Posts Tagged ‘Progressivism’

America’s slide from the forefront of freedom to the swamp of collectivist social engineering didn’t start with the current manager of our decline and his Cavalcade of Czars.  It didn’t start with President Obama’s favorite foil and arch-nemesis the man the Corporations-Once-Known-as-the Mainstream-Media love to hate, George Bush, the Younger.  It didn’t start with the Bush-Clinton decade + 2 of continuous government growth, its thousand points of light or its thousand points of light or its Hillarycare.  

Even Ronaldus Magnus, the last good President left Washington bigger than he found it.   

Jimmy Carter not only walked in the Inaugural Parade he walked us into the grip of a Department of Energy that works tirelessly to limit our energy production and a Department of Education that presides over the greatest decline in education in world History.   He chastised us in his malaise speech about our crisis of confidence never realizing it was our confidence in him not our country that was hobbling America.  And what was his advice?  Should we work harder, invent more, or launch out in bold new ways?  No he suggested we wear sweaters and turn the heat down.  Managing the decline has long been the theme song of those who see America’s glory days in the rearview mirror instead of in the headlights as we travel towards the future. 

What about Nixon?  Forget about it!  He gave us price controls, OSHA, and the EPA.  He took us off the gold standard and left us at the mercy of the Federal Reserve, all this from the conservative wing of the Dualocracy which is the bi-polar Party of Power.

Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamp revolution created the entitlement monsters which are poised to devour the budget.   

Though he cut taxes to spur the economy, Kennedy with his phony missile gap and foreign policy blunders did little besides set the stage for Johnson.   

Eisenhower spent eight years guiding the construction of the Military Industrial Complex he warned us about as he left the stage.  

The Fair Deal was merely Truman’s election driven attempt to increase the size, scope, and power of FDR’s New Deal which was a massive and unprecedented intrusion of the central government into the economic and social life of America.  

FDR was the 20^th century poster boy when it comes to stretching the size of government and putting the stamp of entitlement as the cause on liberty’s death certificate.   

Hoover, contrary to FDR’s story line and the accepted version of America’s History, responded to the stock market crash with a massive extension of government and its programs.  The Great Engineer, as he was known before his name became a household word for failed presidency, was a champion of government intervention, and though today his devotion to the tenets of laissez-faire are blamed for the depression when it was instead his federal interference that provided a deep recession for FDR to turn into the Great Depression. 

Silent Cal Coolidge was America’s last limited President.  He limited himself and stayed with the confines of the Constitution.   

Harding tried but died.   

Wilson used the War he bragged of keeping us out of as the excuse to arrest and detain citizens, seize control of the economy, foster segregation and racism, and generally slap the cuffs of a greatly expanded central government on America’s wrists.   

Taft was Teddy Roosevelt’s handpicked successor.  And although he continued the Progressive agenda of attacking business and expanding government he didn’t do enough.  So Roosevelt broke him and his presidency running against him splitting the Republican vote and opening the door for the Progressive Democrat Wilson.

Teddy was the grandfather of them all.  His trust busting interventionism was Progressivism personified. 

Though this may be the litany of the current gang of statists who are poised to smother freedom, the struggle to keep constitutionally limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom alive has been one long series of attack defenses declines and rebirths.   

The second President, John Adams, was a man who helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  He was a man who worked tirelessly for the ratification of the Constitution, and passed and signed the Alien and Sedition Acts under which he arrested people who criticized him, his administration or his policies.  From there it goes on and on.   

Jefferson compromised his beliefs about the limited power of the central government and purchased Louisiana without Constitutional authority, a good deal but a bad precedent.   Monroe committed America to defending the entire Western Hemisphere. Polk sent American troops into territory internationally recognized as part of Mexico and then asked for a declaration of war when Mexican troops fired on those troops.  Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus whenever he needed to in order to maintain the Union though the Constitution does not grant that power to the Federal Government. The 10^th Amendment strictly prohibits the Federal Government from having any powers not expressly delegated to it, and at least one state, Virginia, in their ratification convention expressly considered the Union voluntary and reserved the right to secede.   

From one battle to another America’s freedom fighters have stood before the Leviathan of Central Government and clung relentlessly to the promises first set forth in the founding document of the United States of America, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Considering that these uplifting and timeless words of human liberty were penned by a slaveholder and that it took four score and nine years for this stain to be removed from our nation we can see that our road away from serfdom has always been one of fits and starts.  

Today we face the next great challenge.  Progressivism, America’s current variation on the age-old theme of government knows best is poised to break the bounds of limited government, regiment the people, and smother the economy.  After more than one hundred years of incremental growth in just three years the promises of hope and change have broken the bank and mortgaged the future.  One more term of this profligate spending and oppressive regulations and they will kill the golden goose.   

The forces of freedom cannot afford to lose this next election to the purveyors of class warfare and division.  If we do this great experiment in limited government, personal liberty and economic liberty will have progressed from a new country on the margins of civilization to the greatest power the world has ever known, to just another socially engineered centrally planned economically shackled democracy voting itself benefits it can’t afford. 

Our adversaries believe they have stacked the deck by taking control of both major political parties which operate as two wings on the same bird of prey.  They hope by nominating a Progressive in both parties there will be no way for the forces of freedom to prevail. 

Our ranks are filled with those who have been in the trenches for a lifetime and are weary of the fight.  They have been joined by the recently awakened who know little of the history and less of the tactics.  Our opposition is comprised of the slickest, best funded, and most corrupt professional politicians, labor barons, and crony capitalists the world has ever seen with thousands of Occupy storm troopers thrown in for good measure.  The odds are against us.  The smart money is betting on the victory of the all-powerful government, lining up to get their deals and haul away the loot. 

The odds have always been against us.  We fought the greatest empire in the world to gain our freedom.  We have persevered and prevailed against plot after plot to extinguish the light of liberty and in this battle too we must remember that the one we should never be forgotten told us long ago, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”    

Yes, the blood of more than 54,000,000 innocent lives cry out for justice, yes we as a people have legalized what should be unlawful and condoned what should be condemned.  Yes, we have fallen from the high road and are weakened by an entitlement mentality and an addiction to entertainment.  But we are the American people.  We are, “We the People” and if we will but turn and acknowledge the one who has given us everything we have a chance. 

The time is now.  The place is here.  We are the people we have been waiting for.  We must rise to the occasion.  We must win this battle because if we don’t win we lose. 

Keep the faith.  Keep the peace.  We shall overcome. 

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College.  He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens

Posted by: David Leeper

Barack Obama’s Owasatomie speech on December 6th was stunning.   Looking over the transcript is like being a kid in a candy store.  I’ve never seen such a target-rich environment for commentary.   If I ever need to get “psyched up” to write some commentary, I can always re-read that transcript.

Christopher Cook and Hannah Thoreson have written a full review of his speech atWesternFreePress.com.  You can find it here.  There will be more.  With this speech, Obama has dropped all pretense of being an advocate for that mix of free markets, property rights, and personal freedoms that made America the most attractive immigrants’ destination in history.  He’s now an open advocate for something else, way out in Left field.

This part of his speech is classic:

Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.

This is a jaw-dropping, hideous, agenda-driven distortion.   It would do credit to Marx, Lenin, Stalin, or Mao.  As Cook & Thoreson point out:

Capitalism has brought more human beings out of poverty and given them more prosperity more anything else in history.  Governments that have tried to take over management of the economy, beyond a minimal degree, have produced democide by the millions, not prosperity.

So look well, America.  See what we have elected.  We have one chance to fix this gross error in 2012.  If we don’t, we may well be toast.  And even if we do, the Progressivist poison that courses through the veins of the Washington body politic will take many years to abate.  The Great American Left will not go gently.

U.S. Department of Justice

W E B S I T E C H A N G E – I M P O R T A N T!

Little by little the subtle changes come until one day we will wake up and be the United Socialist States of America. 2012 is just around the corner so get and stay engaged as if our nation depended on it because it does!!!!!

U.S. Department of Justice ditches red, white, and blue stars and stripes.

Well, how interesting! It seems the U.S. Department of Justice has changed its web site.
Gone are the colorful red, white, and blue U.S. Flag decorations on the page,

Replaced by stark black and white.

And at the top of the page, is a rather interesting quote:
“The common law is the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people.”

Catchy, huh? Just one tiny little (too small to be relevant obviously) point –the quote is from C. Wilfred Jenks, who in the 1930′s was a leading proponent of the “international law” movement, which had as its goal to impose a global common law and which backed ‘global workers’ rights.’

Call it Marxism, call it Progressivism, call it Socialism — under any of those names, it definitely makes the DOJ look corrupt in their new website with Marxist accessories to match.

See for yourself: http://www.justice.gov/ <http://www.justice.gov/>

How very interesting that ‘they’ couldn’t find a nice quote from one of our Founders. People, we have lost our Republic. This is an example of the slow, methodical misuse of power our current government is doing as they lead us to socialism, and destroying our republic as we have known it.

Bring back the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

 

The first thing a Tea Party Patriot must do is understand what it is he or she is up against. While the conservative movement is maturing, it had not been accepted by any party until Goldwater in the mid 60s. Even then, the movement did not find a home until Ronald Reagan fully embraced it and brought it to the White House in 1980. Even after eight years of one of the most popular presidents in our history and astounding economic growth across all income levels (do not let a liberal get away with the “only rich got richer” lie), the conservative movement lost its foothold in the Republican Party as the membership began a slow drift to the center, concerned they were alienating the moderates and those on the left. The irony is that up to 70% of the U.S. population claims to be conservative. Among some of those that prefer to be called a moderate or even liberal, a close examination of their values reveals that they are, indeed, conservative at their core. So, whenever the Republicans adjusted their values toward the center, they were, in fact, moving away from the largest percentage of the population.

More on that later. Liberalism, which is more accurately defined as Progressivism (listen for the key word “progressive” in many a Democratic speech), has a much deeper history in our country. While Teddy Roosevelt was the first U.S. President to use the term openly, it was Woodrow Wilson who gave it teeth, as well a permanent home in the Democratic Party. Understand, during this time, the social engineers of the world were hard at work. In Europe we had universal socialists, national socialists, fascists, and other offshoots of those entertaining the utopian dream. While progressives are not fascists or Nazis (national socialists), the ideology all bubbles up from the same socialist well. They are totalitarians, one and all, meaning that they believe every aspect of human life can and should be under the control of a compassionate and wise central planner. Despite the lessons of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and fascist Italy, to name a few, the progressives continue their pursuit of this utopia. After Wilson, a long line of progressives filled his shoes—from FDR to Johnson to Obama, with a few lightweights in between, some in the Republican Party, which struggles to this day to find its identity (and that’s why we’re here, my friends). I’ll return to these topics in future posts, but understand this: Obama did not spring up out of the ashes to bring about “change we can believe in.” This is a century long ideology. His defeat in 2012 and a sweeping defeat of Democrats in the next two elections will not end this fight. It’s our lack of vigilance that got us in this mess. We have a great advantage, however, one that we did not have until the 1960s. It’s the conservative movement. Our value system now had a name and we soon discovered that we are the majority.

President Obama, like other progressives before him, is so convinced that his ideology is the only way that he openly admits his beliefs. But he does more than that—he gives us the battle plan for his party’s defeat. He tells us, quite bluntly, what scares him. Let’s list them:

• Fox News
• The Tea Party Movement
• Talk Radio
• Internet social sites
• Internet news sources and blogs

As you read that list, you should feel fairly excited. For years we conservatives have bemoaned the left leaning mainstream media, primarily the major TV networks and big newspapers. But that’s all the progressives have (that and a huge microphone in the White House). They’ve built their propaganda machine on those platforms for decades, with outstanding results. But they’ve got a problem. Most of the population no longer gets their information from NBC, ABC, CBS, or the New York Times. They get it from—you guessed it—talk radio and the internet. Those that still get it from television are tuning into Fox News, which has maintained the number one ratings spot for several years now. The President has reason to be concerned over our being “distracted by too much information.” When your progressive movement is at the cusp of full implementation, the truth can be a very inconvenient distraction.

I’d like to add to that list. Books are also a great source of information. Though not timely, they offer a history lesson that we all need to understand in order to defeat an enemy that relies on our ignorance of history to tout one slanted piece of propaganda after another (like referring to conservatives as “fascists,” a label that makes no sense at all). Because we’re unlearned, we have no argument. Educate yourselves. Use the sources that Obama has generously outlined for you, but read the heavy stuff as well, from history to current events. I’ll keep the Amazon list going and put some of my reviews up as well.

I’ll leave you with this: do not jump on the “I hate Beck/Levin/Limbaugh/or any other conservative” bandwagon. We are all on the same side. Conservatives must remain focused on their purpose, which is the defeat and reversal of the progressive tide that has swept over this country since 1912. Yeah, it’s a tough, uphill road. And it will not be won in one or two elections. Most of us will probably not see a true free market in our lifetimes, just as anyone born in the last century didn’t see it. We will bring about real change. But all of our sacrifice of time, money, and energy to win this fight will be an investment in this nation’s future. The only reward we will reap will be the knowledge that we didn’t sit idly by and watch the corruption of our freedom unfold in front of us.

Stand by, Patriots, the party has only just begun.

Fires, Fraud, Democrats & The SEIU: It’s a Real Work in Progressivism

We’ll just lay the facts [emphasis added] out for you. Then, you can decide if you believe in coincidences:

Fact One: In 2008, a group of  citizens in Harris County, Texas saw what appeared to be a massive attack on the integrity of the election process:

When Catherine Engelbrecht and her friends sat down and started talking politics several years ago, they soon agreed that talking wasn’t enough. They wanted to do more. So when the 2008 election came around, “about 50” of her friends volunteered to work at Houston’s polling places.

“What we saw shocked us,” she said. “There was no one checking IDs, judges would vote for people that asked for help. It was fraud, and we watched like deer in the headlights.”

“Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address,” Engelbrecht said. “We then decided to look at who was registering the voters.”

Fact Two: Last month, a mysterious fire broke out that destroyed most of the voting machines for Harris County, Texas. [Houston is in Harris County.]

Fact Three: The fire occurred three days after Harris County voter registrar Leo Vasquez issued a press release stating:

“The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes” Vasquez said at a 2 p.m. press conference at his office, where he also released copies of applications in some of the most egregious cases.

Houston Votes is the get-out-the-vote arm of the Texans Together Education Fund.

“Evidence shows that the Houston Votes and Texans Together organization are conspiring on a pattern of falsification of government documents, supporting perjury in a deliberate effort to overburden our processing system,” he said.

Fact Four: As arson investigators continue looking into the blaze, their focus seems to be less centered on arson than on what may have been the building’s electrical system.

The Houston Fire Department has not yet ruled out arson as the cause of a massive fire last month that destroyed most of the county’s voting machines. But arson investigators are working on the theory that it was accidentally fire that started in the building’s electrical system.

The fire destroyed almost 10,000 voting machines — the county’s entire stock.

Immediately, there were questions about the cause and about the possibility that it was deliberately set to disrupt the Nov. 2 election.

For the last month, fire investigators have been combing the debris.

On Thursday, Arson Chief Gabe Cortez said they have found no evidence an accelerant, such as gasoline, was used in the fire.

Fact Five: On September 2nd, the Texas Democratic Party sued  Harris County registrar:

As it did in 2008, the Texas Democratic Party has sued the Harris County voter registrar in federal district court for what it says are violations of voter registration laws, political favoritism and violations of voter privacy.

Fact Six: When the aforementioned concerned citizens (who later formed a group calledTrue the Vote) found questionable registrations, it appeared to be concentrated to one group:

Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Steve [Sean] Caddle, who also works for the Service Employees International Union. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures.

“The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes,” the Harris voter registrar, Leo Vasquez,charged as he passed on the documentation to the district attorney. A spokesman for the DA’s office declined to discuss the case. And a spokesman for Vasquez said that the DA has asked them to refrain from commenting on the case.

Caddle can also be seen on this video.  Note Caddle’s comments at 4:40 that he does not deal with the fundraising…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIboqi_khV8&feature=player_embedded

The Sean Caddle above appears to be the same Sean Caddle from New Jersey who settled in Colorado for a time and ran for the position of Finance Director of the Colorado Young Democrats who noted in his bio:

I have been raising or helped raise money for Democratic Candidates for the last six years of my life. I believe that I have the background to move the Finance position in a different direction with the many ideas that I have.Raising money is not easy, it is very hard to ask people you have never met in your life to contribute funds for something they may be barely involved with, but in order to run effective programs you need funding and I believe I can move the position in a direction that will get the Colorado Young Democrats the proper funding we would need to run our programs well.

I have been involved in Politics for the last ten years of my life, and for the past six I have solely worked in politics for a living. I was the former Deputy Executive Director for the Hudson County Democratic Organization as well as being the Field Director for such candidates as Congressman Robert Menendez, Governor James E. McGreevey, and Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham. I was also the Campaign Manager for Assemblyman Louis M. Manzo, and currently I am his Political Consultant and his Finance Director. I am also currently the State Director for Colorado for Health Care. I have run for office twice as a County Committee Man in New Jersey, winning twice on the ballot with U.S Senator Robert Torricelli and County Executive Thomas A. Degise. All this being said I would not think it is a stretch to say politics is my life.

Fact Seven: One candidate running as a Democrat in District 133 in Harris County, is Kristi Thebaut, formerly affiliated with ACORN [h/t Anita MonCrief]

Of course, between the fire, the fraud, the SEIU and ACORN connections, they could be just mere coincidences…

SEIU SAYS:

Keep moving.

Nothing here to see, citizen.

Move along.