Did you hear that? Just now. It was barely audible, no more than a gasp, not even a faint cry. If you really strained your ears and listened you might just have heard it. It was the dying breath of America as we knew her. She passed tonight but you could hardly hear above all the din and commotion. You would hardly know amid the spectacle of paunchy legislators, smiling fatuously, and the Queen of all legislators, grinning like Skeletor himself. Amid talk of evil insurance companies and unfinished business, of reform, fairness and social justice, America quietly died tonight and barely anyone noticed. She went out, not with a bang, but a whimper …
But, you say, the sun will still rise tomorrow. Yes, it will. And life must go on. Yes, it must, but with a difference. Even if this imminent law does not result in all the wild things we crazy right wingers have been saying — to wit: rationing of healthcare services to cover thirty million uninsured; cuts in Medicare resulting in tens of thousands of doctors, hospitals and outpatient clinics refusing to treat Medicare patients, having disastrous consequences for the elderly; virtual God-like control by government healthcare planners (i.e., bureaucrats) who will deny treatments and limit drug availability; all while adding hundreds of billions to the deficit when it becomes clear that the Democrats’ gerrymandering of the numbers to achieve so-called cost-containment is exposed for the fraud that it is — even if by some fantastic fairy-tale magic none of these things ever come to pass and we are all holding hands and skipping down the flower-strewn path to good health, this soon-to-be tragedy called universal healthcare will have ripped the very heart and soul out of this country.
And why is that, you ask? Because we have just entered the Age of Dependence: a time when we no longer possess our individual rights independent of the government, but instead beholden to the government. Government has gone from protector to provider, from neutral referee to biased participant. The government, it must be allowed, has now given us something, for a price. The price is liberty. We owe them now. And that which is given, can always be taken away. A passage of uncertain origin, but generally attributed to Scottish-born writer and lawyer Alexander Tytler, is of relevance here:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years… Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.
If Mr. Tytler is anywhere near as prescient as he seems, we have only one more age to go, and tonight we’ve just paved the way there very nicely.
America died tonight. And if you still haven’t an inkling as to what I am talking about, then I’ll never be able to explain it to you. You’ll just have to listen better.
For more on this topic, link to:
https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/why-you-don%e2%80%99t-have-a-right-to-healthcare/
https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/fortune-favors-the-brave/
https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/the-arrogance-of-hope-change-%e2%80%a6-or-else/
Tags: abundance to selfishness, age of dependence, Alexander Tytler, America R.I.P., apathy to dependence, beholden to government, bondage to spiritual truth, budget deficit, complacency to apathy, Congress, cost containment, courage to liberty, democrats, deny treatments, dependence to bondage, doctors refusing to treat patients, drug availability, evil insurance companies, fairness, fraud, given away liberty, government, government healthcare, government healthcare planners, government run healthcare, great nations rise and fall, healthcare rationing, healthcare reform, hospital, individual rights, legilators, liberty, liberty to abundance, Medicare, Medicare cuts, outpatient clinic, pelosi, Pelosi as skeletor, rationing, reform, selfishness to complacency, social change, social justice, thirty million uninsured, universal healthcare
Culture Crusader 
March 22, 2010 at 4:39 am |
If America has died, it died when the Republican led Congress stood by while a small cabal of war mongering, oil barons took our country into an unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq, looted our treasury and spilled unnecessarily our precious lifeblood by putting our troops in harm’s way. It died when the Supreme Court made an unprecedented move and stopped a state election recount in order to avoid the aggrieved party (George Bush) irreparable harm. They put an individual’s feelings over the democratic process that is the defining element of this country. It died when Americans were illegally eavesdropped on by the NSA. It died when the Supreme Court decided that corporations, with their limitless wealth, have the same privilege as a citizen in the electoral process. And it will certainly die when the right pushes this nation into a theocracy.
I listened to the debate and heard nothing but the same, false talking points from the right. What really struck me is the citizenry that they claim oppose this reform all used the very same talking points to express that opposition. The very same talking points propagandized daily on the “fair and balanced” Fox “News” Channel.
Give it up. The right WILL, if allowed to continue their brand of fear mongering poison, kill what’s left of our democracy and then America will truly be dead. If lies and specious arguments are all the right can come up with then I submit that you are un-American and should be the ones who leave. You wont like living in a true democracy.
March 23, 2010 at 6:23 pm |
Bush, oil barons and the Republican led Congress, huh. You’re real good at your revisionist history. Here’s a little blast from the past for you:
To link to the full article click here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/157wjmhn.asp
March 23, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Of course if I only showed you cherry-picked information (and there’s lots of evidence of the CIA being pressured to provide only bits that fit the prescribed view, to their shame) you’d draw the same conclusions. This is the same talking oints from years ago as the real story emerged. This blast from from past has been debunked by the Senator herself. Please note the date of the article is September 2003. Old news and being the Weekly Standard, not exactly unbiased toward you extremists on the right.
And extremists you are. You have no room in your tent for moderates or people who might see some value in social justice without it being converted to a communist or fascist plot. Let’s remember that Nazi Germany was all about God and Christianity and preservation of pure Aryan culture. Le’s be honest – it’s YOU guys who represent the threat of fascism in America, not the reasonable and fair minded middle class. It is precisely because the middle class tends to be the ones concerned with fairness and justice that it is being squeezed out of existence by people who think like you.
This is at best, a feeble defense. It did not escape my notice that none of the other points were addressed.
As someone who is so concerned with government intrusion into our private lives, I would think you’d be at the head of the line of opposition when it comes to domestic spying. You’re fond of quoting the Founders (usually quoting them out of context) – what do you say to Ben Franklin’s, ” Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” What do you suppose he’d have to say about the NSA? Funny thing about you folk on the right – when you want to control the lives and liberties of others you’ve always got some security or religious soapbox from which to further your fallacious falderal. As soon as something like fair tax responsibility comes along (i.e., paying your fair share), your pseudo-libertarian panties are all up in a knot.
As I said in your posting last night, I’d hoped for an exchange of ideas and some reasonable opportunity to learn from one another and possibly come to some common understanding. But this is too Liberal a view for you. This is the sort of basic, progressive tendency that gets distorted into “liberals want to hold and offer counseling to terrorists”. The right is incapable of understanding and compassion. They only know and love authoritarian control of others. You are Not America. I’m happy to say that she still resides in the purview of progressive thought and action. You can only obstruct it temporarily but the louder your trumpets bray the more marginalized you become. How sad for you.
March 23, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Really? You work for the CIA? Why didn’t you say so? Well, now that changes everything!
Debunked by the Senator? More like attempted to be covered up by the Senator when the political winds blew the other way. And what are you saying? That the Standard – that extreme right-wing rag —actually made up what she said? Ok. Here are her own words taken from the Congressional Record:
I guess it all depends what the public mood is at the time. Still unconvinced? Here is a list of statements made by other prominent Democrats and what they had to say regarding Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction program:
And what’s this supposed to mean: “Let’s remember that Nazi Germany was all about God and Christianity” If you knew anything about history, you would know that the Nazis, like any other progressives, were adamantly opposed to God and Christianity. Hitler, for his part, thought it got in the way of true National Socialist thinking. Other Nazis, like Himmler, wanted to do away with Christianity all together and set up a quasi-Pagan Aryan cult that would be in contravention of Christian principles. Do your due diligence before you write, idiot! Speaking of which, show me where I’ve misquoted any of the Founders.
Finally, the reason I don’t respond to every bit of codswallop that leaks out of your brain is because it is just that. (For examples, see above). Frankly, I’m about one keystroke away from deleting your comments as spam. If you have something to say on this blog, keep it focused and succinct as I don’t want to lose readership through boredom.
March 22, 2010 at 12:27 pm |
“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”
— George Washington
March 22, 2010 at 5:05 pm |
Here! Here, sir!
May 28, 2010 at 3:41 am |
George Washington no more resembles the liberals of today than Ted Kennedy resembles Twiggy. Do me a favor, quote your own heroes (e.g., Jane Fonda, Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, etc.) and keep away from ours.
The “liberal” thought of George Washington’s had nothing to do with what liberalism is perverted into today. It had nothing to do with big governement intervention; quite the contrary. Liberalism in the eighteenth century Enlightenment sense simply meant liberality, freedom, free and forward thinking socieities as opposed to the rigidity and tyranny of monarchical rule.
Ironically, the so-called “liberals” of today are actually throwbacks to the monarchists of old in their penchant for large-scale, all-intrusive government.
March 23, 2010 at 4:54 am |
[…] Culture Crusader The Culture War is On! « America, R.I.P. […]
March 23, 2010 at 9:18 pm |
no they weren’t. they used Christian alignment with Christianity in the early days of their rise to power. Their attitudes toward the many factions varied and changed over the years. Many aspects of the Nazi cult had religious overtones. And once again you’re citing old references when the information was “incomplete”, shall we say.
Ok. Your pedantic rantings make for fascinating reading but mine are boring. I have no problem with you deleting my comments since you can’t really respond to them with fact. You’re just not that good with opposing views. You only like the sycophants who agree with you. Not surprising.
But in my liberal, progressive generosity to the lesser among us, I’ll save you the mental effort of going through the process of pressing a keystroke. As I indicated in last night’s post, I’m done with your brand of swill. I’ll not waste my time attempting any further communication.
March 23, 2010 at 9:20 pm |
Goodbye and good riddance, you moron.
March 27, 2010 at 3:36 pm |
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