Terminal apathy

Dear Editor,

"... That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ..." -- the American Declaration of Independence

Our founders fought to secure individual freedom upon this continent; yet not one would now recognize the republic they labored to create. They would demand to know what especially destructive event we Americans wait upon to compel our timid souls to engage the battle. Each passing day the storm clouds of enslavement grow ever more ominous upon the American horizon; yet we persist in our political and cultural indifference. Our natural tendency to "not make waves" has given a free reign to social and political corruption. Our aversion to confrontation has served to embolden our corruptors to obliterate whatever vestiges of freedom still remain. Washington D.C. is become a hostile sea of concentrated power, agitated with the putrefied flotsam of political parasites whose offensive stench can hardly be supposed not to have reached Almighty God; and yet we, whom He has so greatly blessed, passively allow the rot to progress ever deeper -- for we have bread and circuses!

"We the People," complacent and corrupted by selfish motives, have allowed a "ruling class" to entrench itself and loose our government from the chains of the Constitution. Our political apathy has all but guaranteed the collapse of this Republic; but we whistle in the dark, while those who deliberately undermine the principles of limited government scoff at our impotence. For if the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment are convenient hammers by which the federal power may beat the states into submission, yet all the more has it affected supremacy over us for reason that we give consent to tyranny with each dollar of federal "help" we compel our "sovereign" state governments to accept. The attached strings are now the strong cord by which state sovereignty is bound and flogged. Still, our system is premised on the consent of the governed; so on whose authority do we wait to stop the political violence? The Constitution -- our contractual agreement for Union -- was drafted with well-considered explicit stipulations to limit the power and scope of government; but, incredibly, while every clause is violated, we tarry as though permission were required before we may act to end the relentless abuse of power. Who but ourselves shall save the United States? Notwithstanding the optimistic assertions of our compromised media, we are teetering on the abyss; and, if we trip the edge, then no government "safety net" shall arrest our fall into oblivion. No "cavalry" will give rescue, for the Constitution was its garrison -- and we have foolishly allowed a cabal of treacherous scoundrels to raze it to the ground.

The ruling class expects our gratitude for their infidelity, our passive obedience to tyranny. Their appeals to compassionate conservatism, fairness, social justice and other such deceitful drivel, run contrary to limited government. Such oratory threatens ordered liberty -- no matter from which side of the political aisle it echoes. Those who trample that which they swore an oath to defend, savaging its spirit and gutting its principles, deserve more than electoral wrath. Corrupt scoundrels who habitually violate our trust should find no refuge within this Republic. In exchange for our good will the entrenched political establishment has repaid us with treachery -- and their betrayal is endless: They pervert the law so to legalize plunder, impoverishing the people beneath ruinous taxes; they mock and assault the good so to protect that which is evil; they prove themselves unrepentant liars, thieves and murderers; they sanction the slaughter of the innocent, denying liberty to those who best deserve its blessings; they squander our public treasury, dispossess us of our private inheritance, and indebt our posterity unto generations; they abuse eminent domain, impound the land upon which our fathers fought to establish a free nation, and deprive the American people's rightful access to our natural resources, while granting access and economic advantage to foreign powers; they imperil and destroy our livelihoods through frivolous and hostile regulation; they have made depravity the law of the land, and now incessantly work to corrupt our children; they besmirch our honor before foreign potentates, preferring appeasement to statesmanship; they willfully and with malice aforethought arm a hostile enemy, aiding its aggression so to advance a political falsehood to the detriment of the people's right to self defense; they blaspheme the Lord of Hosts, whom they shamelessly disavow and exile from the public square. This list is by no means complete!

No -- the Federal Government did not "preserve the union" in 1865, but rather put a new face on its war of attrition, so to shield perfidy and malfeasance behind the color of law, the moral precepts of which numerous federal agencies have despised and long abandoned. Federal power has become repugnant tyranny, holding the Natural Law in contempt, while desiring to regulate every aspect of responsible individual liberty. It is now the antithesis to republican virtue, the definition of the "mischief" that our Constitution was intended to restrain! Our ancestors were inspired to enter the solemn pact of Union in the hope of building the "City of God." We rather now possess the Tower of Babble -- which is about to crash down upon our imprudent heads. No -- the 21st Century political machine that grips America did not occur overnight, but evolved over time to create an immoral, unaccountable and intractable police state. Americans failed to guard the gates to their City, and now Goliath strides within its walls; yet he has little to fear from the subservient unprincipled sloths indoctrinated in our godless public schools, colleges and universities. So the tyrant increasingly flexes his muscles, and with each exercise he grows bolder; yet, unlike David, we shrink before the giant. Have we forgotten who we are?

It is our duty to reject and resist unjust immoral government and those who would perpetuate it -- by force if necessary -- but we stubbornly believe this pernicious beast will ultimately respect any imposed limits on its power. In this context our National Anthem's iconic verse -- Land of the free, home of the brave -- suddenly rings hollow, as if an inferior substitute for committed action. The brave stand idle while domestic tyrants enslave us, and foreign misfits nullify our sovereignty. Federal power repeatedly proves itself the willing consort of entities whose motives have little in common with the best interests of a free people. That power now acts to rob Americans of our culture and liberties; yet with each election cycle we fail to see the peril in settling for "the lesser of evils." A "little poison" is still poison -- and although we may choose to imbibe a lesser dose, we shall eventually die from consuming poison! The point is that destructive bureaucracies do not willingly surrender control, corrupt laws never expire of their own accord, and tyrants never go gently into the night -- unfortunately the lessons of history demonstrate that freedom often does.

Less troublesome it is to compromise with evil -- and more agreeable to do nothing about its encroachment. Human nature prefers comfort to sacrifice. Americans of this age appear too willing to accept the injustices suffered at the hands of immoral government or by the invasion of illegal aliens -- or from obstinate mobs of reprobate "occupiers." Perhaps we fear more the condemnations of the traitors among us, rather than resolve to decisively end the attack upon our individual liberties, national sovereignty and moral sensibilities. Perhaps their "multicultural" shrieks are softer to our ears than the dying whispers of those who gave their last full measure to create us a nation. We have grown fat, lazy -- and too overrun with effeminate poltroons who are more accustomed to comfort than convinced of duty and honor; but if we do nothing to retain that which is rightfully ours ... we deserve to perish. Yes, pray for divine intervention; but never forget that America's fate rests in our hands precisely because God despises cowards. We have bread and circuses plenty; but if we shirk moral imperatives and betray our national identity, as did the ancient Romans, then our posterity will forget we were ever once Americans -- for they shall no longer know the honor themselves. God help us.

Bruce C. Desautels

Stratton, Nebraska