It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn November 23, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Christian response to election, democrat voter fraud, Dr. Robert Owens, hope in Christ, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, stolen election, Voter Fraud
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Honesty is always the best policy because when you’re fooling yourself you’re not fooling anyone else. The recent election should have been a wake-up call for everyone committed to the traditional principles of our great Republic: constitutionally limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom. The weeping has lasted for a night, and now it is time to be honest with ourselves to face the cold clear light of day and to prayerfully find our way in this brave new world.
Obviously the dismal election results have captured the attention of everyone who hoped to avoid the triumph of the Progressives and their utopian statist agenda. Every conservative pundit whether neo or old school either on the only non-progressive news channel or online is evaluating the election results and offering their prescription to heal the weaknesses of the Grand Old Party. Some say embrace amnesty with limits, some say moderate the abortion plank, others say come out for legalization of drugs. In other words continue the slide of the one-time bastion of traditional values into a mushy, touchy-feely Democrat-Lite.
This commentator is taking a different route. I believe it is time to abandon the Republican Party as the empty shell it has become. Personally after a lifetime as a card-carrying, active, and contributing member of the GOP, I quit the Party back in the 1990s after the Congressional majority I had worked so hard to help achieve slid into tandem with Bill Clinton giving us a bigger government and sham surpluses.
I endorsed Mitt Romney in the recent election for the one reason I repeated over and over, he might have driven us to the poor house a little slower giving patriots some more time to rally round the flag. That didn’t happen, and instead we are on the Obama Express to Fascism disguised as an American version of Euro-Socialism. This may sound harsh to anyone who is unfamiliar with the actual definition of Fascism: socialism with a capitalist veneer. It is typified by private ownership and government control, crony capitalism and the exploitation of the productive for the benefit of protected and promoted classes loyal to the regime.
Patriots may brand this as un-American and say that the American people will never accept the regimentation and control needed to implement such a system; however, the truth is the majority of the voting public just voluntarily chose it instead of a blatant appeal to free markets and love of country. It is time to accept the new normal; generations of progressives have educated generations of Americans not only to believe they are entitled to cradle-to-grave government support but also to demand it as their right. Combine these home grown supporters of free stuff over freedom with the import-a-voter immigration policies since the Kennedy Immigration Bill of 1965 and the Democrat entitlement machine has finally achieved the permanent majority they have been making down payments on since FDR.
Either through neglect or a stubborn belief that it can’t happen here we have stood by while the Progressives successfully changed our nation from one founded upon a rock-solid constitution to one built upon the sand of a living constitution which is a dead letter.
How do we put the tooth paste back in the tube? How do we change America back to what it was? The only way to do it is one mind at a time. We must concentrate on raising our children with a clear understanding of limited government and personal freedom. We must work to gain influence in our local school boards and communities so that we can ensure that the knowledge of American History and our heritage of freedom isn’t lost or corrupted. And I believe we must abandon the GOP as the shadow of its former self that it has become.
Personally, I identify most closely with the Constitution Party. This party states its mission clearly:
The mission of the Constitution Party is to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity through the election, at all levels of government, of Constitution Party candidates who will uphold the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions.
There are other parties that we as freedom loving Americans can join and I encourage everyone to explore their options. One option I reject is re-arranging the deck chairs on the good ship GOP-Titanic as it pulls further into the Progressive harbor.
That is the political side of a conservative way forward. And while the political side is filled with work and hope for a better tomorrow the spiritual side is filled with joy, opportunity, and eternal reward.
The victory of the secular humanists and the triumph of the political expression of their man-centered philosophy: Progressivism, will empower their war against faith in general and Christianity is particular. This will increase the soft oppression which works to remove every vestige of Christ from the public square. It may also usher in the type of persecution that generally accompanies the fall of a Christian nation to the secular religions of the Left, Socialism, Communism, and Fascism.
All of which will open the greatest door for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the memory of any living American. Evil may come in like a flood, but the Lord will raise a standard against it. We don’t need to worry about evil doers for they may flourish for an hour but they will also fade like a flower. Proclaim Christ as the One who not only lived to show us the way but who is Himself the Way, who died to pay the price for our sin and who rose to give us life. If we will confess Christ before men He will confess us before His Father who is in heaven.
This night may be dark, the way may be perilous, but joy comes in the morning. If we remain true to Him no one can snatch us out of His hand. Stand up for the freedom Christ has won for us! Refuse to be silent in the face of tyranny! Share the History of our great Republic and shout from the rooftops, Jesus is Lord!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Calling a Spade a Spade November 16, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, 2012 voter fraud, Chicago machine, Chicago politics, Dr. Robert Owens, Obama voter fraud, rigged election, stolen election, Voter Fraud, Voter ID
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The recent re-election of our Glorious Leader Barack Husain Obama has sent shock waves through the patriotic and conservative communities. Everyone from Libertarians to fervently Pro-Life activists from Log cabin Conservatives to those advocating traditional values have accepted the narrative force-fed to a waiting public by the media. Day after day on the one network all conservatives watch we have swallowed the intellectual gruel ladled out by the select group of anointed talking heads whose opinions Fox must believe are the only ones we ever want to hear. From the Liberal Juan to the Neo-Con Charles from the Libertarian John to the funny Dennis we have been told that demographics defeated us.
Yes there has been a massive demographic shift in the make-up of our country since the suicidal adoption of the Kennedy Immigration Act in 1965. Pat Buchannan has warned us for years that this was a demographic time bomb implanted by the Progressives in the very heart of America. Yes the massive amnesty which is soon to turn tens of millions of illegal immigrants into citizens and loyal democratic voters will effectively spell the end of any possibility for a supporter of limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom to win the White House.
Our newly re-elected rule-by-decree president will use executive orders to incorporate a new voting majority if he can’t get the perpetually re-elected leaders of the Republicans to join him in driving this final nail into the coffin of the Constitution. Mr. Buchannan warned us, crying out like a prophet in the wilderness, it is impossible to incorporate millions of people from the third world who have never known anything except authoritarian rule and expect them to become born-again supporters of Enlightenment political theory. All they have ever known was oppressive central-planning and all powerful leaders wielding vast bureaucracies, in other words ideal Democrat voters.
This is all true. This last gear is about to be installed in the Democrat re-election machine but this is not what happened in the pivotal election of 2012 However, there is another story that no one on Fox is telling us. Instead they parrot the conventional wisdom of the Democrat controlled media. We hear the same thing whether we tune to Fox or MSNBC: unless the Republican party embraces amnesty and softens its stance on certain social issues they will never have a chance to win the white House again. The diagnosis may be correct but the prescription will kill the façade that the Republican Party supports constitutionally limited government.
The real story behind the defeat of the media chosen Romney isn’t that this Northeast big government father of Romneycare couldn’t beat the worst president in American History riding the worst economy since FDR. It isn’t even the fact that millions of self-identified Republicans stayed home or that millions of liberty loving constitutionalists followed their conscious and voted third party. Even with these handicaps I believe Mr. Romney would have defeated Mr. Obama except for the one factor no one seems willing to voice: massive and systemic voter fraud.
The Democrats in general and their professional civil rights hucksters in particular have spent endless hours howling about voter suppression finally pointing to the long lines of millions of new voters as proof that their vote had been suppressed. That’s like saying, “Nobody goes there anymorebecause it’s too crowded.”
In this column over the last four years I have pointed out the Progressive ways of Chicago-on-the-Potomac. I have pointed out that Mr. Obama was the representative of the Chicago Outfit and that everything he was doing had already been field tested for generations in the City that Works for the Outfit. I have also pointed out that the Chicago political machine doesn’t lose elections. With the Obama campaign headquartered in the Windy City and run by professional Chicago operatives, to this writer it was a forgone conclusion: they would steal the vote.
The massive political machines the democrats have constructed in major cities act as vote faucets that swing their states predictably into the blue column. The irregularities with voting machines, the hundreds of precincts that went 99 to 100 % for Obama, and the legions of voters who couldn’t even speak let alone read English all point to the arrival of third world elections to the greatest democracy ever known.
At a recent gathering I heard two progressives irately attacking the audacity of the Republicans for seeking voter ID laws. They saw this as an attempt to stop poor and elderly voters, who all have IDs, from voting. They also bemoaned the fact that the voter ID supporters claimed they wanted to stop voter fraud. To this claim they wailed, “What voter fraud? Where is it? There is no voter fraud!”
Knowing that my earlier statements will elicit the same wail let me respond with some facts gleaned from the post-election observations as chronicled in the Worldnet Daily:
Chicago elections worker Steve Pickrum, an equipment manager for the elections system, told Worldnet Daily (WND) he was called when a voting machine malfunctioned. “On early voting when I did work on the floor when voters needed help using the equipment, I was able to see the preference of the voter, and every time that I saw [a] voter voted for Romney a ‘voter save failure’ message came up on the screen,’” he reported. Then when he went on election day to vote himself, he picked Romney and experienced the same error message. He reported he never experienced the error message when the voter was choosing Barack Obama.
Another poll worker assigned at the University of Michigan reported to WND a list of irregularities including that the precinct captain told her at one point, “You go sit down, you are bothering me,” when she was trying to observe the proceedings. “I was only standing there and looking at voter documents,” she told WND. “It was clear that what bothered him was my very presence.” She said a short time later a young man arrived and identified himself as a Democrat poll challenger. “The first time he said anything was to object to my challenge of a voter. He tried to anger the voter by telling her ‘She does not believe you are who you say you are.’ He was trying to create a scene. It then happened again and I told him ‘You are not here to challenge me!’ His reply was a very loud ‘Yes I am! You are a Republican and you are here to prevent people from voting. You are holding up the line and creating obstructions,’” she reported. She told WND in fact no one waited more than about fifteen minutes to vote the entire day, and there were no obstructions.
And in Florida, the Sun Sentinel reported that election workers a week after the election said they found 963 unaccounted-for ballots – in a warehouse. “How can you lose them? This is terrible,” candidate Chickie Brandimarte told officials. Election supervisor Brenda Snipes, however, said it’s routine for various vote totals to be adjusted up until the Nov. 18 final certification.
Also in Florida, residents began demanding changes in the electoral system that handed voters chaos, frustration, and delays at polling stations. The Florida League of Women Voters and other groups are demanding from Gov. Rick Scott a plan to draft reforms for the state’s elections.
A poll watcher told WND up to 10 percent of the ballots cast at a polling station in Pennsylvania reverted to a default, which gave Barack Obama a vote no matter who the voter had selected. The incident took place in the state where officials claimed Obama got a total of 19,605 votes in 59 voting divisions to zero for Mitt Romney and not far from the 100 precincts in Ohio where Obama got 99 percent of the vote, a feat not even achieved by third-world dictators. It was in Upper Macungie Township, near Allentown, Pa., where an auditor, Robert Ashcroft, was dispatched by Republicans to monitor the vote on Election Day. He said the software he observed would “change the selection back to default – to Obama.”
Stand up to fight against voter fraud right now!
Fox News reported that voters in Nevada, North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio also said they had pushed a button on a touch-screen voting machine for Romney, but the machines recorded their vote for Obama.
At the White House website, a report in the Examiner explains, there was a petition posted seeking a recount of the race. “In one county alone in Ohio, which was a battleground state, President Obama received 106,258 votes … but there were only 98,213 eligible voters. It’s not humanly possible to get 108 percent of the vote,” the petition claims.
Fox News reported that two election judges were replaced after illegally allowing unregistered voters to cast ballots.
The Columbus Dispatch estimated that more than twenty percent of registered Ohio voters aren’t eligible. “In two counties, the number of registered voters actually exceeds the voting-age population,” the report said. And, it said, in 31 other counties, registrations are above 90 percent of the population, “a rate regarded as unrealistic by most voting experts.”
Fox News also documented how Senate candidate Wendy Long, an attorney who was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, recounted her voting experience. “A poll worker who was at the scanner studied my private ballot and proceeded to tell me that it was rejected because I did not ‘fill in every space.’ She then proceeded to indicate that I should mark the Democratic line all the way down.”
The Market Daily News reported on those 100 precincts in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, that on election day gave Romney zero votes, and Obama got 99 percent. “In more than 50 different precincts, Romney received two votes or less,” the report said. “One would think that such improbable results would get the attention of somebody out there.”
According to Philly.com, 59 voting divisions in Philadelphia produced a “head-spinning figure,” not one vote for Romney. “The unanimous support for Obama in these Philadelphia neighborhoods – clustered in almost exclusively black sections of West and North Philadelphia – fertilizes fears of fraud, despite little hard evidence,” the newspaper said.
The Washington Times reported that officials in Florida banned observers from seeing the absentee ballots being opened and “there was no way to know whether the absentee ballots that were produced were the same ones that were opened, or if all the ballots were produced.”
Human Events claimed Ohio voters who are native to Somalia were being given a slate card saying, “Vote Brown all the way down” – an apparent reference to the Democratic senator.
WND’s newest forum is your opportunity to report voter fraud
The Washington Times reported its suspicions of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, including that “in Philadelphia, the [New] Black Panthers are currently standing outside polling booths, intimidating voters just like they did in 2008.” It said, too, that seventy Republican polling inspectors were blocked from access.
A blog, Punditpress, reported “In Florida: Obama Got Over 99% in Broward County Precincts”
The same site reported: “What Luck! Obama Won Dozens of Cleveland Districts with 100% of the Vote”
There also was the report about “Good News: Obama Won County in Ohio with 108% Voter Registration”
To the Progressives who fight voter ID I want say, “This voter fraud. Here it is? There was massive and systemic voter fraud!” To those who refuse to call a spade a spade, hiding their heads in the sand and pretending this election was the result of a demographic shift, the power of negative advertising, or anything else besides Chicago style politics as usual I want to ask, “Why are you so quiet about something that is so obvious?” What’s to be gained by lending our silence to endorse the legitimacy of a stolen election? If you are afraid to be called a conspiracy theorist let me quote a man who has ended up being right many times when everyone thought he was wrong, “It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
History Holds Its Breath November 1, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2012 election, Dr. Robert Owens, Obama agenda, Obama debt, presidential debates, Progressive agenda, Romney agenda
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Anyone who has read this column for any appreciable amount of time should have no doubt as to this author’s opinion of Progressivism and its agenda for America. I have tried over the years to connect the Progressives to their roots and their objectives. I have attempted to expose their nefarious tactics and strategies. I have dedicated myself to highlighting the differences between the utopia the Progressives display as their goal and the collectivist quagmire that lies behind the facade.
In this election season I have pointed out that those who wish to foist a living constitution on an unwilling nation seek in reality not a framework for national life but instead a straightjacket of centralized regulations leading to the death of our Federal Republic. I began the primary season expounding on the many laudable qualities of Ron Paul. I stated unequivocally that I believed he was the only candidate on the scene who correctly framed the debate and offered a direct path back to limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom.
The Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media along with all of the cable outlets made sure no one ever heard of Dr. Paul’s deep thoughts, true agenda, or accurate election results. His candidacy was sabotaged by the supporters of the Status Quo.
Since the disappointing days of the primaries I have consistently pointed out that one candidate wanted to lead us to the Progressive gulag of class warfare, redistribution, and stagnation. I have also pointed out that the other candidate, while not a paragon of small government or an avid supporter of Tea Party values, would at least slow this express to the poor house and perhaps give liberty loving Americans an opportunity to rally round the flag.
The hour is too late and the outcome too important to use the subtle innuendo of the professional objectivity all Historians are trained to present. I am pleading with my fellow patriots to reject the Manchurian Candidate and vote for the square jawed President-in-waiting from central casting.
If that tongue-in-cheek recitation of manufactured verbal camouflage fails to convey the message perhaps this will seal the deal. Vote for Romney!
Yes, I know he’s a big government guy. Yes, I know he is an interventionist waiting for an opportunity to intervene. However, he is also a venture capitalist who says he wants to make the social and political space that would allow we the people to once again venture to be capitalists.
He says the right things. Even his statement about the 47% was correct in its essence. Those who are riding on the gravy train will never vote to turn their pleasure cruise into a bus trip to work. His so-called gaffs reflect the thinking of conservative America more than the highest flying rhetoric of Mr. Obama.
The Progressive’s champion, who has presided over the largest four year expansion of the National Debt in History, says he will stop the hemorrhaging of red ink by cutting programs and taxing the rich. In reality the budgets he has submitted project trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. The President presents us with a divisive campaign about small things. He follows the standard Liberal Playbook and tries to divide the nation into voting blocks for use in building a winning coalition.
Governor Romney speaks the language of inclusion, addressing all Americans and holding out the promise of growing the pie instead of the Progressive’s zero sum game of economic musical chairs. Last time America voted for change and what we got was a man who promised to fundamentally change America. And that was the only promise he has kept. Four more years and this wave of fundamental change will be solidified in legislation and habit and we will awake to find we aren’t in Kansas anymore Toto.
Reject the hyperbole of envy and turn away from the claptrap of collectivist redistribution and vote for a return to Constitutional government. Urge your neighbors, call your friends, influence anyone you can to turn out and vote to turn over the regime. Vote to send Mr. Obama back to community organizing. Vote to send the Czars back to the teacher’s lounge.
There are moments when the entire world trembles on the cusp of a great decision. America held its breath as the Framers debated in Constitution Hall what sort of a government we would have. Millions of citizens on both sides and millions of slaves held their breath as Mr. Lincoln and his Republicans battled the Confederate Democrats to see whether or not, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” In the 1950s and 60s America following Eisenhower’s lead and building upon traditional Republican support and votes for Civil Rights held its breath to learn if the last vestiges of the Democrat’s Jim Crow Laws could be exorcised from our land.
Today History holds its breath to see if the descendants of the pioneers, the children of the Revolution have become so addicted to the Progressive’s entitlement culture that they will vote to abandon the freedom which is their heritage and forge their own chains of dependency. We wait to see if the New Deal Democrat slogan, “Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect!” has finally born the fruit of a permanent electoral majority committed to cradle-to-grave government support in exchange for Liberty?
Reject the siren song of free stuff and vote for freedom. In 2008, America voted for Obama and change. In 2012, vote for Mitt Romney and change it back!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
Without Hope You’re Hopeless October 12, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Classical Liberalism, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Robert Owens
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Listening to the lies of the politicians as presented by the prattle of the biased it is easy to lose hope in a secular sense. My hope in an eternal sense is founded on the rock of an unshakable faith in Jesus, and so it cannot be shaken. However, in the secular resting, as it must upon the shifting sands of man in America today, hope as a measured commodity is all too often hopeless. Seeking for hope in current events, a diamond among the discards and a point of light in a sea of darkness, is seeking something positive among the gathering gloom of an empire in eclipse.
I don’t know about you, but I cannot focus on the negative trends of our current situation for long without at least contemplating depression and I don’t mean the economic kind. I am thankful I have a peace that passes all understanding and a hope that cannot be taken away, and I am also glad that I have a sense of History which gives me a context to frame the Now. For if all we have is the Now it can always be changed with the next headline, the next news bulletin, or the next press release. Having a historical context brings things into focus fitting the events of today into flow of time from yesterday to tomorrow.
Truth often becomes the victim of expediency. For what seems true at the moment may end up as the lie of the hour. Politicians bend truth like gravity bends light: the heavier the perceived need the greater the unperceived distortion. Lies can become so widely believed that truth is swallowed in truism. Lies become the accepted wisdom of professional pundits chattering endlessly, supporting that which ultimately must fall for those who seek to surf a tsunami into a safe harbor. The news is filled with half-truths and as my second favorite philosopher, Anonymous, once said, “Beware of half-truths, you may have gotten the wrong half.”
We live in a twilight time. Twilight by definition is a time when two sources of light pierce the gloom. It is that quivering moment when both the sun and the moon hold back the darkness. The darkness of confusion is dispelled by the brightness of the sun of truth, but it is disputed by refracted light of the moon of opinion masquerading as truth.
Casting about for something solid in the midst of the swirling fog of conflicting facts, shifting observations, and contradictory visions in the secular sense I must focus on one thing: the people. I trust the American people. I trust them to make the right choice when presented with unvarnished reality. I trust them to do what must be done to preserve the bequest of our forefathers for the inheritance of our posterity.
The Declaration of Independence was written to proclaim the righteousness of the actions of “One people” with the courage to declare to a world sold into bondage that our liberty was founded upon truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We the People wrote the Constitution in order to perfect that which had been founded upon the truth. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It is to this one people, this “We the people” that I look for secular hope, political peace, and the eventual solution to our current cultural conundrum. The popular definition of a conundrum is a problem without a solution. However it also has another meaning: a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun. Since I am referring to the second meaning I will present the riddle, “How is liberalism the solution to the problem of liberalism?”
In our through-the-looking-glass world, politicians use actual truth to obscure the obvious truth. Congressman Joe Early (D-Mass) at a press conference to answer questions about the House Bank scandal said, “They gave me a book of checks. They didn’t ask for any deposits.” While I’m sure it is true he was given a book of checks, obviously one needs to make deposits if one is to honestly write checks. In this same manner the leaders of our free country promote socialism as the solution to the problems socialism has caused knowing that you cannot honestly write checks if you don’t make deposits. Capitalism makes the deposits and socialism wants to write the checks. As Churchill said “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
We are awash in polls. Every campaign and every major news source constantly trumpet polls many of which contradict each other. No matter what the polls say I believe that the American people still believe in freedom. I believe they still believe in the equality of opportunity and the opportunity of equality. We all aren’t the same. Each of us is born with a particular set of talents and each of us uses those talents in a certain way. It is my belief, that given the level playing field of individual liberty and economic freedom, the vast majority of Americans will work hard to earn what they deserve. This is my secular hope. Heaven on earth is not possible but given individual liberty and economic freedom inherently promised in the perfect union we the people sought to create we can at least avoid remaining in the hell of socialism the Progressives are currently foisting upon us, as Churchill also said “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Oh, by the way, the answer to the riddle is that Classical Liberalism promotes the general welfare by promoting the limitation of government and the liberty of the individual in order to better serve the whole. Welfare Liberalism erodes the general welfare by expanding the government at the expense of the individual in order to better serve the individual. Thus Classical Liberalism is the solution to the problems caused by Welfare Liberalism. And that’s the truth which brings me to one last Churchill quote for the day, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end, there it is.”
Hope and change may have convinced our fellow citizens to sell their birthright of freedom for the savory red stew of give me more; however, November is coming and things may change. At least we can hope. For without hope we are hopeless and we are a hopeful people.
Don’t be discouraged by the blather of the pontificating politicians or confused by the conflicting ruminations of the professional talkers. When all is said and done we can trust us. We the people will eventually come down on the side of truth, justice, and the American way.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens. Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens You can contact Dr. Owens at drrobertowens@hotmail.com
Is There Any Hope of Change September 7, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Chicago politics, Cloward-Piven Strategy, Dr. Robert Owens, military vote, National Debt, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda, Romney agenda, Ryan Plan
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The two major political parties have a lock on power in the United States. The election laws, the media and family voting patterns all collude to make the election of a third party candidate to the Presidency a near impossibility. The closest in the lifetime of anyone reading this happened in 1992 when Ross Perot garnered 18.91% of the vote and not one electoral vote. He has long been blamed for causing the defeat of Bush the Elder and the election of Clinton the Last. Whether Mr. Perot did have such a dramatic effect on the presidential election is still debated. Just as in most theological debates both sides offer well-constructed arguments supported by what they consider irrefutable scripture references or in this case, the life’s blood of political statements: statistics.
One certainty that cannot be debated is that Perot did not have an honest man’s chance in Washington to be elected.
Consequently either Barak Obama will continue as America’s president or he will be unseated and Mitt Romney will replace him. There may be others running. There may be better qualified people. There may be someone who could inspire and lead us all into a second century of American ascendance; however, despite whomever else there may be it will be either the Democrat Obama or the Republican Romney. Life may not be fair but it usually is predictable, and this is as predictable as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West. One of the two parties of power will win.
Given this preordained outcome is there really any hope of change? Or will we continue to watch helplessly as the perpetually re-elected parties continue to spend us into oblivion?
With Mr. Obama’s second term there is no doubt that all we can expect is more of the same, on steroids. Mr. Obama has said, “I think that after this election, we’ll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we’re taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches.”
A divided government, if the Republicans maintain control of the House, might slow things down, however Mr. Obama has shown he is ready, willing and with the silence of Congress able to rule by decree. If Congress won’t pass the Dream Act he imposes it. If Congress won’t pass Cap-N-Trade he regulates it into being. So we know that if he wins a second term it will be his way or the highway. His agenda will continue to be the national agenda and four more years might be enough to sink the ship of state in a Cloward–Piven Strategy overwhelming the system scenario.
Four more years of the Obama led Democrat Progressives and we may be fundamentally transformed beyond recognition. The heritage of our Founding Fathers may become the lost cause of a failed experiment in individual liberty and economic freedom as America descends into the morass of a welfare state based on re-distribution and political correctness. In other words, the dream of Obama’s father.
That is one side of the coin. What about the other?
If we get Tweedledee instead of Tweedledum will it be morning in America again? Will the ghost of the Gipper lead us from the government’s shovel-never-ready Great Recession into a new era where things are made in America again and everything’s coming up roses?
There is no way from where we are: 16 trillion in debt, a decimated industrial base and a large proportion of our population addicted to government handouts, back to being the largest creditor in the world, the largest manufacturer, a land of self-reliant patriots without major dislocations, and dare I say it, austerity.
Mr. Romney’s fifty nine point plan to save the economy is a well-crafted and well-presented plan to revitalize America’s economy through a pro-capitalist free market approach. It is however not as easy to explain or present as tax the rich and give everyone else free stuff. Since it is better known and has been more widely and perhaps more eloquently presented the Republicans appear to be fronting with Paul Ryan’s plan to save America. Both the Romney and the Ryan plan are a clear step away from the plunder policies of Mr. Obama and his Progressive shock troops.
However, neither Republican plans adequately addresses the entitlement time bomb. Neither projects a balanced budget in any timely fashion and neither proposes any way to ensure that future Congresses live by any restraints imposed. Both promise to preserve our imperial defense spending needed to support two wars and more than 100 foreign bases. Both rattle sabers in the direction of Syria and Iran. What we have is an effort to slow the growth of the debt by reducing the yearly deficits.
Slowing the growth is decidedly better than accelerating but the debt keeps growing and the abyss that looms ahead of us is the unsustainability of the debt. A future rise in interest rates will sink the ship as the service on the debt wipes out the government’s ability to keep its promises or meet its obligations. This is the very scenario the Progressives have been progressing towards. The people who tell us never to let a crisis go to waste have long worked incrementally to lead us to the crisis at the end of the Constitution. A final crisis when limited government will be completely unshackled and the central planners will triumph.
If Romney wins he and his administration may put a speed bump on the expressway to the poor house, but unless they are ready to shut down the gravy train and turn off the spigot of re-distribution we will merely postpone the day of reckoning. Slower is better than faster when it comes to assuming room temperature; however, unless we turn this ship around we’re headed for the shoals of bankruptcy and the reefs of insolvency either way.
Even though Mr. Obama makes the Carter Administration look like the good old days don’t count out the machines ability to pull an election out of their hat. From no voter IDs and Black Panthers patrolling the polls, from polling places in cemeteries, to every obstacle imaginable in the way of people in our armed forces voting this will be a no-holds-barred Chicago-style campaign by the Democrats. The Progressives know this is the one they need. This is the election that will seal the deal and finally transform America into a re-distribution center with them picking all the winners and losers. They win…America loses.
As one example of how the institutions the Progressives have built over the years will line up to re-elect Barack Obama, look at the recent moves of the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve is moving to inject massive amounts of money into the economy, while keeping interest rates near zero, before the election in a clear move to help re-elect President Obama. How are they going to do this? Will they just print more money? No, they wouldn’t do anything so crude or easy to see as that. Instead, they will announce an open ended mandate to purchase Treasury Bonds and mortgage backed securities. This is QE (Quantitative Easing) 3 in all but name. In QE1 the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of securities and in QE2 $600 billion of Treasuries. How big will this round of pump priming be? According to San Francisco Fed President John Williams, since this is an open ended authorization it could eventually be, “at least as large as QE2 or arguably even larger again.” The casino stock market will soar, and the Fed, through its Chairman, will continue to assure us inflation is small, negligible, and nothing we won’t be able to handle. Then again, what’s a little inflation if it helps re-elect a president whose goal is to swamp the system.
Expect an October surprise such as action against Iran or Syria. Expect an encouraging jobs report right before the election that will be revised lower later. Expect the Obama Administration to do whatever it takes to win.
Romney’s road may still lead to the poor house but Obama’s is a bullet train to nowhere. Is there any hope for change? Not with what we’ve heard so far. Maybe there is a chance to switch from the certainty of near term collapse to the promise of at least a few more stations and a few more track changes before we hit the wall. Who knows with enough time maybe enough people will get up off the couch, turn off the game, and pay attention to make a difference. At least that would be a change we could all hope for.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
Is the Inertia Greater Than the Momentum ? August 2, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2012 election, boom and bust, Dr. Robert Owens, Federal Reserve, Government spending, inflating bubbles, inflation, tax and spend
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The causes of our problems are not hard to see. Americans aren’t obese because evil restauranteers are forcing them to eat fried butter on a stick. We are bulging at the seams because we eat too much and exercise too little. Americans aren’t trapped in upside down mortgages because evil bankers waylaid us and forced us to sign up for a house that was too big and cost too much. We’re living in homes we can’t afford because we wanted them and thought we deserved them even though we didn’t have an income that could support them. Americans aren’t buried in personal debt because credit card companies mailed us credit cards. We carry an average of $14,517 household debt because we wanted what we wanted when we wanted it and couldn’t wait until we could pay for it. And America isn’t drowning in national debt because we did anything more difficult to understand than electing people who bought our votes with entitlements we didn’t need and couldn’t afford.
The problem isn’t that we don’t know the answers. Instead it’s that we don’t want to face up to the fact that the free ride has to stop if we’re going to get off before we land in Athens. America’s economy is beginning to resemble one of those increasingly ridiculous action movies where the hero gets blown up, shot, stabbed, and hit with a brick only to jump up ready to roll. Every time a bubble bursts instead of allowing the economy to bottom out and correct itself the Government spends as it borrows from foreign countries and the Fed creates money out of thin air to pay for it. It’s time our leaders learn we have learned that blowing up a bubble to take the place of the last burst bubble is not building an economy.
As boom and bust turned into boom to boom to boom we have inevitably made our way to KABOOM!!!
The coming crash in this double dip dilemma is going to be a double whammy. We are currently blowing up a new financial bubble providing Fed funds at near zero % that the banks then loan out at 3-4% pumping more and more money into the system. And in a reprise of the 2000 dot.com crash the social media bubble is once again giving us billion dollar companies that aren’t making any money for anyone except the gamblers in the stock market casino.
The Federal Government keeps inflating bubbles to avoid the real crash so they can continue to buy votes with entitlements and pay for them with funny money. This postpones paying the piper, but it increase the bill when it finally comes.
Today the government Leviathan is devouring America’s income. In 2012 it’s estimated that the central government will consume 24 % of GDP kicking back 4% to the States and localities, the States will swallow 10% of GDP, and the local entities will inhale 11%. Subtracting the 4% Federal to State shell game and the governance of America is today costing us 40% of America’s production. On top of that the regulatory burden grows heavier every day until everyone everywhere is in violation of something. And we wonder why industry isn’t expanding? When you eat your seed corn and make impossible to follow guidelines for planting you can’t expect a bumper crop.
With money pouring out of a 5” hose how can anyone take the politicians promises to cut the deficit and reduce the debt seriously? The most draconian plans suggested so far, such as Representative Ryan’s doesn’t balance until 2040 and that is only if future politicians decide to play nice and not buy votes with free goodies which is about as likely as a dog with fleas not scratching.
That’s the problem: a dysfunctional government made up of kleptomaniacs writing phony checks on the future and a population addicted to easy money and unfunded entitlements.
What’s the solution? We as a people must kick the entitlement habit. Like any addiction our national addiction to freebees has debilitated us. It has made us dependent on the outside stimulus. Where once families and churches took care of the needy we have been taught for generations that Uncle Sugar will do it, so we have let Uncle Sugar do it. How has that worked out? Ever since the government bureaucrats have stepped between the givers and the receivers welfare hasn’t been well and it isn’t fair. Many of us know people who need help who are denied and people who should be helping themselves who are riding in their Cadillacs to spend their food stamps.
After more than 15 trillion dollars and four decades of a war on poverty the percentage of Americans below the poverty line is higher than it was when we started. There are more people on food stamps, more on disability and more that have just dropped out of the work force than ever before, and the only answer Washington seems to have is we haven’t spent enough yet. That’s like telling the heroin addict who almost died last night of an overdose that the problem was he didn’t shoot up enough junk.
How do we stop spending? How do we balance the budget? This is like the question the backslider always asks, “How do I get back to God?” The answer to the backslider is, “You get back to God.” The answer for the nation is, “we stop spending more than we bring in.” The politicians have a way to make that solution work: raise taxes until income matches outgo. This brings up another problem: we can’t eat the goose that lays the golden egg and expect to collect more eggs tomorrow. In any country that robs Peter to pay Paul eventually everyone changes their name to Paul. Case in point, we now have more people qualifying for disability each month than people finding jobs.
Yes, this is a call for austerity. Yes, this will cause major dislocations. Yes, when drug addicts quit taking the poison their bodies have come to crave they get sick. In time drug addicts recover and once again becomes normal people able to stand on their own without the chemical prop of a debilitating drug. In time if we as a nation will kick the habit of cheap money and government handouts we will once again learn to stand on our own two feet, hold our head up high, and proudly say, “This is America the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
If we will do this the last half of the twentieth century will be but a prelude to the American Century. If we don’t, the sun will set on the American dream as we devour ourselves in an orgy of hedonism and self-gratification.
The election is coming fast. Survey your choices and find people who have the courage to lead us in a return to fiscal responsibility before we face the coming collapse of the world we have known. For if we cast our bread upon the water it will return to us after many days, but if we sow the wind we will reap the whirlwind.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
Real Rebels and the Counter Revolution March 8, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Dr. Robert Owens, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Progressives, Sam Adams
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Think of America’s Founders. These were real rebels.
Sam Adams agitated against the imposition of taxes. He penned the petitions which brought forth the rallying cry “No taxation without representation!” While avoiding violence he led the effort to organize resistance to tyranny. He founded the Committee of Correspondence in Massachusetts and inspired its spread to the other colonies. He organized boycotts of British goods and the public trial of the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre.
In a world of divine right kings where the common man was a pawn to be exploited and demeaned James Madison made these revolutionary statements, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” And, “An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”
Patrick Henry did more than say, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Before the Revolution, as a member of the Assembly in Virginia he led in the formation of a resistance movement against the tyranny of the British crown. During the Revolution he served in the Continental Congress that passed the Deceleration of Independence. After the Revolution he was not afraid to stand up against the desire of many to impose a Constitution without a Bill of Rights leading in the fight to maintain the greatest amount of individual liberty and the strongest limits to the central authority possible under the new Federal Government. As if he could see the convolutions which currently threaten to swallow the Republic Mr. Henry reminded us at the beginning of our national experiment in limited government, “When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.”
Today the world is turned upside down. The so called radical rebels of the sixties now own or control most things including the government. The anti-establishment has become the establishment and the silent majority is being told to remain silent while this progressive minority transforms our nation into what their collectivist programmers have taught them it should be. And yet they still see themselves as the rebels fighting a faceless bureaucracy for freedom never realizing they have met the enemy, and they are them.
All of this made me think about my old friend the professional revolutionary and something hit me. He has always considered himself a rebel. And considering he has made a living out of being a spokesman for the movements dedicated to destroying the America we have always known that kind of made sense at one time.
But in reality he is now and has consistently in the past loyally spouted the logical progression of the anti-American, anti-capitalist garbage that many of the teachers at our good old public High School tried to shove into our young skulls full of mush. He also sounds exactly like all of our contemporaries who have spent a lifetime drinking at the well of the Corporations Once Called the Mainstream Media. Though they see themselves as deep thinkers it has always been obvious they receive their programming, their news and views from the major networks, and the transcripts in the print media. They spout the same anti-traditional values pro-socialism talking points time after time.
Their representatives have spent decades chipping away at the America we love in the movies, on television, and in songs. They have gained control of one component of society at a time: education, the media, the board room, the Congress, and finally the White House. Through patience and planning they have gained control of the entire federal government and the elites of most areas of society. Therefore I cannot see why we should continue referring to them as rebels merely because they see themselves that way. When you listen to their current spokesmen such as the Daily Show, Bill Maher, or any of the MSNBC line up they come off as so hip and so cutting edge when in fact they agree 100% with the current administration and its collectivist anti-life New Age agenda. What’s rebellious about that? That’s like saying Pravda was a radical spokesman for change when they parroted whatever the leaders of the former USSR had to say.
Today my friend the professional rebel is actively helping recruit and train the brown shirt Occupy troops? They may rail against Wall Street but that same Wall Street promotes and funds the very people these protesters vote for. Someone is being used for something, but they never seem to wake up to ask, “Why should we pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?”
I can no longer consider myself a conservative. What is there left to conserve? I am a radical and a rebel, because I advocate for limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom. These 1960s retreads who continue to advocate for the progressive collectivists who have won their revolution and now occupy the seats of power are faux rebels: organizational apparatchiks spouting the party line.
Look at how revolutionary some of our real rebels still sound today:
Sam Adams said, “The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” And “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” He also said, “Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”
Patrick Henry said, “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” And, “We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power… the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” When thinking of his most famous statement we should keep it in context and recall the whole quote, “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”
So the next time the nightly faux news shows are filled the antics of the faux rebels demonstrating for more government power, or the next time one of your relatives or old friends wants to fill your ear with their oft repeated mantras for the collectivist establishment tell yourself, “This is the time for real rebels and the counter revolution.”
And if pointing out the transparent hypocrisy of the faux rebels of today should ever be considered too rebellious for the faint of heart let me share one more quote from Patrick Henry, “If this be treason, make the most of it!”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the Historian of the Future and the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
The Forbidden Word Impeach February 23, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Dr. Robert Owens, Impeach Obama, Impeachment, Libya, recess appointments
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What does History tell us about the impeachment of an American President? It has only happened twice.
Today Lincoln is an icon. His Roman style temple and oversized statue dominate one end of the National Mall. But in 1864 he was an embattled president caught in a war he couldn’t win and running against George B. McClellan, a popular general who said he could end it. Even History was against Lincoln. No president had won a second term in over thirty years. Mr. Lincoln needed all the allies he could muster to win. So the first Republicans led by the President tried to split the opposition. They changed the party name to the National Union Party and chose a Southern Democrat as a running mate. In a surprise to everyone including Lincoln, he won re-election positioning Johnson one heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
After the worst mistake by a Southern sympathizer since the attack on Fort Sumter, the assassination of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency and almost immediately ran afoul of the Radical Republicans who had a three to one majority in Congress and who wanted to punish the South. Johnson was the only Southern Senator to remain loyal to the Union. He served as the Union imposed military governor of Tennessee until chosen to run for Vice President. A mere forty one days into Lincoln’s second term Johnson was sworn in. When he sought to allow the South a path back into the Union that re-imposed limitations upon the freed slaves and ensured the rise of ex-Confederates to power, he was impeached for breaking a law concerning the firing of appointees. After a contentious trial he was acquitted by one vote.
Johnson and his presidency survived, barely. He was afterwards relegated to irrelevancy and served as a mere caretaker until General Grant came along to become the face of Reconstruction. In this first impeachment battle the President was acquitted, but Congress won.
If you ask the average person who lived through the national ordeal President Clinton was impeached because of his scandalous tryst with a young intern in the Oval Office. Though this was a shameful betrayal of trust, it was not the reason he was impeached. He was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in a legal matter that had nothing at all to do with Monica Lewinsky. And even though Clinton was later found in contempt by a federal judge for lying under oath and was later disbarred for ethical violations it was the leadership of the House that impeached him that paid the political price. The Senate which on a strict party line vote (all the Progressives voted to acquit), came out relatively unscathed. Today we are constantly told by the Progressive Press Mr. Clinton is a beloved elder statesman.
Etched upon the memory of the Republican wing of the party of power is the knowledge that unless there is a Senate willing to convict there is no glory in being a House ready to indict.
Republics rise and republics fall. They rise due to the explosion of creativity and production which always accompanies freedom, and they fall when demagogues convince a majority that they deserve a free ride at the expense of a minority. The good thing about History is that if we are wise enough we can learn from other people’s mistakes. And if we aren’t going to allow History to instruct us we should at least be wise enough to allow it to warn us.
Our History teaches us that the impeachment process is possible to initiate but difficult to consummate. So what are we to do if History warns us that what we are witnessing is the fall of our republic? Have we learned enough from History to navigate our way through to a safe harbor, or are we helpless in the face of a hurricane of transformation?
Due to the information developed by the American intelligence community and the bravery of Navy Seal Team Six we learned that the leader of Al Qaeda, the fraternity of terrorists America finds itself endlessly destroying, was not hiding in a cave. He was instead living in a compound barely 1,000 yards from the military academy of our principle ally in our decade long undeclared war. Today’s Hitler is dead, yet the war goes on as if nothing has happened. We have victory after victory with no conclusion and no peace in sight.
Looking at our current economic and social situation America appears more like an occupied nation than the victor of the Cold War and the sole remaining Super Power on Earth. Perhaps it is time to conceptualize the idea that our existential enemy is not a rag-tag group of malcontents dedicated to turning back the clock by six centuries. The enemy that poses a mortal threat to our way of life is instead the homegrown Progressive Movement that has labored for more than a century to subvert our education, corrupt our politics, and evolve their way from constitutionally limited government to central planning and total control.
The visible head of the Progressive Movement today is President Barack Obama. As portrayed by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media he is not just an Alinsky style community organizer, he is a constitutional scholar. We are told endlessly that he was a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Leaving the reality of these claims aside suffice it to say that this constitutional scholar professes to believe that the constitution is a flawed document because it does not provide for positive rights such as guarantees of housing, jobs, etc. The kind of rights that the constitutions of the Soviet Union did and of Red China does provide its slaves, I mean citizens. Not to worry our constitutional scholar-in-chief also believes that our Constitution, written to set strict limits on the federal government is a living document that each generation is free to interpret: that is, change at will.
President Obama has presided over the most calamitous decline in American prestige and influence since his fellow Progressive Jimmy Carter disgraced the office. Mr. Obama’s apology tours, his over-the-top spending which are nothing less than cross generational theft are eclipsed by his blatant assaults upon the very core of his responsibility: the integrity of the Constitution.
The president of the United States is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, but instead Mr. Obama has trampled upon the letter as well as the spirit of this document meant to define the perimeters of federal power.
Unconfirmed Czars rule like potentates over shadow departments dispensing huge budgets while creating a parallel government outside of citizen scrutiny or control. Appointees at the National Labor Relations Board work at subordinating the nation to organized labor. A rogue justice department provides guns to Mexican cartels, refuses to prosecute obvious instances of voter intimidation, gives a pass to Islamist groups, and stonewalls Congress, while aggressively going after peaceful pro-life demonstrators and America’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They sue states that try to enforce immigration laws they ignore and seek to try the perpetrators of 9-11 in a New York trial that would parade itself through our national consciousness like a Broadway production of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Superstar.
Beyond these abuses of power there are two glaring examples of the type of blatant transgressions of clear constitutional limits which, if not addressed set a precedent that may stand in the future as signs of the times that were missed at the time. If not addressed, they will point accusing fingers at a generation asleep at the switch when the bounds of limited government were finally breached.
Ruling by decree from Chicago-on-the-Potomac our Leader has taken us to war without even consulting Congress and made recess appointments while Congress was in session.
Mr. Obama has said he can rule without Congress because he can’t wait. He travels the country at tax payer expense campaigning for four more years to seal the deal, inflaming class warfare, and dispensing government giveaways to buy votes. These two egregious affronts to the Constitution lie at the feet of the Washington Monument passed over by the media and explained away by the government’s propaganda arm. And what does the loyal opposition do? They huff and they puff but actually they do nothing.
Only two Congressmen had the integrity to point out that presidents are not allowed to take us to war by whim. And only one had the courage to point out that making high level appointments without Senate confirmation while the Senate is in session is more than bad form: it is unconstitutional and more compatible with a dictatorship than a republic.
We stand before the yawning maw of collectivism presided over by a self-proclaimed transformational president seeking to change us from what we have been to what he thinks we should be. Mr. Obama is supported by what amounts to a personality cult in the media and a legion of fellow citizens addicted to either distributing or receiving the dole. The Republican candidates are standing in a circular firing squad working hard at allowing the Progressive Media make them look like the bar scene from Star Wars. At the same time the media gives the President a pass for everything from gas prices to artificially deflated unemployment figures. If America as we have known her is to survive, we must elect a Congress with enough courage and enough votes to do what must be done. The Congress we have now is passive in the face of serial provocations and outright illegality. They will not call Mr. Obama to account on anything so he feels free to do everything.
If he wins again we all lose unless we replace those who merely go along to get along with those who are willing to speak the forbidden word…Impeach!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the Historian of the Future and the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
The Man Who Would Be King February 16, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Dr. Robert Owens, Obama re-election, Ron Paul, Stimulus, TARP
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In 114 BC, Rome was a democratic Republic. Representatives elected by popular vote filled the Senate, and the Senate ran Rome. The Empire was conquered in the name of the Senate and the People of Rome, symbolized by the ever present SPQR seen on every Roman standard in every gladiator movie you have ever watched.
At the beginning of the first century BC sovereignty in Rome resided in the People, which may have inspired the most famous attribution of sovereignty in American History, “We the People” as the proclaimed authors of the Constitution. The power in republican Rome resided in the people. In a revolution that was by then legendary, they had banished their kings and established themselves as a free republic where the people assembled together to elect the Senators, the magistrates, and made all major decisions such as whether or not to go to war. And far beyond mere words much of what was early Rome was the target the Founding Fathers shot at when they established our later day republic.
And yet, by 14 AD, when Augustus died, popular elections were but a memory. Power was no longer located in the people, or in their assemblies, or their representatives in the Senate, instead power was concentrated in an Imperial Palace which was guarded, unapproachable, and foreboding.
How did this revolution occur? What led the freedom loving Romans to lay down their liberty and put on the yoke of oppression? Later Romans who longed for the freedom their ancestors had discarded pointed to 133 BC when a rich young man named Tiberius Gracchus bought his way into the office of Tribune, an executive position one step below magistrate that was meant to protect the interests of the poor. Gracchus used his office to curry personal power by giving bread and circuses to the people paid for by the public treasury. Eventually he hit on a very popular plan. He proposed to seize the lands of the rich and give them to the poor and he imposed this under his own authority, an authority he lacked under the Roman constitution. Later when he put himself forward for a second term in opposition to custom and law he was assassinated by a group of Senators.
Several generations of corrupt politicians using the same formula sought to buy personal power and popular adoration by looting the public treasury to give the people ever increasing benefits. Finally another rich young ruler arose by the name of Julius Caesar. He rose through various public offices eventually gaining the office of Proconsul or Governor of Gaul (France). He knew that to be a true Roman hero and paramount leader he needed to be a successful conqueror, so that is what he spent the next nine years doing. He conquered not only all of Gaul but much of central Europe even leading the first Roman expedition to Britain. While he accomplishing this he sent back well written dispatches to Rome which were published and widely distributed recounting his bravery and skill as a general.
All of this was too much for his political rivals in Rome. They gained enough votes to have him branded a traitor which meant little in Gaul where he had absolute power thanks to his well trained and veteran army. His rivals promised his arrest and conviction if and when he returned to the capitol. However Caesar was not to be denied so he compounded the accusations of his treason with a treasonable act leading his army across the Rubicon River to Rome.
With his troops behind him Caesar secured all power and after many adventures to suppress the forces loyal to the old order he had a compliant Senate elect him dictator for life. As his grasp of power solidified it became clear his rule would be the end of the republic. Breaking completely with tradition he began to wear purple, the color of royalty in public. Finally when his chief Lieutenant, Anthony, publicly offered him a crown it was too much and just as with Gracchus one hundred years before, Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators.
Caesar was followed by Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome who was never called Emperor. He was instead known by the republican sounding title of princeps, or first citizen. Kings were hated in Rome. The traditions of the Republic ran deep. Both Gracchus and Caesar had been killed because people thought they would make themselves king. The genius of Caesar’s nephew and successor was that Augustus made himself king in all but name while keeping the outward forms of the Republic. The elections were rigged, the Senate only did what they were told, and the people were kept happy by giveaways from the public treasury and kept in line by a smothering blanket of laws and regulations.
Fast forward to the 20th century and two other would be kings include Mussolini who decreed that calendars in Italy should begin again with October 29, 1922 the date he assumed power as the first day of year one. He proclaimed the Fascist Era was the dawn of a new age. And Hitler who said his National Socialist Nazis would reign for a thousand years.
In America today we have a leader who campaigned on a platform of cutting taxes and regulations. A man who when the economy melted down said if he didn’t solve the problem in three years he wasn’t worthy of a second term. In a classic example of bait and switch he walked over his promises to restore American greatness and suddenly announced five days before the election that he would instead transform America.
Presidents are elected to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Nowhere in the job description does it mention anything about transforming America. He was elected to do one job and decided instead to do another. TARP was passed to clear the toxic assets out of the banks and restart the system but instead was used to seize controlling interests in AIG, GM and Chrysler and in general assert government ownership over a significant portion of the American economy. The stimulus was passed to re-energize the economy but instead it became a gift bag for the President’s supporters and a slush fund for his re-election.
Mr. Obama, with the corporations once known as the major media clearing his way and covering his tracks, compares himself to Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Reagan and God, ridicules those who cling to the old ways, and decrees that he can rule without Congress because he can’t wait. His spending has impoverished future generations and will eventually sink the ship of state. His foreign policy ignores our allies and empowers our enemies. Instead of uniting our country to get out of the hole dug by generations of failed Progressive boondoggles and giveaways he incites class warfare while the welfare rolls expand daily.
Whether we are dealing with one man devoted to personal aggrandizement or merely a teleprompter reading front man for a well-oiled CABAL we are face to face with someone who has been positioned by the generosity of American voters to do irreparable damage to our nation. We have one last chance to save the republic as we have known it. The Republicans who operate as the other half of the party of power seek to nominate another big government operator who promises little more than driving us to the poor house a little slower with new wars along the way.
What we need is a man who will work as president to re-impose the limits of the constitution. We need a man who will educate Americans as to what a constitutional government is and what it should do and not do. We need a leader who will reverse course and take us back to the days of individual liberty, personal freedom, and economic liberty. We need a leader who isn’t afraid to jettison the empire to save the republic. Now is the time for such a leader. If only enough Americans will recognize the signs of the times and rally round the flag they will still call it America.
Just as the Rome of Caligula and Nero still called itself a republic so too in the coming era of Progressive centralization and control will our beloved country still be America. The Constitution will remain on display in Washington. However, in the world turned upside down liberty will be circumscribed by political correctness and freedom will be defined by government regulations. Our schools and media will assure us that we are the most free and prosperous nation on earth while other countries that have gained their freedom pass us by. History as it is taught in America today tries to tell us that socialism works. It doesn’t. It leads to a stunted, shabby future where everyone sinks to the level of the lowest common denominator. What we need is a rebirth of republicanism with a small “r” and a big dream.
Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the Historian of the Future and the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
If We Don’t Win We Lose February 2, 2012
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.Tags: 2012 election, Dr. Robert Owens, limited government, Presidential History, Progressivism, Ron Paul
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America’s slide from the forefront of freedom to the swamp of collectivist social engineering didn’t start with the current manager of our decline and his Cavalcade of Czars. It didn’t start with President Obama’s favorite foil and arch-nemesis the man the Corporations-Once-Known-as-the Mainstream-Media love to hate, George Bush, the Younger. It didn’t start with the Bush-Clinton decade + 2 of continuous government growth, its thousand points of light or its thousand points of light or its Hillarycare.
Even Ronaldus Magnus, the last good President left Washington bigger than he found it.
Jimmy Carter not only walked in the Inaugural Parade he walked us into the grip of a Department of Energy that works tirelessly to limit our energy production and a Department of Education that presides over the greatest decline in education in world History. He chastised us in his malaise speech about our crisis of confidence never realizing it was our confidence in him not our country that was hobbling America. And what was his advice? Should we work harder, invent more, or launch out in bold new ways? No he suggested we wear sweaters and turn the heat down. Managing the decline has long been the theme song of those who see America’s glory days in the rearview mirror instead of in the headlights as we travel towards the future.
What about Nixon? Forget about it! He gave us price controls, OSHA, and the EPA. He took us off the gold standard and left us at the mercy of the Federal Reserve, all this from the conservative wing of the Dualocracy which is the bi-polar Party of Power.
Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamp revolution created the entitlement monsters which are poised to devour the budget.
Though he cut taxes to spur the economy, Kennedy with his phony missile gap and foreign policy blunders did little besides set the stage for Johnson.
Eisenhower spent eight years guiding the construction of the Military Industrial Complex he warned us about as he left the stage.
The Fair Deal was merely Truman’s election driven attempt to increase the size, scope, and power of FDR’s New Deal which was a massive and unprecedented intrusion of the central government into the economic and social life of America.
FDR was the 20th century poster boy when it comes to stretching the size of government and putting the stamp of entitlement as the cause on liberty’s death certificate.
Hoover, contrary to FDR’s story line and the accepted version of America’s History, responded to the stock market crash with a massive extension of government and its programs. The Great Engineer, as he was known before his name became a household word for failed presidency, was a champion of government intervention, and though today his devotion to the tenets of laissez-faire are blamed for the depression when it was instead his federal interference that provided a deep recession for FDR to turn into the Great Depression.
Silent Cal Coolidge was America’s last limited President. He limited himself and stayed with the confines of the Constitution.
Harding tried but died.
Wilson used the War he bragged of keeping us out of as the excuse to arrest and detain citizens, seize control of the economy, foster segregation and racism, and generally slap the cuffs of a greatly expanded central government on America’s wrists.
Taft was Teddy Roosevelt’s handpicked successor. And although he continued the Progressive agenda of attacking business and expanding government he didn’t do enough. So Roosevelt broke him and his presidency running against him splitting the Republican vote and opening the door for the Progressive Democrat Wilson.
Teddy was the grandfather of them all. His trust busting interventionism was Progressivism personified.
Though this may be the litany of the current gang of statists who are poised to smother freedom, the struggle to keep constitutionally limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom alive has been one long series of attack defenses declines and rebirths.
The second President, John Adams, was a man who helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He was a man who worked tirelessly for the ratification of the Constitution, and passed and signed the Alien and Sedition Acts under which he arrested people who criticized him, his administration or his policies. From there it goes on and on.
Jefferson compromised his beliefs about the limited power of the central government and purchased Louisiana without Constitutional authority, a good deal but a bad precedent. Monroe committed America to defending the entire Western Hemisphere. Polk sent American troops into territory internationally recognized as part of Mexico and then asked for a declaration of war when Mexican troops fired on those troops. Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus whenever he needed to in order to maintain the Union though the Constitution does not grant that power to the Federal Government. The 10th Amendment strictly prohibits the Federal Government from having any powers not expressly delegated to it, and at least one state, Virginia, in their ratification convention expressly considered the Union voluntary and reserved the right to secede.
From one battle to another America’s freedom fighters have stood before the Leviathan of Central Government and clung relentlessly to the promises first set forth in the founding document of the United States of America, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Considering that these uplifting and timeless words of human liberty were penned by a slaveholder and that it took four score and nine years for this stain to be removed from our nation we can see that our road away from serfdom has always been one of fits and starts.
Today we face the next great challenge. Progressivism, America’s current variation on the age-old theme of government knows best is poised to break the bounds of limited government, regiment the people, and smother the economy. After more than one hundred years of incremental growth in just three years the promises of hope and change have broken the bank and mortgaged the future. One more term of this profligate spending and oppressive regulations and they will kill the golden goose.
The forces of freedom cannot afford to lose this next election to the purveyors of class warfare and division. If we do this great experiment in limited government, personal liberty and economic liberty will have progressed from a new country on the margins of civilization to the greatest power the world has ever known, to just another socially engineered centrally planned economically shackled democracy voting itself benefits it can’t afford.
Our adversaries believe they have stacked the deck by taking control of both major political parties which operate as two wings on the same bird of prey. They hope by nominating a Progressive in both parties there will be no way for the forces of freedom to prevail.
Our ranks are filled with those who have been in the trenches for a lifetime and are weary of the fight. They have been joined by the recently awakened who know little of the history and less of the tactics. Our opposition is comprised of the slickest, best funded, and most corrupt professional politicians, labor barons, and crony capitalists the world has ever seen with thousands of Occupy storm troopers thrown in for good measure. The odds are against us. The smart money is betting on the victory of the all-powerful government, lining up to get their deals and haul away the loot.
The odds have always been against us. We fought the greatest empire in the world to gain our freedom. We have persevered and prevailed against plot after plot to extinguish the light of liberty and in this battle too we must remember that the one we should never be forgotten told us long ago, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Yes, the blood of more than 54,000,000 innocent lives cry out for justice, yes we as a people have legalized what should be unlawful and condoned what should be condemned. Yes, we have fallen from the high road and are weakened by an entitlement mentality and an addiction to entertainment. But we are the American people. We are, “We the People” and if we will but turn and acknowledge the one who has given us everything we have a chance.
The time is now. The place is here. We are the people we have been waiting for. We must rise to the occasion. We must win this battle because if we don’t win we lose.
Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 