Robert Owens
A Bill of Goods: Part II
By
Jun 4, 2008 - 9:56:40 AM

We can’t borrow our way to freedom, for the borrower is slave to the lender.  We can’t tax ourselves into prosperity with feel-good bureaucratic band-aids for current problems promising security for freedom at the cost of bankruptcy later.  Ben Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  We’ve got to turn back the tide before we drown in a sea of debt.

The re-distribution network we’ve been drawn into is a web threatening to hold us captive unless we return to our inheritance of constitutional rights and responsibilities.  We must throw off dependency and stand on our own feet.  

Over the years, Americans of every political stripe moved one step at a time from the image of the self-starting pioneers braving an ocean or crossing a prairie to find freedom and opportunity into the image of starving hogs at an all-you-can-eat trough waiting for a bloated bureaucracy to drop crumbs stolen from another citizen onto our plate so we can pay taxes and vote for entrenched incumbents who have “brought home the bacon,” forgetting that WE are the hog.  

We have been seduced by the convenience of one-stop-shopping and low prices as free trade brought an avalanche of imported goods to take the place of closing American factories that can’t compete with people who pay 5 dollars a day.

Citizens passively stand by while government fails to enforce laws or secure borders until we are awash in an immigrant population greater than the total of all the immigrants from our founding until 1960.  While most are hardworking people who only want something better for themselves and their children many of them are people showing little interest in becoming Americans, claiming citizenship in another country and voting in foreign elections.  We watch as invasion-size forces enter every year and nothing is done until the problem is so big, that we’re told, “Nothing can be done.”  This illegal inflation of the work force allows employers to keep wages low and benefits non-existent.

It’s all a shell game keeping people from noticing that the buying power of their hard-earned dollars erodes constantly as the Fed inflates the currency, bailing out unscrupulous billionaires.  Remember the Savings and Loan bail-out?  Watch out because our bought-and-paid-for leaders are in the process of selling us a new and improved version.
Many people have more hope of winning the lotto than of receiving their Social Security when they retire. The fear mongers of the left convince people that unless they’re re-elected, the evil conservatives will starve their children as they push the aged into the street.  

Today, many believe America is vulnerable to attack and perhaps even conquest by a gang of totalitarian fakirs living in caves running a “franchise” war.  The fear mongers of the right convince people that unless they are re-elected the evil liberals will surrender to terrorism, set up soviet-style committees to run neighborhoods and agree to put America under Sharia law.  

If we turn off TV and tune out talk radio, we might notice all this comes down to “Re-elect me.”  The diatribes of demagogues lead to the endless re-election of a permanent ruling class and in the meantime, we get two sides of one coin; tax, spend and take away our liberties as government grows. We have been sold a bill of goods.

Yet in the midst of darkness, I discern a beacon of light!  In the depths of despair, I hear a doctrine of hope! I believe there is an answer to the problems we face. With every trial comes a way of escape, and we will not be burdened with more than we can bear. The solution is the Constitution! The greatest work ever to emerge from the hand of man, the framework that initially released the avalanche of opportunity is the guideline for our restoration.

Let’s turn from the seductive swan song of the “What’s in it for me?” “When is it my turn?”  big government lackeys. Let’s return to our birthright of freedom and opportunity. Let’s return to Constitutional government and individual responsibility, resolving to be worthy of the nation we’ve been given, leaving our children and grandchildren the future they deserve.

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