Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.
Tags: 2012 elections, Class warfare, Dr. Robert Owens, equality of opportunity, equality of outcome, Obama abandons Whites, Obama socialist agenda, Obama transform America, Obamacare, Social democracy
United we stand has long been part of the inner strength that enabled America to rise from thirteen disjointed colonies on the edge of lonely sea to the pinnacle of power.
Some people believe in the Six Degrees of Separation Theory: that everyone in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other and that a direct line such as “a friend of a friend” can be drawn to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. Some people believe all of us are in this thing together, and that diversity is our strength and I am he as you are she as you are me and we are all together.
Even if we’re all connected in ways we cannot know I believe the world is filled with strangers. Take a ride and as you pass through country, town, and city you’re constantly presented with the faces of people you’ll never know, all of whom have lives and families that will never know you or your life or your family. Every day we see people we’ve never seen before and will never see again. They rise out of the mist beyond the pale of our personal knowledge and are immediately submerged again never to rise again. Our only and forever our only connection will be that one fleeting moment when we moved through a single frame of the separate sagas of our lives.
Unlike Cain I do believe we’re our brother’s keeper, and unlike Scrooge I believe we should help our brothers in need instead of seeing them boiled in their own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through their hearts. However, unlike the rhetoric of Marx, Lenin, and ex-President Obama I don’t believe that life should operate on the basis of from each according to their ability to each according to their need, or as we say in America today, spreading the wealth around.
In other words, I’m not a socialist. I believe in personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity. I found myself out of phase with the Progressive Clique which successfully maneuvered its way to power using the education system, the media, and until 2016 uninformed, uninvolved, and emotional voters.
Out of phase or not, I believe in the equality of opportunity which gives everyone a shot at success as opposed to the equality of outcome which the Progressives and their fellow travelers wish to foist upon us, which gives everyone the assurance of mediocrity. No matter the consequence, no matter the sacrifice we must stand up for what we believe or we’ll stand by while our nation is transformed into what we won’t be able to believe is still called the United States of America.
Day by day the bean counting pencil pushers, who make up the nameless faceless bureaucracy that is the Deep State, grind out rule after rule and regulation after regulation. President Obama’s signature piece of legislation, Obamacare churned out thousands upon thousands of pages of federal requirements all meant to fill in the blanks in a 2600 page bill that we had to pass to find out what was in it.
Hope and change became bait and switch. In 2012 Mr. Obama wasn’t even trying to win votes from those who disagreed with him. He wasn’t trying to change minds. He was trying to buy votes. He bet that generations of entitlements had finally birthed the lumpen proletariat that his theories of government proclaim must exist for History to reach its summit. He bet his second term on the belief that there were enough people dependent upon the government that they would vote for a handout instead of voting for a hand up. He bet that America had been dumbed down enough and bribed enough to trade our heritage of freedom for the yoke of a guaranteed something instead of the opportunity for everything.
Class warfare, penalizing success, dividing America into interest groups and voter blocks this was the strategy Mr. Obama thought would win as he worked to build a coalition of leftist intellectuals, government insider and those convinced they were disenfranchised. Looking at the polls it appeared he had the solid core of 40+% who will vote for a Democrat even if he is the devil himself. The question was would the unengaged and uninformed voters who could at least hope he would change combined with the illegals and the dead who at least get to vote in Chicago be enough for him to win?
Of course it didn’t hurt that the Republicans nominated a stiff who threw in the towel after winning the first debate.
Remember what a second Obama term looked like?
He won on the basis of a promise to double down on social democracy, a complete disregard for the checks and balances meant to maintain the balance of power between the branches of government, and a desire to totally transform America.
After the last four years of the Obamanation when he ruled by one unconstitutional decree after another and no one opposed anything he did what is left of the America we’ve known? How will we ever get back to where we came from? No entitlement once enacted has ever been repealed. The size of government never shrinks. The power it usurps from the people and the States is never surrendered.
What’s a constitutional libertarian independent to do?
A world filled with strangers keeps getting stranger all the time. No matter how many degrees of separation actually exist we should never be as divided as the Progressives and their identity politics try to portray us. We’re Americans. We can do better than this. Reject the siren song of free entitlements which are never free, and embrace the liberty our forefathers won for us. Let’s renew the great experiment in human freedom and strive to see our nation rise again as the last best hope of man that it was meant to be. The shining city on a hill that can light the way to a future worthy of free men and women held together by unity not disjointed in our separation.
Even if it takes more than six degrees of separation to connect to others what does it matter how connected we are to people around the world if we are in terminal disagreement with our fellow Americans? As a nation we’re divided between those who want to strive to achieve and those who thrive because they receive. The Progressives have bred generations of passive takers who believe they’re entitled to the fruit of others’ labor. They pay no taxes so they don’t care how high taxes go. They have no conception of paying for what they have, so they don’t care about the national debt. They see America as a vending machine, so they don’t believe in our unique place in History. They desire a shabby world of bread and circuses based on equality of outcome, so they don’t long to be all they can be.
Those of us who want America to be what America has been and what it should be, the home of the brave and the land of the free can’t let divisions divide us anymore! We must unite to save liberty or we will stand alone at the end of the day. We may be strangers to one another. We may not know each other but if we’re fellow believers in personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity we must unite over what connects us to save what has always made us E PLURIBUS UNUM.
A final thought: Just as we have prospered as no nation before through the application of “United we stand” so too will we reap the results of its mirror image: “Divided we fall.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
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Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.
Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, equality, equality of outcome, Federal Reserve, freedom, income inequality, liberty, Obama’s agenda, Progressive agenda, progressive tax, redistribution, socialist agenda, wealth redistribution
From each according to their ability to each according to their need was the hollow promise of the Soviet Union. It was long known to be merely the cover for a ruthless Communist Party that pretended to build a worker’s paradise while in fact enslaving a nation for its own gain.
Today this infamous lie has been resurrected in America as the war against income inequality.
The war on poverty has failed. After decades of propaganda, trillions of dollars, and tens of thousands of regulations there is no less poverty in America than when LBJ sounded the charge of the contrite brigade. Of course it was a shell game all along. The idea that you could take money out of one pocket and put it in another while dropping some along the way aptly describes the effort to tax the rich to alleviate poverty. If all the money that has been expropriated to end poverty had been given directly to the poor we would have ended poverty.
However this isn’t what happened. It was never what was intended to happen. It will never happen because instead of a direct wealth transfer the loot is filtered through politicians, programs and bureaucrats who all siphon off enough to make sure the pennies that eventually dribble out of the welfare pipeline have little resemblance to the dollars that went in. They certainly don’t want to actually eliminate the poor since their campaign slogans and their jobs would evaporate with them.
Anyone who has ever stood hat-in-hand at a welfare office knows the scorn dished out with the meager fare always makes the meal a little less satisfying than imagined. Jesus told us that “The poor will always be with you.” Yet somehow the political savants who hold sway are always able to convince the low information voters that they will end poverty, or as we call it today, income inequality.
The only equality that is compatible with freedom is equality before the law. By this I mean that whenever society, as expressed through government, makes rules they should apply to everyone the same. In other words if a millionaire commits murder and a homeless person commits murder they should both stand before the same tribunal charged with the same crime. Or if a tax is passed everyone should pay the same percentage. We know that in the first case the difference between a dream team of lawyers and a public defender may mitigate the equality just as in the second case a progressive tax system will distort it. However, this goal of equality before the law is the only one where actual equality is what is required to make it work.
All other types of equality, of income or opportunity or outcome require inequality. If this sounds like circular thinking don’t be surprised; it is.
Since people are obviously not equal in talents, abilities, resources or nature the only way to make everyone start in the same place and end up in the same place is to treat them differently. Some must be slowed down and some must be artificially pushed forward. Some must get less than they earn so that some can get more. This is the dirty little secret hidden behind the campaign slogan to end income inequality. In reality it is just another way to describe income redistribution or as our president calls it, “Spread the wealth around.”
Those who make their living selling these illusions are supported by those who make their livings distributing the loot and by all those who think they will get something for nothing. Unfortunately after generations of Progressive education, incremental socialism, and the sloth that is the bread by the bread and circus culture of the couch potato this may now be a majority of the votes counted.
Having sunk beneath the contempt of the Russian people and drown in the red capitalism of the Chinese it seems as if the infection of class envy co-joined to state power has emerged from the faculty lounge and fastened its death grip on America. In the 2012 election the campaign slogan, “GM is alive and Bin Laden is dead” trumped a devastated economy to re-elect the inspiration of the IRS and the excuser of Benghazi. If the war against income inequality proves the media enhanced key to return Nancy Pelosi to the Speakership and retain Harry Reid as the agenda setting leader of the Senate the Progressives will know they have two years to seal the deal.
We will still call it the United States of America. We will still tell ourselves we are free, prosperous, and powerful however we may all be whistling in the wind. Our politicians may win their war to end income inequality as they seek an American version of a worker’s paradise. The comatose voters may even notice that things aren’t quite like they used to be, but then half-time will be over and that will be that.
Look at the results of the 2012 election. GM is moving overseas after ripping off the American tax payers. Al-Qaeda is marching to victory. Think about the pledge that gained passage for Obamacare, “If you like you plan you can keep your plan. Period.” Reflect on this swindle and ask yourself how equal will anything be if we swallow the next big lie: ending income inequality. Ask yourself who will win the war against income inequality. The answer is those who distribute the loot will keep the lion’s share.
As an added bonus this war against income inequality as a campaign tool to fool the masses is leading us further into the unconstitutional waters our president has sailed for so long. Brazenly saying, “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.”
The question here is, “Will anyone in the House have the courage to do something about it?”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2014 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
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Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
Tags: Affirmative Action, collectivist agenda, Dr. Robert Owens, equality of outcome, Obama agenda, Progressive agenda
Have you ever pondered the fact that everyone being endowed with equal rights by our creator works out so naturally while the equality of outcome that our Progressive would-b-masters seek to impose is impossible to achieve without treating people differently? Have you ever noticed that whenever the government wishes to give anyone anything they have to first take it from someone else?
Since everyone obviously has different skills, talents, and ambitions people inevitably perform and produce at different levels. Therefore to make everyone end up in the same place it is necessary to hold some back and artificially advance others.
For example if we wanted to treat everyone equally with regard to taxes we would have a flat tax with no deductions as in everyone pays 10%. If you make one million dollars or one thousand dollars you pay 10%. That would be equal treatment before the law and in my opinion that would be fair. However in the Progressives version of a fair tax system designed to promote equality, people who earn different amounts are taxed at different rates. If you earn more you pay more. That may sound good to some, but how is it fair?
In education if equality was really the desired result everyone would be judged by the same standards for admission regardless of race, creed, color or any other mitigating factor. Everyone would take the same tests and everyone would be graded exactly the same with admission based upon the score. In the world of American Academia as administrated by the Progressives categories of people are judged by different standards and they call this fairness.
Look at the bewildering array of social programs that have been implemented to ensure equality and fairness in the Progressive utopia. From food stamps and free cell phones to state subsidized education in criminal justice for convicted felons, these ill-conceived and often abused programs turn the safety net into a hammock that beg the question Ayn Rand was known to ask, “At whose expense?” If someone gets free food, free education; free anything the question we should ask is, at whose expense? The next question should be, do those who are paying the freight for this pleasure cruise do so voluntarily or are they being coerced? If they are being coerced into paying for someone else’s benefits what makes this any different than theft?
It’s as if the Progressives have tried to change our original national motto from” E Pluribus Unum” to “Stand and Deliver” or have they changed our present national motto “In God We Trust” to “You Can’t Fight City Hall.” Or as if the new national anthem should be, “Happy Days Are Here Again – Unless You Work For a Living.”
One of the most often quoted and misquoted statements concerning History tells us, those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it and today we are seeing the fruits of this truism. The two great revolutions of the eighteenth century, the American and the French, were mirror images of each other in several important ways. The American Revolution made a declaration to the entire world that the rights they sought were endowed upon all men by their creator. The French in the Declaration of the Rights of Man placed government as the source of these rights. The American Revolution sought to rid themselves of an all-powerful government with a limited government so that individuals could be free to prosper on their own. The French sought to replace an all-powerful government based upon birth with an all-powerful government based on merit believing that where the former one wanted to maintain the status quo with elites on top while the latter one would promote equality with elites on top.
The American experiment created the freest, richest, most powerful country in the History of the world. In France after the Terror, after the Triumvirate, and after the Empire the people saw that they had merely replaced one elite group with another. Then the Kings came back.
In America today our federally controlled education has led to generations of people who have never learned History or Civics. Now the progressive Pied Pipers are leading the uninformed to exchange the equality of opportunity our Founders established for the equality of outcome Europe has chased after since the French Revolution. With a public not knowing enough to know the difference these bait and switch tactics seem to be working, and after one hundred years of a living constitution the Constitution is nearly dead.
We have one more election to stem the tide as we look for a chance to reverse the flow and return America to limited government, individual freedom, and economic opportunity. If we miss this opportunity we may soon experience the equality of mediocrity as we descend into the collectivist pit of self-immolation. This pit is typified by big government programs meant to redress some perceived inequality. Redressing inequality sounds good. The problem lies in the fact that to do so you need a big enough government to enforce the desired result, and governments are made up of fallible people who all have their own prejudices and desires.
James Madison, in Federalist 51 reflected that, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Men aren’t angels. Which is why he continued, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
One program which serves as a fitting example of the impossibility of living a consistent life when trained, framed and constrained by the attempts to impose an artificial man-made, government enforced equality is Affirmative Action. Which some may argue has now reached the White House.
Why Does Affirmative Action End at the Gridiron?
Even the Colleges that are the most rapid in their interpretation and enforcement of Affirmative Action seem to forget these artificial standards when it comes to their sports teams. Have you ever wondered why that is so? Because they want the best players on the field no matter what the ratios of black, white, yellow, red, straight, gay or other.
Don’t fall for the siren song of something for nothing, for affirmative this, and equality that. Don’t let the perpetually re-elected hucksters fool you with their promise of a fair shot, a square deal, or of making someone else pay their fair share. When everything is put in one pot and it is supposed to be divided equally it always seems that those who do the dividing get the fairest share of all.
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
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Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
Tags: Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Robert Owens, Equality before the law, equality of opportunity, equality of outcome
In the Declaration of Independence a new thing entered the world, a country founded upon the idea of equality. The Old World consisted of societies built upon hereditary class and entrenched privilege. Beginning with words that still burn within the breast of Patriots, this great document proclaims two types of equality.
Based upon the first clause, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” the first type is equality before the law. We all stand before the bar of justice on the same footing. There aren’t different laws for different classes. The definition of murder is the same for the homeless person, the mechanic and the billionaire. This equality, a natural part of our creation proclaims that neither classes nor other artificial divisions will ever be recognized in law or enshrined through legislation.
Based upon the second clause, “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” the second type is equality of opportunity. Everyone is entitled to their life and the fruits of it. Each of us has an equal right to the liberty of action, the freedom to choose our life’s path and to make our own decisions. And each of us has the right to pursue happiness. In almost all other lists such as this from the period, many of them written into state constitutions by the same people who wrote the Declaration, this is the right to own property and the happiness here is assumed to mean the right to use our own talents and the things they gain for us for our own benefit as long as we do not injure nor hinder others.
These rights and the equality they express were later protected by the Constitution. Congress shall not confer titles of nobility. Congress shall not pass bills of attainder convicting groups or individuals without a trial. Through the use of these and other negatives the Framers sought to secure Americans the possession of the equality proclaimed by the Declaration. The Bill of Rights went even further in declaring what Congress could not do in the attempt to guarantee the continued exercise of the equality granted by our Creator. The mechanism the Framers used to keep freedom alive was limiting government for they knew governments gain power by subtracting freedom from individuals.
However, it needs to be noted that the limitations placed upon government as a means of securing the equal rights of citizens in no way states that there should be a leveling of all people or that there will not continue to be distinctions and differences among them. This was never stated and never intended for the belief in or vision of a population with standardized talents, inclinations and goals does not match reality. There are as many different sets of these as there are people. In each individual, life should be open to choice. The only boundaries being that we do no harm nor proscribe the choice of others. This is the level playing field of creation, a pure equality of opportunity to be harvested in proportion to the Creator’s gift of talents and our investment of time and effort.
As long as the role of government is limited, and as long people are free to operate within the informal social arrangements of a non-regimented, non-stratified society there’s no tension between equality of opportunity and liberty. This quest for equality of outcome has become a social goal adopted as a reason for destroying society as it is in the name of society as a small cadre of radicals thinks it should be. In the aftermath of economic or societal collapse, revolutionaries, or in the case of the American Progressives “Evolutionaries,” will seek to erect in the place of popular government a bureaucratic tyranny devoted to leveling all to the lowest common denominator. Except of course for the levelers themselves who rise by deciding who gets what, and it’s the deciders who always seem to get the most. For, some perceive that equality of all is not the same as the equality of some, or as the ruling pigs in George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm declare, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This reflects the subversion of equality of opportunity into equality of outcome or as it’s termed by Progressives equal opportunity.
To build this monument to mediocrity the philosophers of progressivism subtly change the meaning of equality. Instead of the opportunity for all to succeed it becomes the certainty of everyone getting a trophy for showing up, a diploma for attendance or a check for not working. Built upon the premise that if all are created equal all should end up equal thus denying the goal of equality the chance to go as far and as fast as talent and hard work can lead.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System. http://drrobertowens.com © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net
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Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 