They Want a Civil War We Have a Prayer Meeting February 8, 2017
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: balance of powers, Cap-n-trade, Cloward/Piven Strategy, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Robert Owens, EPA, ICE, Immigration, immigration policy, Obama, Saul Alinsky, SEIU, Taxes, Tea Party
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The American Revolution changed the world. Our Declaration of Independence proclaims self-evident truths. That all men are created equal, they’re endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words shook a world held in the vise-grip of hereditary privilege inspiring people around the globe. Our Constitution established a representative federal republic with a limited government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Over the space of 241 years we have watched as our constitutionally limited government grew until it’s a leviathan running amok like Godzilla in Tokyo smashing things and scaring boy scouts. Today the Federal government is the largest employer in America, states are the largest employers in the states and counties are among the largest employers in the counties get the picture? Government is on a rampage and unless Mothra is going to fly in to save the day we have to deal with Frankenstein-on-the-Potomac ourselves.
Such brazen power-plays as when the Executive Branch under our now departed and not lamented leader BHO issued the Legislature an ultimatum, either pass Cap-N-Trade or we’ll impose it administratively through command-and-control made the dramatic changes in our political culture shockingly apparent. Has our balance of powers melted away under the glare of executive orders, signing statements and ultimatums? Some people say this is evolution. To others it’s devolution. Our hard-won and dearly-paid-for Republic has been devolving into a command-and-control all-encompassing central-state.
With political dynasties bequeathing congressional seats like hereditary fiefdoms it’s becoming hard to explain why we left the British Empire.
We have not only had taxation without representation as congressional party-line voters ignore their constituents we have also had representation without taxation as the perpetually re-elected Lords and Ladies represent the illegal immigrants and the professional welfare hammock-riders.
These big government social planners believed they had achieved their community organizing goals fulfilling a paraphrase of Lincoln’s famous quote, “It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.” They believed the activist BHO administration would fundamentally change America beyond the ability of We the People to even have a chance of righting the Ship of State.
However, if these would be commissars from the faculty lounge would have bothered to step 20 miles outside the Beltway obviously there was a counter-revolution brewing. The Tea Party was overtaking the Republican Party in popularity. It had already supplanted them at the grassroots of the conservative movement. By 2010 an avalanche of voters thronged the polling places demanding their country back. With a RINO like Romney heading the ticket in 2012, millions stayed home. However, in 2014 they resurged and once again gave BHO and his Progressives the shellacking they deserved.
Following the tactics of Saul Alinsky brought the Obama-ACORN-SEIU coalition control of the Democratic Party and the country but following the Cloward/Piven Strategy for overwhelming the system to impose an alternative system has to lead to a complete repudiation of this radical departure from traditional American politics and economics. We aren’t Venezuela. Even after decades of legislative efforts to progressively create a permanent underclass of government dependents who would follow their leaders to the next looting of productive members of society the majority in this country still want freedom and opportunity not cradle-to-grave mediocrity.
We the People have staged a counter-revolution against this growing tyranny. Was it a violent revolution? Did we stage mass demonstrations, attack opponents, or try to silence debate? No, it was a peaceful, lawful revolution at the ballot box.
Remember the illegal and unprecedented assaults upon America that we endured from BHO and his regime. The imperial president used the EPA to impose the onerous restrictions of Cap-N-Trade after Congress rejected them stunting and strangling the economy with regulations. He used the Department of Homeland Security to change the enforcement of immigration policy and cook the books without any messy public debate by the representatives of the people.
Ruling by decree, “I have a pen and I have a phone,” is hardly compatible with constitutionally-limited government. We were told the administration had solutions. They shoved their prescription to heal the greatest health care system in the world with the big lie, “If you like your plan you can keep your plan. Period.” Like a pig-in-a-poke their San Francisco leader told us, “We have to pass the plan to find out what’s in the plan.” They claimed to have a solution to save or create jobs while we lost jobs every month or created low paying part time jobs at best, a draconian solution for the man-made global warming hoax, a solution for endless wars for elusive peace. They said they had a solution for everything. It reminded me of the drug dealer saying, “If you’ve got a problem take a pill.”
They said they wanted a contribution. Back in the good old change we could believe in days the dialogue of class warfare repeated that no one making under 250,000, or was it 150,000, or was it …anyway only the evil rich would have to pay a dime of new taxes. Many working people found out we were rich after BHO’s first April 15th stand and deliver day.
Everyone has known since at least that tax-cutting wild man JFK that cutting taxes increases revenue to the government and raising them lowers revenue. Since the government knows raising taxes lowers revenue and since they said they were raising taxes to increase revenue what were they trying to do? Complicated tax codes are used as a way to incentivize and de-incentivize behavior.
If you want more widgets give tax breaks for buying widgets. If you want less widgets tax widgets. Using that for a guide notice what was being pushed and what’s being pulled? Under BHO we saw taxes on producers and tax breaks for non-producers, tax cuts for people who don’t pay taxes and tax increases for those who do. Taking the money of producers to bailout the greedy, reward the cronies and support the lazy.
Executive orders and signing statements have been used in Republican and Democrat administrations for years to change the Constitution without changing the Constitution. In BHO’s USSA sweeping new powers by regulators threatened to make Congress irrelevant as an all-powerful Executive Branch grew like a malignant tumor.
We the People didn’t lose heart. We didn’t despair. In faith we knew it was going to be all right?
I remember how many of these articles I end during those dark days of the BHO regime with, “Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall Overcome.”
Today as the defeated and rejected Progressives stage rallies, protests and riots I urge the same counsel. The last thing we need in this crowded theater full of combustible emotions is either a match or someone shouting fire. The snowflakes and those who manipulate them combined with the fellow travelers and the useful idiots are like a bully pushing someone hoping to elicit a response. They appear to be hoping to spark a civil war.
I believe prayer got us here. And though the prearranged, prepaid, and predictable demonstrations and riots are meant to provoke us to respond don’t let them worry you.
Why worry when you can pray?
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
You Say You Want a Revolution April 3, 2014
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: balance of powers, Cap-n-trade, Cloward/Piven Strategy, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, EPA, ICE, Immigration, immigration policy, Obama, Saul Alinsky, SEIU, Taxes, Tea Party
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Our revolution changed the world. Our Declaration of Independence proclaims self-evident truths. That all men are created equal, they’re endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words shook a world held in the vise-grip of hereditary privilege inspiring people around the globe. Our Constitution established a representative republic with a limited government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We’ve watched as our constitutionally limited government grew until today it’s a leviathan running amok like Godzilla in Tokyo smashing things and scaring boy scouts. Today the Federal government is the largest employer in America, states are the largest employers in the states and counties are among the largest employers in the counties get the picture? Government is on a rampage and unless Mothra is going to fly in to save the day we’ll have to deal with Frankenstein-on-the-Potomac ourselves.
Such brazen power-plays as the Executive branch issuing the Legislature an ultimatum, either pass Cap-N-Trade or we’ll impose it administratively through command-and-control make the dramatic changes in our political culture shockingly apparent. Has our balance of powers melted away under the glare of executive orders, signing statements and now ultimatums? Some people say this is evolution. To others it’s devolution. Our hard-won and dearly-paid-for Republic is devolving into a command-and-control all-encompassing central-state.
With political dynasties bequeathing congressional seats like hereditary fiefdoms it’s becoming hard to explain why we left the British Empire. Today we not only have taxation without representation as congressional party-line voters ignore their constituents we also have representation without taxation as the perpetually re-elected Lords and Ladies represent the illegal immigrants and the professional welfare hammock-riders.
These big government social planners may believe they’ve achieved their community organizing goals fulfilling Historian Will Durant paraphrase of Lincoln’s famous quote, “It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.” They may believe their revolutionary administration will fundamentally change America however, if they’d step 20 miles outside the Beltway obviously there’s a counter-revolution brewing. The Tea Party is overtaking the Republican Party in popularity. It has already supplanted them at the grassroots of the conservative movement. By 2010 an avalanche of voters thronged the polling places demanding their country back.
Following the tactics of Saul Alinsky brought the Obama–Acorn–SEIU coalition control of the Democratic Party and the country but following the Cloward/Piven Strategy for overwhelming the system to impose an alternative system is going to lead to a complete repudiation of this radical departure from traditional American politics and economics. We aren’t Venezuela. Even after decades of legislative efforts to progressively create a permanent underclass of government dependents who’ll follow the leader to the next looting of productive members of society the majority in this country still want freedom and opportunity not cradle-to-grave mediocrity.
We can and should stage a counter-revolution against this growing tyranny. A peaceful, lawful revolution at the ballot box and if you’re talking about destruction, you can count me out. The last thing we need in this crowded theater full of combustible emotions is either a match or someone shouting fire. Any incident right now would trigger a massive response. Just as the executive is using the EPA to impose the onerous restrictions of a Cap-N-Trade style economy stunting strangulation of regulations he’s also using ICE to change the enforcement of immigration policy and cook the books without any messy debate.
Ruling by decree, “I have a pen and I have a phone,” is hardly compatible with constitutionally-limited government. We’re told the administration has solutions. They sold us a solution to heal the greatest health care system in the world “If you like your plan you can keep your plan. Period” lik e a pig-in-a-poke. They claim to have a solution to save or create jobs while we lose jobs every month, a draconian solution for the man-made global warming hoax, a solution for endless wars for elusive peace. You say you have a solution. We’d all love to see the plan.
They say they want a contribution. Back in the good old change we could believe in days the dialogue of class warfare repeated that no one making under 250,000, or was it 150,000, or was it …anyway only the evil rich would have to pay a dime of new taxes. Watch out! You might find out you’re rich come next April 15th.
Everyone has known since at least that tax-cutting wild man JFK that cutting taxes increases revenue to the government and raising them lowers revenue. Since the government knows raising taxes lowers revenue and since they’re raising taxes to increase revenue what are they trying to do? Complicated tax codes are used as a way to incentivize and de-incentivize behavior.
If you want more widgets give tax breaks for buying widgets. If you want less widgets tax widgets. Using that for a guide notice what’s being pushed and what’s being pulled? Taxes on producers and tax breaks for non-producers imagine tax cuts for people who don’t pay taxes and tax increases for those who do. Taking the money of producers to bailout the greedy, reward the cronies and support the lazy. It’s time to tell the statists at the ballot box if they want money for things we hate they’re going to have to wait.
Executive orders and signing statements have been used in Republican and Democrat administrations for years to change the constitution without changing the Constitution. Now sweeping new powers by regulators threatens to make Congress irrelevant as an all-powerful executive branch grows like a malignant tumor. Don’t lose heart, don’t despair, don’t you know it’s going to be all right? Keep the faith, keep the peace, organize and win the day. We shall Overcome.
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
Did You Do Anything to Keep Liberty Alive? May 10, 2013
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2010 elections, 2012 elections, 2014 elections, Dr. Robert Owens, Nacy Pelosi, Obmanation, Progressive agenda, Tea Party
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One day our grandchildren may ask us this question. Will we have an answer that will make us and them proud or will we have to sit silent knowing we stood silent when it was time to speak or remained passive when it was time for action? Now is the time for all believers in limited government to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for all who believe, “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” to remember “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The coming 2014 mid-term elections may well be the most important in our lifetime. America faces a crisis as profound as the Revolution and as divisive as the Civil War. This has been brought on by the Progressives who seek to fundamentally transform America through evolutionary means. Incrementally, one entitlement program, one regulation, and one tax rate increase at a time, these Evolutionaries have used class warfare, activist judges, a politically-correct education system, and a complicit media to create a dependent constituency. They’ve constructed a matrix of sports addiction, celebrity worship, and recreational prescription medicine that makes the bread and circuses of Rome appear as crude as they were effective. Welcome to the Brave New World.
In 2008 the Progressives achieved what the media called a “Veto Proof” majority in both houses. This was typical of the Progressive-controlled media’s spin. With a fellow Progressive holding court in the White House there was no chance the long cherished dreams of national health care, massive interference in the economy, and expansion of the bureaucracy would be vetoed. The description of the majorities should have been “Filibuster-proof” meaning there was no way for the minority party to thwart the will of the majority. Even when the Democrats lost their 60th seat in the Senate with the addition of a Progressive Republican taking Teddy Kennedy’s seat, they still had a filibuster-proof majority. The only reason they did not achieve more of their agenda such as amnesty for illegal immigrants is that members of their own party balked at a complete surrender of our heritage.
Fast forward to 2013 and after 3 years of the 2010 Tea Party led re-capture of the House Nancy Pelosi and her troops are chomping at the bit to finish their Evolution and drive the final nails in the coffin of limited government.
Those who wish to stop the mad rush into the arms of an all-embracing Federal Government must register! They must vote! They must do all they can to influence anyone and everyone to elect a true veto proof majority with the power and the will to reverse the slide into insolvency, which will trigger either a default upon our overwhelming debt or a collapse of our economy. Either of which opens the door for the current administration to impose their statist solutions irrevocably altering the nature of the United States. The name will remain the same but let no illusions of normalcy cloud your sight; this will be a new nation, the Obamanation.
In the coming mid-term elections it is imperative that those who wish to reverse course send a veto- proof majority in both the House and the Senate to Washington or President Obama will block every attempt to return to the traditional American model of limited-government. And even if this happens the newly awakened Patriots must realize their victory will energize the portion of the country desiring a European-style welfare state. They must realize just as Truman in 1948 ran against the “Do-nothing Congress” more than against Tom Dewey and Clinton in 1996 ran against the “Mean-spirited” Congress more than against Bob Dole, in 2014 Mr. Obama and his surrogates will run against the “Obstructionist” Congress more than against any individual opponents the Republicans might nominate.
The Town Hall meltdowns of 2009 and the Tea Party phenomenon of 2010 have surged across America as no spontaneous movement has in many years. The energy and enthusiasm of this grassroots explosion has rocked primaries from Coast-to-Coast. The political establishment in both parties were bracing for a tsunami of popular indignation at the ballot-box in 2012. Instead the republicans nominated another Progressive which left the conservative base sitting on the sidelines.
The Republicans managed to hold the House leaving the Democratic Majority Leader to lead well-disciplined troops in blocking every move the Conservatives make, and the media will hang the ensuing deadlock squarely around the neck of the Tea Party.
In 2014 to make sure that the rising Tea Party Samson successfully pulls down both the House and the Senate pillars of the Temple of Progressivism, the novice Conservative political activists need to understand voting is not enough. We need to exert every ounce of influence among friends, neighbors, and family to bring out an historic vote. We should stand ready to drive people to the polls, work the polls, do anything we can to plant the flag of Liberty once again in the capital of the Land of the Free and the home of the Brave.
Turning to the Word of God we’re counseled, “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Our Founders declared, when tyranny raises it head, when a government founded to ensure the rights of citizens begins to trample upon those rights their descendants should remember, “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.”
As peaceful citizens let those who love Liberty use their guaranteed rights to write, speak, assemble, and vote to preserve what we’ve been given for our children and our grandchildren. Let every politician know, whether they wish us well or ill, that “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” If we will do this, if now that it’s our time upon the stage we’ll take a stand beside the Founders, the Framers, and the Greatest Generation when our children or grandchildren ask us, “Did you do anything to keep liberty alive? we will be able to say more than, “I didn’t notice what was going on,” or “I couldn’t find the remote.”
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
History Doesn’t Repeat It Rhymes June 3, 2011
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Samuel Adams, Taxation without representation, Tea Party
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A series of imperial wars fought by the Kings of England culminating in the French and Indian War almost bankrupted England. At the end of the war England was paying to maintain 10,000 troops in the North American colonies as well as fleets to protect America’s maritime trade.
Americans had fought in the war including the first shots fired, under George Washington at Fort Necessity in Ohio. With the people of England already restive under crushing taxes, the English politicians decided they would tax the American colonists to help pay off the massive war debt and to bear the cost of the colonies future defense.
First they tried the Stamp Act requiring the use of approved or stamped government-issued paper for all legal documents such as will, deeds and diplomas. This brought our ancestors out into the streets. They marched in protest. The Governor of New York, where the first shipment of officially stamped paper was to arrive, was burned in effigy. They attacked the home of a British officer who had boasted he would collect the stamp tax by force of arms if necessary. The Americans organized the states to act in unison calling the Stamp Act Congress to coordinate a boycott and to decide upon other measures of resistance to “Taxation without representation.” In the face of this heroic opposition the British Government repealed the Stamp Act.
By this time the level of taxation in England produced riots and political turmoil, so the government once again tried to balance the budget on the backs of the Americans with the Townsend Acts. These Acts included reprisals for the recent resistance to the Stamp Act such as: restraints upon the colonial assemblies, new courts to enforce the laws, troops quartered in private homes, and once again taxes, custom fees, and import duties enforced by the British military.
Once again our ancestors stood against the tyranny of taxation without representation and eventually forced the British to also repeal these offensive measures. Not giving up on the idea of raising the money they needed from the colonies these disconnected leaders, far removed from the people, next passed the Tea Act. This Act was designed to help the English East India Company avoid bankruptcy by giving them a monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies.
The Company was able to sell at a lower price including the required tax than any tea smuggled in without the tax. The British reasoned the Americans would willingly pay the tax if they were able to pay it and still get tea for a lower price than without it. But they reckoned without the strength of our principles. This was still taxation without representation and our ancestors would have none of it.
When two ships arrived in Boston Harbor filled with the Company’s tea Samuel Adams vowed it would never be unloaded. Adams held a series of public meetings in the Old South Meeting House. Not able to fit in the building, crowds as large as 5,000 filled the surrounding streets. They demanded that the ships leave. When the agents of the Company refused Adams led a group of men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, to Griffin’s Wharf. The vessels were boarded; the Patriots took the cargo of 342 chests, and threw them into the harbor to the encouragement of a cheering crowd on the dock. This “Tea Party” was repeated in other ports throughout America.
Taxation without representation was the burden too evil to bear for our ancestors. They faced tax burdens that never neared 1 or 2 % and we, their descendants, meekly line up to pay many times that to a government which no longer hears us as we petition them in every way we know to stop the over-the-top spending and return to financial reality.
Today many have forgotten that the “TEA” in the modern Tea Party stands for “Taxed Enough Already!” Millions express frustration and the belief that our elected representatives no longer pay any attention to us once they get to Washington. Our newly elected conservative majority joins the insider parade reaffirming the Patriot Act and passing continuing resolution after continuing resolution. Are we about to learn that if History doesn’t exactly repeat itself it sure does rhyme?
To a generation who have watched our beloved nation fall from the greatest creditor to the greatest debtor, from the greatest manufacturer to an open market for Chinese expansion “Taxed Enough Already” and “No Taxation Without Representation” are starting to sound close enough for blank verse.
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 View the trailer for Dr. Owens’ latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2011 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook.
And the Dead Beat Goes On March 3, 2011
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2010 election, Dr. Robert Owens, National Debt, Republican majority, Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson
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Now we’re getting tough! Since the Tea Party Turnaround last November the new Republican majority in Congress is taking the bull by the horns and showing that they mean business! They would only agree to raise the debt limit for two weeks. That’s like telling your shopaholic alter ego who’s emptied the family savings, overdrawn the checkbook, mortgaged the house, and taken out a juice loan with a loan shark just to cover the interest, “This has got to stop! Here’s a new credit card, but you can only use it for two weeks.” How could that possibly go wrong? Just charge it to someone who hasn’t been born yet. They never seem to complain.
In a letter to James Madison, referring to the idea of running up a national debt beyond the power of the current generation to fully fund or pay off, Thomas Jefferson said, “I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and encumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”
Currently the national debt of the United States stands at over 14 trillion dollars and it’s growing at the rate of more than one trillion per year for as far as the eye can see. It has increased by an average of $4.13 billion per day since September 28, 2007. We can question the wisdom of this but did you know that it is illegal to question the validity of the practice? According to the14th amendment Section 4 it’s illegal to question the validity of the National Debt. This section says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.”
When we take actions like making Health Care a right we have just placed an obligation on everyone else to pay for it. I want to be healthy. I want everyone else to be healthy. I also want the economy to be healthy. Creating another entitlement that requires taking money from productive people and using it to give benefits to a third party only points to the coming double-dip in this Great Recession and the shell game which is our national budget. We sent Bernie Maddoff to jail for doing on a smaller scale what our government does every day: robbing Peter to pay Paul. The problem with robbing Peter to pay Paul is eventually Peter changes his name to Paul.
Although it was stated before it was illegal to do so Thomas Jefferson was willing to say the practice of robbing our children and grandchildren because we cannot quit spending is not a valid way to manage our affairs, “The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time.”
Along with much of the wisdom of our Founders this has been forgotten by an ever growing government seeking to be all things to all people. Our current leaders may have forgotten the wisdom of our Founders but they seem to have accepted the wisdom of Salvador Dali, “I believe that the moment is near when by a procedure of active paranoiac thought, it will be possible to systematize confusion and contribute to the total discrediting of the world of reality.” This may describe our current descent into the bizarre world of a fundamentally Transformed America, but it doesn’t sound promising as a plan for political success.
We can’t spend our way to prosperity. We can’t borrow our way to solvency, and we shouldn’t condemn our descendants to a life of limited opportunity crushed under the debt for the entitlements we wanted but couldn’t afford. That’s the reality our actions are ignoring as our shopaholic alter ego pouts, “But, I want it now!”
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 View the trailer for Dr. Owens’ latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2011 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook.
What Did You Do to Save the Country? October 3, 2010
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: 2010 elections, Dr. Robert Owens, Obmanation, Tea Party
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One day our grandchildren may ask us this question. Will we have an answer that will make us and them proud or will we have to sit silent knowing we stood silent when it was time to speak or remained passive when it was time for action? Now is the time for all believers in limited government to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for all who believe, “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” to remember “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The coming mid-term elections may well be the most important in our lifetime. America faces a crisis as profound as the Revolution and as divisive as the Civil War. This has been brought on by the Progressives who seek to fundamentally transform America through evolutionary means. Incrementally, one entitlement program, one regulation, and one tax rate increase at a time, these Evolutionaries have used class warfare, activist judges, a politically-correct education system, and a complicit media to create a dependent constituency. They’ve constructed a matrix of sports addiction, celebrity worship, and recreational prescription medicine that makes the bread and circuses of Rome appear as crude as they were effective. Welcome to the Brave New World.
In 2008 the Progressives achieved what the media called a “Veto Proof” majority in both houses. This was typical of the Progressive-controlled media’s spin. With a fellow Progressive holding court in the White House there was no chance the long cherished dreams of national health care, massive interference in the economy, and expansion of the bureaucracy would be vetoed. The description of the majorities should have been filibuster-proof meaning there was no way for the minority party to thwart the will of the majority. Even when the Democrats lost their 60th seat in the Senate with the addition of the Progressive Republicans, they still had a filibuster-proof majority. The only reason they have not achieved more of their agenda such as amnesty for illegal immigrants is that members of their own party have balked at a complete surrender of our heritage.
Those who wish to stop the mad rush into the arms of an all embracing Federal Government must register! They must vote! They must do all they can to influence anyone and everyone to elect a true veto proof majority with the power and the will to reverse the slide into insolvency, which will trigger either a default upon our overwhelming debt or a collapse of our economy. Either of which opens the door for the current administration to impose their statist solutions irrevocably altering the nature of the United States. The name will remain the same but let no illusions of normalcy cloud your sight; this will be a new nation, the Obamanation.
In the coming election it is imperative that those who wish to reverse course send a veto- proof majority to Washington or President Obama will block every attempt to return to the traditional American mode of limited-government. And even if this happens the newly awakened Patriots must realize their victory will energize the portion of the country desiring a European-style welfare state. They must realize just as Truman in 1948 ran against the “Do-nothing Congress” more than against Tom Dewey and Clinton in 1996 ran against the “Mean-spirited” Congress more than against Bob Dole, in 2012 Mr. Obama will run against the “Tea Party” Congress more than against any opponent the Republicans might nominate.
The Town Hall meltdowns of 2009 and the Tea Party phenomenon of 2010 have surged across America as no spontaneous movement has in many years. The energy and enthusiasm of this grassroots explosion has rocked primaries from Coast-to-Coast. The political establishment in both parties are bracing for a tsunami of popular indignation at the ballot-box. However, if the vote does not do more than just rock the House, if it does not also capture the Senate, the Democratic Majority Leader will lead well disciplined troops in blocking every move the Conservatives make, and the media will hang the ensuing deadlock squarely around the neck of the Tea Party.
To make sure that the rising Tea Party Samson successfully pulls down both the House and the Senate pillars of the Temple of Progressivism, the novice Conservative political activists need to understand voting is not enough. We need to exert every ounce of influence among friends, neighbors, and family to bring out an historic vote. We should stand ready to drive people to the polls, work the polls, do anything we can to plant the flag of Liberty once again in the capital of the Land of the Free and the home of the Brave.
Turning to the Word of God we’re counseled, “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Our Founders declared, when tyranny raises it head, when a government founded to ensure the rights of citizens begins to trample upon those rights their descendants should remember, “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.”
As peaceful citizens let those who love Liberty use their guaranteed rights to write, speak, assemble, and vote to preserve what we’ve been given for our children and our grandchildren. Let every politician know, whether they wish us well or ill, that “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” If we will do this, if now that it’s our time upon the stage we’ll take a stand beside the Founders, the Framers, and the Greatest Generation when our children or grandchildren ask us, “What did you do to save the country?” we will be able to say more than,, “I didn’t notice what was going on,” or “I couldn’t find the remote.”
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
You Say You Want a Revolution December 14, 2009
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: balance of powers, Cap-n-trade, Cloward/Piven Strategy, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, EPA, Immigration, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Obama, Saul Alinsky, SEIU, Taxes, Tea Party
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Our revolution changed the world. Our Declaration of Independence proclaims self-evident truths. That all men are created equal, they’re endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words shook a world held in the vise-grip of hereditary privilege inspiring people around the globe. Our Constitution established a representative republic with a limited government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We’ve watched as our constitutionally limited government grew until today it’s leviathan running amok like Godzilla in Tokyo smashing things and scaring boy scouts. Today the Federal government is the largest employer in America, states are the largest employers in the states and counties are among the largest employers in the counties get the picture? Government’s on a rampage and unless Mothra is going to fly in to save the day we’ll have to deal with Frankenstein-on-the-Potomac ourselves.
Such brazen power-plays as the Executive branch issuing the Legislature an ultimatum, either pass Cap-N-Trade or we’ll impose it administratively through command-and-control make the dramatic changes in our political culture shockingly apparent. Has our balance of powers melted away under the glare of executive orders, signing statements and now ultimatums? Some people say this is evolution. To others it’s devolution. Our hard-won and dearly-paid-for Republic is devolving into a command-and-control all-encompassing central-state. With political dynasties bequeathing congressional seats like hereditary fiefdoms it’s becoming hard to explain why we left the British Empire. Today we not only have taxation without representation as congressional party-line voters ignore their constituents we also have representation without taxation as the perpetually re-elected Lords and Ladies represent the illegal immigrants, the professional welfare hammock-riders and now Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his band of war-criminals.
These big government social planners may believe they’ve achieved their community organizing goals fulfilling Historian Will Durant paraphrase of Lincoln’s famous quote, “It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.” They may believe their revolutionary administration will fundamentally change America however, if they’d step 20 miles outside the Beltway obviously there’s a counter-revolution brewing. The Tea Party is overtaking the Republican Party in popularity. It has already supplanted them at the grassroots of the conservative movement. By 2010 an avalanche of voters will throng the polling places demanding their country back.
Following the tactics of Saul Alinsky brought the Obama-Acorn-SEIU coalition control of the Democratic Party and the country but following the Cloward/Piven Strategy for overwhelming the system to impose an alternative system is going to lead to a complete repudiation of this radical departure from traditional American politics and economics. We aren’t Venezuela. Even after decades of legislative efforts to progressively create a permanent underclass of government dependants who’ll follow the leader to the next looting of productive members of society the majority in this country still want freedom and opportunity not cradle-to-grave mediocrity.
We can and should stage a counter-revolution against this growing tyranny. A peaceful, lawful revolution at the ballot box and if you’re talking about destruction, you can count me out. The last thing we need in this crowded theater full of combustible emotions is either a match or someone shouting fire. Any incident right now would trigger a massive response. Just as the executive is using the EPA to impose the onerous restrictions of a Cap-N-Trade style economy stunting strangulation regulation he’s also using ICE to change the enforcement of immigration policy without any messy debate. Ruling by decree is hardly compatible with constitutionally-limited government. We’re told the administration has solutions. A solution to heal the greatest health care system in the world, a solution to save or create jobs while we lose jobs every month, a draconian solution for the man-made global warming hoax, a solution for endless wars for elusive peace. You say you have a solution. We’d all love to see the plan.
They say they want a contribution. Back in the good old change we could believe in days the dialogue of class warfare repeated that no one making under 250,000, or was it 150,000, or was it …anyway only the evil rich would have to pay a dime of new taxes. Watch out! You might find out you’re rich come next April 15th. Everyone has known since at least that tax-cutting wild man JFK that cutting taxes increases revenue to the government and raising them lowers revenue. Since the government knows raising taxes lowers revenue and since they’re raising taxes to increase revenue what are they trying to do? Complicated tax codes are used as a way to incentivize and de-incentivize behavior. If you want more widgets give tax breaks for buying widgets. If you want less widgets tax widgets. Using that for a guide notice what’s being pushed and what’s being pulled? Taxes on producers and tax breaks for non-producers imagine tax cuts for people who don’t pay taxes and tax increases for those who do. Taking the money of producers to bailout the greedy, reward the cronies and support the lazy. It’s time to tell the statists at the ballot box if they want money for things we hate they’re going to have to wait.
Executive orders and signing statements have been used in Republican and Democrat administrations for years to change the constitution without changing the constitution. Now sweeping new powers by regulators threatens to make Congress irrelevant as an all powerful executive branch grows like a malignant tumor. Don’t lose heart, don’t despair, don’t you know it’s going to be all right? Keep the faith, keep the peace, organize and win the day.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System. http://drrobertowens.com © 2009 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 