Programmed People

Programmed People

 

Ever had a conversation (or tried to have one anyway) with someone who couldn’t focus on one main point if their lives depended on it? Chances are it isn’t just ADD. Too many people today react like Pavlov’s dog whenever important topics like politics or religion are brought up. Instead of an honest thoughtful exchange of ideas, so many people today regurgitate prepackaged responses to important questions like a Tourretes patient stuck on a spasm of talking points. Critical thinking and basic logic is a lost skill set.

It is nearly impossible to have an important two way conversation with someone like that because no matter what you say, it just isn’t registering with the gray matter between their ears. They aren’t thinking critically about what you said. What’s worse is that they aren’t just repeating words. Any one of a dozen push button topics will not only launch them instantly into insulting personal attacks, but they will believe the absolute worst about you without any evidence or further discussion.

Case in point: After the recent election, a friend and I were lightly joking about how stressful the night was for both sides until they brought up something their neighbor did that, in their words, “really pissed [them] off”. The next day after the election their neighbor had hung his American flag upside down to show his disapproval. My friend was incensed that someone would use that legitimate military signal for life threatening distress as a sign of their political opinion. They said they were angry because they had friends in the military that they felt would be highly offended by what they believed was a casual use of that vital signal of a life threatening situation.

Maybe there are some in the military that would be offended to see their sign of distress used for political posturing, but there are also some veterans who have done the exact same thing. There are many who believe that our country is at such a critical point that it isn’t just about the economy anymore, but about our core liberties, and yes even life threatening political policies that are destroying this country from the inside out. Try as I might I could not get them to see that. Being self-blinded to the serious liberty and life-threatening policy differences that do exist; my friend fell back on the baseless charge of racism to explain their neighbor’s behavior. My friend asserted that they knew I wasn’t a racist for my opposition to Obama, but that so many other people really only opposed Obama because of his race. My friend could see no other explanation for it.

Racism? Seriously? Nobody was charging liberals with racism when they called Bush a Nazi or a war criminal. Nobody was calling Jimmy Carter’s detractors racists back in the 1970’s when he employed some of the exact same policies that Obama has now. My friend had previously qualified the statement about their neighbor by saying he seemed nice. My friend made no mention of race or his neighbor’s thoughts about race previously. My friend said they had liked their neighbor before, but as baseless and insulting as it was, racism had to be the answer for why he turned his flag upside down.

Hearing the get-out-of-jail-free caveat that my friend just knew I was not a racist, I tried to offer my explanation for why their neighbor did what he did. I lowered my voice and considered my words carefully. Trying to both ease my friends concerns and relate to their situation, I first admitted that I too had turned my flag upside down for a brief amount of time when Obama won his first term in 2008 because of what I knew his policies would do to this country. My friend’s face collapsed. It was like a switch flipped in their heads and nothing I said next mattered. I was one of them.

Every example I cited of Obama’s direct involvement in the loss of our constitutional liberties was ignored and countered by unrelated or untrue accusations about Obama’s political adversaries. They just laughed when I cited Obama’s 6 trillion dollar increase in the deficit in only 4 years. My friend was stuck on the image of that flag being upside down and not why. “Yeah but Romney would not have changed that” was another repeated riposte. They even brought up Arizona’s immigration enforcement law and falsely asserted that it was somehow an example of racism that conservatives, like myself, allegedly tolerated as if it was a relevant counterpoint to the Obama TSA’s daily violation of the 4^th amendment. I even cited Supreme Court cases (which garnered nothing but glazed eyes). Finally I cited the chief example of why my friend was so upset about that flag being up-side down; Obama’s recent cover-up, lies, and abandonment of our people… even our Navy Seals in Benghazi, Libya whose calls for help went through to the White House situation room multiple times over hours. If they had been a part of a unit on a battlefield their flag would have been up-side down because they were cut off and dying. Their pleas for help were denied, they were murdered as the White House watched and then lied about it, and my friend refused to consider it as a valid reason why their neighbor might not be a racist just because he hung a flag upside down.

My friend, if they are still my friend, hasn’t said a word to me since. They are programmed. They are spring loaded to shoot off in a pre-planned spastic reaction to politics. Even when presented with undeniable, current, widely-reported facts, they can’t let go of the narrative. This is why people tread lightly around friends and family over politics and religion. Sad day. Guess, all I can do is pray for them now. Maybe they will listen to God.

Death of a Republic

Death of a Republic

 

A republic is a form of government that is characterized by adherence to foundational law regardless of popular opinion. In a republic, there is a difference between democratic law that can change depending on the simple-majority mood of the people or even just a few politicians who decide to do whatever they want and foundational law that is based on a super-majority of widely held core beliefs.

In the United States of America, those core beliefs were instituted into the foundational law of the republic through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution provided the basic structure for our system of government and the Bill of Rights provided guarantees to safeguard our liberties and limit the power and growth of government.

After the structure of the Constitution was drafted it was sent to the states for approval because each state was independent and sovereign. The Constitution was not imposed on the states; it was agreed to by the states. Before the states agreed to adopt the Constitution they demanded a top ten list of basic protections against tyranny. The Bill of Rights was that list and again was not imposed on the states, but was a list of demands from the states for agreeing to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was specifically written to protect individual people from tyranny and the Tenth Amendment specifically was written to protect the sovereignty of the states. The states and the people came first, not the federal government. That was the foundation of our republic.

In keeping with the super-majority aspect of what was republic law, the requirement for adopting the Constitution for the United States and our very union required three fourths of the legislatures of the states to agree. Any future changes to that foundational republic law required not only the same three fourths ratification from the states, but two thirds of each branch of congress and or the states just to open up an official constitutional convention to even begin the process. That is how broad-based and widely accepted, and hard to change that our foundational republic law was.

In keeping with the simplicity of republic law, the entire Constitution was only about 8 pages (in a modern size 10 font) and some of the amendments in the Bill of Rights were only one or two sentences long. That was the elegant fundamental simplicity of basic God given rights and the reason why a republic form of government was superior to all others. Almost anyone could understand and agree to the old republic law.

That was then.

Today, politicians and their circus performers in the media appeal not to the old republic laws, but to simply-majority popularity to garner votes from a gullible public that has forgotten why our forefathers declared their independence in the first place. Today’s democratic laws are not vetted against the old republic laws and do not require the same standards of wide acceptance to become law. A simple majority of 51% is all it takes. As a result, it is much easier to pass new democratic laws. Today the government and it’s lickspittles in the media pump the public for support of what they want and pit once unified groups against each other. It is a brilliant way for the government to manipulate the people and get what they want while at the same time fooling the voting public into to thinking they have control over the government. A special benefit here and a crisis there provide all the excuse needed to hit the public up to vote for politicians who promise to “fix” things by way of more laws that result in more authority for the government and less freedom for the people.

Compare the old republic law to the new health care law for example. It is over 2000 pages (that is just one law folks). It is written in a language only lawyers understand. It did not originate in the House as all revenue-generating (tax) bills are constitutionally required. To top it off, all polls the entire year it was being rammed through congress showed that the overwhelming majority of people were opposed to it and more than half the states immediately sued the federal government to stop it. The public’s opposition came too late. The bill was passed in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve when congress was supposed to have already gone home, but was forced to remain in session to pass the bill before the newly elected congressman who opposed it could stop the foul thing. The difference between the old foundational republic law requiring a super-majority of support and that unconstitutional, politically-corrupt, simple-majority democratic law is the difference between a secured freedom and tyranny.

That is where we are today. Now, one bad law, even a blatantly unconstitutional one, doesn’t topple a healthy republic. There were many bad and plainly unconstitutional democratic laws over the years. This one though was the crowning achievement of politically-corrupt simple-majority democratic law over the old republic because even the Supreme Court abandoned the Constitution to place its official stamp of approval on that wicked law. There are no checks and balances any more. The federal government has totally abandoned republic law and the people voted for the politicians who made that happen believing all the while that they were in control.

What developed in the United States of America that sounded the death knell for the republic was apathy over what were considered minor inconveniences by a population whose standards of living were the highest in the world. No one cared when their liberties were infringed on minor levels, because they had so much excess of freedom and wealth that they barely noticed. Most people didn’t even realize they were losing their freedoms with every little encroachment. They bought into the lie of a benevolent government that only wanted to provide for their security or to help some poor soul who was down on his luck, or to make the world fair by taking more money from mean old rich people who didn’t need it anyway in their eyes. Worse, the people stopped teaching their children about the old republic laws and why those simple old beliefs were so important to the very fabric of society and their future as well. Instead, they let simple-majority democracy and an arrogant sense of entitlement sweep over the land and into law upon law upon unconstitutional law.

Here are just a few recent examples of the rise and triumph of simple-majority democratic laws over the old foundational republic laws.

2005 – Supreme Court case 545 U.S. 469 Kelo vs. New London, CT

Verdict: The government, even a small city government can condemn the land that has been in your family for generations, seize it, and doesn’t even have to pay you fair market value for it for no other reason than it wants the higher tax revenue it could get from it were zoned for commercial use. Nothing you own is safe from government seizure. The 5th amendment is now irrelevant.

2008/10 – Supreme Court case 554 U.S. ___ and 561 U.S. __ District of Columbia vs. Heller and McDonald vs. Chicago, IL.

Verdict: You have the right to own a gun to defend yourself… by a 5/4 margin. We are one judge away from losing the 2nd amendment.

2010 – Supreme Court case 558 U.S. ___ Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Verdict: You have the right to buy advertising, publish a book, or just print a little political flyer to distribute even within 60 days of an election… by a 5/4 margin. We are one judge away from losing the first amendment.

2012 – Supreme Court case 567 U.S. ___ National Federation of Independent Businesses ET AL Petitioners vs. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, ET AL (and several other related cases)

Verdict: The government can force private individuals to buy a private product or service from a private business under penalty of IRS fines for non-compliance. The Chief Justice’ explanation for allowing this tyranny was to take it upon himself to change the wording of the law from penalty to tax. Your money is not your money and you have no choice in how it is spent if the government says so and simply calls a penalty a tax.

Ongoing: The TSA violates the 4^th amendment every day in cities all over the country by denying the right not to be unreasonably searched or have your property seized without a warrant.

Ongoing: The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 authorizes (unconstitutionally of course) the military to apprehend and detain any American citizen without charge, or access to legal counsel indefinitely. The claim of national security is the excuse that is used and we all want to get bad guys, but without requiring a warrant, criminal charge, access to legal counsel, or any limit on how long they can detain you, the government could literally come to your house and take you away in the night without any explanation and no one would know what happened to you. You have no expectation of freedom.

There are more examples, but the point is that at the highest levels of government, old republic laws that were based on wide acceptance and once even called divine rights from the Creator that had stood for over two centuries became irrelevant. Simple-majority democracy took over with each election cycle appealing to the smallest simple majority instead of the highest and the government took advantage of this by increasing its power and reducing individual freedoms on all fronts.

In 2008 America elected a person whose own books describe how he chose to study under and associate himself with Marxist professors. In 2008 America elected a man who chose to spend nearly 20 years attending a church where the political doctrine called Black Liberation Theology Marxism was taught by a man he publically called his “spiritual mentor”. In 2008 the American people elected a self proclaimed “community organizer” who taught his ACORN workers to emulate the communist political tactics from Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals”. Now, after 4 years of Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders, appointments of self proclaimed Socialist and even Communists, and unconstitutional laws that have chillingly Orwellian implications, the American public just re-elected him by a margin of 50.5% of the simple majority popular vote. If the old republic has not completely died, it is surely gasping for its last breaths.

We were warned about this in the early 1800’s by a French political historian who wrote a book called “Democracy in America”. Consider the quotes below from it. Consider reading it. The only solution now is to re-learn what we have forgotten and teach a new generation how to revive a dead republic.

“The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexis de Tocqueville

May God have mercy on us all.