A Republic -- If We Can Keep It!

A Republic… IF We Can Keep It!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

**********************************

The story is told that when Ben Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention an anxious lady asked him what kind of government they had given us. His famous reply was: “A republic, Madam… if you can keep it.” And, for the most part, we Americans have been trying to keep it. But “change” is in the air.

Have you noticed how the Democratic Party has stopped denying its socialist tendencies?
Months ago, as I began to write about the dangers of socialism to America, (and how the Democratic Party has become a sort of Democratic/Socialist party) I was stunned when they, the democrats, did not refute it! See, I had expected democrats to deny any connection to socialism. But they didn’t. It was then that it struck me… they don’t deny it because they can’t. Apparently, they have embraced socialism.

You must forgive me if I get a bit wound-up when socialism is the topic. I have watched that “destroyer of nations” reap its harvest for many, many, decades. It is, in my opinion, the greatest threat to democracy on the planet. I see socialism as presenting an even greater threat than the Islamofacist terrorists! I will never be comfortable with a socialist government in America. We can argue “degrees” of socialism all day and it won’t matter. As the expression goes: “a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.”

I think it is pure irony that now, as a “near” socialist nation, America can celebrate an event named “Independence Day” with a straight face!

As I write, in the year of our Lord 2009, Americans are anything but independent! We are fat, and lazy, and dependent on our new “near” socialist government for far too much and if the polls can be believed nearly half of the electorate is begging the socialists in charge of the US government to take on more of our care through a National Healthcare System that at least some of us recognize as socialized medicine and which has been dubbed “ObamaCare.” There is very little “independent” about Americans today. In just a few months of the Obama regime we have gone from “King of the Hill” to just another member of the “Mediocrity Mob” of nations.

I know this is difficult to swallow. You can’t know how much pain it caused me to write these words. I have stood on the ground where the Wright brothers took their first flight launching America into the space age. They had no idea that their short flight would end up taking man to the stars, but of course, it did. I have trod the ground from which our astronauts blasted off to land and walk upon the surface of the moon. I have witnessed America claw her way to the top through sheer willpower and determination to be the best. And now, as I approach the autumn of my life, I am watching the decline and fall of that same America. Do you really think I don’t feel a tremendous amount of pain? I think I must now know what the ancient Romans felt as they watched the greatest civilization in history, to that day, decline, crumble, and fall in ruins around them.

“Oh,” but you say, “… Socialism is the only way to go. Everyone will be equal! No class, no class warfare…” and such.

Well, let us see if we can break it down so that even those of you in love with the “cancer of nations,” socialism, can understand it.

The story is told of an economics professor at a small college who made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan.” All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride, too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Socialism will bring the end to private enterprise. Just think: under socialism there would be no small businesses, none of those Mom and Pop stores with which we are so familiar in America. There would be no entrepreneurs. Socialism calls for the redistribution of wealth. Broken down, that simply means taking the money you earned and giving it to those you feel did not earn it. Socialism demands that all wealth in a nation, and that includes yours, will be controlled by the government. In other words, you will own nothing --- not even your own money. The government owns everything and everyone is given only what it takes for that person to survive. Socialism celebrates the lack of an upper class and a lower class. Under socialism there is only one class. And in THAT class all people suffer equally.

Americans have made an awful decision. They have decided to give up. Freedom is just too hard. It requires entirely too much work and effort on the part of the individual. It is much easier to sit back, relax, and allow the government to take care of us. Look, folks, birds locked in a golden cage are just as much a prisoner as those locked in a rusty old quarter-inch mesh wire cage. A prison is a prison and man is quite capable of creating his own.

Americans remind me today of the little granddaughter of a friend. He tells me she just recently went through the stage all parents are familiar with called…”potty training.” When she finished her business she would sit patiently on the porcelain throne, and yell her head off, until someone appeared to take care of that most important chore – the hygienic cleansing of the recently employed lower sphincter. (The vernacular is much more colorful and maybe a bit more descriptive, but, at the risk of creating a pun here, I wanted to keep it clean!) The child’s actions sound so much like what Americans are doing today, sitting on the porcelain throne yelling our heads off while waiting for someone to come take care of the last, but important, chore. The government will take care of it, but there is a price to be extracted from each of us. The price is the loss of our freedom.

They say that Satan’s greatest trick is convincing mankind that he doesn’t exist. It may be his best trick but it doesn’t hold a candle to the trick socialism has played on America.

J. D. Longstreet