Liberty Lost?
To what depth have we fallen? To what rank have we been demoted, that 'We The People' can no longer exert any influence over that government which is "of the people, by the people, and for the people"? Did our forefathers fight and die so valiantly to obtain liberty, that we should now permit the chains of monarchy to be replaced by the chains of Congress?
It is unthinkable in our representative form of government, that statesmen should devolve into demagogues and tyrants imposing "mandates" on its citizens. Are we so free that we have no choice but to accept the yoke of government-mandated health care? Does our Constitution authorize the Congress to impose fines and penalties on the citizens of the United States because they choose not to purchase a product which they have no desire to obtain?
And what precedent shall this hegemony set? Shall Congress next mandate that 'We The People' purchase some other product which, in their opinion, is for some perceived "good"? Shall they next command what light bulbs to buy, what vehicles to drive, what clothes to wear, and what house to live in? Shall they next tell us what medicine we can have or what doctor we can see? Shall they tell us when it is time for us to die?
Are we so free that the government shall tell us where and when we can pray? Shall they tell us what we can or cannot say in public? Shall they tell us what radio programs we can or cannot listen to? Shall they impose upon us the chains of debt that we must force our children and grandchildren to wear? Shall we now be slaves on the Federal plantation?
Is this the country our Founding Fathers envisioned? Is this the freedom they so dearly cherished? Is this the America our soldiers fought and died for at Bunker Hill, the trenches of France, Normandy, Vietnam, or in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is this yet the "land of the free and the home of the brave"? Are we still winning "the perilous fight", or is this "the twilight's last gleaming" for American liberty?
posted by Hawkeye® -- Wednesday, September 09, 2009
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Gee, settle down Hawkeye! I agree with you that mandates are ridiculous and stupid – what ya'll really need is single-payer. No other solution will do.
But as your government is the hostage of big businesses like Pfizer and United Health et al, its members are committed to preserving or even increasing health industry profits.
And it looks like this 'Mandated policy' idea comes from the fevered brow of one Mitt Romney, who instituted it in Massechusets.
"I don't like calling it universal coverage," he said "that smacks of Hillarycare. But I do think we've come up with a way to get everybody covered through the free-market system." Make no mistake however, Hawkeye – it is not an 'individual mandate'. "I call it" sniffed Mitt " a personal responsibility system."
See? A Free Market™ solution! Except it's not. Is this the kind of Free Market™ solution that McCain is whining about being ignored?
This whole thing has been hijacked by the right, including those idiot 'Blue Dogs' who seem to have the final call, as the right's priority is to protect the status quo or, as Bush II once said, 'Ya dance with the one that brung ya.'
Freedom and liberty are not served by having a population scared witless of becoming sick and being bankrupted because of it – freedom and liberty are instead served by pooling resources so that one is free, and at liberty, to follow one's dream without fear of death.
You can carry on about your glorious revolution all you like, but like all conservatives you miss the point – the American Revolution may have been directed against the king, but it was also directed against the corporations that enjoyed his favour like the British East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company.
Indeed, it it the protection of the British East India Company's interests that prompted the original Boston Tea Party, not taxation per se but a challenge to monopoly corporate power; sadly, however, the right cannot read their own history and so continue to delude themselves that it was against the concept of government as a whole.
Corporate power was the real enemy as much then as it is now, but sadly the Republican Party has sold out its principles to highest bidder – they are now what they once purported to hate.
Meanwhile, the average citizen has been sold down the river by the Republican Party which has, among other things, fought at every turn to deny them their natural right to organize, despite the rhetoric of its most honoured and treasured leaders.
Who said this?
'Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.'
Radical stuff, huh? Who was that accursed commie? Well, he went on to say all this:
"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.
We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood ... It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.
As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
Well, well well – it was Republican President Abraham Lincoln!
So there you have it – if liberty has been lost it has been at the hands of the conservatives, so I'll see you on barricades fighting for single-payer health care and an end to corporate personhood!
Cheers
Elroy
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