Is America in a pre-revolutionary state?
…everywhere we look on this July Fourth sees a great civilization in decline. And much of that decline can be laid at the foot of the incumbent. Especially his own people, African Americans, have suffered. Their unemployment numbers are catastrophic, their real needs ignored while hustlers like Sharpton, Jackson, and, sadly, even the president fan the flames of non-existent racism.
Tahrir Square anyone?
Ironically, if our society enters a revolutionary phase, liberals will find themselves in the role of the Islamists, defending a shopworn and reactionary ideology on religious grounds, because it is only their faith that holds their ideas together at this point.
Unfortunately, their faith, no matter how irrational, remains strong. And they’re not “liberals.”
Yes. Hell yes. Oh hell yes. And God help us if I’m right, if you believe in a God or Gods that is.
Don’t wish for that, the level of death and destruction that would create would be unimaginable. I fear it may become inevitable I just hope it happens 50 years from now after I’m gone.
So Paul, fixing the country is inevitable, but you’d rather your G-Grandchildren, and their kids deal with it? Seriously?
Gee, I’m glad my grandfather, and maybe yours depending on your age, didn’t feel that way about German and Japanese Fascists! But you’re in the majority feeling that way, I’ve heard from others too.
Personally, I’d rather bear the brunt of it NOW, and let the future generations reap the benefits. Of course, I made that decision in the Fall of 1973, just before I stuck my hand in the air, to take my military Enlistment Oath, which included an agreement of fighting against DOMESTIC enemies too.
And I stand by my decision, to the death, today, tomorrow or until I die.
Rand,
While I agree with your conclusion, I think that claiming that this is only Obama’s fault is rich. A lot of the worst abuses (at least to me) are ones that Bush started and still defends, and which Obama has just doubled-down on. Sure, he obviously can’t pass the buck to Bush if he subsequently owns a constitutional violation, but acting as though shredding the constitution and killing the economy was something that Republicans have been gleeful participants in smacks of partisan myopia.
And I’m with Paul–I really hope that this country can somehow find a way to back down from the brink gracefully, because if not it’s going to be a mess. And more importantly, the last couple centuries seem to suggest that big messes that lead to revolutions only occasionally result in a better system afterwards.
~Jon
Yes, but we’re not wanting a revolution. We’re wanting a counter revolution. ^_^
Bush didn’t even start it–some of this goes back to Clinton or before.
Having said that, everything that Obama
wasclaimed to be opposed to when he was a Senator, only to endorse wholeheartedly as President, from deficit spending to drone strikes, he owns more than Bush, IMNSHO.I often wonder: “Do ‘liberal’ statists celebrate the Fourth of July? If so, what on earth could they be celebrating?” A tax revolt of armed white men defying the State? It’s hard to imagine, say, Jim, watching the movies THE PATRIOT or APRIL MORNING and cheering on the rebels.
I once posted the same question here and ever-loyal serf Chris (‘the Stockholm Syndrome isn’t just for Swedes”) Gerrib said that he celebrated the Fourth because it gave Americans their own republic and the ability to vote themselves into serfdom. (That wasn’t exactly what he said, but it’s what he would have said if he, by some miracle, found himself practicing logical consistency.)
“Liberal” statists and/or Progressives haven’t the slightest inkling about what the 4th of July is all about.
“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.” – Ronald Reagan
What is ironic is that the Tea Party sequestration is ruining the celebration for those who deserve it the most, our troops who are defending our freedoms.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/sequestration-july-4_n_3533966.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Happy July 4! Sequestration Cancels Celebrations Nationwide
Posted: 07/02/2013 1:31 pm EDT
Updated: 07/02/2013 5:37 pm EDT
Amanda Terkel
[[[Around the country, military bases are extinguishing fireworks displays and towns are canceling appearances by military bands due to sequestration’s $85 billion in across-the-board spending reductions. ]]]
Once again the rhetoric of those claiming to be “heirs” of the Revolution contrasts with their actions…
You mean, the bureaucrats who always go for headline-making cuts rather than hack out real inefficiencies are ruining it. Surely no-one really believes the military couldn’t find other things to cut to save such a trivial amount of money? Cutting celebrations is unlikely to make a dent in $85,000,000,000.
This is the way bureaucracy always protects itself. For example, when the British National Health Service is threatened with cuts, they always talk about how many nurses they’re going to lay off, not how much they’re going to cut the salaries of managers who do nothing useful.
Yup. Another example, very local to me, of how bureaucrats always, and always will until prevented, feather their own nests and arrange for their own comfort before anything connected with whatever their organisation is supposed to do is addressed:
About ten years ago, my local NHS hospital was in the throes of a major rebuilding programme – with which I have no problem whatsoever, because at the time it had in use wards which were shoddily built in 1942 for emergency war use. However – I found out, quite by chance, that although the first block of new medical accommodation (several wards and examination suites) was six months from completion there was one part of the new hospital that was already finished and in use. Care to guess which part?
You guessed it. The new admin offices.
Pournelle calls it the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. He’s right. And IMHO “Yes, Minister” ought to be required watching for all wannabe politicians.
This is why Democrats shouldn’t be allowed to have children. If they have a 2% salary cut they’ll use it as an excuse to starve their children to death instead of canceling their third yearly vacation to Cancun.
One less trip to Africa would have covered: $85 billion in across-the-board spending reductions.
Just…One…Less…Trip…
Ack, missed the b…. Still, I don’t think US Military bands cost $85B.
Maybe we could ask Obama to lay off on all the travel. Air Force One travel costs are upwards of $24B right now.
Bbbbbut the sequester!!!1
“Once again the rhetoric of those claiming to be “heirs” of the Revolution contrasts with their actions…”
Once again Matula throws logic to the wind in an effort to demonize the TP (which Matula previously said was dead).
First off, if the Military is forced to cut, I goddam well prefer they cut fireworks than body armor or ammunition or food for the troops or any of the millions of things the military needs to be effective. So they are cutting the right thing – given that they are forced to cut something.
But they shouldn’t have to cut anything. The $85 billion could have been easily cut just by eliminating redundant agencies within the Federal government.
So the government plays the “Force us to cut eh? Well ok too bad if your house burns down because I’m cutting the Fire department” scam and Matula falls for it like an egg from a tall chicken….somehow contorting Federal liberal democrat mendacity into blaming the TP.
The Obamas and their entourage can spend $100 million on an African tour/vacation, promising billions more in foreign aid, but we can’t have Fourth of July fireworks because of “Tea Party sequestration”? Really?
Obama just spent a couple dozen million on his vacation plans, Thomas. Evidently there was enough money in the budget for that, but not for base swimming pools and the USMC patriotic display.
I guess it’s all just a matter of priorities… and now we know where Obama’s are.
Game, Set and Match to Gregg!
Der,
I guess I need to respond to that… I see your point and how it fits with what I wrote…. I think big changes are inevitable, I also think that the vast majority of the people are not ready…and never will be ready, for the necessary changes…. I think the next revolution will be from the collapse of the nanny state not any direct actions of Liberty lovers. I also believe that an immediate return to strict constitutional principals would be the lest painful way out… I just see see no practical path to that end… the internal rot and decadence is too great.
I fear the failure of the American experiment will look more like the fall of Rome than the original American revolution.