WHY ITS OVER
Mar 6, 2016 13:22:15 GMT -5
Post by Michael Downing on Mar 6, 2016 13:22:15 GMT -5
h/t WRSA
WHY ITS OVER
"A republic, if you can keep it."
I've written and said in several places and times that our Republic is dead. This sounds pretty radical to people and I get looks of sad contempt and dismissal like old Christopher that opinionated jerk has gone too far, the poor dear. Its the kind of response you give old people when they say something terribly unfashionable and out of date, a sort of kindly dismissal and mockery.
So I thought I'd make my case here and let people decide.
The quote at the top is what Benjamin Franklin gave when he was asked what the revolution and constitutional convention has given the people of America. Franklin, like all of the founding fathers, knew that this experiment was fragile and prone to destruction. They knew that without constant vigilance, virtue, and vitalization, the republic was doomed.
We've left all that behind. When, exactly, is a matter of some debate, but for me the last desperate, slim glimmer of a hope was November 2012 when President Obama was reelected. When doesn't really matter so much as how and why...
REMNANTS
Technically, the USA is still around, of course. We have the framework, sagging and rotted as it is, of what the country means still in place. There are the habits of a Republic still here. Technically we still vote. In name at least we have representatives in office. All of it still looks more or less the same. Its just been gutted, like the shell of an insect that has been burrowed out from within by parasites.
The only direction this nation goes from here on out is away from liberty, away from the founders, away from the great experiment, and toward inevitable failure and tyranny. There's only one vector, even if it staggers a bit once in a while.
LET IT BURN
There's a phrase some use to describe this attitude: "let it burn." Some misunderstand this as a call to destroy the nation. But its not. Its a call to step back and give up the fight because its going down either way. For years now I've been telling everyone to focus locally, on family, neighbors, local politics. Your home, your area, your town. Because the federal government is a write-off. There is no fixing it through any elections.
That's what Let It Burn means; not "revolution!!!" but rather "its already burning and the firefighters know it won't be saved." Let it Burn recognizes that its already on fire. We're past the point of preventing it. We cannot save this Republic, until we get past the hard times ahead and begin the slow, painful process of rebuilding.
I'm sorry. I don't like it either. but that doesn't make it any less true. And recognizing this doesn't make me a crazy old man. Just a sad one.
"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
-John Quincy Adams
Sorry, John. We didn't. We gave it a pretty good run for a while, but its over.
WHY ITS OVER
"A republic, if you can keep it."
I've written and said in several places and times that our Republic is dead. This sounds pretty radical to people and I get looks of sad contempt and dismissal like old Christopher that opinionated jerk has gone too far, the poor dear. Its the kind of response you give old people when they say something terribly unfashionable and out of date, a sort of kindly dismissal and mockery.
So I thought I'd make my case here and let people decide.
The quote at the top is what Benjamin Franklin gave when he was asked what the revolution and constitutional convention has given the people of America. Franklin, like all of the founding fathers, knew that this experiment was fragile and prone to destruction. They knew that without constant vigilance, virtue, and vitalization, the republic was doomed.
We've left all that behind. When, exactly, is a matter of some debate, but for me the last desperate, slim glimmer of a hope was November 2012 when President Obama was reelected. When doesn't really matter so much as how and why...
REMNANTS
Technically, the USA is still around, of course. We have the framework, sagging and rotted as it is, of what the country means still in place. There are the habits of a Republic still here. Technically we still vote. In name at least we have representatives in office. All of it still looks more or less the same. Its just been gutted, like the shell of an insect that has been burrowed out from within by parasites.
The only direction this nation goes from here on out is away from liberty, away from the founders, away from the great experiment, and toward inevitable failure and tyranny. There's only one vector, even if it staggers a bit once in a while.
LET IT BURN
There's a phrase some use to describe this attitude: "let it burn." Some misunderstand this as a call to destroy the nation. But its not. Its a call to step back and give up the fight because its going down either way. For years now I've been telling everyone to focus locally, on family, neighbors, local politics. Your home, your area, your town. Because the federal government is a write-off. There is no fixing it through any elections.
That's what Let It Burn means; not "revolution!!!" but rather "its already burning and the firefighters know it won't be saved." Let it Burn recognizes that its already on fire. We're past the point of preventing it. We cannot save this Republic, until we get past the hard times ahead and begin the slow, painful process of rebuilding.
I'm sorry. I don't like it either. but that doesn't make it any less true. And recognizing this doesn't make me a crazy old man. Just a sad one.
"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
-John Quincy Adams
Sorry, John. We didn't. We gave it a pretty good run for a while, but its over.