Publius Returns

Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time

"It has been observed in a former paper that “the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.” If the justness of this observation be admitted, the mode of appointing the officers of the United States contained in the forgoing clause must, when examined, be allowed to be entitled to particular commendation. It is not easy to conceive a plan better calculated than this to promote a judicious choice of men for filling the offices of the Union; and it will not need proof that on this point must essentially depend the character of it administration.” Publius, Number 76

As a young man in my early twenty’s, I took to the road as a transient bum, a spiritual depression having grabbed my gut with the force of a vise. I was apolitical and inwardly lost. After several years of that fruitless endeavor, the Vietnam war was escalating. Since I was no good to anyone, I decided it was my duty to help the other young men already over there. I joined the Army.

I have spent the last 40 years wondering if any of the decisions I made back then were good or bad. Along that path, however, I have made some discoveries that I have no doubts about. Political decisions, right or wrong, do not change the fundamentals of what many everyday Americans still stand for. Unfortunately, our government does not seem to either care, encourage, or enforce the foundations of what America was while in the process of driving it to what it is becoming and apparently stands for today.

I have come to realize that what we stood for is slowly eroding, and that that erosion is escalating at an exponential pace. I have learned that the Silent Majority is irrelevant; that people remain in denial of even the least of the salient changes in their lives. I have learned that revolt does not come as long as people’s bellies are full, and they have work. I have learned that the much sought after utopia is impossible, and that some people just need to be shot.

There is no denying that in those 40 years our country has undergone changes that moderate what we once were, and that I believe would horrify our founding fathers. With each passing administration the government grows, and with each passing year they take a more authoritarian role in telling its citizens what they believe, who they are, and what they must give to a cause they don’t understand.

Factions work tirelessly to change the fabric of America. While examples of these changes go back almost to the turn of the last century, the most influential and apparent of them were kindled in the 1960’s. Some of the most active factions of the 60’s were kids from influential families. The protest against the Vietnam war gave them a platform to air and defend their own irresponsibilities, examples of which were Jane Fonda, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and Paul Krassner. They fueled a worldwide protest against established cultures, almost of any kind. Theirs was not so much a protest against the war as a protest against their parents, against a culture that held back their desire for fractious fame and childish irresponsibility, and to buttress their leadership within the ranks of their peers.

Many of these people became our senators, businessmen, and university professors. And thus a strong left, liberal autocracy began to unravel the traditional fabric of America. Gay rights, abortion rights, the attack on gun rights, multiculturalism, and socialist idealism were simply outward manifestations of a deeper disease.

To the young, these ideals seem reasonable, attainable, fair, and lofty. They appear as threads to cling to with philosophical nuances substantial enough to argue their point with an older generation they want to distance themselves from.

The end run of all this stupidity is socialism, universal healthcare, higher taxes, bigger government, massive welfare programs, the demise of the promise of America, and economic ruin. The fruit of anyone’s labor will become the livelihood of those who do not labor. Our foreign policy will become the obsequious gesture of a spineless nation. We will acquiesce to the meaningless demands of the UN. We will appease the world’s tyrants. We will pay homage to our enemies and forget our allies. We will encourage a diversity to support disunity. Our youthful naiveté will encourage despots to laugh at us. Elitist criminals will run with our money. And in the end our name and our flag we once held dear will become vestiges of something only within historical accounts that are unavailable.

The fact is, Americans are reverting to a less civilized state. Tattoos, piercings, body art, sloppy clothes, and an ungroomed appearance are swiftly becoming the norm. On the Barnes and Noble magazine shelf I counted eleven different tattoo magazines, yet many conservative books cannot be found. It was interesting that in a recent trip to Europe, I saw very few tattoos, and most of those were mutilating the bodies of American tourists. Americans are rebelling against personal responsibility and the generations who gave them a prosperous, civilized country, many of whom gave their lives for it. Pornography, violence, and profanity are becoming the norm.

President Obama in his first few weeks in office is playing into this modern movement. He has alienated millions of Christians by supporting abortion here and abroad. He has lifted the ban on stem cell research. And now he tells the world that America is not a Christian nation.

He referred to Gioacchino da Fiore three times during his campaign. According to the most ''vogueish'' interpretations, the utopian mystic proposed a new liberal and spiritual Church able to move beyond dogmas and hierarchies.Catholics object to this view because believers must be guided not only by the spirit but also by the laws of the Church. “It can be fatal to do without one or the other of these guides''Gioacchino da Fiore, whose theories were confuted by St Thomas Aquinas, inspired several heretical and esoteric theologists and thinkers including Francis Bacon.In his campaign speeches, Obama referred to Gioacchino da Fiore as a ''master of contemporary civilization'' and someone who wanted to create a fairer world. Italy's most famous literary figure, Dante Alighieri, referred to Gioacchino da Fiore as a ''gifted prophet'' in his famous work The Divine Comedy.

The liberal movement in the United States is an attack on America’s traditional public faith in the footsteps of Gioacchino da Fiore. The movement toward a socialist economy is as well. A trip to the internet forums in the matter of the Catholic church’s disagreement with President Obama’s reference to Gioacchino da Fiore brings not just a single disdainful entry against the church, but all of them, many of whom describe themselves as atheists. This debate may be healthy, but it takes another bite out of America’s public faith. Notre Dame has withdrawn its claim to America’s primary Catholic University by having him speak at their graduation ceremony and bestowing an honorary law degree on him.

Public faith and its icons were not the only sustaining force of American life. The inviolability of private property, the right to defend oneself against a tyrannical government or violence brought against its citizens, the right to happiness, the right to liberty, and the right to intervene when the government demands of you that which it has no right to enforce, each contribute to the strength of America, the America you grew up in.

But they are quickly becoming rights of the past, seemingly relics in a new world order as socialism worms its way into the American fabric. Communism is simply socialism with its foot on your neck, something we have fought against throughout our history.

And where is the upheaval among the majority of Americans? But of course, they are irrelevant!

And so, like the elephant, America is being eaten, one bite at a time.

A united front is called for, a swelling of discontent among those of us who contribute by a call to arms, who work and pay taxes, who wish to hold on to America’s public faith, a free market economy, and respect for personal responsibility through one’s efforts. As naïve as all that might seem, to what haven of apathy has escaped our once noble birthright? Where is our will to take America back?