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When the Have Nots Become the Haves October 25, 2013

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.
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Saul Alinsky the political thinker who seems to have had more impact on President Obama than any other was very clear in his most important book about what his motives were and what he was aiming at, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. ‘Rules for Radicals’ is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”

With the November Revolution of 2008 which gave us one party rule for two years the Progressive Democrat party saw their chance and they took it.  Within the two years it took for the people to realize they needed some balance the Progressives passed Obamacare which effectively gives government control of 1/6 of the economy.  They passed Dodd-Frank which gives them extensive control over the financial sector.  When they couldn’t push Cap-N-Trade even through a rubber-stamp Congress the President imposed it by executive order.  When they likewise failed to muster enough of their own hacks to pass the Dream Act once again it was imposed by fiat.

The anti-capitalist programs of the Progressive Bush Administration’s final days were continued and amplified by the Obama Administration.  TARP was followed by the Stimulus.  The takeover of AIG was joined by the take-over of the auto industry and by force feeding money into the economy for years of quantitative easing as the casino we call the stock market soars.

Unemployment reporting has become totally unhinged from reality as the real rate stays at levels which would easily shine the light of truth on the fiction of a recovery.

According to the government’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics the real unemployment rate (U-6) has been continuously above 13 % for the last year.  This information is readily available (one click of the mouse) and yet the media (including Fox) have told us day-by-day that it is falling and is now down to 7.2.  This typifies the manufactured reality the federal government and the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media shovel into the public trough.  If the plagiarized opinions I hear my fellow citizens share everyday are any indication the average person accepts the fiction as reality.

New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last five years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare.

“We have just concluded the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. The common feature of means-tested assistance programs is that they are graduated based on a person’s income and, in contrast to programs like Social Security or Medicare, they are a free benefit and not paid into by the recipient,” says the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee.

The minority side also states that, “The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects over that time.”  And the staggering sum of $3.7 trillion is not even the entire amount spent on federal poverty support, as states contribute more than $200 billion each year primarily in the form of free low-income health care.

The goal has always been to get enough people receiving benefits to out-vote the ones paying for the benefits.  In the fourth quarter of 2011, (the last full year for which statistics are available) 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more government programs, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.

This included 82,457,000 people–or 26.9 percent of the population–who lived in households in which one or more people received Medicaid benefits.

At the same time a large number of Americans no longer pay any federal taxes.  Even the Progressive Huffington Post states, “Some 76 million tax filers, or 46.4 percent of the total, will be exempt from federal income tax in 2011.” (Using the same year as a way of fair comparison)

Just imagine an undisciplined out-of-control shopaholic whose credit limit has just been extended. Now they can continue overspending without any accountability. That shopaholic is the U.S. government.

In the week since Congress reached a temporary deal to suspend the U.S. government’s debt ceiling the Treasury department has added another $375 billion in new debt.

The suspension of a cap on U.S. debt, which was previously fixed at $16.69 trillion, means the Treasury department can spend whatever amount of money it wants.

How much money will the U.S. government put on our grandchildren’s credit card by the next debt ceiling deadline? At the current rate of deficit spending which is $375 billion per week, U.S. public debt will reach $22.70 trillion by Feb. 7, 2014.

All these transfer payments impoverish the working middle class who pay the biggest share of their income in taxes and empower those who receive the benefits, often being the same ones who pay no taxes.  Thus the have nots become the haves fulfilling the goal of the Alinsky inspired community organizing program which has become Americas master plan.

As the have nots rise to become the haves and the haves descend to become the have nots the cycle repeats itself in an endless spiral of social warfare and the only ones who really benefit are those whose goal is power irrespective of who has what.

This is why the President and his advisors seem so oblivious to the turmoil and destruction the implementation of their plans cause.  The goal of the President and of the other Progressive leaders has always been universal single payer insurance no matter what they had to say to sell it.  Obamacare was always seen as a half-step in the direction of total government control.    So what do a few speed bumps along the way matter when the goal is to totally transform America?

Our current administration seems to have no respect for the law.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) forbids the federal government from enforcing the law in any state that opted out of setting up its own health care exchange.

The Obama administration has ignored that part in the law, enforcing all of its provisions even in states where the federal government is operating the insurance marketplaces on the error-plagued Healthcare.gov website.

Thirty-six states chose not to set up their exchanges, a move that effectively froze Washington, D.C. out of the authority to pay subsidies and other pot-sweeteners to convince citizens in those states to buy medical insurance.  However, the IRS overstepped its authority promising to pay subsidies in those states anyway.

The imperious leaders of the have nots now have the government, and tradition, laws, and history all take a back seat to the alliance of Progressives who want to have it all.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2013 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

It Doesn’t Make Sense August 23, 2013

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Our leaders aren’t stupid. They may be foolish, they may be corrupt, but they aren’t stupid.

This isn’t just a Democrat phenomenon. It didn’t start with President Obama’s occupation of the White House. This is a manifestation of the Dualocracy: the regime of the government party, that great two headed Hydra wherein the Democrat and Republican Parties are merely two heads on the same bird of prey.

When we look at the current direction our country is going in many people say, “That just doesn’t make sense.” I hear this or a variation of it all the time. We see laws, regulations, and programs spewing forth from Chicago on the Potomac on a daily basis that just don’t add up.

Why would our government spend us into the poorhouse? Borrow more money than anyone could ever pay back? Create money out of thin air like Weimar Republic? Pass Healthcare reform to insure millions that’s really a tax, is almost incomprehensible even to those who supposedly wrote it, and doesn’t insure anyone? Why would we help overthrow our friends to empower our enemies? Why do we look for ways to legalize illegals now and make promises about securing the border in the future? Why? Why? Why?

It doesn’t make sense.

The problem is these people are too smart and their organizations are too well-oiled to do so much that is nonsensical. I don’t believe the problem is that they are from Bizarro World or that they are political savants. I believe we are not looking at what is happening in and to our country in the proper context.

Much like a person who needs glasses: if the lenses aren’t right everything looks blurry or distorted. So too when we look at the actions of intelligent people who are operating with a grand design of how they want the world to be and nothing makes any sense: we need some new lenses. The problem most Tea Party types have understanding what our dear leaders are doing is that we think they should be trying to preserve the America we received from our forefathers. We look at their actions, and they seem like the theater of the absurd.

Who would do what they do if they want what we want?

That’s the key. They don’t want what we want. We want to preserve our heritage and they want to fundamentally transform the United States of America. We believe the Constitution recognizes what the Declaration of Independence calls our “unalienable rights” and it is a good thing to limit government from having the power to violate those rights. Our Progressive masters bemoan the fact that the Constitution only gives negative rights which limit the power of the central government. They dream instead of a second bill of rights which bestows upon the central government and its mammoth bureaucracy a mandate to legislate, regulate, and strangulate us into their vision of utopia.

The problem with any Utopia is that it’s always based upon coercion. People must be forced to do what some all-knowing god-like central authority decides is the way to achieve perfection. From Plato’s Republic to Sir Thomas More’s Utopia from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to Kurt Vonnegut’s Piano Player the visions of a perfect society herded and regimented by an all-powerful government will always end up as some dystopian reflection of George Orwell’s 1984.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but perfection will never happen in this life. We are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. God has endowed us with certain rights and without them it is not possible to be all that we are meant to be. The only way to ensure them is to limit governments from violating them. That is why we have a Constitution to empower our government to do those things we need done for the general good such as defense and providing a sound money while limiting it from trampling upon the things that make us a free people, namely our freedom of action, our privacy and our inviolability as individuals.

In recent years this has been turned on its head as rights we plainly have, rights which are explicitly enumerated such as the right to keep and bear arms are endlessly debated and infringed upon while rights imagined are held up as constitutional.

A case in point: What ever happened to the Fourth Amendment?

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

This is where our God given right to privacy is acknowledged and protected by the Constitutional government of the United States. It expressly mentions the inviolability of our “houses, papers, and effects.” It doesn’t mention abortion. This is the pattern in America today: ignore what the Constitution plainly says and extol imagined things the Progressives wish it said.

Today a Progressive Supreme Court has decreed there is a constitutional right to privacy involved when a woman wants to terminate the life of an unborn child and nowhere else in our 21st century surveillance state America? The right to terminate life is protected and even subsidized by the central government and the right to have a private conversation is no longer acknowledged. Today in the post-constitutional America it is all right for the government to listen to and record every communication of every citizen and the one person who tells us that they are doing so is a traitor.

All it takes is the right set of lenses and we can see clearly. Rather than not making any sense it all makes total sense. Our leaders are leading us from where we have been: a constitutionally limited government ensuring personal freedom, individual liberty and economic opportunity to a centrally-planned, highly regimented, constantly watched society marching lock-step towards a utopia that will never work. With leaders like this all I can do is echo Scott Adams warning, “Don’t step in the leadership.”

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2013 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

A Slow Motion Revolution Gathers Speed March 15, 2013

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The Progressives in both parties may be the establishment now but they have always been and continue to be revolutionaries seeking to turn the American dream into a socialist nightmare.

Since the 1890s the Progressives have worked to change our American Experiment from a federal republic operating on democratic principles that recognized our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness into a democracy where the government grants rights and pursues its own happiness.

Inch by inch, step by step they have worked to change one aspect and then another until today the cacophony of minute changes has become a centrally-planned federally orchestrated symphony playing Hail to the Chief.

We have transitioned from federal republic into an imperial bureaucracy controlled by a Chicago raised Alinsky style outfit determined to reduce us to abject obedience.  This is the direct result of an education system captured by the Progressives delivering generations of uninformed voters and of the entitlement society delivering a near majority of citizens who get more than they give from the federal trough.

This should be no surprise to anyone.  A country once famous for the political engagement of its citizens has raised generations on the dictum that neither religion nor politics were the subject of polite debate.  The culture of media-hyped sports addiction and hedonistic indulgence has produced millions who know more about their favorite team or about the latest fashion than about their own government.

I don’t know about you but I’m so tired of being lectured by people who get their news from Leno, Colbert, or the Daily Show that I have all but stopped speaking of anything of substance with most people.  We have all developed ways to identify fellow patriots.  We listen for anyone to say anything that will give us an indication that here is another American who realizes where we are and from where we have fallen.  Then we have great conversations, comparing observations and trying to encourage each other that the United States as we have known it will survive four more years of America’s Chavez.

Often I wonder, are we just singing to the choir, lighting a candle in the dark, or sticking our thumb in the dyke?  Will our clandestine discussions on the fringes of a complacent society make any difference?  Or are we merely whistling in the wind as our beloved country changes forever into the dead letters of a living constitution?

We have to admit that the Progressives have out maneuvered and out organized those dedicated to limited government.  They have turned the world upside down.  They captured the Corporations Once Known as the Main Stream Media turning them into a propaganda arm dedicated to suppressing the truth and giving the government party all the cover they need to do anything they want.  They radically empowered the federal bureaucracy ceding it powers granted to Congress to set policy and make law.  This red-tape machine has grown to become the largest organization in the world.  It is ever-expanding and filled with career people dedicated to enlarging their private kingdoms and increasing the power of the nomenclature at the expense of the people.

The courts have been packed, the banks have been bought off, and the unions use legally mandated dues to support candidates and policies their unwilling members don’t want.  Check and check-mate.  The situation has become so dire and the hour so late that it appears the only line of defense we have left between the USA and the USSA is a House of Representatives controlled by Progressive Republicans.

These Progressive Republicans want the same things as their Democrat counterparts: bigger government and more power even if they may want to drive us to the poor house a little slower.

There are a few younger ones who have been elected by the Tea Party such as Rand, Lee, and Cruz who are trying to make a difference.  At every step the Progressive establishment in their own party tries to ridicule them into toeing the party line of compromise and surrender.  The old bulls talk conservative to get elected then join hands across the aisles in a marriage of despotism with deceit.

The further we get from the puzzle factory in Washington one would think the closer we would get to our American heritage of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  However, the same uninformed disengaged voters form the majority all the way down to the precinct level.  The community organizers have done their jobs very well.  Try to name a state that isn’t in debt.  Try to name a county that isn’t working to install Agenda 21, promote sustainability or cram its Master Plan down the throat of an unsuspecting public.  Try to name a city, town, or village that doesn’t have its good old boy network that manages to stay in power year after year.

Several years ago after an unsuccessful attempt to unseat an entrenched state senator from a gerrymandered district my wife and I decided to become involved on the local level to try and make a difference.  We spent several years battling Agenda 21 while watching the good old boys win by hook or by crook either ignoring or fooling the voters.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in Chicago and was raised on the milk of “You can’t fight City Hall?”  Maybe it’s because I have seen bribes work and honest petitions fall on deaf ears?  Maybe I’m just a cynic at heart?  Maybe it’s true that a pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist?

Although we shall not go gently into that good night it appears we are in the twilight of our Republic and about to enter the sunset of liberty and the dawn of an America with a living constitution, a herd mentality, and a cradle-to-grave welfare state.  If the bell has not tolled yet it is about to.  Even if the Obama Zombies don’t flock to the polls as directed and return Nancy Polosi as Speaker of the House so that a one party state can drive the final nail in Columbia’s coffin, the swelling debt will eventually bring collapse.  This is of course the end result of the Progressive’s long march towards the realization of the Cloward-Piven Strategy for forcing political change through orchestrated crisis.  After the collapse these social planners believe they can impose any type of system they want on a public clamoring for relief.

Ready or not here it comes………………………..

So what can we do now that it has been done?

First of all we have to educate ourselves about American History and the principles of limited government.  Principles which formed the cornerstone for our two century experiment with personal liberty, individual freedom, and economic opportunity so that we can educate future generations about who we were and what we hope someday to be once again.  We can’t teach what we don’t know.

Then we have to build a library of books and DVD’s that tell the story of America.  For books look for reading lists at Tea Party sites, also check out conservative media people such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for suggested readings.  For DVD’s the History Channel has produced many great series on such things as the Revolution, the Constitution, the Founders, etc.  Individually or in local groups create an asset that our people can use to immerse themselves in the heritage of freedom.

Finally we need to stay engaged in the political process.  Become involved with likeminded people and figure out what, where, and when is the best place for you to spend our political capital.  None of us is as smart as all of us so if we all look for the way back to limited government eventually a spark will be ignited that will burn with the intensity of a thousand suns and a new chapter in freedom will begin.

Until that time do what you can do.  It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

Keep the faith.  Keep the peace.  We shall overcome.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2013 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

 

 

Who Does He Say That He Is? November 30, 2012

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People learn by moving from the known to the unknown.  An analogy inherently proposes the idea, that if things agree in some respect they probably agree in others.  Secular prophecy uses knowledge of the past and the present to predict the future.  The past is the womb of the present and the present is the History of the Future.  As the past may be interpreted and the present may be misunderstood the future is never certain.  Platitudes may outline the shape of something, but they can never define anything.

If Michelle is like Marie Antoinette to whom shall we compare Barack?  The thought that he’s Louis XVI is unthinkable.  George III is too easy.  All of the megalomaniacs or despots of the twentieth century would be politically incorrect in the extreme.  Some would be considered too far left and some too far right though in reality the extreme on both sides meet at the intersection of totalitarianism and brutality.  Since he rode a wave of secular messianic fever into power and since he won a second term due to the devotion of his disciples perhaps an appropriate paraphrase from the Good Book would be, “Who does he say that he is?”

First, who do others say Mr. Obama reminds them of?

His rapid supporters have finally gone the extra mile.  During his first presidential campaign they merely treated him as if he was their messiah.  After his second victory they are shouting it from the roof tops.  At the BET Soul Train Awards show Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx actually called Barack Obama “our lord and savior.”  Some will say he’s a comedian and this was said tongue in cheek.  From the reaction of the crowd it was received like a proclamation from Mount Sinai.  The wild cheering brought down the house.  If this isn’t a cult of personality what is?

I heard a woman who fled Venezuela to escape Hugo Chavez and his democratic revolution crying, “Obama is doing the same things as Chavez!  He’s following the same path, going to the same place, but now we have nowhere to run.”   Someone who escaped the USSR told me, “I’ve seen all this before. Obama is like Nikita Khrushchev. He says he brings hope and change but really he’s just blaming the past because he hopes to rule the present while destroying the hope of the future.”  According to an escapee of East Germany, “Obama is like Leonid Brezhnev. He promises security, pensions and benefits but all he brings are taxes, regulations and more bureaucrats, always more bureaucrats.”

I cannot bring myself to compare an American President to Hitler, Stalin, Mao, not even to Mussolini.  To who shall I compare this man who brings the crest of the century-long Progressive wave crashing against the American experiment?  Instead of doing the comparing myself let’s explore who he and his unpaid media arm in the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Press compare himself to.

President Obama announced his run for the presidency in Springfield, Illinois on the steps of the old state capitol building.  Choosing a setting in Springfield where Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech condemning slavery and calling for the United States to unite prompted the Progressives at ABC News to observe, “Springfield allowed Obama to immodestly and continuously compare himself to Lincoln.”

Immediately after his first victory the cover of Time magazine depicted the President-elect as FDR riding in an open car with his trademark cigarette holder clamped tightly in his smile.  So we know his promoters in the press want us to compare him to the four term president-for-life who until now has been the epitome of a Progressive president.  But does President Obama make the comparison himself?  According to Politico, “President Barack Obama compared himself to FDR.”  What does History tell us about FDR? Major portions of his New Deal were declared unconstitutional, many economists believe  his policies prolonged the Great Depression, his advisor Alger Hiss really was a communist spy, and at Yalta Roosevelt gave Poland, whose freedom World War II was fought to preserve, to Stalin who initially invaded the country as an ally of Hitler.  If we forget the facts I guess comparing yourself to FDR is a good thing.

During his first campaign the Washington Post said that Mr. Obama, “Sells Himself as the New JFK.”  At the time other news outlets noted, fellow Progressive’s disputed the comparison using the headline, “Hillary to Obama: You’re No JFK.”  Undeterred Mr. Obama continued to cast himself as the successor to Camelot.  In a  review of his first term we could agree his glorious adventure in Libya as revealed in Benghazi makes him the rightful heir to such shameful military adventures as the Bay of Pigs or his much proclaimed victory over Al Qaeda to such questionable victories as the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Turning to JFK’s most memorable phrase Mr. Obama, as any good Harvard trained lawyer would do, has parsed the meaning of “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”  In Progressive newspeak this becomes, “If you’re a non-tax payer let me tell you what I’m going to do for you –if you’re a tax payer let me tell you what I’m going to do to you.”

President Obama also compares himself to the icon of the anti-Progressives: Ronald Reagan.  According to Politico in an interview with a print journalist the President, “made the case that his movement is as much about a national moment as about him as a ‘singular’ individual” also noting “he drew a rather odd analogy for a Democrat: Ronald Reagan.”  President Reagan told us, “government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”  President Obama told us, “Only Government Can Fix the Economy.”  President Ragan told us, “We are today, the last best hope of man on earth.”  President Obama told us, “America is no longer what it could be, what it once was.”  That’s not even comparing apples to oranges it’s more like comparing truth to fiction, good to bad, or freedom to dependency.

All the people mentioned above who escaped socialism, left homes, families, and countries seeking freedom remind me of something else Ronald Reagan said, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

The Americans devoted to constitutionally limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom may have lost a battle.  We may finally accept that we have become a minority in our own land.  However, we will never accept serfdom and we will never accept the permanent imposition of socialism in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their country.  Educate yourself regarding the History of our Republic.  Learn so that you may teach.  We must educate new generations of patriots to carry the torch so that the light of freedom is never extinguished.  A slender majority of our fellow voting citizens may have chosen the path of central-planning and collectivism.  Most through ignorance, some through avarice, and a few through pure evil have diverted the American experiment into an economic and political dead-end, but like all dead ends it will eventually end.  The empires of looters always collapse when the loot runs out and another day will dawn.

That same Good Book tells us, “the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”  And it also promises, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  So the Progressives may have followed their play book to a worldly victory.  I don’t know about you, but I’m going to follow that Good Book to an eternal one.

Keep the faith.  Keep the Peace.  We shall overcome.

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

 

 

It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn November 23, 2012

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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

History Holds Its Breath November 1, 2012

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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

 

Why Does Affirmative Action End at the Gridiron? October 19, 2012

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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

 

 

Is There Any Hope of Change September 7, 2012

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics.
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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

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