Tag Archives: Progressivism

With Liberty and Justice for All

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2016.11.12_Anti-Trump_Protest_Washington%2C_DC_USA_08735_(22778715758).By Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Veritas, as a Conservative and a Christian, there is no higher moral imperative than to seek out the truth. Even when it doesn’t gel with my preconceived notions about the world and my place in it, undeniable truth must be accepted. Personal integrity, and personal responsibility are the defining values for most Conservatives.  It is what the left both admires and fears in us.  To us, truth matters, character matters, justice matters. We play fair, we play by the rules.  To the Progressives, Conservative support of Donald Trump just doesn’t make sense.  He has fudged the truth on many occasions.  He says and tweets cringe worthy statements on a daily basis. He’s arrogant and petulant.  He displayed a litany of character imperfections throughout his campaign, and continues to display them into his presidency.   The Progressive Left is still in denial about President Trump’s election.  Taking to the streets, and the airwaves, in a mass panic they think that by declaring that he is “not their President” they can make him run, tail between his legs, from office.  “How?” they demand,  “How, could sane, rational people ever elect a man as flawed as Donald Trump?”  They are asking the wrong question.

What they should be asking is, “What is so wrong with the Progressive Left philosophy, that the vast geographical majority of the nation would rather have a flawed and divisive man like Donald Trump to lead us, than someone who espouses leftist ideology?”  The answer is liberty.  The conservative knows that without the freedom to reap the benefits, or consequences, of one’s actions, one can never achieve the quality of character necessary to prosper.  Progressives simply don’t get this.  The Conservative understands that most hard-working, everyday American citizens, regardless of their political proclivities, want the same thing.  To prosper in a safe, peaceful country.   The Conservative believes that our rights are inborn, a product of a Creator God or natural law, and the duty of government is to ensure that everyone who is willing to work hard enough, and abide by the rule of law, has the opportunity to pursue the course of his or her choice.  There is room for differing opinions, differing philosophies and beliefs.  Success and prosperity will mean different things to different people, so some will choose careers that are lucrative, while others will choose careers that are personally rewarding.  Our success will depend on the choices we make, and while some may not ever achieve prosperity, no one has a right to another’s earnings.  Charity is always on the terms of the giver.  The Progressive, however, believes that our rights are granted by the government and absolute equality must be guaranteed.  No matter what your choices or character, you are entitled to the same level of prosperity as everyone else, no more, no less.  Charity should always be on the terms of the needy.  Because there will always be those who prosper more than others, and their generosity cannot be guaranteed, the Progressive believes that the duty of government is to distribute the wealth evenly to everyone within the country’s borders.  The Progressive does not or cannot understand that to deprive a man or woman of their earnings to supply someone else, is theft at the most basic and personal level.  President Trump understands this, and so far his policies are in line with this basic Conservative philosophy.  That is why Conservatives are willing to grit their teeth and bear his obvious moral failings and support him.

What we Conservatives need to understand is that this election was not about putting a “Donald Trump” in the White House. It was about restoring our national culture. It is our duty to expose the hypocrisy and danger of the Progressive left agenda. To do this, we need to claim the moral high ground. We need to show, in our actions and interactions, as we go through our day, that Conservatism truly is the way to peace and prosperity.  We need to show that there is room at the Conservative table for everyone, regardless of your sexual persuasion, personal wealth, or religious beliefs.  That your personal liberty and dignity will always be respected so long as you are willing to respect the same for any other human being. We cannot do this if we are always on the defensive.  We need to educate ourselves, and shut down any attempts by the Left to erroneously label us as homophobes, Islamaphobes, racists, and any other unjustified monikers. We need to reveal their talking points for what they are, mindless, baseless accusations.  We also need to quit making excuses for President Trump when he makes inaccurate statements.  For better or worse, he represents Conservatism to the world.  We put him in office, and we must hold him accountable.

Such a Time As This

We are truly living in an upside-down world. Faith, family, patriotism, and self-reliance, were once the moral bedrock of our society. Now, people who live by those precepts are seen as weak-minded, or eyed with suspicion. People of faith, and Christians in particular, are seen as anti-education and anti-science. Unable to think for themselves, they turn to an invented superstition to make up their minds for them. Women who choose to become single mothers* are heralded as trend setters. They are heroines who are breaking down the fettered bonds of matrimony. While women who choose to make the sacrifices necessary to have a loving marriage and a two parent household are seen as ignorant and dependent. Husbands and fathers are gleefully portrayed as abusive tyrants, or bungling buffoons. Those who love our country and the Constitution, those who are willing to fight and die for the freedoms we have left, are seen as dangerous revolutionaries. Backward crackpots who are worthy of suspicion and avoidance. Living by the consequence of your choices used to be a basic understanding, taught from childhood, but now millions of us are willing to trade our hard-won freedoms for a government controlled lifestyle. Free from worry or want, we neither know nor care how our lifestyle is funded and we are satisfied with mere subsistence.

We didn’t get this way overnight.  There has been a slow eroding ever since the Communist Manifesto was published back in 1848.  It kicked into high gear when the Baby Boomers came of age.  It seemed for a brief period in the eighties that we had beaten back the hippies, but it didn’t last long.  Now under the progressive control of the current administration, it looks like the Liberal Progressive movement might finally claim victory.

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. This quote, popularized by Karl Marx, doesn’t seem so wrong at a first look.  After all, don’t those who have plenty have a moral obligation to help those in need?  This would have made perfect sense to those living in early industrial Europe.  Working class people who because of their social status, had no political power and were never truly allowed to prosper from their labor.  Ironically, the Communist philosophy that sought to equal the field by eliminating private property and distributing it equally among everyone, could only work if that property and the division of labor were placed under the control of a limited number of individuals.  These people would then dictate the balance of the labor force between manufacturing and agriculture.  They would distribute resources as they saw fit.  The Communist Manifesto that promised that every laborer would earn his subsistence from his labor, delivered only that.  Everyone could survive, but no one, except those in control of the labor force, could prosper.  The Proletariat would go from being controlled by the industrialists to being controlled by the government.  This system of government that promised economic freedom, instead took all freedoms away.

In spite of the historically documented failure of Communism in every country where it has been tried, the Liberal Progressive still insists that governmental control produces a better standard of living than personal control.  This is not what our Founding Fathers believed.   The Founders sought to create a society where individuals controlled property and the government.  There were no royalty, no titled gentry.  Without government interference, every man was free to succeed, but he was also free to fail.  In a free society, it is the risk of failure that compels the individual to better himself.  The harder you work and the better you educate yourself, the lower the risk of failure becomes.  To the liberal progressive, any risk of failure is unacceptable.  It is better that no one prosper if it means that anyone might fail.   Complete equity in the whole of society is the Liberal Progressive goal.

The most dangerous way this goal manifests itself is by the Liberal Progressive’s belief in moral relativity.  There is no good or bad, no right or wrong. No lifestyle, personal choice, or belief system is better or worse than any other. The man who sits under a shade tree all day deserves his daily bread just as much as the man who toiled in the field all day to produce it.  An Al Qaeda terrorist is just as much a freedom fighter as a Minuteman who fought in the American Revolution.  Stealing from others is acceptable if they have more than you. The only evil the Liberal Progressive recognizes, is the discernment of evil.  This is how a terrorist attack on an American military base can be called an act of workplace violence. It’s how Israel can be criticized for the heavy-handed defense of their country, while the brutal acts of the Palestinians against the Israelis, and even their own people, are ignored.  It’s how a police officer can be labeled a racist murder with no evidence proving that is the case, while a young man, who moments before his death was robbing a convenience store, is lauded as a hero.  It’s how an unborn child can be regarded as a parasite in its mother’s womb, and how mankind at large can be regarded as a parasite on the earth.  It is this defective moral compass, that compels the President, a man steeped in Liberal Progressive ideology, practically from birth, to travel the world apologizing for the country he is supposed to lead.  So warped is his thinking, that he truly believes that Islāmic terrorists are not evil, just misunderstood.

Perhaps the only truthful words uttered by this man, were his campaign promise to “Fundamentally change America”.  It’s frightening how much he, and the Liberal Progressives have succeeded.

 

 

*This passage is not meant to include women who were abandoned, widowed, or escaping abusive situations.

What Did They Fight For?

From each according to his ability. To each according to his need.

English: Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of ...

Consider this quote from Karl Marx for a moment.  Imagine a society where you are free to pursue your passions.  Do you like to write poetry?  Fine you can spend all day writing poetry without worring where your next meal is coming from.  Have you always dreamed of healing the sick?  You can go to medical school without worrying about crushing debt.  Enjoy music?  Sit on the corner and play your guitar all day then go home to a mortgage-free house.  Have a talent for fixing cars?  Open up your own garage and don’t worry about overhead costs.  To the Socialist Progressive, this is the goal.  A moneyless society where everything belongs to everyone and the abilities balance out the needs.  A place where, without the encumbrance of providing for our basic necessities, there will be enough people who are smart enough to become doctors, engineers and scientists, enough people know how to grow crops, make clothes, and build houses, enough people who enjoy flipping burgers, picking up trash and scrubbing toilets, to balance out those who don’t.  Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?  No one has less than anyone else.  Everyone is a Prole.  But…….. No one can ever have more.  No matter how hard you work, how much you apply yourself, you will never have any more than the slackerd who donates his time and nothing more to the collective.

It is man’s basic human nature to desire a reward for his hard work and ingenuity.  To take pride in caring for the things he owns.  When these feelings are suppressed and made out to be evil, gone is the incentive to build, create, improve.   It is basic human nature that the Socialist Progressive ignores.  Most people will not willingly hand over rightfully owned property.   We are not meant to merely survive and when reduced to that existence we will cease to produce.  The idea of a self-perpetuating Communist utopia is a lie.  In order for there to be enough makers to feed the takers, someone must be in charge.  Someone who maintains the balance of farmers, factory workers, skilled labor, and entertainers.  The promise of pursued passions is replaced by assigned careers, and forced labor camps.  The Communist goal of freeing people from the slavery of the factory owner, replaced by slavery to the government.  This is the great irony of the Socialist Progressive movement.   You do not need to look any farther than our recent past, to Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, China, and North Korea, to find evidence that this is so.

The United States was never meant to be a place where we are controlled by the government.  Every Article, Section, and word of the Constitution and Bill of rights, were carefully drafted to protect the rights of the people to control their own destinies, own property, and enjoy the fruits of their labors.  Read the Bill of Rights.  Then realize that every one of those freedoms were paid for with blood.  The heros of the Revolutionary war understood the kind of life they would lead if ruled by a tyrannical government, and they were willing to die to prevent that from happening.  From that time on, our American military has fought time and again to stop the spread of tyranny thoughout the world.  From freeing  slaves, stopping the spread of Communism, to keeping Islamic terrorism from our shores.

We don’t like war.  The whole idea is abhorrent to us, and it should be.  But consider this quote from George Orwell,

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

The phrase “Freedom isn’t free” is not just a tired cliche’.  It is the truth.  Men and women have died defending the ideals of our Constitution.  As we go about our business and barbecues this weekend, take a few minutes to think about how we as a nation have honored their sacrifice.   We have elected to office men and women who seek only to increase their own power, whose idea of a perfect America is closer to that of Marx than that of Jefferson. We have allowed our own government to attempt to disarm us, and to use its power to intimidate and silence us.

We should honor our fallen veterans by demanding our government be accountable to us.  To demand that our government uses our taxes funds wisely, and respects our individual freedoms.  We have a responsibility as citizens to be informed, to show up and vote, and vote wisely. It is not too late to take our government back.  Don’t let our heros’ deaths be in vain.

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