May 16, 2009 - I wonder, has anyone, (besides those of us who think about these type things all the time), wondered why Barack Obama is currently sitting in the White House.

People voted for Barry Soetoro, oops, Barack Obama, because they were tired of 8 years of George W. Bush and the direction our country had been going under a Republican led administration.

So they went to the polls in droves, stars in their eyes, mesmerized by promises of CHANGE, and cast their votes for their chosen one, a democrat who would make things well again in America.

Let’s just hold on a second, stop the train right here and think about something. Does anyone remember back to the election of 2000, when George W. Bush was running on a platform of a return to conservative values after two terms of a Clinton administration, and all the associated embarrassments that went along with it?

People sought CHANGE then as well. They wanted a White House were there were to be no extramarital escapades in the oval office. They wanted a return to more conservative values. What they ended up with was two needless wars, lots of infringements upon their rights and liberty, and a totally out of control deficit.

And, for anyone caring to go back even further in history, why did we elect Clinton in the first place? Maybe it was because Bush the elder came across as a bumbling fool who couldn’t get anything accomplished at all. Then again, maybe we just felt sorry for him because he was married to Hillary. Who knows?
Do you see a pattern in all this? Americans keep flipping back and forth, Republican-Democrat-Republican-back to Democrat, always seeking CHANGE from the previous administration. What’s the use?

If you can honestly say that under any recent administration our country has taken a distinctive turn for the better, then why in the hell did people vote for a CHANGE in direction? If things had been going along just hunky dory, wouldn’t people have voted for a candidate who promised more of the same?
The thing is, people don’t think about things like this, they just go to the polls and vote for the candidate who sounds the most convincing in offering us what we want to hear at that particular point in time.

We expect CHANGE to take place immediately, and if we don’t get it we quickly become disgruntled and seek someone else’s version of CHANGE.

Look at our lifestyles. We have instant messaging, meals that can be heated in a microwave and served up in minutes, wars are fought and won in a ninety minute made for TV film, and the list goes on and on. We expect instant results for everything. Is it any wonder why we keep flipping back and forth between political parties every few years?

Yet, if one where to think about such things, if each party really meant to bring change, wouldn’t they revoke all the laws passed by the previous administration that they found offensive? Wouldn’t they restore rights taken under false pretenses?

But that doesn’t happen, each succeeding administration passes its own new laws, further infringing upon our rights, our liberty, and our livelihood. Still we go on believing that with each new president, things are going to magically turn around for the better. Folks, it ain’t gonna happen!

If you look at political campaigns these days, much of the rhetoric is aimed at convincing you that they are better qualified to lead than their opponent. In 1956, H.L. Mencken wrote, “Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.”

The fact of the matter is this, both political parties have equal shares of the blame for what is wrong with this country. Yet we as people, collectively ignore the abuses of power by our government, and more important, the slow, but steady erosion of our rights and our liberty.

Until people get off their collective asses and begin to learn what the hell is really going on in this country, they can vote for all the CHANGE they want, but nothing is going to really change.

I find it interesting that people can quote sports statistics going back years, but they can’t recite one passage from any of our nations founding documents. I find it disturbing that people will fight to defend the honor of their favorite football team, but they won’t speak out when the government tramples upon one of their unalienable rights. And I find it downright sad that they will spend hours on the internet, viewing mindless YouTube videos, yet they will not take a few minutes to research what their elected officials have been doing.

Listen, if you flip a coin, heads or tails, you still have the same old coin. One side of the coin is the Republicans, the other side, the Democrats. They all stand for the same thing and none of it is in our best interest.

In a letter to Francis Hopkinson, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”

As I said in my last article, you need to stand for something, because if you don’t, you will be easily led along by these candidates, with their smooth speeches and promises of CHANGE.

Have you ever seen how sheep and cattle are herded, or stampedes started? We aren’t much different than cattle in that respect. All it takes is one incident, one crisis, and we will willingly accept almost any solution given by those who we trust to do what is in our best interest.

Look what happened after 9/11, we got the Patriot Act and all kinds of infringements upon our liberties and rights. Now we have a crumbling economy and Barry, oops, Barack is assuming powers and authority over the private sector that is nowhere to be found in the Constitution.

Just as Obama has not rescinded, nor revoked the Patriot Act, do you think the next president is going to give up the powers that Obama is in the process of assuming? It isn’t going to happen. What will happen is that with each successive president, more powers will be centralized in the government, more of your rights will be taken away, until one day we are in a Communist, or Fascist, state, where you have no rights, and the government controls all.

Just as you might wonder how far a rubber band can be stretched before it snaps, I often wonder how far our government can go before people wake up to what is going on. I am just afraid that when people do wake up, that there won’t be anything left to salvage of what was once America, land of the free and home of the brave. And that saddens me beyond words…
 
“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” - Voltaire

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?“

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal

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