“Some paradox of our natures leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them the object of our pity, then of our wisdom, ultimately of our coercion. It is to prevent this corruption, the most ironic and tragic that man knows, that we stand in need of the moral realism which is the product of the moral imagination”. Lionel Trilling
Webster defines socialism thusly: 1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. –Thomas Jefferson (1801)
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. -Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
It is unethical for any man to tax another man's home to fund his social agenda. Friends don't do that, your enemies will. - John Taft
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986)
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -P.J. O'Rourke
We must not look to government to solve our problems. Government is the problem. -Ronald Reagan
A liberal is someone who feels a great
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -P.J. O'Rourke
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. -President Ronald Reagan
The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. –Milton Friedman
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. -President Ronald Reagan
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French
I've always believed that this blessed land was set apart in a special way, that some divine plan placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the Earth who had a special love for freedom and the courage to uproot themselves, leave homeland and friends, to come to a strange land. And coming here they created something new in all the history of mankind--a land where man is not beholden to government, government is beholden to man. -President Ronald Reagan
One hundred nations in the UN have not agreed with us on just about everything that's come before them, where we're involved, and it didn't upset my breakfast at all. -President Ronald Reagan
When you guys win, you get to keep your money. When we win, we take your money. -Cy Thao, Democrat MN Rep. DFL 65-A speaking to a Republican)
I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom and limited government. -Ron Paul
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man -Thomas Jefferson in "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764.
To the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to tell you something: You can have my gun. You can pry it from my cold dead hands! -Charelton Heston
America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people. -George W. Bush State of the Union Address, January 2004
I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer, just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals...The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. -President Ronald Reagan
We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. -President Ronald Reagan
No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words "no" and "not" employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights. –Edmund A. Opitz
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. -President Ronald Reagan
We have depended on government for so much for so long that we as people have become less vigilant of our liberties. As long as the government provides largesse for the majority, the special interest lobbyists will succeed in continuing the redistribution of welfare programs that occupies most of Congress's legislative time. -Ron Paul, Congressman (R - Texas)
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul. –George Bernard Shaw
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. –John Adams (1814)
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. –George Washington
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. –Mark Twain (1866)
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. –Robert Heinlein
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. –James Bovard (1994)
The power to tax is the power to destroy. – John Marshall
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. –Ayn Rand
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves [favors] out of the public treasury. –Alexander Tytler
"In capitalism you are free to earn as much or as little as you like. If you want to grow your own food in your own backyard you are free to do so or you can start your own business and try to become wealthy. The point is that you decide for yourself. In communism, however, a group of elites in power decide not only what you do for society, but how much you're worth doing it." -Lee Wilson
It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. –Charles A. Beard
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. –Mark Twain
I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights. –Abraham Lincoln
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. –Henry David Thoreau
The best government is the one that charges you the least blackmail for leaving you alone. –Thomas Rudmose-Brown (1996)
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. –Voltaire (1764)
Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more. –Allan H. Meltzer (1993)
Considering history, socialism has been exposed as a failed philosophical, social, and economic system; yet, it's proponents continue to espouse it's supposed blessings. In fact, when one looks closely, beyond the hyperbolic promises and rhetorical falsehoods, one can vividly see the very clear and present dangers to freedom itself:
1) Socialism poses extreme danger to freedom of speech and other first amendment guarantees of individual liberty. The government or state is exalted as the source and basis of such freedoms. As a result, the natural law, eternal, absolute, and immutable foundation of liberty for all is undone, replaced with a positive law, temporal, arbitrary, pragmatic, expedient, relative, and mutable foundation. Government and the State then becomes the absolute sovereign authority and control. The State becomes Supreme, not God.
2) As a continuation of the above, civil government-controlled media can easily become the source of a biased and slanted means of information to the citizenry, thus abrogating it’s essential responsibility as an important check on power, regardless of which individual or party holds such power in any form.
3) In pursuit of "equality of outcome" as opposed to equality in nature or equality of opportunity as espoused in the Declaration of Independence, individual guarantees of private ownership, freedom to achieve, and material and spiritual liberties will become subservient to the power and will of the State. As a result, disillusionment, apathy, and a growing sense of entitlement will sap the citizenry of all desire to achieve and pursue the common good. From ancient times, this has been true when such policies have been put in place. They have always, without fail, led to a cultural and social decline in every instance, without fail.
4) Religious organizations will have to struggle to maintain their existence if they intend to preserve their focused missions. The first liberty, freedom of conscience, will be subjugated and ultimately eliminated as any allegiance above that to the State will be seen as a threat to it’s authority. Look no further than the crucifixion of Christ and the persecution of the church throughout time to see the reality of this.
5) Interpretation of the United States Constitution will become open-ended and subjective, rendering the document obsolete. Without this foundation in law which guarantees the natural right/law philosophy of the Declaration of Independence, all law becomes arbitrary. True security for equality of nature and opportunity will never be achieved and has never been under such a system.
6) The assumption will become commonplace that we are not created equal by God, but by the civil government. Discrimination and eventually persecution will eventually reign, guaranteeing ultimate disunity and certain enslavement in mind and person.
7) The crumbling of America's economic foundations will begin: hard work will no longer be ultimately beneficial, so why work hard?
8) The disarming of responsible Americans will be pushed for "our safety", but guns in the hands of criminals will remain uncontrolled. This has been a tenet of socialist systems throughout history, not for public safety as they claim, but to prevent the citizenry from revolting against the State. This denies the guarantee espoused in the Declaration that the citizenry has the right to change tyrannical and despotic government and implement that government which best champions individual liberty for all under God.
(9) Owning private property will become difficult, and there will be a very real possibility of eradication of property ownership. Millions have been killed under socialist regimes for this very purpose, in our lifetime and throughout the history of the 20th century. Millions have been murdered in the name and under the system of totalitarian socialism. Don’t need to look far to see it.
10) The true reign of "choice" will begin, and as a consequence, the genocide of the unborn will increase. The third and final guarantee is gone in the name of greed and selfishness. Innocent Life itself is made subject to the whim of the state and the individual, not recognized as a gift from God and to be secured at all cost by the nation who claims to be under and trusting in God and His eternal principles.
If we are to make an honest appraisal of modern America, we must admit that we, in the last century, have allowed the ever reaching tentacles of socialism to entwine the nation an the individual in it's enslaving grasp. Individual liberty and national freedom are in grave peril and it will fall to the current generation to right the course of the great ship 'America' and guide her again unto brilliant horizons and the safe harbor of a free home.
As the diminutive vessel sailed through the darkness, the small, brave band on deck strained to catch a glimpse of their new home. While the vast continent emerging before them was virtually devoid of human beings, it was filled to overflowing with the natural blessings of God -- the land brimmed with fresh
These extraordinary gifts, placed at the feet of our pilgrim ancestors by the benevolent hands of a loving God, pale in comparison to His most precious provision -- freedom. While invisible, the eyes aboard the '
"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be a story and a byword throughout the world..."
Winthrop's hope was that they, in this new world, would serve as a 'model of
The great experiment our patriarchs envisioned and enacted would ultimately be a beacon -- or a byword. The new nation would serve as a lesson for all future time and places -- the realities and blessings of liberty in the governance of men were either attainable or they were not. The history of the world would suggest the latter to be true; however, no other nation, kingdom, empire, or city-state had as it's foundation a creed, an ideal, not springing forth from the mind of man, but from the very heart of God:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles, and organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
From the time of it's approval by the assembled delegates in Philadelphia in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was recognized for it's momentous impact. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams said that the adoption day would be celebrated "with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore. As historian David Ramsey has written, "July fourth was consecrated by Americans to religious gratitude. It is considered by them as the birth day of their freedom." Truly, it is nothing less.
Thomas Jefferson, the father who begat that declaration, that synopsis of the American mind and soul, also stated, in his first inaugural address:
"Equal and exact justice to all...freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civil instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety."
We have certainly wandered from the road at times and, sadly, we continue to stray onto paths of ignorance, injustice, and covetous isolation. Freedom, like the precious gospel, which sets men spiritually free, must be our constant companion along the way and shared with all we meet. George Santayana noted, of course, that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." More significantly, author Forrest Church has written, "When we forget our history, especially when we forget the principles on which our nation was founded, we are doomed to fail to live up to it. Yes, our forbears often failed to live up to their ideals. That is partly because these ideals were so lofty. The greater our aspirations, the more certain it is that we will fail to live up to them. Such failure has it's own nobility. Our ancestors set the bar high."
Indeed, that bar was shaken and virtually shattered by the pressure imposed upon it by the ungodly burden of American slavery. The man who lifted the burdensome chains from the limbs of four million human beings and from lady liberty herself was Father Abraham. With firm conviction, courageous action, and timeless eloquence, this giant among men championed the cause of freedom like no other. Speaking of his nation's charter document, President-elect Lincoln stood on the steps of Independence Hall in 1861 and spoke of it's meaning and destiny:
The Declaration of Independence, he said, "gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it would be truly awful. I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it."
He knew as well that the great experiment America was a powerful, yet fragile thing. Powerful, because it's auspices are derived from the Omnipotent, from eternal power and enduring principles of freedom; Fragile because such treasures are stored in and administered by jars of clay, the weak, inadequate, and depraved nature of fallen man:
He knew as well that the great experiment America was a powerful, yet fragile thing. Powerful, because it's auspices are derived from the Omnipotent, from eternal power and enduring principles of freedom; Fragile because such treasures are stored in and administered by jars of clay, the weak, inadequate, and depraved nature of fallen man:
"At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us...If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be it's author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
In his first state of the Union address, he wrote of how difficult a task lay before his beloved country -- what was required was, tragically, untold deaths and, what he later called a "new birth of freedom."
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. the occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion...Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation...We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save of meanly lose the last, best hope of earth...The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
Lincoln realized that in order to maintain freedom for ourselves, it must be offered to all. To do less would be to accept a freedom permeated at it's core with the "base alloy of hypocrisy" -- a proposition he, and none of us, should be willing to accept.
One hundred years later, on August 28, 1963, an ancestor of the emancipated stood in the shadow of the nation's temple to the Great Emancipator and spoke of a dream as yet unfulfilled, reminding his generation of work yet to be done:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of "a day when this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it's creed. This will be the day when all God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, 'My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.' When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Every generation of Americans must be willing to strive to speed that day, to labor in 'double-time,' so that, out of such a moral drumbeat, the echoing cadence of freedom's march might redound along the corridors of time unto all peoples. We today have been reminded afresh of the paradoxical truth that freedom is both fragile and strong. Fragile when left to itself, taken for granted, and undefended by a sleeping and self-absorbed people. Strong when embraced by all, given to all, and protected by the eternally vigilant. Embodying such strength was the Father whom we have most recently laid to rest, our fortieth president.
Ronald Reagan believed that America was chosen by God for a specific purpose. He spoke often of 'a rendezvous with destiny.' "I believe," he said, "there was a divine plan to place this great continent between the two oceans to be found by people from every corner of the earth. I believe we were preordained to carry the torch of freedom for the world." His soul recognized the same cause, the same commitment, the same clarion call that Winthrop heard, held dear, and heeded. The light that shone forth was liberty's torch -- never to be extinguished or cloaked, but set upon a majestic lamp stand for a world to see and be attracted to. President Reagan, in his farewell address to the nation, spoke of this drawing power in the form of a parable and a parting.
The story involves not the small ship which sailed through our opening lines, but the massive United States Naval carrier "Midway," churning through the South China Sea in the mid-1980's. A sailor aboard, on watch, spotted on the horizon a tiny, leaky boat crammed with refugees from Indochina, hoping to get to America. A launch was sent to retrieve them and, as the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and called out, "Hello American sailor, Hello Freedom Man. A small moment with a big meaning," a moment the sailor, and president, wouldn't forget -- Our children stood again, as always, for freedom. How subsequent generation live the creed, standing for freedom, matters much. In the balance is not only America's future, but the destiny of the world.
The address concluded with a look back to that early freedom man and a look to the vision of that city upon a hill. The great man spoke in January 1989. Two decades later, can we see his vision? can we still see America in such a light? Is she still, strong and bright, upon the granite ridge, a beacon of hope and a bastion of freedom for the world? I pray God it is still so.
"I've spoken of a shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans - windswept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That how I saw it, and see it still. And how stands the city on this winter night? After two hundred years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady, no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places, who are hurtling in the darkness toward home."
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