Hope or Despair for the future of the United States of America

I need not write a long discourse on what is happening in America today. We have been creeping toward socialism and outright statism for the last 76 years, and Barack Obama is now accelerating this movement toward the end of our free market and liberal democracy. This country may well become an authoritarian state, soft tyranny, or even totalitarian if the interference in and regulation of individual freedom continues its geometric progression.

An exaggeration? Just note some recent events. Two auto companies in effect have been nationalized. The government so controls Ford, the remaining “private” company, that it cannot produce cars it thinks will meet public demand. Some big banks have been nationalized and the rest are under government control. Even regulating employee salaries of private companies is under serious consideration.

Already affected are myriad “small things”, such as water that flushes our toilets, the catsup and hamburger we buy, the light we use (incandescent bulbs will soon disappear), what we smoke, and the guns we buy. Our right to free speech is curtailed in certain ways, such as during elections. Political correctness rules. In the not too distant future, speaking ill of certain minorities will surely become unlawful, a hate crime to be added to those already on the books.

Our courts were meant to protect our constitutional freedoms. But our judges, even the strict constructionists, now are hard or soft statists. They interpret the constitution as allowing some version of government intrusion on business and private lives, and our property. Cities and towns can now take our homes for the development of business, and our ability to change a small pond in our backyard maybe prevented by law. And many more regulations are sure to come, such as those “religious ones” in response to the pseudo-scientific threat of global warming.

As if to confirm what I am writing, the House just passed the energy nationalization Clean Energy and Security Act that “would affect the way electricity is generated, how homes and offices are designed, how foreign trade is conducted and how much Americans pay to drive cars or to heat their homes.” “would affect the way electricity is generated, how homes and offices are designed, how foreign trade is conducted and how much Americans pay to drive cars or to heat their homes.”

American culture is now changing, largely in the Southwest. The region is being slowly Mexicanized. English is becoming the second language, and in many cities and towns, unnecessary. In the country as a whole, the manuals of what we buy are in Spanish and English.

The most appalling is the weakening of America in the world and in its security. Such is the cutback in missile defense just as North Korea is testing its long and short range missiles, and the refusal to recognize that we are at war, and to respond with an enhanced defense. Nothing exemplifies this better than Obama’s frequent apologies for previous American “failures” without articulating what we have done positively in the world to defend and aid both enemies and friends.

For more detail, I highly recommend Mark Levin’s excellent, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. (A best seller with 4.5 stars by 1,587 readers).

Is then a dictatorship of some kind with an alien culture our future? It would seem so. When the only real opposition party, the Republicans were in ultimate power controlling both congress and the executive, they were a Democratic “light” party. They never confronted the assumptions of the liberal statists. While paying lip service to freedom, security, and traditional American values, Republicans have cheerfully accepted the Democrat’s agenda, tweaking it here and there. That is why socialism and statism have advanced so far in three generations, even with so many Republican presidents in power. Note that the American Clean Energy and Security Act just mentioned would not have passed without the vote of eight Republicans.

Then should we despair about our future?

No, there is hope. Futures are not fated. We control it, as we do our individual lives. Freedomists, and patriots can change it.

How so? Three things. First, Americans are generally conservative. Polls show this. Leftists and statists are a minority. How then have they been able to grasp so much power and affect our freedom, regardless of public opinion? It is because most intellectuals -- the major media, and academia -- are from the left. Barack Obama happens to be the most charismatic of them all. He is unmatched in his ability to spout vague rhetoric which his listeners interpret to hear what they want to hear. As an added bonus, he is our first black president. Small wonder people are now are also heavily invested in the success of this celebrity president.

However, an alternative media now is gaining independent power. Blogs, talk radio, Fox News, a few conservative newspapers, magazines and books, and the new social media of Twitter and Facebook. All can finesse the statists and warn the people of the suppression of their freedom, and provide an avenue for action and communication. Statists cannot prevent this. The Iranian people got their words and pictures out despite government bullets and clubs.

Moreover, large sociopolitical systems as is America change in fits and starts, like earthquakes Such is the accession of Obama. Since he assumed power, he has been marching us toward socialism, as I have noted above. But, I think his election is an anomaly due to one factor. His victory was a gift from a Republican Administration, and not the win so many think..

It is not too late if Americans are made aware of what has been done to their freedoms and values. And that realization can only come from the new media, and a reinvigorated freedomist-conservative movement within the Republican Party. It will come, I am sure.