Today is Presidents’ Day, a combined holiday for Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays and, in reality, more of an excuse for retailers to separate consumers from their money.
Presidents’ Day gives Congress another excuse to take the week off. Working stiffs, if they are lucky, get this Monday as a holiday. The pukes who roam the halls of Congress and anoint themselves with the unearned title “The Honorable” take all week off. It’s a mixed blessing since we are mostly better off if these clowns aren’t around to pass any more rights-robbing legislation.
But since we are here to honor two past Presidents, let’s wonder for a moment just what Washington, Lincoln and others would think of the American system of “government” as it exists today.
“Government is not reason and it is not eloquence,” Washington said. “It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it,” Lincoln wrote.
Since it is our present government that is denying freedom to others and serving as a fearful master, both Lincoln and Washington would be wondering just what they hell happened to the country they loved.
America today is not free nor is it the democratic republic envisioned by our forefathers.
“Step by step we see democracy being uprooted like an unwanted weed and the preparation for fascism, for a police state in America,” writes Stan Moore in Media Monitors Network. “The Congress is largely complicit. The media is supportive. The public is apathetic. By the time apathy is reversed, there may be little opportunity to restore what was lost without massive effort and pain.”
Are we past the point of resistance? Is resistance, as the Borg would say, futile?
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God,” said Thomas Jefferson. Is this the same God that George W. Bush claims to talk to so often? Somehow I doubt it.
“Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man,” wrote H.L. Mencken. “There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.”
Yet those who support the erosion of freedoms and abuses of American government as we now know it claim we should accept these encroachments on civil rights because we are war with terrorists and such tactics work.
“The question is not whether the system works, but whether we like the way it works,” writes Sy Leon, author of None of theAbove. “Just because something works doesn’t mean it is desirable. Concentration camps work, if your purpose is to enslave people. Stealing works, if all you care about is money. Lying works, if you don’t give a damn about your personal integrity. Literally anything, no matter how monstrously immoral will work, depending on your desires and how you define the term work.”
Yet those who defend the illegal and immoral actions of our government claim they are patriots for doing so.
“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons,” wrote Bertrand Russell.
Government under the Presidency of George W. Bush and the Republican leadership of Congress has grown more rapidly and to larger proportions than at any time in our history. Our forefathers worried about such government growth.
“Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have,” Thomas Jefferson said. “The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”
To best understand what has happened to our government, one need only listen to the words of President Bush:
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
It may be the only time Bush told the truth to the American people.
