First, we must determine if the basic premise is correct: has democracy been a failure? For those in doubt, consider Bill Clinton, three trillion in national debt and twenty wars and /or police actions since 1945. The two party system no longer functions, and we are ruled over as surely as if we had anointed a king. Did you vote for the tax measures that consume close to sixty per cent of your income? Un huh… I didn't think so.
So yeah, democracy has been a failure in America. Now to the real question: whose fault is it? This answer is simple too, it's our fault. Our ancestors went to war with the "world's only superpower" (Britain, for those who went to a public school after 1980) over a tax structure they considered tyrannical, and one that we would kill for. My metaphor of course, is nonsense, if we would kill for a decent tax structure, we would have one.
Moving forward, our ancestors again rose up over restrictive tariffs and were not content to let the government ride roughshod over the constitution. That second revolution, as some of us recall, was suppressed in fire and blood. It was not so cut and dried as our modern propagandists (educators?!) would have us believe – the North had a large number of patriots who spoke out freely, and of course, were suppressed brutally.
In New York, troops had to be recalled from the front to put down the riots that erupted over the draft, and yes, citizens fired on the Federal troops. Earlier, the same thing had happened in Baltimore where the patriotic citizens tried to block the troop trains who were carrying soldiers to invade the South.
It starts getting really scary when you study that second revolution, because despite the wretched excesses of the Federal troops who devastated the South, an awful lot of them were pretty good folks and would make good neighbors. They claimed to fight for the "Union," and the old flag; conveniently forgetting that those two items are based on a more important item: the constitution. Ours was theoretically at least, a voluntary union. My point however, is that even in serving an unjust cause, these men were morally superior by a quantum leap to the disgusting sybarites of modern popular culture.
So the failure of democracy in the United States was a foregone conclusion, from that time on. After "Honest Abe" threw out the constitution, Bill Clinton was inevitable.
This system we call "democracy," and which was actually set up as a republic, could stand only when men where principled enough to make it stand. The old adage held true, that as soon as the masses realized they could vote themselves "bread and circuses" they would, and they darn sure did. Another writer in that distant century noted that as long as Americans were good our experiment would work. It's not working – care to draw any radical conclusions from that?
In contemporary America, politicians debate issues that are essentially meaningless, eschewing dialog about the issues the concern the voters; and we let them get away with it. Consider Lazio versus Hilary Clinton – both of them stand for exactly the same thing: despotism. Yet the "free press" remains enamoured by this "race." The only contest here is to see which hog gets to dip its snout.
We know about this in Georgia too, where we thought we'd voted for a conservative and instead got a blowhard, who turned out to be a womanizer, and turned his senate seat over to Johnny Isaakson, another one of those "moderate" republicans that are keeping us away from the polls in droves.
Thus one of the biggest failures of democracy is that people with double digit IQs are not voting because we can see through the farce of elections. Who has a chance that I want to see in office? That you want to see in office? The lessor of two evils eh? Not for me, thanks…evil is evil is evil. I don't want evil period.
Ethnic groups have marginalized themselves as voting blocks, as opposed to voting individually, on principal. In exchange for a few token black faces in the ranks of leadership, who themselves get a cut of the vigorish, blacks for instance, vote for Democrats routinely and supinely. The Democrats are worse, if possible, than the Republicans, in their indecent haste to trash all that is good, and to repudiate the constitution.
The elderly vote based on which politician lies hardest about the farce of social security. Have any of these folks read the constitution? We vote for the candidate who promises to steal the most from others, and give it to us. This is a relationship between voter and politician that is very much like the one between pimps and whores. The whore (voter) sells herself expecting a profit; the pimp (government) confiscates all that she gets.
The story goes that once, in Stalin's Kremlin a plan was discussed that was so blatantly dishonest that one naïve true believer actually spoke up and said so. Stalin and his henchmen broke into gales of laughter. That same hollow cackle reverberates in the halls of our own congress. Like Hitler, they say, "Who compels us to keep the promises we make?" No one, that's who.
The key to serious analysis is to correctly identify the problem. The problem in America is that we have made a mockery of everything that was ever good about this country, and now, in the words of Tom Petty, we "revel in our abandon." Mark this well – we are not in good shape – the ship of state has run aground and the crew are all drunk on the hearty grog offered by the pop culture. Nobody is minding the store, nobody is speaking up for decency and it is because we are lazy, and because we are stupid.
Harsh words those. Let's address lazy first:
We've been too lazy to pay attention to what our leaders are up to – we woke up one morning and found we were being ruled by executive order. Did we act? No, we yawned. Is that lazy? For a people who swore they would not bow the knee to any but God?
Our schools have become indoctrination centers for a corrupt ideology which is so wicked that discussing the details of it in mixed company would have been considered bad form among civilized folks for most of recorded history. Now, these things are presented to third graders. Yet we are too lazy to attend to our children's education and let the government do it. We are indicted by our own words. Ask any American if they trust the government and the answer will be a resounding "Hell no!" Then ask us why we let that same government raise our kids. But we already know they answer. We are lazy.
We've been too lazy to say anything when our government launched its campaign to suppress the Christian religion. So now the Supreme Whores have dictated to us the astounding proposition that it is un-constitutional for children to pray at sporting events, while they have discovered imaginary rights to propose sexual perversion and promiscuity as "normal" in taxpayer supported schools. Have we dealt with them yet? No?
That's lazy, folks.
Let's not neglect the second premise either, that we are stupid. Here is what constitutes stupid, the short list.
Our businesses routinely use the government as a tool to fight each other, maintaining huge staffs of eager, imaginative lawyers. The unintended consequence is that government routinely horns in on commerce, and prices go up. These same business leaders whine about the high cost of regulation. So exactly who are we rooting for when we cheer the government bozos who are destroying Microsoft? It's a safe bet that we won't be cheering when software prices go up. So we lose money as prices go up, and then lose more money to pay the government hacks that handle the regulatory agencies.
That's stupid.
This most dangerous government in our history, which has presided over the destruction of our culture, attacked our religion, promoted the murder of millions of unborn babies, waged aggressive war against foreign countries, and allowed illegal immigration to proceed at a mindboggling rate, wants us to give up our guns. They tell us that the culture has become too violent for guns to be in the hands of ordinary citizens. That statement says it all. That is so patently stupid and illogical that they would only dare suggest that to stupid people: us, the Americans.
Yet the violent culture is a product of failed government programs and the breakdown of conventional morality! So more of that is better? Much of the violence in this violent culture stems from the government and it's ill considered and imaginary "war on drugs." It should be called the "War on Freedom." Gun control has subtly crept into this country at such an alarming rate you will soon find it very difficult indeed to purchase a firearm, let alone carry one. Yet politicians are slamming each publicly other for not being sufficiently in favor of gun control. Try basing your self-defense on the promises of an American politician. You'd better take some harp lessons first – you'll be needing them.
Cheerful, murderous buffoons like Bill Clinton talk about the rights of hunters to have shotguns – yet the constitution made no mention of hunting. Hunting is not a right. Guns are for keeping power where it belongs, with the people. Self defense, now that's a right!
We find ourselves at a time when we dare not even enter certain neighborhoods for fear of our lives and our leaders tell us it is in our best interest to disarm?!. Are we that stupid? Have we dealt with them yet? No?
That's stupid, folks.
Stupid is a very harsh thing to call Americans. So let's devise a test to see if I'm right. Turn on your television, you know, that high priced thing with the gazillion channels. Turn it on, and channel surf until you find something that is clearly produced for consumption by people of character and intellect. Take your time, this is a tough one.
Next, look out the window, and moisten a finger, and hold it out in the breeze. See which way it is blowing, and having noted that, note also that what ever freedom you thought you had, has blown away on that same breeze. The country that was America is no more. We let it slip away. And that was stupid, folks, criminally stupid.
Someone asked the other day, "Do you think God will judge us for the things that are going on in America today?" One has to laugh at something like that, a question that silly. To that question, we could apply "lazy", since modern Christians are often too lazy to even open their Bibles, or we could look at "stupid", too. Because in that Bible, the answer is quite clear, no Clintonesque waffling for God's prophets.
Are we going to be judged? We are being judged now! These things are consequences, not warning signs.
A Yankee general named Dan Sickles lost his leg and his command, after an ill fated tactical movement at Gettysburg. As he was being carried off the field he noted that "Man proposes, God disposes." His will be done.
June 30, 2000
Mr. Peirce fought with the Rhodesian freedom fighters (the Ian Smith side, of course).
