God’s Word tells us, in Joel 1:3: “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” This is still excellent advice for Americans today in regards to the topic of ‘freedom’, because if any group of people is in danger of losing the liberties bequeathed to them by their Fore Parents, it is the people of the U.S. It is US! The Founders of the United States were a pretty wise collection of men (aided and encouraged by a wise collection of their wives and mothers, I’m certain). By declaring “Independence” from Mother England they knew they would be considered as traitors to the King and would suffer the consequences should they be caught by the King’s men. Benjamin Franklin reminded his countrymen (and especially US) that, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Franklin’s words are doubly true today.
Sam Adams, the “firebrand of the Revolution”, further reminded his somewhat timid fellow would-be revolutionaries that, “If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude (more) than the animating contest of freedom---(then) go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen”. No politically correct words here. Can
you imagine any one of our New Bolshevik politicians saying those words today, unless they could use them to attack President Trump? I can’t. I can barely imagine a Republican saying them (but then, we have so few REAL constitutional Republicans among us in these days of pathetic “RINO-ISM” and treacherous “NEOCON-ISM, sad to say).
Exactly how would Americans of today be considered by our Founders, could they come back among us for a brief time? Would they be pleased with the spirit of resistance and non-compliance with stifling bureaucracy we exhibited, would they laud President Trump for his determination over the past four years to free his people from tomes of restrictive regulations imposed on us by what today I refer to as the toadies of The Klan of New Bolsheviks (formerly the Democrat Party) and the sinister anti-American “Deep Staters” (i.e. The Council on Foreign Relations and the mega wealthy “insiders” who control that treasonous organization) who really control that party and much of American political thought, or would they recoil and accuse us of being little more than slaves? Well fed and somewhat well read, perhaps, and even well off financially---but still slaves in their eyes.
Sam Adams and his fellow “Boston Tea Partiers” in 1773 tossed chests of expensive English tea into Boston Harbor rather than be subject to what today would be considered a miniscule tax. They protested “taxation without representation”. Today’s Americans, in every state, pay vastly more percentage-wise on every gallon of gas we purchase. And we do that WITH representation. It seems to me that most of our people let their “ho hum” attitudes shine through their fog of unconcern, rather than “locking and loading” (figuratively for now) their political umbrage and directing it at the politicians who habitually ignore them.
Americans used to know a lot about their freedoms and were loathe to relinquish them lightly. Locally controlled schools (before they surrendered to the “siren song” of federal money—AND federal control—thus becoming government centers of indoctrination and non-education)--did their best to instill the knowledge of why our constitution came about, how federalism operated, what separation of powers meant, what states’ rights implied, and what responsibilities the people had to exercise to maintain their liberties. Threats to those liberties were taken very seriously.
Then came the “progressive movement” of the early 20th century (and even before that), with former President Teddy Roosevelt and President Woodrow Wilson as its champions; followed by the purposely induced “Great Depression” of 1929-1940, when our people began to relinquish their constitutional liberties for a “mess of ‘New Deal’ pottage” that the ever growing federal leviathan promised would “end the depression” that the Federal Reserve mostly caused. After the government-growing WW11 ended, the people’s freedoms kept taking hits, mostly from the expanding power and rapaciousness for “big brother” control exhibited by Washington, D.C., aided and abetted by an increasingly liberal influence in, and increasingly unconstitutional decisions by, the increasingly extreme Supreme Court.
I fear that if our Founders came back for a visit today, they wouldn’t recognize the government that they set up in our Constitution and Bill-of-Rights. Neither would they accept the fact that our judiciary, which they established as the WEAKEST of the three branches of government, has essentially usurped to itself most of the power, and now basically MAKES LAWS, rather than ruling on cases based on laws made by our Congress, a body of increasingly progressive robots (pro-bots) which has meekly surrendered to judicial tyranny brought on by the COWARDICE of our elected representatives that has been embarrassingly exhibited over recent decades.
When freedom dies, it usually doesn’t die with a bang, but rather with a protracted whimper, often lasting for generations. Today’s Americans have forgotten some of the most important words sent down the long corridor of time from our Founders (and even before them) to us: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD! Our Founders understood that, and most of them sacrificed their lives, or their fortunes, or their property, or their health, or their families, or their tranquility, or their freedom, or ALL these things, to resist the type of tyranny that today’s Americans accept with nary a second thought or with little more than aggravated grumblings.
Has this slow death of freedom come about because our people have stopped valuing the “old things” and have departed from “the old ways”? That certainly seems to be true. Why has the “old” morality become unfashionable? Because it surely has. Why have Americans turned their indignations away from the death of Biblical teachings and principles that guided our ancestors so long and so well? Because we obviously have. Why are things and acts that were unthinkable in earlier generations now normal? Because they definitely are. Why are our people, even those who call themselves Christians, turning away from righteousness? Because we have, and are continuing to do so. Has the God of Scripture turned His face away from America, and is He leaving us to our own wickedness and to the fate we’re bringing upon ourselves? I believe all of us can provide some kind of answers to these questions if we’d dare to do so. I also believe that we may not like the answers we provide to ourselves, if we are honest. We’ll talk more about this next time.