Leaderless and Clueless America Heads for the Trash Can of History
In new books, writers as disparate as Naomi Wolf and Pat Buchanan conclude that America as we know her is disappearing. Both writers hope, but are not confident, that enough Americans will catch on in time to find the leadership to pull America back from the brink.
If polls are reliable, a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with President Bush and Congress. Americans are far short of Wolf and Buchanan's grasp of our peril, however.
Americans are unable to connect their dissatisfaction with the current political leadership with their choice of new leaders. All polls show that Hillary Clinton is far in the lead for the Democratic presidential nomination and Rudy Giuliani is far in the lead for the Republican nomination. These are the only two candidates guaranteed to be worse than Bush-Cheney.
Both Hillary and Rudy are committed to the war. Both refuse to rule out expanding the war to Iran and beyond. Both are totally in the pocket of the Israel lobby. Indeed, practically every Giuliani advisor is a member of the lobby. Both defend the police state measures that "protect us from terrorism." And neither gives a hoot for the U.S. Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees. The Republican Giuliani is likely to overturn the Second Amendment even quicker than the Democrat Hillary.
Both Hillary and Rudy are creatures of ambition, not of principle. Both are one up on Karl Marx. Marx said truth serves class interests. For Hillary and Rudy, truth is what serves their individual interests. They both wear black hats, and the horse they ride is called power.
Yet in November polls, Republicans prefer Giuliani by a margin of five or six to one over Ron Paul, the only principled Republican candidate and a person who without any doubt believes in the Constitution and would protect it.
Democrats prefer Hillary by a margin of 20 to one over Dennis Kucinich, the only member of Congress sufficiently concerned and courageous to introduce impeachment against the notorious war criminal Dick Cheney. By margins as much as 44 to one, Democrats prefer Hillary to Sen. Christopher Dodd, who promises to give America back its Constitution in the first hour of his administration. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel does not even register in the polls.
Obviously, the American people haven't a clue. In November 2007, they show a distinct preference for leaders who are even worse than the ones with whom they are currently dissatisfied. What does this tell us about the American people and their commitment to be sufficiently informed for democracy to function?
It tells us that they are not up to the challenge. It is only a matter of time before America succumbs to the plutocracy, against which Warren Buffet recently warned Congress, or the fascist tyranny that Naomi Wolf sees in our future.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
Entries(RSS)
Yes, Mr. Roberts, I dispute nothing that you write above. Or, in other words, the people really do get the government that they deserve.
How I wish I were not a member of "the people!" Is there an opt-out option anyone knows of?
Dodd and the rest of America must be reading from different Constitutions. Dodd has no respect for individual gun ownership -- a trait he inherited from his father, the driver behing the Gun Control Act of 68.
Kucinich and Gravel too have problems recognizing the Second Amendment as a necessary part of the Constitution/Bill of Rights. They would strip Americans of the only means of defending themselves from the tyranny you describe.
The Democrats are hopeless of course. But you'd expect Republicans, after 8 years of "Compassionate conservatism", massive trade and government deficits, endless war in Iraq, and open borders, would be insistent that any nominee be a real Reagan Republican. Instead they hanker to vote for a NY Liberal who endorsed Mario Cuomo and is surrounded by Neo-con warmongers, another "compassionate conservative" governor from Arkansas, and a big government liberal turned -he says - conservative.
Duncan Hunter, the closest thing to Reagan, in terms of policy is supported by almost no one. Whether America can survive 4 years of Hillary is unknown but it may preferably to 4 years of Rudy or Mitt.
With all due deference to Pat Buchanan, who I have a great deal of respect for, to say that America as we know her is disappearing is to say something not that interesting and totally beside the point. The critical observation to be made is that America as she was originally conceived has completely disappeared. We do nothing but kid ourselves when we celebrate the husk that remains, pretending that it still has some connection with that unique American ideal of good and just government hammered out among the people of the founding generation. Good government in America is dead; as dead as any corrupt Republic of the past, and for the very same reason: it has refused to remain bound.
The simple fact of the matter is that, due to the structural changes in our Constitution wrought by a) the Hamiltonian Federalists, largely though not exlusively in the form of key events of the Marshall Court era, and b) their heirs the Radical Republicans in the Reconstruction Amendments after the Uncivil War, it is now literally impossible, according to the Constitution itself (as interpreted by the central government, which jealously and by threat of violence insists upon its sole authority to interpret the Constitution) for anyone to change its course. Oh sure, we can put a guy like Reagan in office who might try to use that authority as little as possible, but as far as giving away the authority or declaring it forfeit, that's an impossibility. It simply cannot be done short of declaring almost the entirety of Constitutional Law over the last 150+ years null and void--and neither the President nor the Congress has the authority to unilaterally amend, repeal, or make such a declaration regarding the Constitution. Shut down the Department of Education and the next President will bring it right back, because there is no way for the national government to definitively and forevermore declare that it has not the authority to administer such a Department.
The result is that we are, right now, the kind of Republic our forefathers warned us against. The picture of highly centralized, concentrated, tyrannical rule painted by the Framers (particularly the so-called anti-Federalists) when deciding what features our fledgling government should possess is now the picture of our master. Yes, the national government does still feature divided sovereignty--the three central functions of the government remain separate and still, to some extent, check and balance each other. But there is no longer (with the death of states' rights) any check upon the whole. Thus, there is no incentive for any separate branch of the whole to refuse any power it may deem necessary for itself to wield. Indeed, the incentive is all in the other direction, as each branch seeks to grow itself whenever possible so as to be able to withstand the other two (Congress being excluded somewhat from this, due to the fact that legislative power is looked upon today more as an opportunity to influence the Executive than a worthwhile pursuit in its own right. Thus, it really only seeks enough power to maintain its ability to do that.)
So, to wrap up, it literally doesn't matter who anyone votes for anymore, if the hope is for a restoration of sound, safe government. Every single candidate is fated, by law, to traverse the very same treadmill, with the very same result. The only difference now is the speed at which he or she will carry us to the end.
Maybe the trash can is good thing? Maybe after it goes to the trash can it can be recycled? There's no going back to the Republic, that is for sure. So, lets let it go to the trash can and after, build something even better. Lets learn from the mistakes made during the "America" phase of Western Civilization and make sure we never make these mistakes again.
Anyone with a stomach ailment who needs to regurgitate lunch, see this puff piece by Peter Wehner dismissing Buchanan's book based on the bullet-points published by Drudge and questioning the temerity of anyone who cannot see that America is getting better each second (because less people smoke) - and owes its new-found civic health to public intellectuals like William Bennett and Gertrude Himelfarb." Extraordinary! This is today’s GOP.
http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3172/pub_detail.asp
Good description of the effects. Solutions need to address the cause.
1. The first cause is money. Since the Great Satan (F. Roosevelt), politics in the USA is about voting oneself a paycheck out of the Treasury. The solution would be Calhoun's and the Declaration's: Taxpayers who are not tax-takers should have a check, if not a veto, over tax-takers.
2. The other cause is Lincoln's constitution. It's not that the country is well constituted and just doing bad things. It's doing bad things because of how its constituted. The solution is the League of the South's, the Vermont Secession's, and again the Declaration's: The minority who have come to their senses should secede from the majority who haven't.
Amen Sid!
I don't mind sounding alarms as a tactic, but really, who didn't know the score after the Ruby Ridge/Waco fiascoes?
Everyone, particularly Paul supporters, should do something useful, and make a case for the Establishment --from the those in the CFR who are pushing a divorce with the Israeli Nationalists via Mearshmire-Walt to the Bankers who will never see another Paul Volker protect their interests-- on why a "Ron Paul Pause" serves their interests.
We'll offer them State (Chuck Hagel)--but not the VP slot (see March 1981). We'll offer them a chance to continue the duopoly charade post-Paul, something that will be destroyed with the mere nomination of Guiliani. We'll offer a way out to preserve their positions for the remainder of their natural lives by fixing their banking system and reigning in the entitlements.
Taft was a Bonesman, but how many of us don't mind that sort of elite rule?
The Elite is exhausted in this country, best seen through the allegory of the Fred Thompson campaign. And it is precisely because of American political apathy, that they just might pull levers, fill in lines, punch holes for Ron Paul in an 8-week dream-like state, not for intellectual reasons, not for even their self interest, but because they just don't care anymore.
@Sid
"The minority who have come to their senses should secede from the majority who haven’t."
I wish, Europeans could do that as well. If people want to go on with what they're doing fine. Just give other people a chance to go their own way, even if they are small minority.
Well if the majority of American people dont have a clue then give them one! Ron Paul meetup groups are springing up all over the country with thousands and thousands of people joining. One of the main reasons Clinton and Giuliani lead in the polls is because the American people just hear their names so they figure they will support them. Ron Pauls name is rarely mentioned in the media for obvious reasons. My wifes uncle was going to vote for Giuliani until I told him about Ron Paul. He had no idea that the man existed until he saw the Ron paul bumper sticker on my car and started asking questions! Now he is all about Ron Paul. Its that simple...just speread his name and get people interested in him. I say this in every post...What are you doing to help your country? Are you just sitting behind the computer complaining about everythiing or are you out on the streets trying to wake Americans up? This government cannot enforce anything if the American People are not behind it....so get the people behind you and stand up to these Constitution shredding liberals!!! Stand up to these idiots like Glenn Beck who call Ron Paul supporters terrorists! Am I a terrorist because I stand behind my Constitutional rights?
RON PAUL 2008!!!!
Justitia:
I hate to rain on your very enthusiastic parade, but even a President Ron Paul would not be able to do overmuch to avert the coming civilizational-level crash in America. Even if Mr. Paul was to be inaugurated in Jan. '09 (not the worst of outcomes, I concede), he will still have to deal with a Congress and Imperial-level bureaucracy that will actively frustrate virtually any attempt to reduce their power and tenure in office.
There will still be an explosion in entitlement spending.
There will still be an economy based on the goaded consumption of non-essentials and the mass accumulation of debt.
There will still be a concerted assault on the intact family and on parents as the authority in that family.
There will still be an open campaign of aggression against the Christian Faith and its principles.
There will still be a system of State-sponsored institutions of emotional engineering (so-called "public schools") that do no educating.
There will still be a Swiss-cheese border (unless your President Paul openly militarizes it and asks Congress to declare war on Mexico, acknowledging it as the enemy nation that it is. A man can dream, no ?).
In short, one man is no panacea. Changing the situation in any significant way will require concerted action on the part of millions, and will even then probably not save this degenerate and dying society.
Perhaps the better questions to ask ourselves should be these: what parts of this society are worth trying to preserve when the crash comes ? How do we go about preserving those things ?
Or is any aspect of this insane culture worth preserving at all ?
I await, with great interest, your responses.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
You know, the idea of secession sounds nice, but don't forget, the Feds have the Bomb now!
Ron Paul may not be able to do much if by some miracle he were elected next year, but by golly, it would be fun to see him try!
The worst possible outcome would be Julie Rudiani. The man is a closet fascist. He'd be worse than Hilary. Hilary is a statist warmonger, but not as warmonger-y as Giuliani. The thought that he has Norman Podherentz, Mr. Bomb Iran Now, as his foreign policy advisor, is scary.
Then, he's so sleazy and using Noo Yawk taxpayer dollars to pay for trysts with his mistress.....Pat Robertson must be senile to have endorsed him!
The question is, will enough people wake up and realize we've been had? I hope so. A lot of the young people are very enthusiastic about Ron Paul and about freedom and maybe there is home.
But in any case, here we have no abiding city anyway.
If a nation of 300 million people are prepared to stand around and let a relative handful of crooks trash their country and stomp their rights into the ground, while bankrupting the country, destroying American jobs as well as the economy, and initiating endless wars against innocent nations, said wars based on documented and long-ago exposed lies, without sending them unceremoniously into the next world, they'll deserve everything they get from these fascists, who probably should introduce a bill doubling the stocks of lip balm and knee-pads in DC. It's hard to believe there can be enough on hand to treat the chapping and knee pain these treasonous scum must experience while performing their constant ass-kissing on the backsides of the Israeli lobbyists.
Let me repeat myself: if the American people are just going to stand around and watch this happen, while continuing to participate in this rigged, fascist electoral system, THEY WILL DESERVE EVERYTHING THEY GET.
And if they finally wise up and get around to giving these thieves what they deserve, they should look to also apply that remedy to a certain nation in the Middle East. And I don't mean a Muslim one, either.
re: Lord Karth:
Your lordship would be well advised to take the next step logical, consecutive, subsequent and consequent to his timely observations: Join the League of the South.
It’s easy these days to take cheap shots at America. That country and its people, all the way from Hollywood to Washington and the Big Apple, offer plenty of opportunity for a cheap shot. But I can say that I had contempt for America before it was fashionable to do so. Long before Iraq, I despised America just for its pristine ugliness, for the ugliness of its culture and architecture. I was born and raised in what is, all things considered, the ugliest hole on earth.
I have observed poverty in Latin America, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Africa. And it seems to me that the material poverty of America’s poor is shockingly uglier than the poverty of those other places. Confronting nomadic Bedouins living out of boxes in Africa, I sensed something positive, even uplifting in their particular style of poverty. In certain circumstances, of course, poverty is not a curse - just have a look at some of the world’s wealthier folk. And yet America’s poverty is repugnant, because one senses that it is a thorough, drenching poverty, something in which both the culture and the individual are thoroughly submerged. That ugliness is strikingly evident in America’s inner cities, as well as in suburban and rural areas.
Given America’s wealth, one marvels that America has produced no architectural Wonder of the World. How is it that, with America’s great resources, the nation could not create some lasting collective architectural monument for human posterity? Whether traversing rural America or stalking the streets of urban slums, one sees little evidence to indicate the proud wealth and power of America. The urban wilderness of America, which since the 1970s has functioned as the primary source of innovations in popular culture, cultivates purposely an image of ignorance and sullen ugliness, evident in the landscape, the violent behavior of its inhabitants, and their disdain of education and intellect. The urban popular culture has its origins in commerce, not art. Whereas art is born and nurtured over time within a community of individuals sharing like values, the popular culture of America is unnatural and contrived. American culture depends on an insanity of novelty, far removed from expressions that have an authentic origin in the folk.
The situation in rural America is no less discouraging. For some years I regularly traveled an interstate that crosses what, for me is, an earthly revelation of hell. Both sides of the interstate are strewn there with junked automobiles; rickety wooden shacks and mobile homes; rusting manufactured metal sheds; insignificant businesses revolving around automobile engines, bodies, and tires; and frightful little white wood-frame churches from which heresies and hatreds are spewed Sundays and Wednesdays. Speeding away one day in an effort to escape the place, I was stopped and ticketed. I decided to fight the speeding charge, which meant I had to return to the local court a month later. I knew already what I would encounter. The hearing then was delayed by a discomforting wedding ceremony which involved an immense bride, a slim sloppy groom in blue jeans, both in their late 30s, and a small entourage of relatives with the same empty eyes and expressions, the same neglected appearance as the wedding pair. The single mother of the groom loudly and proudly proclaimed to strangers her joy to “finally got her son married.” Had there been no entourage, one might have explained it away as two individuals with disabilities. But it was clear that the ugliness and emptiness were collective, common to a whole community, an entire culture. I have since shuddered every time I passed through that spot in the “greatest nation on earth.”
The idyll of suburbia has brought comfort to some Americans. Proud American suburbanites see only beauty in the symmetrical rows of similar ranch style homes (or homes of whatever style happens to be popular for the decade) surrounded by manicured yards. That greenery serves not as a retreat for humans to commune with nature, but as a boundary separating anonymous inhabitants of adjacent housing. (Some other nations, by contrast, tolerantly cultivate their “weeds” with grasses and flowers; thus, one nation’s weed is another’s flower). Those boundaries are important for Americans, guaranteeing the sacred American privacy that isolates one individual from another.
American suburbia displays its own unique ugliness in the symbols of commercial life that are the same throughout America (and increasingly, the world). It is unsettling for me to know that two individuals at the same moment can enter a franchised fast food joint in Alaska and Florida, read simultaneously the same menu, and receive at the same synchronized moment an identical portion of food previously manufactured in a common commercial vat at a processing plant at still a third location. One cannot help but wonder what ends might be accomplished for humanity had some nation other than America control of such marvelous energies and resources.
America is the land of mass production par excellence. Housing and commercial buildings are manufactured distant from the spot where they come to rest. The craftsman does not see his product set into place; he never interacts with the community where his product is installed. The efficiency of the assembly line permits productivity and efficiency, yet it sacrifices part of the human being. It prohibits the development of human community, an important by-product of human industry.
For many Americans content to share their dwelling with rats, roaches, overflowing toilets, and filth, the true abode is the automobile (or maybe just a motorcycle). There the soul resides. Pimp my ride, dude! (not that I have any clue what the latter phrase really suggests). I have a prejudice here, insofar as I never learned to recognize beauty in an automobile. Not even the Hummer or late model double-seat pickup trucks impress me. (I have in recent years not only liberated myself from the automobile, but I have come to appreciate the unhurried pleasures of transportation upon occasionally reeking and ornery camels).
The three-car garage becomes a norm in American suburbia, not because most families now own three cars, but rather because the American consumer requires massive space for the storage of his gadgets and accouterments. In a nation that has produced as much as America has, the disposal of waste presents a formidable problem. No folk in this world has such a cluttered environment as the Americans. Marketers of popular culture, having learned from successful marketers of automobiles and vacuum cleaners, are required to “move” a set quota of pop culture product, which means that consumers periodically must replace their previous cultural product. The homes and apartments of America are filled with cultural product, current and expired, the different generations of which have a common relation only through the individual’s shallow fantasy of nostalgia.
America is a rootless society. The tradition early was established that, once the surrounding environment is exhausted and the cabin begins to show signs of deterioration or accumulated waste, one pulls up stakes and moves on down the road to a new environment. Some Americans in their front yards display trucks and automobiles in various stages of disassembly, which are not only a sign of their admiration for technology, but are simultaneously a monument to the motions of migration that are by now a tradition. Yards with flowers and gardens belong to more recent immigrants of different backgrounds.
America undergoes a constant indoctrination of commercialism which conditions the behavior of its citizens. Americans rejoice to buy one, get one free. This is a language Americans accept and believe in; it seems natural to them that this is how their universe should function. (Ancient societies, surely and rightly, understood that it is illogical that one buys one and gets one free). Commercialism legitimizes a whole culture of dishonesty and commercial obscurantism. Commercialism has allowed the prostitution of art as, for example, in the fusion of popular culture and the commercial medium of television.
The true indicator of American Ugly is found in architecture, a genuine human language. Through architecture we make a statement about ourselves and about our community. Perhaps more than any other art form, architecture is about community, and therefore it reveals something of the soul of a culture. Standing before Rome’s mighty wonders, at St. Basil’s in Moscow, Hagia Sophia, or the city of stone in Petra, I am dumbfounded, stunned not less by the design and beauty as by some realization of the distant collective effort that was generated in the creation and execution of beauty. In each of those places, I have witnessed a statement of unique human culture.
American architecture is not about community or culture. It is today about kitsch, commerce, and individual egos. Just look at Beverly Hills or any suburb in which wealthy and famous Americans reside. Americans have no understanding of beauty. For some post-modernist elites, beauty is created exactly when the masses perceive ugliness (your insignificant ugly=our celestial beauty, “bad”=great). Beauty for the Americans is never collective, for the average American today knows not what is beautiful and what is ugly. American “multiculti” comes into play here. If all human cultures are inherently equal, they reason then that all architectural styles must have equal value, even mud-ugly huts and primitive human habitations in holes in the earth. Yet one can never simply collapse all the architectural displays of the world into a Disneyland of multicultural synthesis. Great architecture reflects a true collective culture. In its poverty of architecture and its ignorance of beauty, America demonstrates the absence of genuine culture and values.
Stojgniev O’Donnell
From a better place than America
Just a few quibbles to "O'Donnell", a few observations, and only one objection.
1. Almost everything you say, and say rightly, about Gringoland could be said about the Anglophone world in general. The aesthetic and the refined simply fails the Anglo-Saxon-Celt and his assimilated other ethnics. Almost all the USA-bashing that Continental Europeans say about the Lincolnlands they said about England in the 19th Century. And bash-worthy it is.
2. Learn how we got that way: David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed, Thomas DiLorenzo on Lincoln, and Mencken's cultural criticism. Other causes are absence of a real upper class, a real conservative tradition, and Catholic folkways (a word I prefer to "culture").
3. Let's be fair: Our bad architecture is in fact a European import: from the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier. Our bad painting and sculpture starts with Marcel Duchamp. True, its ugliness is exaggerated here by the automobile culture, the absence of older models from better times, and the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic "libido for the ugly". Still, the pyramid in Paris, the new wing of the Bauer hotel in Venice, and the gas station built for the Ara Pacis in Rome are nothing to boast about. I dread what I'll find in Athens.
4. "Poverty" is a trendy 60s word that needs to be replaced with "destitution". Destitution in Lincoln's country, at the present time, is quite different from elsewhere and can't be thus compared. Destitution at the present time is largely the result of self-chosen behaviors. Our destitute, since 1950, have fallen from the unskilled Proletariat and Peasant class to the Lumpenproletariat, and thus the result of cultural decadence, not economic forces. A drive through eastern Kentucky, once a place of economic destitution, has brought this point home to me.
5. The crisis here in America is an exaggerated form of the crisis in the West in general: the effects of secularization, nihilism, The Last Man, and a decadence that I see also in Europe. So become a Catholic, an authentic Catholic. Aesthetic values die on the vine without sound spiritual values. The Catholic Faith offers these.
6. When Gringoland's day is done, it will be remembered mostly for technological achievement, its political achievement having been destroyed by Lincoln.
7. My big objection. Am I right to suspect that you are one of those Yankee Gringos who have decided to escape, as Eliot escaped to 17th Century England and the Baroque, Pound to 12 C Provence; Henry James to Venice, Berenson to Quattrocentro Florence, Henry Adams to 13th C France, and Percival Lowell into Outer Space? There is little in your analysis with which we in the League of the South would disagree. We just have a different perspective. We see what you describe as American folkways really Yankee folkways (New England/California) imposed upon us here in Dixie. Our own Dixon culture is superior. We aim to reassert it with a specific political program: secession.
Lord Karth..........................Another thing to be expected should be am increased explosion of UNEMPLOYMENT as beaurocrats find themselves trying to remember how the private sector and free interprise works?............Combined with the elimination of unemployment compensation, "Jobs that Americans refuse to do" may become "Jobs that Americans demand to do". ..........If we have to weather another "Great Depression" inorder to reduce the size of Leviathan then so be it..............I have confidence that the hard work ethic of those in Dixie will survive quite well once Secesion becomes a reality.
As for AMERICAN UGLY: We had great architecture............Sherman burned it!
PCR mentions above the Lobby, by which he means AIPAC the Jewish/Israeli Lobby which first and foremost is the anti-Christian (pro-judaism) influence controlling the airwaves in the u.s. [t.v.] And that status symbol [t.v.] with its own agenda, subtlely influences determinatively whom americans will perceive as cool meaning normal and worthy among their candidates. It's nothing less than brainwashing in behalf of the Lobby's own agenda and is why the tangible reasons that a Ron Paul is preferable to a Giuliani and a Chris Dodd or a Kucinich so much more preferable to a Hillary go undiscussed. ... However just imagine if the Jewish machine and its lobby perceived those very issues and reasons as to why the above candidates were Vital to their own jewish/israeli agenda those very items and talking points and fine (actually obvious) distinctions would be plastered all over the front pages of newpapers and television screens all over the country, and in two-shakes of a 'lamb's' tail (pardon the pun) all americans would 'get' and realize why suddenly the other candidates were the cool, normal and responsible ones to 'of course' support; and if par for the course the intimation or outright slander would be thrown-in as well, that to do or to believe otherwise would no doubt really be 'anti-semitic.' I don't know how many times it can be said and yet ignored - whoever has the media wins, and that is especially so, as it is today, when it is held by forces which in Fact do not possess in their history or living tradition at all an affinity for the Value of freedom of speech and diversity of perspective and opinion in the press. Because they are imbalanced irrationally/imaginatively as a function of their own tradition in behalf of their own blood group or i.e. 'chosen', supremacist, or master-people = what is the desired result, as a matter of Fact, in the cult or 'religion' of Judaism. Jews who no longer covertly are a part of that scenario-know it and see that the general population however, thanks to their brainwashing by the media over 50 to 100 years, doesn't have a clue - they're clueless. So when such independent Jews perceive that their own Jewish/Israeli forces are so mismanaging in their hegemonic way, the social reality and the policies of a gigantic nation like the united states, it makes the short-hairs on the backs of their necks standUp. And they realize it's time that they blow the whistle if possible, and see if they can't wake - from out of its trance - the rest of the non-Jewish or 'gentile' or Christian nation. This has been the raison d'etre for two such maverick Jews-or-former Jews since they call themselves ex-Jews one now an Orthodox Christian and the other calls himself a Hebrew speaking Palestinian = respectively israel shamir and gilad atzmon. Here's Atzmon's latest piece on this horrible situation (and sadly it may already be too late):
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2007/11/gilad-atzmon-politics-of-anti-semitism.html
Gilad Atzmon - The Politics of Anti-Semitism: Zionism, the Bund and Jewish Identity Politics -
Note: Before you read the above (if you do) - I'll just add it is testimony to how thoroughly brainwashed the rest of the Christian population is in America that those doing most of the heavy lifting in the behalf of Christendom are also Jews or former-Jews or partly jewish. How much can only such a small handful of people actually accomplish in time? That's why I say sadly it may already be too late. -
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Test
Lord Karth,
My point is, I support Ron Paul because I still have hope that there are some good men left in this country. I am aware that a Ron paul presidency wont change things overnight or maybe bring about little change, but at least its a start. Im not working my butt off for only $20,000 a year to have half of that stolen away by these liberal thieves and then pissed away ruining other peoples lives for so called "freedom". If you can find a person with a better shot at the white house with a better stance on the issues than Ron Paul....then by all means support him. Rome wasnt built in a day and the United States wont get better overnight for sure but we have to start somewhere. I cant just sit by watching my country sink deeper and deeper into misery and not try and help it. Even if Ron Paul doesnt get in, at least I can say I fought for what I believe in unlike many Americans who roll over at the first sign of opposition or just do what the liberals tell them without thinking for themselves.
Mr. O'Donnell,
I actually agree with much that you wrote in your post supra; however, where you and I have a fundamental disagreement is articulated here by you:
"Yards with flowers and gardens belong to more recent immigrants of different backgrounds."
This is simply not true and may well reveal that there is, despite the truth which I grant to see in your post, a modicum of superficiality in your own observations.
Or is it, Mr Peters self-loathing in the all-american Mr. O ?
And Mr. Justitia: I believe you sell yourself short. Though we realistically know that Paul is not charismatic, a dynamic speaker nor having Robt Redford looks and he lacks a good many other things requisite for electability in this age (whore-mongering and pandering among them). Still the candidacy has already served to cause a few people (who have been off their Kool-aid long enough) to ask some questions. This is dangerous to the status-quo and this alone accounts for the negative over-reation by both the media and power elites.
What I am trying to say is that real education is powerful. There are still a number of people, like myself, of average wit, yet who are curious and know that what has been done the last 50 years is not working. If it leads to rebirth or a risen South who can say.
Man proposes....
Justitia:
I am not criticizing your support for Mr. Paul in and of itself; I certainly understand your rationale for preferring him in the primary in whatever province you happen to live in.
My difficulty is that you are apparently laboring under the mistaken belief that individual (or even group) political action is going to make any kind of serious difference in the situation the Empire faces. Thanks to certain technological and political courses taken in this country since roughly 1935, there is very little likelihood that the leaders of the State apparatus will take any action to voluntarily relinquish any of their accumulated powers. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is NO chance of that happening, at least at the Imperial level. As support for this, I ask you a serious question: when was the last time an Imperial-level program was eliminated ? How much was saved ?
Let's focus on the budget-and-taxation issue as an example. I think we can all agree that a) entitlement spending is effectively out of control, b) entitlements are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the Imperial budget, and c) that the taxation required to maintain that spending is going to, at some point, collapse the economy. Even stipulating that some Throne City politicians are aware of the problem and the level of its seriousness, do you honestly believe that ANY of them are likely to publicly call for the elimination (or even reduction in the rate of increase) of Medicare or Medicaid spending, let alone Social Security ? I recall a certain Mr. Rostenkowski mentioning the subject back in 1982 or thereabouts; he was nearly lynched by angry gray-hairs. I see no sign that that situation has changed at all. In fact, given that the Boomer generation is beginning to retire in quantities, I see every reason to assume that the situation is likely to worsen, and considerably, before it gets better....and this problem is relatively straightforward. Political action is VERY unlikely to solve it; the nature of the current electorate forbids it.
Having said that, and being aware that all Humans have a finite amount of time and resources available to devote to solving any particular problem; it only makes sense to concentrate those limited energies and resources on efforts that have a chance of actually making a difference. Living frugally, investing what you have profitably and keeping those around you informed of the likely future dangers are courses of action far more likely to keep you and your family safe in retirement than supporting this or that national political candidate. Unless you have several million dollars to invest in a particular Presidential aspirant, your efforts will literally be lost in the noise.
As far as the other areas I cited go, the likelihood of political effort being profitable is even less. As individuals, we have some control over things like family breakup, avoiding debt and avoiding non-essential consumption. Far better to cultivate our own gardens first and only give tidbits to yowling about Candidate This or Candidate That than to devote more than a few seconds a day to national politics. The return on investment simply cannot be there.
But if you still want to wave little flags, pass out bumper stickers and do yah-yah buzz-buzz at a Ron Paul rally, I'm certainly not going to stop you. Go for it, have fun, knock yourself out. Just don't expect it to be worth much when (or even before) the music stops.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
Secession, I think, will not become a real choice unless the USA collapses economically---which I think it might, due to high fuel prices and the whole Federal-Reserve/fiat-money system; nothing lasts forever, especially not empires.
As for loyalties, as a Southerner born and bred, I would have no trouble declaring myself for an independent South.
The best advice for Americans, in the present crisis, would be Oliver Cromwell's: "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry."
I think perhaps folks under-estimate the extent to which Ron Paul could make a real difference were he elected. The veto is a tremendous tool if properly and skillfully used. The corrupt Congress could be forced to give up some of its spending in order to keep the rest of it. Besides, they tend to kowtow to anyone who is President, especially the Republicans. Further, the Presidency truly is a bully pulpit. A President with wisdom and courage can address and educate the country any time he wants, without advance censorship by the media. A President determined on reform could do what Reagan promised but never did---send dedicated, smart people into the departments to cut, cut, cut spending. The talented and dedicated people are out there. They just need to be identified and put in place instead of party hacks. The President can simply decline to spend money, as Bush is doing with the border fence. The President can make issues felt and clear---for instance, need to make Social Security pay as you go. He can reveal the sorrupt spending legislation that comes to him. Think positively. The New Tork bankers will of course try to block and discredit any honest President, but there are ways of fighting back.
I agree with Dr. Wilson in his post directly above, while also acknowledging the realistic basis for the pessimism of Lord Karth. In following 9/11 from afar from day one it looked surreal and like a set-up to me. Recently almost on cue, now that people are wondering about Giuliani's foreknowledge about and subsequent looking the other way regarding 9/11, we are told by the monolithic media another 'authentic' tape from Osama Bin Laden has been released. In which he says essentially leave poor Afghanistan alone that he Osama alone, all by his lonesome was responsible for 9/11. That would have been more believable to me if he had added that he is also the half-brother of George W. Bush their actually having the same father. Personally I suspect Osama has been dead for a long time and that was probably prior to 9/11. That is my 'belief' since who can 'believe' today's media?
So while I agree with Dr. Wilson that a President like Ron Paul could have daily 'fireside' chats, actually Educating the American public by way of extricating them from the disinformation they have been burried under for the past 90 plus years. Except to accomplish this Paul might as well forget about all travel, and turn the white house into what-?-his bunker. Because if i'm correct and 9/11 was an inside job, what would they do to Ron Paul or even the White House if he was bunkered in there? Like him or not, the last president who 'thought he was president' was JFK...Remember what they did to him-?-
So Lord Karth may be correct, the music may have to stop first, and only then the so called chips will fall where they may for better or worse, sadly. That's ALWAYS a horror show for for 99% of the population. But I prefer to continue to think and believe exactly as Dr. Wilson has written above, while admitting I do not know, and he may be accurate or more so than Lord Karth. I hope. It's always best to proceed as Dr. Wilson suggests or we're just making things probably worse? It's hard to believe it's as bad as it seems? What is the old maxim or aphorism that 'things are never as bad or as good as they may seem?' Well that at least certainly sounds about right.
Ron Paul for President!
Ron Paul will have what for his purposes is unlimited pardon power which includes being able to pardon classes of people (i. e. non-violent drug offenders and tax evaders.) He will also be able to hire all new US attorneys and instruct them to make drug and taxes cases a low (read: zero) priority, effectively neutering the IRS. With the support of the people and the huge mandate he will have, I believe that's exactly what President Paul will do.
#23 Mr. Craig,
I was being civil with the gentleman at 16; I do hope that he will come forward to discuss gardens.
A president can also refuse to enforce laws he disagrees with whether the urging comes from the legislative branch or the judicial branch. "John Marshall made the ruling, let John Marshall enforce it..." was the famous Jackson quote.
Ron Paul can unilaterally declare that there will be no prosecutions against IRS delinquents, resistors, non-filers, or tax rebels. He can further order the secretary of the treasury to destroy ALL the tax records and filings that the IRS has. He can declare a "Tax Jubilee" and free the people from slavery. By destroying all IRS records, and securing a sworn statement from his "Secretary of the Treasury" to that effect, he can prevent prosecution under succeeding administrations because any such cases would have to proceed using bogus reconstructed numbers that are in dispute. Plus the people, once freed and tasting liberty for the first time in nearly a century, would take up arms against such prosecutions.
The President can also spend ZERO dollars for any department he chooses no matter how much Congress sends to spend. He can clean out the BATF of all personnel overnight.
And the list goes on...... The CIA can also have it budget slashed from the Executive Branch not spending what Congress grants them.
He doesn't even have to be able to withstand a veto to do any of this. Thus the Constitutional ability of the Executive Branch to relinquish power and shrink itself can be done unilaterally but the ability of the Executive Branch to expand it power cannot be done without the Constitutional culpability of the other two branches. This is as it should be.
Oh, and one thing about "Executive Orders"..... the President can issue one "Final Executive Order" that reverses "all previous Executive Orders" and to "forever relinquish and invalidate the authority of the Executive Branch to issue future Executive Orders."
The beauty of this is that any court challenges would have to invalidate the notion of "Executive Orders" in order to challenge the "Final Executive Order" which is essentially the whole point! Devilishly simple and Divinely ironic! LOL What could they say to that?
I support Dr. Ron Paul because I perceive his integrity and agree with most of his message. I perceive no integrity in the rest of the candidates and agree with little to none of their messages.
It will be very difficult for Ron Paul to win the Republican nomination; much more difficult, I believe, than winning against a Democrat (most likely Hillary) in the general election.
Hopefully, Dr. Paul, his family and friends, his supporters across the country and those on this forum who support him have come to terms with the likelihood that if he he begins to show marked success somewhere in this process, from winning primaries, to winning the nomination, to winning the general election, someone in the номенклату́ра will contemplate having him assassinated.
I send him such donations as I can; I write letters to the editor in local newspapers on his behalf; I put my pickup truck with Ron Paul signs on it in the little festival parades here the hill country; and I do on local talk radio when they will have me. My efforts are meager, but I gladly stand in the gap that has been assigned to me.
I do have every confidence that if he could be nominated and win the general election, he could facilitate changes which might give our constitutional and federated republic a chance of surviving for the next hundred years. By then, the old evil - for you can never really kill a witch - will have come back, and some future generation will have to fight her all over again. I hope that we can give that future generation something to fight for!
As to secession, I hold that if the attempt comes only after the empire has collapsed, then there will be little left of customs, traditions and culture to secede for. If it comes too early, the empire will strike back with NBC weapons and a world-wide gulag. The timing would have to be perfect and a successful outcome literally be in God's hands.
"If Ron Paul got elected, he could do the following: ...". And if I were the king, I would order immediately that ... Blah, blah, blah. Wake up you little boys...
Back to sleep Ben. The gov't is here to protect you and to serve you. All is well.
Thank you, Dr. Wilson!
Additionally, Dr. Paul can game the system a bit if he were to nominate a conservative who mess up present GOP calculus, likely a Sothron Governor, and probably someone on the outs with the state GOP apparatus. It would be a real blessing if such a person were say, just entering their political prime, maybe 50 or there abouts in age. A young in' like that might cast a long shadow for years to come...anyone have any ideas?
It would something if they came from an early primary state for 2012 or 2016.
"... Tax Slave Back to sleep Ben. The gov’t is here to protect you and to serve you. All is well. ..."
Tax Slave: Certainly a President Paul would be able to make a difference with his pardon power--not that the mass pardoning of drug pushers would do any great benefit to the society, but I'll not quibble.....
Were "President Paul" to suspend IRS enforcement actions, however, that would draw an immediate reaction from Congress. I would put the chances of impeachment and removal from office at not less than 85 % within 6 months. Mass redistribution of wealth at gunpoint is the basis of the Empire's power, and NO Congressman or large corporation/interest group campaign contributor is going to stand for anything that would endanger that.
Also, just wait till Grandma and Aunt Tessie hear that their Medicare isn't going to be forthcoming ! President Paul would have to call out the Army against mass street riots----not just from Aunt Tessie and the bridge club, but from the "families" of the beneficiaries. After all, entitlement payments are the major things keeping John and Jane Q. Public from actually having to take Grandma out of the nursing home and put her in the spare bedroom. Since the average American commoner "family" is already gored by historically high taxes and housing costs, not to mention murderous college costs for Junior, having to directly pay for the room, board and medical care of an aging parent or relative would probably force a lot of families right over the edge. From there, it's a short step to going into the streets.
As I said earlier, the problems of Imperial America are not ones that can be solved by the actions of a single man, no matter how well-intentioned or powerful---and that includes a President Paul. At bottom, the issue is a cultural one, and to restore the health of this culture would require several developments that would be so radical as to either be rejected by the commoner populace at large or to actually bring down the regime and the society if they were imposed.
In the meantime, after you've seen to your weaponry, why not grab some popcorn, pull up a chair and watch the show ? I've always loved good screwball comedy----and American politics is one of the best absurdist routines around. Why, the major party primaries by themselves have almost as much entertainment value as the Three Stooges ! But without Larry, Moe and Curly's sense of seriousness or moral depth, of course.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
Ugly as America is today, it is a failure of observation to attribute this to the European simply because he is the only target politically permitted in any critical speech or analysis.
Those who think the soul of the European is reflected in the ugliness of that nation today should look at the deep South in the 1800's before it was burned. It was truly a light unto the nations with a pristine Edenesque quality it retains to this day, even after being repeatedly burned, looted and leveled by invading northerners.
Every aspect of the South was beautiful and remained so up until the present day before the last crop of carpetbaggers and usurers have insisted on finishing it off as part of the overall destruction of the United States.
If you consider New York city as recently as 1950 before it got reworked by the improvers of society, it was beautiful andelegant in it's way that few cities have ever been able to match. Today it's a godforsaken blasted third world hellhole but once it's gothic buildings were extremely pleasing to the eye and presented a uniformity of presentation. From 1960 onwards it got hit with Bauhaus reconstructionism (like the rest of America) and today most of it is so butt-hideous it is difficult to walk through with your eyes open.
The older parts of the Midwest can still be strolled through and the casual spectator will remark on how classically balanced and well designed the buildings are, how uplifting to visit and walk through and live in proximity to. The problem is right next to these surviving buildings you'll often have a grotesque pillbox faux industrial abomination ruining the view for everybody.
Future archeologists will have much of beauty to analyze in the ruins of post-America and I think they will not place the blame for the ugliness at the feet of the Christian gentile population there. I think that if they are fair and objective they will conclude it was the alien influence that was tasteless, imposed recklessly on the existing culture from 1950 onwards and basically turned everything it touched to crap, all the while protesting in favor of it's own banality and crass economy of form.
If we take it as axiomatic that cultural diversity is real we can deduce two culturist policy considerations.
One is that our survival depends on borders. Mexico has a distinct culture. That is why the country is so distinct in feel to tourists.
Secondly, trying to make Iraq into a duplicate of the United States is doomed to failure. They are not a progressive, individualistic, culture that honors the separation of church and state and female rights.
Ron Paul gets both of these. I don't know about the details; but on these he gets seems to have culturist common sense.
http://www.culturism.us
Re # 36
"the problems of Imperial America are not ones that can be solved by the actions of a single man, no matter how well-intentioned or powerful—and that includes a President Paul."
Ditto.
"Leaderless and Clueless America"
Obama! Woof!
@ Biff Baxter
You wrote: (NYC) Today it’s a godforsaken blasted third world hellhole.
As a seven-year resident of the Big Bagel, I could not agree more. As I wrote elsewhere on this site, today one must be very wealthy to have the cultural experiences available to any decent middle-class family in the fifties. America is no longer a Western nation in any meaningful sense of its culture. In time our government will come to resemble those of the a blasted third world hellhole.
Watching some Twilight Zone reruns last week really was a twilight zone experience, not because of the supernatural, but because the characters were so gentile and polite and well-spoken and white and mannered and...it was like a different country. Would that I, born after Woodstock, had known it.
Nobody, least of all Yours Truly, is suggesting that the problems of Imperial America can be solved by one man. However, one good man in the right place at the right time can make a big difference in the survival of a people. History has many examples of this. The most serious problem here is that if Dr. Paul gets close to power, the Powers-that-Be will do what they did to Huey Long and George Wallace.
Re: #42
"However, one good man in the right place at the right time can make a big difference in the survival of a people. History has many examples of this."
I agree. The US certainly could use an exceptional leader, now, more than ever. Part of this leadership is the ability to wake up the people. The cause of the disease that plaques America is in "We the People", the weak or destructive politicians are the symptoms. It is not just that the mass of Americans are asleep, but that when asleep (not awake in Christ), we are in a state that allows us to be conditioned by evil. The mass manipulators , those who rule America's schools, banks, political strategist, corporations of entertainment, fast food , consumer goods, etc.
all understand the principles of conditioning people on a mass scale. A true leader must break this conditioning through reason or shock . Ideally, the Churches in America would be helping to wake Americans out of this sleep state but they don't seem capable at this time. By and large Americans are not bad people, they have just become easy prey. When I travel to the US I notice there are TV like screens everywhere, in the airports, at the gas station pumps, in the car rental office, in the consumer stores, in the banks, everywhere.
Although I sometimes imagine that I would have preferred to live in the 8th or 9th century A.D., at the time of Charlemagne, or in the 19th century in the times of Lee, Jackson and Davis, it has been appointed unto me to live and to fulfill whatever duties which I might have in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is my obligation to do my duty; the outcomes, both temporal and eternal, are in the hands of the Almighty. In that context, among the other duties of my obligation, is the duty to support Ron Paul with the meager means of which I have been made the steward. Like most men, I want to live to see the fruits of my labor and want the fruits of my labor to be that which I anticipate and like. However, though the trials and errors of life, I have finally come to learn that the postponement of gratification, even gratification of seeing good things come to fruition, is a necessity of self-discipline, which, along with a great portion of humilty, mitigates arrogance and hubris.
I would love to see a constitutional and federated republic restored, which would not be an end in and of itself but which would be an agent and means of general prospertiy and peace. Such will likely not come in my lifetime. I suppose that this is what attracts me to Ron Paul; he seems to have these same goals and pursues them with similar understandings.
However, even this constitutional and federated republic for which I am willing to do my duty is itself, from my perspective, merely an imperfect manifestation of that now and ever coming Kingdom of Christ. I suppose that this is perhaps why the idea of the Roman Republic and the Church have such an affinity to one another. It may well be a reason why that when the Church in informing a society with Her values that society yearns for the Republic and when the Church is no longer informing that society it falls prey to the empire.
Whatever the case may be, we hope for a good landfall even as the waves crash over our little bark and as we bail for dear life, not for that of our own, but for the life and lives of future generations.
Deo Vindice!
“the problems of Imperial America are not ones that can be solved by the actions of a single man, no matter how well-intentioned or powerful—and that includes a President Paul.”
First of all, if he got into office in the first place that would mean that he would have a substantial amount of support throughout the country and therefore it wouldnt just be him pushing for changes it would be the American people. "One good man in the right place at the right time can make a big difference in the survival of a people. History has many examples of this."- Dr. Wilson.
Good examples are contagious, its all about who is going to be the first to stand up and say no. You never know what could happen if Paul or any other good man were elected. Maybe more decent Americans will stand up and say hey if Ron Paul did it why cant I? Just look at the support that Dr. Paul has gotten around the country with virtually no media attention.....its all a grass roots effort. There are still some good men in this country.
Second,
I know full well that the answer to our nation's problems doesn't lie in just politics. When the majority of the nation believes that truth is whatever they feel it is, that there are no moral absolutes, man's reason is supreme over all, then you get civilization meltdown. The only thing which can change this is a return to the Faith, which is another matter entirely.
"But if you still want to wave little flags, pass out bumper stickers and do yah-yah buzz-buzz at a Ron Paul rally, I’m certainly not going to stop you. Go for it, have fun, knock yourself out. Just don’t expect it to be worth much when (or even before) the music stops."-Lord Karth
Read about the Battle of Lepanto, the Siege of Malta, and the Siege of Antioch before you start saying that everything we are doing is for an impossibility. Loosen up a bit and stop being so gloomy. Again, what are you doing to help your country besides complaining on the Chronicles website? Thats the third time I've asked that now.
Oh yeah...I forgot. Read the life of Gabriel Garcia Moreno, President of Ecuador and then try and tell me that a single man as president cannot 180 a miserable country.
@ Lord Karth
You wrote: “As I said earlier, the problems of Imperial America are not ones that can be solved by the actions of a single man, no matter how well-intentioned or powerful—and that includes a President Paul.”
If the actions of a single man can not change anything here in “Imperial” America, then America is not really imperial, is it? Please, you are giving a bad name to the word Imperial by attaching the word America to it.
@Justitia
you wrote:
“Read about the Battle of Lepanto, the Siege of Malta, and the Siege of Antioch before you start saying that everything we are doing is for an impossibility. Loosen up a bit and stop being so gloomy.”
The above examples you gave are all from Roman Catholic history. This country is far from converting to the Roman Catholic Faith. From the begining this country was not meant to be Roman Catholic, it was set up in opposition to the True Faith, and it never will be Roman Catholic, unless first all current laws and the constitution is gutted or changed to reflect belief in the Blessed Trinity. Oh yeah and avarice becomes a crime punishable by death…
@ Justitia
you wrote:
“First of all, if he got into office in the first place that would mean that he would have a substantial amount of support throughout the country and therefore it wouldnt just be him pushing for changes it would be the American people. “One good man in the right place at the right time can make a big difference in the survival of a people. History has many examples of this.”- Dr. Wilson.”
“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?”
Mr. Paul is not Roman Catholic. How is it possible for a President Ron Paul to change the country for the better if he fails to change himself? Mr. Paul needs to retire from politics and focus on more important things. He is no help to you or to the country if elected by remaining in the same state far removed from the Blessed Trinity. Mr. Paul ignores Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament every Sunday.
“For he that shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Nothing will change with men like these in office.
More rich men then virtuous are found in office.
Well, I hope that Ron Paul might be led to convert to Catholicism one day. He has a son who is Catholic. However, we don't live in a theocracy and no religious test can be imposed as a qualification for public office under our Constitution. Much as one might think a sort of throne and altar Catholic country to be the ideal, we don't have that and are not going to have it, and I don't think we should let the perfect be the enemy of the good (though I have to say I haven't seen any other countries in the modern era that have made a success of any sort of Catholic commonwealth.)
I saw somewhere on the internet, not sure where now, but the leading candidates were ranked by how much agreement their positions showed with Catholic social teaching. Ron Paul was ranked the highest. He is just about the only candidate out there who understands subsidiarity and the concept of the just war. He also understands that we should not do evil that good may come of it, something that seems to escape not only "Catholic" Giuiliani but all the other so called Christian candidates such as Huckabee, etc.
It's not necessary to me that my President be Catholic. I just want him to follow the Constitution.
There's a website, Catholics for Ron Paul. They certainly make a good case, in my opinion, as to why Catholics should support Ron Paul for President.