StudentForPaul08
09-12-2008, 10:50 AM
Out of frustration, i wrote an article yesterday in regards to our current political trends, i would love for everyone to read it and to comment about it.
Enjoy.
The Problem, and the future: A student perspective on politics
Thursday, September 11, 2008
I am writing this to inform my fellow Americans of the danger that we face today. Why is it that the love of liberty has been so lost? Why is it that the America we have today and the America that was born in 1776 so vastly different? Why has politics become so ignorant to the Constitution and our past? With so many questions, the only thing you can do is be listen and be heard.
So where do I start? With a subject so broad as politics; the American Revolution sounds fitting, as it was indeed the era in which American politics came to form. There was this amazing understanding and desire, to really to be left alone. Many American colonists, under the burden of excessive taxation with virtually no parliamentary influence, sought independence from British authority. After they obtained independence, this sentiment of liberty persisted and heavily influenced the architecture of the government they set out to create for themselves. They knew that liberty, both economic and personal, was essential to the new republic. They did not want to emulate the British monarchial government and its statistic ways. Our Founders' writings reflect their strong love for liberty:
“Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.”
George Washington
1796 - Farewell Address
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
Thomas Paine
1791 - Dissertation on First Principles of Government
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”
Thomas Jefferson
1774 - Summary View of the Rights of British America
The Founders' understanding of the importance of a free, empathetic, and educated populace explains their untiring work to establish individual liberty and secure its future.
Where would the framers fit in today’s society? And why have we drifted so far from the love of liberty, that the framers might not even recognize our shattered pseudo-republic-democracy? Are we even the America they created? The short answer is no. For example when you go to vote. Why are their only two candidates offering philosophically the same thing? Why in the media is having a love for liberty a ‘fringe’ position? Why today are we dealing with a bloated in-efficient government who ignore the constitution? Without the constitution we are no longer the America the framers wanted us to be. And as you can see drifting from this document has caused us to spin out of control into more government and less liberty. Our government feels the need to buy out banks to save them from collapse, to prop-up auto makers to save them from bankruptcy, to go to war as if it is healthy for the state, to control our social and economic lives in general. All of these ideas we fought against in the Revolutionary War have come full-circle again. Despite all of these problems what do the people do? Do the people look to our past? Read Common Sense by Thomas Paine? Do they read the Constitution? Do they choose the candidates who offer more freedom? No. They don’t. They have been brought up to think that freedom and liberty are just there, slowly breathing somewhere in the legislation or old documents of our past as if they will never disappear. Perhaps all of our problems lay within our broken bias median and horrible education system, and something tells me this did not happen on accident.
I am afraid that all ties to our past, to liberty, and too a true republic has been lost. If we are to gain back that which we lost I fear another revolution for the fight against tyranny may have to happen yet again. As Thomas Jefferson said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I am not saying tomorrow to pick up a weapon and take a stand. That day I hope is very far away. Though I think if we continue down this road, it may be in my lifetime.
Most Americans are so caught up in politics of big-government, foreign-interventionism, the welfare-warfare state, that they miss the big picture. Even in modern times there is a great need and place for this liberty that the founders had in mind. The only reason why we don’t have it now is because you bought into the “well those were the old days” rhetoric. Surely this talk helps some, the rich and the dirty politicians who should be thrown in jail and some even worse.
We have drifted so far from what the founders wanted; what I have said is considered ‘fringe‘. In the history of humanity tyranny has run rampant, and the light of liberty has been dim. I am here to say something different. To reject big-government, to reject that you can’t even make your own decisions about your life, to reject war, to reject empty suit politicians, to reject the welfare state, and to reject the endless path to despotism we seem to be heading in.
In concern of liberty,
Jon Lauro
Enjoy.
The Problem, and the future: A student perspective on politics
Thursday, September 11, 2008
I am writing this to inform my fellow Americans of the danger that we face today. Why is it that the love of liberty has been so lost? Why is it that the America we have today and the America that was born in 1776 so vastly different? Why has politics become so ignorant to the Constitution and our past? With so many questions, the only thing you can do is be listen and be heard.
So where do I start? With a subject so broad as politics; the American Revolution sounds fitting, as it was indeed the era in which American politics came to form. There was this amazing understanding and desire, to really to be left alone. Many American colonists, under the burden of excessive taxation with virtually no parliamentary influence, sought independence from British authority. After they obtained independence, this sentiment of liberty persisted and heavily influenced the architecture of the government they set out to create for themselves. They knew that liberty, both economic and personal, was essential to the new republic. They did not want to emulate the British monarchial government and its statistic ways. Our Founders' writings reflect their strong love for liberty:
“Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.”
George Washington
1796 - Farewell Address
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
Thomas Paine
1791 - Dissertation on First Principles of Government
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”
Thomas Jefferson
1774 - Summary View of the Rights of British America
The Founders' understanding of the importance of a free, empathetic, and educated populace explains their untiring work to establish individual liberty and secure its future.
Where would the framers fit in today’s society? And why have we drifted so far from the love of liberty, that the framers might not even recognize our shattered pseudo-republic-democracy? Are we even the America they created? The short answer is no. For example when you go to vote. Why are their only two candidates offering philosophically the same thing? Why in the media is having a love for liberty a ‘fringe’ position? Why today are we dealing with a bloated in-efficient government who ignore the constitution? Without the constitution we are no longer the America the framers wanted us to be. And as you can see drifting from this document has caused us to spin out of control into more government and less liberty. Our government feels the need to buy out banks to save them from collapse, to prop-up auto makers to save them from bankruptcy, to go to war as if it is healthy for the state, to control our social and economic lives in general. All of these ideas we fought against in the Revolutionary War have come full-circle again. Despite all of these problems what do the people do? Do the people look to our past? Read Common Sense by Thomas Paine? Do they read the Constitution? Do they choose the candidates who offer more freedom? No. They don’t. They have been brought up to think that freedom and liberty are just there, slowly breathing somewhere in the legislation or old documents of our past as if they will never disappear. Perhaps all of our problems lay within our broken bias median and horrible education system, and something tells me this did not happen on accident.
I am afraid that all ties to our past, to liberty, and too a true republic has been lost. If we are to gain back that which we lost I fear another revolution for the fight against tyranny may have to happen yet again. As Thomas Jefferson said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I am not saying tomorrow to pick up a weapon and take a stand. That day I hope is very far away. Though I think if we continue down this road, it may be in my lifetime.
Most Americans are so caught up in politics of big-government, foreign-interventionism, the welfare-warfare state, that they miss the big picture. Even in modern times there is a great need and place for this liberty that the founders had in mind. The only reason why we don’t have it now is because you bought into the “well those were the old days” rhetoric. Surely this talk helps some, the rich and the dirty politicians who should be thrown in jail and some even worse.
We have drifted so far from what the founders wanted; what I have said is considered ‘fringe‘. In the history of humanity tyranny has run rampant, and the light of liberty has been dim. I am here to say something different. To reject big-government, to reject that you can’t even make your own decisions about your life, to reject war, to reject empty suit politicians, to reject the welfare state, and to reject the endless path to despotism we seem to be heading in.
In concern of liberty,
Jon Lauro