The Constitutional Alamo

In anticipation of the coming Independence Day Tea Parties and in response to recent episodes of government idiocy, I have produced a rewrite of Thomas Paine’s classic, The Crisis.  Six essays will be included in the set.  The first installments will be the introduction–in essence, a call to arms–and an open letter to the president.  The next release will feature open letters to the State media and to Democrats.  Finally, I will post open letters to Republicans and to our Posterity.  If anyone would like a full copy of the work in .doc format, I will be happy to e-mail one to you.  Enjoy!

by Michael Naragon

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in 1776.  George Washington read the first of Paine’s Crisis essays to his men at Valley Forge the next winter in order to encourage them in their hardship.

Our current president likes to use the term “crisis” when it gives him and our hearing-impaired Congress the chance to pass some new liberty-robbing legislation.  To Mr. Obama, we have an economic crisis, a health care crisis, an environmental crisis, an educational crisis, and so on ad infinitum.  His chief-of-staff and secretary of state have both gone on record saying that a good crisis should not go to waste.  I heartily agree with that sentiment, though my definition of the true “crisis” in America will differ greatly with that of our esteemed president.

We are in the midst of the most crucial moment of our lifetimes.  The United States stands on the brink of oblivion.  Critics would claim that to say so is fear-mongering or dangerous paranoia.  If reading these words gives you cause to fear, the greater good may be served, so long as that fear turns quickly to righteous anger and then staunch opposition to the movement that would take our nation from us and leave our children destitute.

Make no mistake, do not underestimate the foe.  The fight will not be easy.  Conquering tyranny, in any form, is never a simple task.  The fair-weather patriots or thin-skinned warriors will quickly fade from the battle.  But, as Paine exhorted our Founding Fathers, “the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”  Of all the things provided to us by our Creator, it is the concept of FREEDOM, and our rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, that we should treasure the most.  How much more will our generation value such ideals, now that we are faced with a battle to preserve them!

My friends, rather than wallow in misery at the way the forces of oppression are extending their reach into every home and place of business and tightening their grip on our collective future, let us count ourselves fortunate.  If the fight did not come to our generation, a much more difficult–perhaps impossible–contest would confront our children and grandchildren.  Better that we be the ones to stoop to the muddy ground and take up the gauntlet that has been thrown down than pass such a task to our posterity.

Is our task impossible?  The men who currently represent our interests in government appear to have abandoned their sensibilities and loyalties to their constituencies and their Constitution.  Each of them has taken an oath to uphold and protect the document which defines the rights of the states and the people.  Time and again in recent history, our Congress and president have failed to remain true to their promise.

Their latest crime against the Constitution, the so-called “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” stands to continue the current administration’s attempt to gut our economy, to destroy to free-market system that has been the vehicle to our prosperity for 200 years.  Our federal government appears willing and able to subject the citizenry to financial slavery for the foreseeable future through the use of massive spending bills and the foreign borrowing, inflation, higher taxes, and higher cost of living that will inevitably result from such a course of action.

Before the passage of the stimulus bills of 2008 and 2009, the Obama budget, and this ridiculous grasp for power in the guise of cleaning the earth, millions of Americans called for their representatives to vote against such irresponsibility.  Millions demonstrated their frustration by taking to the streets in February, April, and, soon, July as part of the Tea Party movement.  Few among the Washington elite listened to the public outcry, deciding instead that they knew better than the People what was beneficial for the nation.  Unfortunately, most of those Congressmen who voted to mortgage our future and annex our liberty did so without reading the legislation first.  In the case of the “cap-and-trade” bill, one of its sponsors, Henry Waxman, admitted that even he had not read the entire bill.

Returning to the initial question, is our task impossible?  How can we fight the power of a federal government that seemingly oversteps its Constitutional boundaries on a daily basis?  How can we stop a presidential administration that, rather than wait for the approval of a complicit Congress, appoints Czar after Czar to control more aspects of our lives from the executive branch in direct violation of the Constitutional system of checks and balances?  Can we enact our own version of change through our right to vote in 2010?

My countrymen, I do not believe that God has set us in such a place, at such a time, to simply fail.  The Founding Fathers–none of whom, Mr. Obama may be shocked to learn, was Muslim–created a nation unlike any on earth.  They asked for guidance from the Creator of the universe, and I believe they received that for which they entreated Him.  The United States has existed and thrived, in large part, because of the country’s foundation of moral principle and moral people.

Today, the liberal movement has done much to remove the influence of religion from our government, our schools, and, as a result, our population in general.  The Creator, however, has protected America since its inception so that it would remain a sanctuary for those who wished to worship Him in peace and security.  It is up to the free citizens of this great nation to ensure that America continues to be synonymous with freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and, to alter the sentiment of Franklin Roosevelt slightly, freedom from fear that the federal government will remove these Constitutional freedoms through oppressive legislation.

The only fear present in the United States today should be the government’s fear of the People.  As Jefferson wrote, “When the People fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the People, there is Liberty.“  Our system is based not on the tyranny of an elitist government, but on the Liberty of the citizens.  It is high time that we, the People, placed fear in the hearts of those in Washington.

What is it that they fear?  Their power has jaded them to all but one terror: the loss of their power.  Their lust for control drives them to pass laws that no one who truly loves the United States and wishes it to thrive could support.  Their quest for power causes them to lie and distort the facts in order to convince the masses that they wish only the best for America, when it is, in fact, the opposite that they desire.  While Mr. Obama claims that the country’s massive deficit, for which he is more responsible than any president in recent history, keeps him awake at night, the only scenario that truly haunts him and his fellow politicians in Washington is the fear of losing their death grip on political power.

In 2010, we can make this fear a reality for many in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  The enemies of this nation know this.  Their leaders know this, as well, which is why they are passing as many laws as possible in the time they have left.  In the first six months of the Obama presidency, the liberal Congress has passed a second stimulus ($787 billion), an “omnibus” bill ($410 billion), a $650 billion down-payment on health care reform, and a budget that will add $1.8 trillion to the nation’s debt this year, $1.3 trillion next year, and nearly a trillion dollars in new taxes over the next ten years.  These bills, in sum, are the desperate attempt of a radical government to extend their reach in a very short amount of time.

This overreach of government power had been largely checked until the 20th century.  Woodrow Wilson used the office of the presidency to regulate more facets of American society than ever before.  Real radicalism came under Franklin Roosevelt who, like Mr. Obama, used a crisis to increase the power of the federal government to previously unimaginable levels in the name of doing “something.”  In the current health care debate, as in the pseudo-debates over the stimulus, omnibus, bailout, and cap-and trade bills, our representatives urge that we do “something.”  What they fail to mention is that their “something” is being done in order to expand the influence of the federal government on our daily lives, and that other, more conservative “something”s will not be evaluated or entertained.

The time for Washington’s reign of terror has come to an end.  We, as a People, can stand up to their brand of totalitarianism, which is the ultimate end of their policies, and draw the line.  Our collective voices can stop this insanity and bring order and Constitutionalism back to our government.  To do so will take leadership and sacrifice.  The enemy is entrenched and will not relinquish its position willingly.  They will use all weapons at their disposal, and their comrades in the media will assist whenever possible.  They will label you as part of a “lunatic fringe,” “right-wing Nazi,” “fascist,” “racist,” “teabagger,” “unsophisticated,” even “dangerous.”

And dangerous we will be.  Dangerous to those who would use their political position and influence to bankrupt our nation and destroy its virtue.

As stated earlier, the intent of this writing is not to cause you fear.  While you may fret when you look at the idiocy of Washington and our apparent powerlessness to stop it, this is not my view.  I am not afraid of the fight that is on the horizon, that has, in fact, been placed at our very doorstep.  Rather, I am energized that we will be the ones to make this great crusade for the sake of our Constitution and the principles our country was founded upon.  Of all recent generations, ours will be the one that values FREEDOM the most, as we will be the ones that were called upon to fight for it.