-reliant people. If things get bad, we’ll figure it out despite our differences. I suspect one of the first things to go will be a tolerance for an intrusive government.
Every generation has been tested in this country. It has been my generation’s privilege and downfall that we have not undergone severe hardship. Yes, ‘Nam sucked, so did the gas lines – for that matter so did disco. Still, compared to the Great Depression and World War II collectively our time has been a perfect August afternoon in Maine. As our generation and the ones below us face up to what’s coming, I suspect we will be up to the task in spite of ourselves.
We are Americans.
Ben Franklin once said along the lines of we either hang together or hang separately.
We have been manipulated, divided. We have been led to believe that we are separate enclaves fighting among ourselves while the government has grown in size and shape sucking the life blood out of our nation. We are not.
We accept this because we have weakened ourselves, dumbed ourselves down to the point that we no longer recognize the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We must begin anew with a different party, a new party that will be as transformative as the Republicans were to the Whigs.
A party, to coin a phrase, that stands for the right to fail for it is only when threatened with failure that we cherish the right to succeed. All of the sensory overload has obfuscated this.
Right after the inauguration earlier this year, a young woman from the White House spoke of Americans with all different color passports. Our passports are but one color.
Both political parties are bankrupt with incumbency and corruption. It’s time to throw them all out. Every last one of them.
You might be a Cherokee or black. You might be gay or straight. You might be liberal, conservative, green or a Whig, for that matter.
You are an American.
You see, we really are all equal. We all face the aforementioned failure. We all face a government that wants to dictate who wins. Say no. Say it loudly.
Get off your behind. Together, we will figure it out.
The alternative is too scary to contemplate.
