My fellow Americans,
I come to you tonight to report on the state of our union, and I'm sad to say that America has become small. Where once stood a great nation that dared to dream great dreams, now sits a nation dedicated to mediocrity. Excellence is punished and failure rewarded. Men and women with bold visions and ambition pay a high price for their success. We love our heroes, but we love tearing them down even more.
Our leaders have become small. Where once America was lead by Jefferson, Adams and Lincoln, all men of conviction and courage, now we are lead by Clinton and Bush, men who lack the courage of their convictions. Consensus has replaced leadership; expediency and compromise have taken the place of principles and honor, and we are all diminished by it. We've seen an administration that dared to respond proactively to an attack on our soil punished for that daring, not just by our international enemies, but by the political opposition within. For daring to stand up to the declared enemies of our nation and saying with firm resolve "No More!", they have been compared to the worst tyrants ever seen on this sorry globe. We've seen national security reduced from the keystone of our continued existence to just another political ploy, a bargaining chip to be used to win elections. To make matters worse, even those who should be resisting this debasement have now joined in the unholy dance. In truth, neither party does anything other than pay lip service to national security; they both use it to achieve their own short sighted and selfish political goals.
I hear your boos, and your cries of outrage, but let me ask you one question: If either party were truly committed to national security, would our borders be undefended? Would we allow tens of thousands of people to cross illegally, with near complete impunity?
No! No, our borders would be closed and those who tried them would be caught and swiftly sent back where they came from. But instead of trying to close the borders to get them under control, our leaders only talk about how to fairly deal with those who have already crossed illegally. And by "fairly" I most definitely do not mean justly. Justice is a concept that has been replaced in America by fairness, and again, we are greatly diminished because of it. "Fairness" means only what the speaker believes it to mean. There is no objective measure of fairness. Justice is hard enough, but by making laws and enforcing them, there is at least some small portion of objectivity.
But we the people no longer stand for justice; justice requires the dispassionate and rational exercise of intellect. We prefer instead the warm soft fuzzy feel of "fairness." Unfortunately one man's "fairness" is another man's tyranny.
Shortly after taking control of Congress, Committee Chair and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich announced that he plans to revive the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. If passed, the Fairness Doctrine will make the Federal Government the sole arbiter of what can be said on broadcast television and radio, and that my friends and neighbors, should be a possibility that makes all of us, left or right, shudder in horror. Instead, we calculate our advantage or disadvantage under the new laws, and if it hurts our enemies more than us, we support it.
And far from being an isolated incident, this only cements a trend growing within our government. Senate Bill 1 contained language that could have been used to force citizen journalists like myself to register with the Federal Government if I wished to make my opinions known to my Senator or Representative. Can you imagine? Having to get government approval to send a message to my representative?
Didn't we go to war with our government over that very idea just over 200 years ago?
And it isn't just the Democrats . Trent Lott wanted us to shut up about earmarks, remarking that he was sick and tired of hearing from his constituents about it. And John McCain of McCain-Feingold infamy is a Republican. Our "representatives" in Washington seem to care more for acquiring power than representing our wishes; they want us to shut up and be good little subjects. They know what's best for us, even if we don't. Just ask former Senator Bill Frist, who attached anti-gambling provisions at midnight to a port security bill. He knew that citizens would oppose unwarranted restrictions on their freedoms, but because he knows what's best for us, he passed the legislation in the dark of night, before we could object and be heard.
Didn't we go to war with our government over that just over 200 years ago?
The problem isn't just national, it's local. Here in Tennessee, we've got a man wanting to tax porn to pay for food. In California, the state wants the power to tell parents how to raise their children. In many states, the government wants to tell business owners whether they can allow their patrons to smoke or not. Our states are demanding the right to tell us how fast we can drive, what safety devices we MUST use, and how we must dress for certain activities. These are impositions that our forefathers would have fought tooth and nail.
We are smaller men now and that is the true cause of America's loss of greatness. We, the people, no longer feel the urge for greatness. We've been brainwashed into believing that it is enough to be OK. We've bought in to the notion that excellence is somehow suspect, that folks who achieve more must have cheated, or been helped, or exploited others who were less fortunate. We resent their success because it points out our failures, and so rather than emulate them and achieve our own success, we rationalize away their success, and rejoice when they fall.
We have become a small minded people choosing small minded men to represent us.
And the future is bleak, my friends. If a Jefferson,a Franklin, a Lincoln were to appear today, he wouldn't get elected dog catcher. If JFK gave his "Ask not what your country can do for you.." speech today, he might face impeachment proceedings from his own party. Is there a Patrick Henry among us today, a leader who can rouse the common man and reignite America's promise?
And if there is such a man, will we respond?
Posted by Rich at January 24, 2007 7:00 PM | TrackBack