Great Producers Deserve Our Gratitude

An Armstrong writes in The Objective Standard about Mr President and his true goals:

To puff up his claim that forcing the wealthy to pay higher taxes is somehow more “fair,” Obama presumes that their wealth automatically belongs to the federal government. If politicians allow wealthy producers to keep more of the money they earn, he argued, then that is a “special tax subsidy,” no different than if the government hands the wealthy the money that somebody else earned.

And that is the core flaw in leftist reasoning: It ignores the lesson of history, which is that governments are by their nature the ultimate consumers. That is exactly why the Founding Fathers sought to severely limit the scope of government. As we have discovered to our woe over the last decades, however, the Founders did not go far enough in creating protections against the voracious appetites of those who see themselves as the rightful rulers of all others.

In other words, one’s “unalienable rights” to one’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” must make way for the collectivist doctrine: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

A disturbing number of Americans are coming to believe exactly that -- and it wasn't by mistake. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Western universities (and now high schools) have been increasing their efforts at white-washing the reality of socialism and communism. Leftist professors paint the Cold War as "a big misunderstanding" and teach bankrupt academic concepts like moral relativism as if they were ironclad facts.

In our day-to-day rush of work and family which consumes our every waking moment, it is easy to forget that there is a battle going on right now. It's a battle for the soul of the greatest nation in the history of mankind. The outcome of that battle will not be decided fifty years from now or in the next century; it will be decided in this decade, decided by us, by the American people.

Do we let the power-mongers and revisionists and ignorant fanatics (I'm looking at you, Occupy movement), take the country down the path already followed by Great Britain and Greece and France? Do we stand idly by and watch as the country falls into economic chaos followed by social collapse, then claim we were "just too busy?"

If we don't want that future, we have only one effective tool: the opinion of the majority. That majority is not the Occupy movement; quite the opposite. The majority is the people who get up every morning, go to work, pay their taxes, and raise their children to be good and productive citizens. The majority do what we have to do, not necessarily what we want to do. Unfortunately, most of us also keep quiet and refuse to "rock the boat." In restaurants, we lower our voices and cast furtive, embarrassed glances any time the subjects of politics or religion are raised. We bow down to the political correctness enforced by a greed-driven media, ("chink in the armor," anyone?), and we apologize if our viewpoints offend someone. I say enough.

ENOUGH.

My opinions are just that: mine. Be they political or religious or who the best baseball player is this year. I am entitled to that opinion, and I am entitled to voice it when and where I please. If someone doesn't like or agree with my opinion, that's just tough cookies. Because there is a document more sacred than any holy text which protects my right to that opinion as an American citizen, a document that was purchased at a very dear price with the blood our ancestors. And nowhere - NOWHERE - in that document is there anything about any right to be free of another person's opinion.

In republics and democracies and constitutional monarchies, (i.e. - the modern Western world), tyrants more often than not come from the left. They seize control "for the greater good of the common man," when that is in reality the furthest thing from their minds. They are masters of obfuscation and are utterly amoral. They will say and do anything to maintain and increase their power over you and your family. The only way you can truly know these people is by their actions, because their words are always honey. So I ask you to do this: look at the actions of those sitting in the seats of power for the past three years and surmise their real goals on that basis.

Now voice your opinion. Whether in writing or in person or a video. Acknowledge that some will not like your opinion, and some will even try to silence you, believing themselves the bearers of some imaginary torch of "Truth." Educate them if they will listen; ignore them if they will not. But do not ever, ever try to silence them. Lead by example.

Even if you have no talent for expressing yourself via any of those means, you still possess a method of expression that is far more potent than any essay or video or speech: you have a vote. Use it or lose it.