Dear Friends,
Though we seem to agree so little these days, surely we must agree that in the pantheon of our Presidents, from the honorable and brave of old to the craven and corrupt of today, Abraham Lincoln is one of the few we all revere. Knowing that I direct your attention to his Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address when on the eve of civil war and caught in the vortex that swirled before that long fire in men's minds, he still held out his hand:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.Lincoln knew, as we know, that citizens with the best of intentions can still be used by politicians with the most rapacious of intents. There's no shame in that. It is only human.
We too have been ill-used by many of those politicians we have trusted even if we have not been so ill-used as your trusting souls and easily gulled credulity have of late. We have had our Nixons and our know-nothings in our turn as well. We share, even though we are at times ashamed to admit it, you embarrassment of being taken by the bright and shining lie.
Still, there is nothing for it now except to make your wrong turn right. Slogans and bamboozling have fogged your minds. It is time now, as this essential election approaches, for you to get your mind right; to return to your right mind.
A mind is a difficult thing to change. I know this well having struggled with it and paid the price in property, position, and lost friends. It can be done but it cannot be done overnight. My fellow colleagues who have come late to their right minds can sometimes expect too much of you. They expect you to travel ten leagues beyond the wide world's end in the time a reasonable person can only attempt a city block.
There is a middle way for this November and I urge you to consider it.
If you have read this far you know that this looming election must be one in which the nation, without ambiguity, rejects the ruinous path on which it has been set by an administration and congress that is nothing short of monarchical in its structure and tyrannical in its aims. Power is too much in the hands of a criminal establishment with only the ruin of the nation as its goal. We see it in every action. We hear it in every speech. We feel it daily as we walk about our streets.
For the system of a democratic republic to sustain itself, it must check and balance power. Surely we all remember that from our school days -- "the system of checks and balances." For nearly two years now we have witnessed the unappealing spectacle of a system which has no balance and no effective check upon it. The result is a machine with no governor on its spending, its intrusiveness, its ability to cripple our economy, to weaken our armies, and to -- by removing itself from effective diplomacy -- destabilize the world. All history tells us, as our own ancestors -- no matter what their origins -- would tell us that this situation inevitably and invariably ends in guns. If not here, elsewhere in the world. If not now, later.
I implore all of you of good heart and clear sense to help us begin to restore checks and balance to our nation in November. Help us check this monarchical disaster and balance the ship of state.
It may well be that your own heritage and background may be such that it is anathema for you to vote against any candidate the Democrats may see fit to offer. I know that feeling well. It is not something cast off in a day, a week, or even years. The conditioning starts early and is continued in family, school, and work for many decades. It is not easily broken.
There are two alternatives.
The first is quite simple. Vote with your absence. Stay home on election day. Cast no vote. Let us carry the weight. We shall do so. As a wise man once said, "Sometimes the best action is to do nothing."
The second is nearly as simple and answers to the call of duty in a democratic republic which is to vote whenever you have an opportunity to vote. All this entails is to remind yourself that when you are in that voting booth, you are sovereign and your ballot is what strong ballots always are, secret. Knowing that and holding that as the single secret that can keep the blessings of liberty for yourself and your posterity, step into that booth and this time, I implore you, vote right.
Sincerely,
Gerard Van der Leun
Mr V
Wonderful prose
The anticipated RINO tsunami will result in exactly nothing. Nada. Zip. Bupkis. Not one of Mau-Mau Mans' legislative abominations, or Czars, or executive diktats will be rolled back.
Until we have a Third Party, the arc is indisputably downward. The 52%s prove that a critical - ultimately terminal - level of sepsis has been reached in the American corpus.
Prepare accordingly.
Posted by: OhioDude at September 8, 2010 7:08 AMOhio Dude, what was so wonderful for you in Gerard's impassioned and eloquently rousing plea, that your takeaway is essentially "we're doomed"?
Posted by: Bonny Kate at September 8, 2010 8:33 AMBK
Mr V is a compelling writer, one I've long enjoyed and recommended to others. I admire his art
RINOP = Dems = WAF
Your use of "we" doesn't cover that Remnant who've maintained their ability to see clearly, and prepare accordingly
Posted by: OhioDude at September 8, 2010 8:42 AMI've managed to avoid asking three or four Dems to stay home on election day for fear of provoking them to vote. I'm pretty sure they are not going to the trouble.
Posted by: james wilson at September 8, 2010 8:48 AMBTW, OhioDude, one-quarter of the population was eligible to vote in 1787 that is eligible today. Universal suffrage is a powerful revolutionary instrument,one that we who have re-discovered the original revolution do not know how to deal with. Vanderleun is looking. I might say that is what all good souls in political writing are doing.
I like your third party without reservation, but let us not kid ourselves as well. They too would be sucked into the vortex once the door was opened to them.
Posted by: james wilson at September 8, 2010 9:10 AMDamn Skippy!
Posted by: flannelputz at September 8, 2010 11:41 AMAs I've told many people, the first time that I voted for a Republican was Reagan in 1984 and the last time I voted for a Democrat was Doug Wilder (VA gubernatorial election) in 1988. While I have NOT voted for the GOP on occasion the last 20+ years, I cannot envision a time when I will ever vote for a Democrat again. Well, if the party becomes sane again, sure, they'd be worthy of a look. But when I look at the current makeup of the Donks, I get the feeling that my yet to be born grandchildren may not live to see such a thing.
Posted by: physics geek at September 8, 2010 12:03 PMA third party will never win - it just sucks votes away from the guy you wish will lose. I recall about 20-25 of my friends, relatives, co-workers, voting for Ross Perot. Their sole motivation was to vote AGAINST Rino Bush Daddy.
I came this close myself....I was torn..it actually came down to a decision made IN the booth itself. I ended up concluding that I did not want to run the risk of being the one vote that gave my state (Florida) to Slick Willie. But those Perot voters 90% of whom were "making a stand" for "principle" and voting not for Clinton but against Bush... are the ones who put Slick into office, make no mistake about it.
That experience and memory is the ONLY reason I voted for Mr. Shamnesty, against the Bush Tax cuts until he is for them, reach across the aisle "my friends" etc., John McLame. (That plus I kind of had the hots for his running mate :)).
But I am soooooo damn tired of having to vote for the "least worst" of the candidates. Sick of it. Instead of a third party, the GOP needs to be subjected to a hostile takeover. Give the voters a REAL choice instead of a choice between Dem and Dem Lite. Then and only then will we begin to see "Change we can believe in."
"We are the ones we've been waiting for." Now let me eat my damn waffle. :)
Posted by: southernjames at September 8, 2010 12:42 PM"If not here, elsewhere in the world. If not now, later."
With respect, as far as "bamboozling" is concerned, your boy, Mencken, got it right:
"We are here, and it is now... all else is moonshine."
.
It should be remembered, that a Republican Party was once the third party. I hope, really hope that the people can recover the Republican Party from the Rinoparasites that infest it now, but if it can't, as long as we can run for office, have elections, we can try. I'm optimistic not that the Republicans will win overwhelmingly, but that the common man has awakened from his hedonistic stupor and is now engaged in the system. The common man is paying attention to his representatives. An engaged people can't be hoodwinked, an engaged people will make the necessary adjustments, despite the endless barrage of propaganda from the Government presscorps(e).
The beauty of the tea party is that there are no actual leaders barking orders, it is truly grassroots. The people are standing up to their corrupt politicians on every level of government, and to the press.
The pot is bubbling on a low simmer, but when it becomes a raging boil, stand back.
Let's not resurrect the third party/term limit nonsense. In case you haven't noticed, one of two parties will hold a majority in Congress and will choose the chair heads and set the agenda. Third party talk is always a gift to the opponent ... to which I say to the Left, "you first."
The case against term limits will be made as soon as the lame duck Congress reconvenes after the November election. When the congress-critters don't have to get re-elected, they are TOTALLY unaccountable to the electorate. If you think you've seen jam-down, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
I thought the Tea Party had pretty much cleared this up... you work within the party which best represents your values to make sure those you elect are holding to principles. You grab their naked feet by the ankles and hold. their. feet. to. the. fire! If they'd rather get blistered than represent the will of the people, you FIRE them in the primaries and give the next sucker a try. We're not Republicans because we believe in our politicians. We're Republicans because we believe in Liberty and the American system which has embodied it for more people to enjoy than in all of human history.
Anyone with conservative or libertarian ideals who doesn't vote straight-ticket Republican isn't thinking.
BTW - I suggest we start the treatment with John Boehner. Tell him to get on board with Paul Ryan's Roadmap NOW! or he can look forward to a short two years as Speaker.
Posted by: Western Chauvinist at September 8, 2010 5:00 PMI'm all for burning things, wc, feet with shoes in them, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc. anytime, anywhere.
Posted by: Jewel at September 8, 2010 5:25 PMI fear the November surprise coming from a Justice Department that is already on record for not enforcing the fraud provisions of the Voting Act while encouraging and abetting illegal immigration.
It won't be a surprise; it will just be reported that way.
Posted by: TmjUtah at September 8, 2010 5:30 PMRemember that old biscuit, the 'silent majority'? It does exist, but politics at every level
is such a nasty business that it takes fear to drive average people to action. One of your
posters said the other day that we should "think globally and act locally."
He wasn't talking about party caucuses.
If an evil fate does NOT return congress to it's senses in November, the consequences
could well be unpredictable, and widespread.
"If an evil fate does NOT return congress to it's senses in November, the consequences
could well be unpredictable, and widespread."
There are already signs that it might happen, and that disturbances might be the result.
It might well begin here in Houston:
"A day after a fire destroyed virtually all of Harris County's electronic voting gear, officials were still determining the cause of the warehouse blaze and furiously exploring ways to accommodate voters come early November."
TX can be THE very deciding factor in the Congressional elections. Even the Governor's election can be seriously affected by this. (Not to mention, Houston is Bill White's former playground. Sanctuary City and all...)
Having a huge warehouse full of voting machines go up in smoke two and a half months before the elections that could unseat Democrats all over the land for the next generation or two, makes me think something very rotten is going on around here...
Posted by: newton at September 8, 2010 10:15 PMSo once again those of us that want a better Mayberry are urging the radicals that are burning down Mayberry and calling us stupid for our affection for the old place to sit on the porch and have a glass of lemonade.
It would be nice if we could save Mayberry by showing the marauding thugs our old photo albums of the good old days, but everything that makes us love Mayberry is exactly why they hate Mayberry and us for loving it.
A century of mass murder and tyranny isn't enough to persuade most liberals that central planning and government spending isn't the one idea we've never tried yet and is bound to work this time.
The commie-libs don't care what happens when their ideas are implemented, they just want them implemented and will call us any name, charge us with crimes, and take our stuff, whatever it takes to implement the utopia and liquidate their opponents. The only difference between your nice lib neighbor and some Soviet apparatchik is that the Soviet flunky at least knew he was working for a Marxist ideal. The neighbor denies he's a commie he just wants to redistribute everyone's wealth and have control every any aspect of your life that doesn't suit him.
There is no pride in being the last "Jew" on the cattle car to recognize the destination.
Posted by: Scott M at September 9, 2010 3:30 AMWell, it started out optimistic, Gerard, but it may end in guns, after all.
Posted by: Jewel at September 9, 2010 5:02 AMQUOTE:
"This looming election must be one in which the nation, without ambiguity, rejects the ruinous path on which it has been set by an administration and congress that is nothing short of monarchical in its structure and tyrannical in its aims. Power is too much in the hands of a criminal establishment with only the ruin of the nation as its goal. We see it in every action. We hear it in every speech. We feel it daily as we walk about our streets.
For the system of a democratic republic to sustain itself, it must check and balance power"
Brilliant essay!
Thank You!
Here in WA State, it's been proven the entrenched liberals will in fact do anything to sway an election.
They 'found' votes 'in a bag' right after their anointed democrat lost as governor by less than 200 votes.
Recount of these 'found' votes? She won.
Surprise.
From that point on, honestly, I have lost all joy in voting.
Posted by: Tard at September 14, 2010 11:50 AM
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