America's Big Choice

Townhall.com ^ | September 20, 2012 | Ben Shapiro

[Kaslin]

What happens when a free people decides it was never free to begin with? What happens when a nation decides that individual liberty is a myth, that the endless vicissitudes of life form an impenetrable wall to success, that we are all controlled by outside forces?

We despair. We turn to the power of the masses.

This is where almost half of America currently stands. It came out this week that Mitt Romney made this claim back in May, and he was exactly right. That doesn't mean that every American who doesn't pay federal income tax -- veterans, recipients of Social Security -- has given up the American dream. But it does mean that the vast majority of Americans who, on net, receive government benefits and beg government for more, have given up on that dream.

Traditionally, Americans have thought of themselves as John Wayne types -- hardy Westerners forging out with their families, exploring the great unknown, bending nature to their will. Lone guns. Individuals. We have scorned the communalism of other nations, scoffed at the forced homogeneity of fascism and socialism. We have always relied on our neighbors and ourselves.

But now, almost half of us are convinced that we have the lost the ability to forge out on our own. Perhaps it's because we no longer believe that there are worlds left to conquer -- perhaps when we filled out the land from sea to sea, when we penetrated space only to find her cold and uninviting, we lost our will to explore. Where before, we saw individual success as benefitting the community -- pioneers made the land safe for future settlers -- now we see individual success as taking away from the community. We used to see the world as an ever-expanding pie; now that pie is shrinking. We used to dream of a place beyond the horizon of our vision; now we know that that place already belongs to someone else.

And so we feel helpless. We feel that our success diminishes others, and that their success diminishes us.

So what are we to do? We're supposed to leave our individuality behind, and instead join together. As President Obama says, we're "stronger together." As Obama said in his nomination acceptance speech, "America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together."

But for us to come together, we need a leader. A great, big, powerful leader, who will help unify us. Somebody who, by his very presence, can demand our attention and symbolize our common goals.

Now, if this whole scenario sounds scary -- if it sounds scary to jettison the individualism of American values in favor of a helpless collectivism in search of a Great Leader -- it should. It's fundamentally at war with what the founders sought to establish: a nation of individual responsibility, personal responsibility. A nation of non-victims. And while President Obama cynically claims that his supporters aren't victims, his entire campaign has been based on turning them into victims -- victims of Wall Street, of luck, of chance, of fate. Were they not victims, they would not need an all-powerful government to rectify their victimhood.

So we must decide. Are we a nation of victims? Or are we a nation of free men and women, striving against all odds to succeed thanks to our initiative? Are we only powerful when made part of that great collective, or are we more powerful when we pursue our individual aspirations with the gusto of the dreamers?

This election isn't about hope and change. It's about hope versus change. More specifically, it's about individual hope versus collectivist change. And the outcome is very much in doubt.

[Biggirl]

This up coming election is going to be one of either being “victorious” or being “victims”.

[Candor7]

But for us to come together, we need a leader. A great, big, powerful leader, who will help unify us. Somebody who, by his very presence, can demand our attention and symbolize our common goals>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BULLSH*T!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is the thinking that will pave the way to the Utopian Fascism which will ruin America and its people.

JUST SAY NO TO LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE FASCISM.

We do not need another charismatic, strong , all powerful liberal sock puppet narcist, or THE PROGRESSIVE RINO version of the same.

UNITY and LOCK STEP mentality is not what we want.

What we want and need is freedom to pursue whatever dream we want to pursue. We do not need any leader dictating a Utopia for the People.WE NEED LESS GOVERNMENT, more investment , more entrepreneurship, and more freedom.

And by the grace of God, if the government will not get out of the way, we will take that freedom once again.

LIBERAL FASCISTS, PROGRESSIVE RINOS......LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!!!

This article SUCKS!!!!!!

The last thing we need is lock step unity at any cost, on either side of politics. WE NEED AN INFORMED ELECTORATE. We need to end the rule of the despicable propaganda conglomerate called the MSM...........THATS ALL WE NEED.

An facsists progressive leader is just as bad as a liberal facsist one.

Good Read about the issue:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html

[Kaslin]

This article This article SUCKS!!!!!!

This is your opinion and you are entitled to it. No one forced you to read it

[Candor7]

It sucks because it invites conservatives to become lock step automatons like the majority of Omama effers are.

SUCKS! Shapiro is absolutely RINO clueless.

Read here and get informed:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html

[Kaslin]

Bull crap, Ben Shapiro is no RINO. You are obviously mistaking him for another Shapiro.

[Chaguito]

Read the article again. This time read all of it. You are missing its point.

[Bon mots]

Sorry for the multiple posts, but a picture is worth a thousand words...
On the Russian flag at the bottom with the Lenin pic is the Russian Communists slogan, Vpered (вперед) which means 'forward' in English.

Feel free to post or distribute this image wherever you please.

[Candor7]

I read the whole article,and posted to the Town Hall comment site.And I am not missing the point.

I am thoroughly sickened by the continually weak blather that would require conservatives to seek a conservative equivalent to Obama , so that we all can be in lock step.
( Oh, if only we conservatives could have our own Obama, what puke!)

The last thing we need is a lock step mentality. The old one of patriotic, free America is quite enough.Let the no mind a$$ hats over at Obamaville maintain their lockstep unity behind their narcist, liberal-fascist, charismatic sock puppet. We on the right need none of it.

[TigersEye]

Sorry, Candor, I think you did miss this...

Now, if this whole scenario sounds scary -- if it sounds scary to jettison the individualism of American values in favor of a helpless collectivism in search of a Great Leader -- it should. It's fundamentally at war with what the founders sought to establish: a nation of individual responsibility, personal responsibility. A nation of non-victims.

[Candor7]

But for us to come together, we need a leader. A great, big, powerful leader, who will help unify us. Somebody who, by his very presence, can demand our attention and symbolize our common goals>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So we must decide. Are we a nation of victims? Or are we a nation of free men and women, striving against all odds to succeed thanks to our initiative? Are we only powerful when made part of that great collective, or are we more powerful when we pursue our individual aspirations with the gusto of the dreamers? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is a false choice and it is just progressive meandering. It subverts the genuine idea of America and its easy come , easy go roots. We need not be Utopian dreamers.
Its enough that we have our own individual pursuits of happiness.

Since when must we “dream”. That has us in a whole lot of trouble right now with “Dreams of My Father, “ The soggiest sore excuse for even a wet dream there ever was.

We are not fighting individualism vs collectivism. We are fighting liberal fascism, and it already has needlessly caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the ME and in North Africa.

The only justification for collective action is that we fight to regain our nation and our freedoms, which we have now lost at the hands of a usurper fascist regime.

Progressive conservatism dampens the real foe that we must fight. Shapiro has not really discovered what the fight MUST be, let alone the issue.

[TigersEye]

Yes, Shapiro was describing 0bama’s vision of America. I posted Shapiro’s response.