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Independence Day Angst
By Rod Pennington
With America celebrating its 234th birthday, you have to wonder how many more the old girl has left in her. Democracies, by their nature, are destined to fail. Eventually the “tyranny of the majority” rears its ugly head and the wheels start to come off. We’re already seeing four early warning signs of the demise of our democracy.
Cowboys riding off into the sunset
First is the Federal Tax code. For years the way to get money into the government coffers was to soak the rich. The way to get elected to congress was to promise to cut the taxes on everyone who is not rich. The system has become so refined that in 2009 47% of Americans paid no federal income tax. Zero. Nada. We are fast approaching the point where a majority of the populace will happily support raising taxes since they don’t pay any of them anyway.
Second is the rise in power and cost of public employee unions. Until the 1960s, federal civil servants traded lower wages for job security and attractive benefits. In the past 50 years, as public sector unions have grown in power and political influence, the old rules no longer apply. Based on the March 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics, including benefits, public employees earn on average $39.81. Their private sector counterparts only earn an average $27.73.
To make this even worse, the public employee unions actively support political campaigns of the people who will determine their wages. The Democratic Party has been shameless in accepting cash and manpower from the public employee unions then doing everything within their power to protect their “friends”. It is hardly surprising to discover with this incestuous relationship fully one third of the $787 billion dollar “stimulus” has gone to protect public employee jobs.
During the current recession the private sector has lost 7,900,000 jobs while the public sector has gained 590,000 jobs. The Democrats are willing to raid the nation’s treasury to reward their most loyal and generous political supporters. Then guarantee them 100% job security and a wage package 30% more than the people whose taxes pay for it all. This is very bad for the country.
Third was the ending of the military draft. Before the Viet Nam War the draft was the great equalizer. A Harvard grad from New York City might have to share a foxhole with a high school dropout from Ottuma, Iowa. Without this great melting pot our society has become more stratified and polarized.
To many Americans our government, colleges and media have become dominated by “elites” with little understanding or regard for those in “fly over country.” This has lead to the rise of the Tea Party movement which has baffled those holding the reins of power. The bile coming from the mainstream media toward a group of citizens dissatisfied with the direction the country is headed has been embarrassing to watch.
Since there is no longer any intermingling, the ruling class has become like the late New York Times film critic, Pauline Keal. After Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she is report to have said, “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.” Nixon carried 49 states including New York.
This disconnect has also been seen in recent legislation. The Democrats, on a straight line party vote and using every trick in the book, passed health care reform against the wishes of the majority of Americans. This attitude of our elected leaders telling the voters to, “sit down, shut up and listen to your betters” is disturbing on many levels.
The final nail in our independence is the feminization of our society. Everyone has seen the pictures of young boys in the Muslim world posing wearing terrorist scarves, bandoleers and holding an AK-47. While unsettling to some, it isn’t much different than our kids in the 1950s posing with cowboy hats and fake six-shooters. While other parts of the world celebrate masculinity, in America we ban dodge ball and put all of our young alpha males on Ritalin.
As we have become a more female dominated society our ability to stand up for our own independence is in question. With a growing number of politicians openly antagonistic toward any application of military power, cuts in defense spending can’t be far behind. While negotiation should always be the first option there will come a point where action is required. We are fast reaching the point where our country may no longer have the spine to even defend itself.
During the Reagan and George W. Bush years, the biggest insult the feminized politicians and media could hurl at the president was to call him a “cowboy.” The strong silent type who was willing to use force if necessary was no longer in vogue. In 1992 the country turned to its first “metrosexual” president, Bill Clinton. John Wayne was replaced with a lip quivering guy who could “feel your pain.”
Now we have the ultimate metrosexual president in Barack Obama. President Obama’s heartfelt belief that negotiations are the only answer and his habit of doing deep bows when in the presence of our enemies and rivals has not made America or the world a safer place.
There was the famous quote by Senator William Borah when he was informed that Germany had invaded Poland. “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler—all this might have been averted.” This faith in negotiations and reluctant to use force to defend our self and our interests is very dangerous. Let’s hope in the near future we don’t get a similar quote about North Korea or Iran.
Enjoy Independence Day. They be hard to come by soon.
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