Written by: Raymond Dean White

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Our Founding Fathers were radical idealists, who believed it was better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. For the first time in human history the rights of citizens were acknowledged to come from God and not from some monarch. They gave us a Republic, NOT a Democracy, since they were intelligent and well-educated enough to know that Democracies fail as soon as the public learns it can vote itself largesse from the public till (ie until the people become Socialists or Communists). They structured their new Republic in such a way that ordinary people could have a say in being governed—that some local farmer or businessman could become a Congressman or Senator and that being from “the people” would have good, first-hand knowledge of what laws would best serve the people’s interest. The ideal was politicians would serve a term or two then go back to the farm or business having passed laws that would benefit the general prosperity.

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Above all our Republic was formed on the radical notion that ordinary, common people should be free to pursue their own happiness—without such desire being strangled by Government regulations or interference. This led to the expansion into and settling of the West which opened the doors of opportunity to innumerable immigrants from all over the world. People flooded here to pursue their own dreams. Not for nothing was America considered the guiding light for all mankind.

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Unfortunately, people aren’t perfect so soon Big Business conspired with their government minions to rig the game in their favor. Due to those injustices the Labor movement was born and soon enough Big Labor had carved out a seat at the table. Between them and the class of career politicians they support, while as a whole we’ve enjoyed prosperity unparalleled among the nations of the world, we’re now at a point where businesses can be deemed “too big to fail” and receive massive government handouts in the guise of it being in the public’s best interest.

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Virtually all societal change begins with private groups and that’s the way it should be. Think about the abolition or civil rights movements. Eventually they mounted enough pressure to force the government to get on board, and when it did that’s when those movements started to go off the rails. For example, President Johnson’s Great Society program that forced unemployed Black men (actually, all poor men) to leave their families so those families could get onto welfare. Johnson is hailed as a champion of Civil Rights, but his true agenda was to get Blacks and other poor people voting for Democrats. An actual, verified quote from him is, “I’ll have those Niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.” The end result? Black families destroyed—children growing up without fathers or traditional family structure that offered stability and moral guidance—the growth of those substitute families called gangs and blacks preying on blacks in a cannibalistic orgy of violence.

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What should have been a jobs training program, with tax incentives to small and large businesses for hiring trainees turned into a “sign up for a handout” program (but don’t earn too much or we’ll cut you off). This rewarded people for not working, for going on the dole, which meant voting Democrat as you didn’t want to bite the hand that was feeding you. Combine that with poor educational and legitimate employment opportunities and you have a recipe for the disaster that has befallen our inner cities.

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Now, after generations of living off governmental handouts, many minorities and poor whites view governmental assistance as a “right.” It’s no wonder these folks, along with many mis-educated Millennials think Socialism is the answer. After all, they’ve been raised to think the Government is the answer to all their problems, whereas those of us who were raised with the ideals of hard work and setting goals to pursue our own happiness understand that Government most often IS the problem.

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Group think is Orwellian and that’s a very bad thing. It stifles freedom and individual liberty by effectively censoring what people are allowed to read, say or even think. Peer group pressure often overrides common sense, leading to such concepts as politically correct thought—an idea that is anathema to the ideals of liberty and freedom the United States was founded upon. Group think effectively self-cancels the rights enshrined in the First Amendment.

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US citizens get control of their own fates as dictated by the government individuals that are supposed to represent us by holding them accountable at the ballot box. Write AND email them to let them know what you’re thinking. Meet with them when they come to your town. If they don’t come to your town, get with your local Republican or Democrat (if you’re of that persuasion) group and INVITE them. They can’t know what you’re thinking if you don’t tell them. You can’t know what they’re thinking unless they tell you. And while they MAY lie to your face their voting record and the record of bills they introduce will reveal the truth about where they stand on any given issue. Active citizen involvement in local, State and Federal elections is a critical element when it comes to exerting control over our politicians.