Poking the Sleeping Giant

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”. Whether or not Admiral Yamamoto said these exact words after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor seems debatable. But the sentiment was spot on. The resolve of the American people was steeled and the effort to put down the spread of oppressive totalitarian regimes was swift and decisive. Sadly, lack of use in the subsequent 50+ years has rusted that once polished and formidable steel.

While the comparison to the war on terror is obvious in this example, let’s consider how this lack of resolve of the American people has led to the erosion of liberty. Consider these recent headlines: “Minneapolis City Council Limits Vehicle Idling to 3 Minutes”, “Beach Bonfire ban proposed in Seattle”, “Request for ‘Free Bird’ scarce after cigarette lighter ban”. Ok, I made the last one up but the others are real. These days fiction is separated from reality by about the same margin as the politician’s fingertip from your wallet/purse/murse. There is an ongoing, calculated, and determined assault on individual freedom in America and thereby an assault on the very foundation of this nation.

Who’s doing it? The elite ruling class embodied in our elected officials; aided by an ignorant electorate and abetted by an agenda driven media. Who’s responsible? (I’ll pause while we all find the closest mirror). Yes, my friends, we have only ourselves as ballot-casters to blame. Elections have consequences and one of those is the unelected positions that elected officials fill. These (ever increasing) bureaucracies live by only one rule: LIVE! The politicians live by one rule: RE-ELECTION! This behemoth has fed on itself so long that pushing back from the table now seems as likely as…well it just ain’t likely. (Consult your Southern Lexicon to decipher the previous sentence).

Day after day, somewhere in America, some authority decides that it knows better how to run our lives than we do. Thank goodness the federal government tells me which light bulbs I should use, that my television shows are going to be in high definition, and that, by-golly gee-whiz, they’re not going to stand for steroids in baseball! Where would I be without my benevolent Uncle Sam? “Uncle Sam, what color socks should I wear to work tomorrow? What’s that? I don’t have to work any more? I can just stay home and you’ll take care of me and those evil rich people will pay for it? Goody goody gumdrops!”

Freedom is the most precious element of our system of governance. It allows for each individual to live their life however they want to live it as long as it does not infringe on another’s same freedoms. This is the essence of liberty and the backbone of the Constitution. But this liberty cuts both ways and affords both success and failure. It’s the failure side with which we cannot seem to cope, i.e. The New Deal, The Great Society, “I feel yer pain!” and the latest incarnation, Change We Can Believe In. These are all the same; there’s nothing new here. It’s politicians exploiting fear and failure in order to seize power and maintain it. We are guilty in our successes and must assuage that guilt by ensuring that no one fails. This causes us to give up a little bit of our freedom. And tomorrow we’ll be asked to give up a little more. Meanwhile, the giant slumbers.

So what will awaken the sleeping giant? What will cause the American people to simply say ENOUGH! What will be the equivalent of a sneak attack on sovereign American soil? Last time I checked Google Earth, there was still a big void in the southern tip of Manhattan. “Come on!? How can you say that that had anything to do with eroding freedom in this country?” Well, what did we do? We cracked down on security at airports while, in the name of political correctness, made it practically a crime to look twice at someone who resembled those who attacked us. Thanks to one wacko, we now how to remove our shoes and run them through a security scanner. Instead of utilizing our own resources, we are relying on foreign countries (some of which cheered in the wake of 9/11) to set our gas prices. Where does individual freedom factor in to all of that? And still, the giant slumbers.

Part of me thinks the giant cannot be awakened. He has been rocked gently to sleep over so many years that he simply cannot be stirred. Another part of me still believes in the spirit of the American people. This part believes that overnight, this country will say 'Enough!' and get about the business of throwing those who want to push us into socialism out on their pointy ears. Socialism fails every time it’s tried. Free market capitalism works. It made this country great in an unprecedented short amount of time. It has generated wealth for those who took advantage of it but it leaves behind those who CHOOSE otherwise.

It comes down to this: What has historically been the way a people rejects an oppressive government? Answer: Revolution. Let’s hope it’s a bloodless one.

BQP