fossten
Dedicated LVC Member
It's been fun, some of the time. I'll probably lurk now and then on the mech side if I need to repair my Mark VIII, but as far as debating politics, I'm finished. It's time to take care of me and my own, and politics isn't the answer. Never has been.
The main thing I've learned from posting here: Dems and Repubs together are destroying this nation from DC. My vote doesn't count, and it never has.
This is my own essay, so there is no link. (In other words, I wrote it myself.) Good luck to the rest of you. Sorry if I stepped on any toes.
The Frog in Boiling Water
It is an old scientific experiment where you place a frog in a pot of boiling water, and he will immediately leap out because of the heat. But if you place a frog in a pot of lukewarm water, he will stay there. Increase the heat gradually, and the frog will eventually boil to death because he will not notice the changing heat.
Americans can be compared to the frog. The water is the government’s attempts to restrain or eliminate our freedoms. In 1775, the British stupidly threw us into boiling water by rapidly imposing numerous taxes on the colonists and then demanding that the colonists surrender all their guns. Americans reacted to this “boiling water” as any frog would, leaping out. Our nation was born out of that British error. If the British had had the foresight to allow the colonists to believe that they were actually free men, and had only incrementally imposed “benevolent” laws and regulations over a period of two hundred years, America would never have been free.
We live in a nation that has gradually seen the increase of governmental power and the decrease of our personal freedoms. It is a zero-sum game. Democrats in general believe that government is the solution to all problems, and Republicans in general believe society can fix its own problems without interference from government. The problem with this dichotomy is NOT that the two sides don’t agree; it is that they often do, and usually on the side of the Democrats, in the form of compromise. The Democrats are the ones responsible for the increase in the temperature being raised, but the Republicans are the party responsible for how gradual it is.
The Republicans are weak. They do not wish to upset the media (which largely sides with the Democrats) nor do they wish to lose their position of power, so instead of fighting against the decrease of freedoms pushed by the Democrats, they agree to smaller, more gradual decreases. The Republicans NEVER fight to REVERSE the decline of freedom, they only agree to slow its descent. Because of this, Americans will never wake up.
If the Republicans wanted to wake up the American people, the most effective action they could take would be to abandon their base and get out of the way of the Democrats. Think about it. Nothing would shake up the American people more than for Democrats in power to pass sweeping radical confiscatory tax and gun laws, more Kelo-type decisions where property is seized, and radical censorship laws designed to squash any dissenting voice in the media or otherwise. Americans would not stand for such a drastic set of actions. We would have a physical revolution on our hands immediately. But thanks to the weak, complicit Republicans, this will never happen, because they are (perhaps unwittingly) contributing their part to this disastrous play. Remember, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Do not get excited about the next candidate for the Republican party in ’08. Neither Newt Gingrich, nor Fred Thompson, nor Duncan Hunter, and especially not Mitt Romney or Giuliani, will actively seek to reverse the uncountable numbers of laws already on the books and continuing to increase. From 2000-2006, a Republican President and Congress not only failed to reverse the trend, but actually accelerated it with the PATRIOT Act and the Dept. of Homeland Security.
The bottom line here is that the government itself, whether Republican or Democrat, is not interested in our well-being. It is not interested in increasing our personal freedoms; in fact, the opposite is true. There will be no effort to reverse the trend. Americans will slowly “boil to death” thanks to the concerted actions of Democrats and Republicans, together guaranteeing our enslavement to big government.
The main thing I've learned from posting here: Dems and Repubs together are destroying this nation from DC. My vote doesn't count, and it never has.
This is my own essay, so there is no link. (In other words, I wrote it myself.) Good luck to the rest of you. Sorry if I stepped on any toes.
The Frog in Boiling Water
It is an old scientific experiment where you place a frog in a pot of boiling water, and he will immediately leap out because of the heat. But if you place a frog in a pot of lukewarm water, he will stay there. Increase the heat gradually, and the frog will eventually boil to death because he will not notice the changing heat.
Americans can be compared to the frog. The water is the government’s attempts to restrain or eliminate our freedoms. In 1775, the British stupidly threw us into boiling water by rapidly imposing numerous taxes on the colonists and then demanding that the colonists surrender all their guns. Americans reacted to this “boiling water” as any frog would, leaping out. Our nation was born out of that British error. If the British had had the foresight to allow the colonists to believe that they were actually free men, and had only incrementally imposed “benevolent” laws and regulations over a period of two hundred years, America would never have been free.
We live in a nation that has gradually seen the increase of governmental power and the decrease of our personal freedoms. It is a zero-sum game. Democrats in general believe that government is the solution to all problems, and Republicans in general believe society can fix its own problems without interference from government. The problem with this dichotomy is NOT that the two sides don’t agree; it is that they often do, and usually on the side of the Democrats, in the form of compromise. The Democrats are the ones responsible for the increase in the temperature being raised, but the Republicans are the party responsible for how gradual it is.
The Republicans are weak. They do not wish to upset the media (which largely sides with the Democrats) nor do they wish to lose their position of power, so instead of fighting against the decrease of freedoms pushed by the Democrats, they agree to smaller, more gradual decreases. The Republicans NEVER fight to REVERSE the decline of freedom, they only agree to slow its descent. Because of this, Americans will never wake up.
If the Republicans wanted to wake up the American people, the most effective action they could take would be to abandon their base and get out of the way of the Democrats. Think about it. Nothing would shake up the American people more than for Democrats in power to pass sweeping radical confiscatory tax and gun laws, more Kelo-type decisions where property is seized, and radical censorship laws designed to squash any dissenting voice in the media or otherwise. Americans would not stand for such a drastic set of actions. We would have a physical revolution on our hands immediately. But thanks to the weak, complicit Republicans, this will never happen, because they are (perhaps unwittingly) contributing their part to this disastrous play. Remember, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Do not get excited about the next candidate for the Republican party in ’08. Neither Newt Gingrich, nor Fred Thompson, nor Duncan Hunter, and especially not Mitt Romney or Giuliani, will actively seek to reverse the uncountable numbers of laws already on the books and continuing to increase. From 2000-2006, a Republican President and Congress not only failed to reverse the trend, but actually accelerated it with the PATRIOT Act and the Dept. of Homeland Security.
The bottom line here is that the government itself, whether Republican or Democrat, is not interested in our well-being. It is not interested in increasing our personal freedoms; in fact, the opposite is true. There will be no effort to reverse the trend. Americans will slowly “boil to death” thanks to the concerted actions of Democrats and Republicans, together guaranteeing our enslavement to big government.
