You Know What "They" Say

I have been asked several times since the presidential election of 2008 what I think of my new president. My response is always the same: "Barack Obama is not my president." I am then met with the same retort: "That's not very patriotic." Really? Well, I tend to agree with Theodore Roosevelt who said: "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public office save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country." And as Mr. Obama has seen fit to disparage my country, both at home and abroad, I choose not to stand by him.

He has also seen fit to do everything in his power (and somethings I'm 100% sure are not in his power) to dismantle the free market system and individual freedom. He is using a very real economic crisis to expand the power of government to heights never dreamed of in America before. He is using people's fear about their own individual situations to try and convince us that government is the solution to our problems, rather than the ingenuity and strength of the American spirit. John Adams warned us about this very thing when he said: "The government turns every contingency into an excuse for enhancing power in itself." The problem with Mr. Obama's solution is that if the government provides for every need and ignores the power of the individual, it takes away freedom. It takes away the freedom of the individual and of society to succeed or fail on their own. When you have taken that, you cease to be the president of a free people and instead become the master of an enslaved one. Is that truly the legacy Mr. Obama wishes to leave? Is it really the choice he would make for his children? It is not the legacy left to us by our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson said in his first Inaugural Address: "Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

Our Founding Fathers envisioned a country where individuals raised their families and realized their dreams through hard work, not through government interference. They believed in helping those less fortunate than themselves through their own choice and not by government mandate. They did not believe it was the government's responsibility to dictate to the individual how successful they were allowed to be or how much of that success should be taken from them. Wanting to make sure everyone has the same stuff is a well intentioned goal, but an unreachable one. The Constitution guarantees us each an equal opportunity but what you make of that opportunity is up to you. Not wanting anyone to be poor or hungry or homeless sounds like good intentions, but government isn't the answer. Each individual is responsible for their own life and their own choices and must live with the ups and downs of that life and those choices. But as Americans we care about people, so when our government tells us they want to help the poor we believe they are truly thinking of the plight of the less fortunate, but Daniel Webster didn't. He said "Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

You see, our freedoms and liberty do not come from the government, nor were they granted to us by the Constitution. We are born with them and the Constitution was written to protect our freedoms and liberty from an over-reaching government.

We see what's going on. We see the government stealing our liberty and telling us that it is for the greater good. Telling us that it is the government's job to take away a substantial portion of the income of productive citizens and giving it to, well let's just say, less productive citizens, so that everything is fair. But one of the framers of our government had a very different idea. Thomas Jefferson said: "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who are not." Now, it could be just me, but I think Thomas Jefferson had a better idea than anyone breathing today as to what the framer's of the Constitution thought about the role of government in our lives.

We see what the government is up to and slowly but surely more and more Americans are figuring out that they don't like it. We are not sheep, (the 2008 presidential election results not withstanding) and we will not allow our freedoms to be taken from us. Woodrow Wilson said: "Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance."

We will not stand idly by while this administration dispenses with the foundations of personal liberty and personal responsibility that this nation was built on. Patrick Henry said: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." He didn't say that because he thought that in a couple hundred years it would look good on a t-shirt. He said it because he was an American Patriot. He was a man who would truly rather be dead than to live in the shadow of a tyrannical government with its hands in every part of his life. We too are American Patriots. We too will resist tyranny. The spirits of our Founding Fathers are alive in us still and we will fight against the usurpation of our power and our freedom. Because when forced to choose between liberty and tyranny, people generally and Americans specifically will choose liberty. And if it is denied us.... well, what Patrick Henry said.