Americans today should gave thanks we don't live in colonial times. Back then we would be surrounded by traitors
who had serious grievances with the law, especially the part that taxed them. Lacking a sound public education, these
upstarts didn't understand that a great empire like Britain needed massive transfusions of revenue to sustain it. In
their ignorance the rebels armed themselves with guns (!) and overthrew the government.
Fortunately, such horrors are all but precluded today. A century and a half of progressive social education has made
patriotism and somnambulism two peas in the same pod. Today's patriots don't shoot guns, they wear flags and vote Republican
or Democrat. They have been carefully bred by government schools, liberal media, ultra-liberal entertainment idols,
and the demagogues they put in office. They have been made proud by America's involvement in world affairs, of which
cable news tells them all they want to know.
Many of the founders we honor each Fourth would be executed as terrorists today, unless they were caught in California.
It's no surprise that Congress tripped all over themselves recently to recite a pledge of allegiance authored by a worshiper
of big government, Francis Bellamy. Do we see these same politicians showering equal respect on that instrument of limited
government they pledge to uphold? Of course not.
Congress claims an inalienable right to tax us to death, then tax our heirs after death, in the name of social justice.
They feel compassion for everyone except the people whose income they seize, in the name of social justice. Presidents
legislate by an unconstitutional decree called an executive order. Congress legislates whatever it wants. If they
don't have a constituency to support it, they go behind closed doors.
They tell us we should be thankful to live in a country where we enjoy such freedom as they allow. And who could
be more thankful than our demagogues? They live in luxury and retire at full salary, which the rest of us pay for, while perpetuating
state dependency through the Social Security fraud.
No wonder they broke so readily into, "God bless America."
They tell us there is evil in the world and we must eradicate it from the face of the earth. Why not erase it at
home and kill big government instead, as our forefathers did? With a government reduced to its justifiable function
we might be able to defend ourselves and prevent another Pearl Harbor or 9-11.
Cutting government down to legitimacy would require dissent, but dissent is unpatriotic. So we let big government
roll and try to keep out of its way. And it's been on a roll.
Guns are dangerous, the government and its liberal allies tell us, as the shadow of its weapons stockpile grows longer.
Surrender you arms, for your own safety. Forget that Second Amendment nonsense, and trust us to handle all the guns.
We're on your side.
Our dollar is the world's reserve currency, as good as gold, government assures us. Gold in fact is a Bad Thing because
it threatens the existence of government paper. That's why father Roosevelt took gold away from his children.
Our fiat dollar today buys what a nickel did a century ago.
Drugs are harmful, the government decrees, so it launches an endless war that creates a violent and costly black market.
Racism is evil, it proclaims, as it demands racial quotas in hiring.
Poverty is inhuman, it tells us, while escalating the war on the producers of wealth.
Education is vital, it preaches, as it shapes our children's minds to equate morality with sacrifice, freedom with slavery,
and evil with business.
Smoking and obesity are health threats, state nannies warn us, as juries give victims of their own poor choices a field
day in courts.
And we motor around with the Stars and Stripes plastered on our rear ends, telling government, "We're on your side, too."
What protesters we see are the ones we would expect to find in a culture saturated with state love. Government isn't
big enough, they complain. At the G8 summit in Canada recently, a youth socialist choir sang "Free the people, not the
market," while wearing their beloved designer jeans. [1] If something exists, the state should control it. They protest the stinginess of the U.S. for not writing a
check in the amount of our GDP and handing it over to African dictators.
Just as we have had the convenience of withholding taxes since July 1, 1943, so now we have the ease of being patriots
by just smiling and going along.
References
1. Fears of violent protests against G8 summit prove unfounded
