This Memorial Day, I read a number of articles, heard a couple of podcasts, and listened to several songs that were sent to me. All focused on one thing, the sacrifices many have made to protect our freedom, our liberty. I was struck by two emotions, quite different. One was a great deal of pride in the US. It remains the only nation founded on a set of political principles, "that all men are created equal." That was a very radical concept in the late 18th Century, as was the idea that people could rule themselves. I know, I know..... We have had flaws, some major ones. And perhaps we don't move quickly enough in some areas. But the US and Americans continue to grow, to expand the meaning of "all people are created equal." Can anyone reasonably argue that the US doesn't lead the world in freedom and liberties? Note my qualifier, "reasonably." That so many Americans gave their lives for this radical idea, that we could govern ourselves, is to be celebrated and commemorated. I genuinely feel terrible about those Americans who died for the political ambitions and egos of politicians, not to protect our freedom. The other emotion was sadness, that those liberties and freedoms we should be holding most dear, for which many gave their lives, are eroding, gradually being taken from us. Look at the last 15 months of the CoVid fascism. Yes, I said it, "fascism." Political leaders took our freedoms all in the name of "following the science," when in reality many of them didn't and, in fact, the science was never settled, never clear. Oh, some people can and still believe it was. But it never was. Look how many times Fauci, the CDC, the WHO, and other "experts" changed their minds on what to do. I'm not blaming them for not knowing what to do. I am blaming them for issuing autocratic orders that harmed so many people. I'm also asking why so many of "them" were able to ignore their own orders when they found such orders inconvenient. Why were so many Michigan business owners, especially those in the restaurant and bar businesses, fined and even jailed for failing to follow the arbitrary orders, yet the governor ignored them when she found they got in her way? And yet many bobble heads refer to standing up for our rights, for fighting for our liberties, as "rebellious." Is this what so many Americans in the military died for, so we could so easily cede our freedom? I wonder if these same people refer to the riots, er "peaceful protests," in many of our major cities, the take-over of neighborhoods, and the epidemic of urban shootings and murders as "rebellious." It's not just the CoVid orders. The Democrats are throwing around several trillion dollar budget proposals like they were wedding confetti. And the Establishment Republicans don't seem willing to stand up and say, "NO!" Nope, they are preparing their own budget proposals, ones that include only a trillion dollars or so. You know, that new kind of money, "only dollars." Such will also steal our freedoms and liberties. We can tax corporations and the billionaires at a tax rate of 100% and still not bring in enough revenue to pay for such outlandish spending. So, who's next? We are, "great unwashed." With less money, that is, after the government legally steals it from us, our freedom will be further diminished. We won't be able to go where we might want. We won't be able to buy what we might want. We won't have enough money to be free to do many things. That, as much as the authoritarian CoVid orders, steals our liberty from us. So very distressing is that, at least in my view, the majority of Americans either favor what has been and is being done or are willing to let it happen with nary a peep. After all, who wants to be identified as having "a rebellious attitude?"

A New Political Party?

The words have been blaring at me for the past few weeks. "What happened to our country?" "Our increasingly unrecognizable civilization." "Where has my country gone?" And more. The past few years have made an incredible (and I don't toss around that term as loosely as most) transformation of the United States. It may be hyperbole, but much of US society might well be "unrecognizable" just a few short decades ago. We all know about the government response to CoVid, it's often arbitrary, contradictory, and even ridiculous orders. I don't know if the politicians and bureaucrats have "saved lives" or even brought the virus to a quicker end. More recent revelations, often ignored by the mainstream media, strongly indicate thinking people don't either. ("Believing" is not "knowing.") There's no need to recount in detail what we do know, that the government and bureaucratic orders have caused irreparable damage to the US--economically, socially, psychologically, and more. Only the willfully blind can deny that. Businesses, jobs, and income lost. Increases in suicides, spousal violence, and drug and alcohol abuse. The harm, educationally, socially, and psychologically, to our youths. All this in the guise of something that we don't know, "saving lives." For whatever reasons, too, Americans have shifted their attitudes, being increasingly acquiescent to government, well, dictates. A recent article describing oppostion to government mandates decried it as "rebellious attitude." Hmmm. "Rebellious" for trying to stand up for rights and liberty? Americans are far more tolerant of dishonesty and other formerly bad behaviors, especially if it comes from their guy/side. We have accepted inequality before the law. Our government has become decidedly unrepresenative. I, for one, have become convinced of the bankruptcy of the philosophies, principles, and policies by which we've been governed. There is a gigantic chasm between the reality of my life and the thoughts and actions of our elected representatives, those chosen to govern us. It may be arguable, but many Americans believe they have been deprived of a place in the present political system. (I acknowledge that much of American history shows that many groups have also been deprived. That was wrong. But it's also wrong to deprive others while tryng to "fix" that.) For people in this new group which feels deprived, the "representative" part of representative government doesn't exist for them. American democracy has developed an unrepresentative character. Are the only viable alternatives for this large mass of people to either retreat further into a state of apathy, accepting the modern verson of the Roman "bread and circuses" (government handouts, television and movies, sports, etc.), or assaulting the system, perhaps violently? This has been done by the rioters, er "peaceful protesters," in many of our cities. There have been assaults on government properties and even officials, well, if they are members of the wrong political party. But perhaps there is another option. To me, the Democrats and Establishment Republicans do not conform to the traditional two-party system employed by the US from the late 1700s and early 1800s. As noted, they have become bankrupt in their philosophies and principles. The Democrats submit to the craziest, looniest members of their party. To justify their undemocratic, authoritarian, etc. policies (and goals), they often redefine terms to suit themselves. The Republicans have lost their soul. For instance, where the Democrats urge the spending of trillions of federal dollars, the Establishment GOP counters with spending only a lesser amount of trillions of dollars. If we are not too far gone, the answer might lie in a new political party, one that represents more of the people than either the Democrats or the Republicans. I'm not talking about a splinter party (The Bull Moose Progressives, the American Independents) as we've seen in the past nor a third/minor party (The Libertarians, the Green Party). Sometimes they have been sigificant, but usually only in helping to determine the outcomes of Presidential elections, for instance in 1848, 1912, 1948, and 1992. (We might even argue that in regard to Lincoln's election in 1860.) It's apparent the Green Party candidacies of Ralph Nader in 2000 and Jill Stein in 2016 affected the results. No, a real major party. We haven't had one since the current Republican Party was founded in 1854. In its own way, the early Republican Party satisfied, at least in part, old Whigs, the Freesoilers, and unhappy Democrats (over slavery). The Republicans offered new philosophies and principles. It was remarkably successful almost from the start. In 1856, its candidate John C. Fremont (The Pathfinder, what a cool nickname!) narrowly lost the Presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan. And of course, the Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected four years later. This will not be easy and, frankly, I don't see it happening for many reasons. Roadblocks include the vast infusion of money into the political system, a lapdog media, and, well, the apathy of American citizens. Additionally, can we find men and women who are willing and courageous enough to search for and promote alternatives to the obsolete and bankrupt policies of the current two major parties? Unless they embrace "wokeism," people with new ideas or ideas that return us to more traditional American princples are attacked, even dishonestly. They are assaulted by the two current parties and by the media, often dishonestly. Donald Trump did this with a number of possible hopes, destroying their futures with lies. We'll see and I can hope. More later.