Posted on 06/27/2009 7:41:27 AM PDT by quesney
While reading the following news story:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKTRE5406CF20090501
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I was reminded two very important quotes from John Adams about the American Revolution:
* As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 - 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. o Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1815-08-24), The Works of John Adams
What do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution. * Letter to H. Niles (1818-02-13)
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In other words, years before the American Revolution, there had been a revolution in people's minds about the way things were and the way things should be.
Forget the disputes over just how real are Obama's high poll numbers. This is beyond Obama, or even his current followers.
Whether we realize it or not, the US went through another mental revolution of thought over the past few decades -- maybe beginning as far back as the anti-war protests of the 1960s, maybe to Roosevelt's New Deal, maybe to Lincoln forcing a more centralized Union...whatever.
This revolution of thought has slowly eroded the entire mental foundation of the country's founding principles.
The U.S., as it was and as many of us here still think of it, is already gone. Dead. A number of us have not fully caught up to this emerging reality.
Obama, and Bush before him, are only making that obvious. Steele, Arlen Spectre, the feckless GOP, all the rest -- it's all part of bigger picture already drawn and entrenched, maybe even before many of us were born.
Many of us are holding onto a mental artifact that is gone or never existed in the minds of our "fellow Americans." That remains true no matter what happens to Obama, long after he's gone.
Does that mean we give up? No. But that if you're making a personal decision not to give up, you have to start thinking more seriously about follow-up to those Tea Parties and perhaps to secession.
The U.S. is, beyond everything else, an idea. When our "fellow Americans" no longer share the basic elements of that idea -- of even basic standards of mutual respect, logic, reason, civil discourse, respect for others as equals -- our "fellow Americans" are no longer our "fellow Americans."
Plan accordingly.
The Colonists believe they had no representation in their course. All the power was kept by Parliament, and the Crown. All through history you will see pivot points that almost always hinge on the lack of representation, or the hoarding of power, as we see with Obama and his Czar mentality. Revolution will happen again, but will it be too late...
One big point was ‘taxation without representation’....should have stated it more clearly.
I've felt that way for some time. The ideological and cultural gulf is too wide now for us to ever be a united people. I often feel that this has been done to us willfully and systematically.
our “fellow Americans” are no longer our “fellow Americans.”
I would say our fellow Americans, might be closer to our mortal enemy.
Will there be a revolution if secession occurs?
What is Texas or Alaska decide to secede, providing a haven for like-minded Americans?
Do we turn over 49 states to the liberals and retain one for ourselves?
An even larger issue is do we turn over the United States, the most benevolent force for freedom in the history of mankind over to socialists? How long would a free Texas last if the other 49 states turned against it?
How long would a free Texas last if the rest of the world turned against it?
There is a very real possibility that conservatism may become extinct for a generation or two and that the revolution may take place decades or centuries from now.
We should all think about this before committing to one avenue (secession) or the other (revolution).
Exactly!
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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 its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security....
When our fellow Americans are openly cheering for U.S. military defeat (democrats, huffposers, hollywood, koskids, college professors, print and tv media) and jump up and down with joy when our soldiers are killed as they did for almost the entire Bush presidency, decent people should realize they’re not worth debating. Secession now!
America is dead and gone. What’s left is a land mass populated by cretins and parasites who have absolutely no respect for the military and who vote for big government to confiscate money from their neighbors and “redistribute” it to them. It is not an America worth defending anymore.
Whatever. I just live here.
Every man for himself.
You gotta love the uplifting title. There are always two options — FIGHT for something you believe in deeply or GIVE UP. There is no promise in the first, no promise of victory. But there is the promise of giving yourself to something you believe in deeply. The second is a lot safer.
I’d like to see the military rise up against the government and I’d be more then willing to support them like I do now. We took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies both foreign and domestic.
The enemy is now domestic and it is the government. The executive and legislative branches of government are in direct violation of the Constitution.
The Late, Great USA - July 4, 1776 - November 4, 2008
No question that Roosevelt did a lot of damage, and before him, Woodrow Wilson.
But I would trace this back to 1968 and the Cultural Revolution. Vietnam was the focal point, but that was just an excuse. The war ended but the cultural revolution continued.
One key point was that you could get a draft deferral by going to graduate school and by going into the teaching profession. As a result, the anti-war protestors went into the colleges and the public schools in droves.
The reason we have so many un-Americans—maybe a third of the country—is that children are brainwashed by leftists from kindergarten through graduate school. As we know, conservatives have more kids than liberals—maybe twice as many—but then the liberals get to educate most of them.
Part of that was no doubt deliberate—”seizing the levers of power.” But part of it was an unfortunate side effect of the draft laws. All the leftists went into education and they took over. What was previously maybe 2/3 leftist became maybe 98% leftist, and ever since they have weeded out anyone who doesn’t think like they do. A few conservatives get through the cracks, but not many.
Yep ya gotta love the lets roll over and play dead crowd.
In my grandfather’s day they called them cowards.
Thanks for the cheery morale boost, fellow Freeper.
If all is in vain, what do you recommend we do with the balance of our hopeless lives?
Succession is possible now because no one on the left has the guts to duke it out like Lincoln did to preserve the union. They’re all “anti-war”. The same techniques two bit dictators use to “negotiate” over long periods of time without actually doing anything should work.
But that won’t be necessary. This could be a bloodless “succession”, simply based on economics. Imagine a movement to simply reduce the amount of taxes paid by slightly increasing exemptions, times 50 million people. The obama administration would be instantly brought to their knees. They would have little recourse if the number of people was big enough. Their normal strategy would be to prosecute the leaders of the movement. But if properly structured using the internet the leaders would be impossible to identify.
I think this is the next logical step. Their cash flow is so critical now that just a little nudge at the margins makes the entire house of cards fall. The bond markets are already going into petit mal seizures over the volume of borrowing. If tax receipts fell by ten percent more it’s curtains (we’re already heading in that direction due to unemployment continuing to rise). It will be painful but they will be swept out of office and discredited, and we can rebuild later.
Liberty is not dead until that last man who yearns to be free is.
http://www.constitution.org/col/jrb/00420_jrb_fedsoc.htm
“A Whiter Shade of Pale”
Speech of Janice Rogers Brown
April 20, 2000, Thursday
I will close with a story I like a lot. It’s a true story. It happened on June 10, 1990. A British Airways jet bound for Malaga, Spain, took off from Birmingham, England. It was expected to be a routine flight. As the jet climbed through the 23,000-foot level, there was a loud bang; the cockpit windshield directly in front of the captain blew out. The sudden decompression sucked Captain Lancaster out of his seatbelt and into the hole left by the windscreen. A steward who happened to be in the cockpit managed to snag the captain’s feet as he hurtled past. Another steward rushed onto the flight deck, strapped himself into the captain’s chair and, helped by other members of the crew, clung with all his strength to the captain. The slipstream was so fierce, they were unable to drag the pilot back into the plane. His clothing was ripped from his body. With Lancaster plastered against the nose of the jet, the co-pilot donned an oxygen mask and flew the plane to Southampton —approximately 15 minutes away — and landed safely. The captain had a fractured elbow, wrist and thumb; a mild case of frostbite, but was otherwise unharmed.
We find ourselves, like the captain, in a situation that is hopeless but not yet desperate. The arcs of history, culture, philosophy, and science all seem to be converging on this temporal instant. Familiar arrangements are coming apart; valuable things are torn from our hands, snatched away by the decompression of our fragile ark of culture. But, it is too soon to despair. The collapse of the old system may be the crucible of a new vision. We must get a grip on what we can and hold on. Hold on with all the energy and imagination and ferocity we possess. Hold on even while we accept the darkness. We know not what miracles may happen; what heroic possibilities exist. We may be only moments away from a new dawn.
OK, genius, I did not hear you offer a statement in reply to the original post, or a suggestion. Instead of name-calling and bitching, why don’t you add a little brain power.
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