It was John Adams that said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Isn't it great that we had FEMA reps claiming that the shelters the Amish built did not meet code? I believe they would make excellent fertilizer for future mountain trees.
WE definitely need to toss the "can't do attitude" of avoidance. Much of Covid was predicated on the ideas of avoidance and accommodation. We must "flatten the curve" we have to "avoid overwhelming" the hospitals.
The old America would be of teh attitude of "try and break the system." Yes, people sacrifice..but the sacrifice was FOR something, not to avoid something. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, unless climate change? Unless evil bad novel disease? Unless people are being marginalized? This is trying to remake society so that the LCD can compete and flourish, and those who can excel are penalized. We should not be playing the accommodation disco unless it actually helps others "rise" to the occasion.
If you read the correspondence between the key figures in our founding history, and read the words of our constitution as written, in the context of the era, you see a fundamental difference in our legal structure and that of most other places at the time. Fundamentally, it is the people who posses the power, and who delegate it "upward" to governments. This was radical in it's day. That the law defines restrictions rather than establishes what is allowed contradicts the more common notion that the rulers, through law, establish what is allowed. You don't need permission if it's not prohibited. That was really radical at the time.
When I was young, this was taught in schools. Part of American History was to emphasize this "bottom up" power structure. This is no longer the case in government controlled curriculums. Kids are taught that all power belongs to governments, and government is the only way to achieve good. It seems not too strange that this would be the result of permitting government to control curriculums.
When I was young I encountered many people who thought they could tell me what I couldn't achieve. This is not new. For me the difference was I had two advocates - mom and dad - who reiterated and reinforced the idea of "can" - I could achieve if I did the work, had commitment and ignored those insisting that it was impossible. I had to believe in me, not expect others to do it for me. The reality is that there have always been and always will be road blocks and obstacles, people who want to keep others down, who believed in the zero sum game. What kids today need are advocates remind them they CAN, that they can use what abilities they have and figure it out.
"Kids are taught that all power belongs to governments, and government is the only way to achieve good." This is like the old Soviet system or the North Korean framework. Excellent point.
Yeah I agree. I think part of the "can do" will come back once we expose the scoundrels who get rich by claiming they going to build something but instead get rich by doing nothing .
I think some of the "malaise" comes from that. People are like what's the point? Because the people that get rich for doing nothing make the barrier to entry too high with regulations, permits, etc
Yea, but I think we need to go beyond that. Not sure how it could work but WeThePeople need to be involved - not just Senators or Representatives or the gigantic bureaucracies that are sucking the lifeblood out of this country.
Each citizen who feels the way EGM and you and me do should get involved with the running of their city, county or state. THIS is where the true power lies. Too many don't feel as tho they have any responsibility in these arenas. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I believe we have a very small window of opportunity to get it done.
Exposing scoundrels is always good, but blaming others is the trap we need to avoid. Better to accept that "high tide raises all boats" - when we make it better for everyone, even the scoundrels will benefit too. Accept it and focus on how we can raise all boats - how we can expand opportunity for everyone.
What we must do is as you say, stop those "do nothings" from persisting the barriers that intend to prevent others from doing.
El Gato Malo wonderfully combines eloquence with erudition.
I don't know how he does it, but I know he does it!
I believe that Anabaptists closely modelled their Ethos on the ancient Cathar beliefs which were gnostic in origin and anti-authoritarian, ever mindful of the sovereignty of the human soul, thus anathema to the then dominant Roman Catholic church. The RC's launched a genocidal crusade spanning 100 years and spanning the lives of 19 popes. They succeeded in a pyrrhic kind of way.
much of modern (international) culture is about tearing things down, not building things. At the root of the "building" is the idea of opportunity. Once it was our culture to encourage achievement, to seek and engage opportunity. The culture movement of the 60s and 70s was not about taking away or tearing down, but was about expanding opportunity. The phrase "equal opportunity" was once taken literally, the intention to expand opportunities for all. That was a good thing It was coopted and has become attached to destruction of opportunity, rather than anything to do with equality. In deed, "equality" has been redefined to mean advantaged artificially a favored group by suppressing others.
Somewhere it became "not enlightened" to teach kids history, the ugly and the fair, to teach hard work and dedication, personal responsibility and honor as a path to success for everyone. The very concept of social and economic mobility, the defining difference of what was the American culture from most others - that you are not bound for life by the circumstances of your birth - has become the enemy of "enlightened people".
Make America Aware again - we've lost our identity. We are individuals who bind together with common goals, common ideals, that do not exclude nor supplant our individual differences.
There always have been a malignant element in American society. This started to metastasize around 125 years ago.
What is this 'culture' movement of the 1960's? What we are suffering now was the acceleration of the metastasis, where 'equal opportunity' became DEI, and anti-pollution and environmentalism became 'green'. Anti-war was a front for communism.
"how is it not hypocrisy for the grandson of immigrants to claim as a blanket statement that this is “their america”"
You hit it. The can do attitude. People left what ever they left to become Americans. Not hyphenated ones. No caste system from India. No landed gentry from the Continent. No one wanting something except a chance to prove themselves. Go ahead and spend time in the Korean, Chinese, Japanese community at Harvard and Stanford and you will know what I am talking about
Thanks for sharing this speech. Oh so true how easily Congress members give taxpayer money away to silly pork projects or other countries, but most wouldn’t give a dollar of their own money to help a constituent back home. If they ever give a dollar to charity, it’s with fanfare and asking for political donations. Take WNC Helene victims, only two members I recall ever went to actually help those people and they weren’t from NC.
Are you from NC? I am, and I just went through the massive damage from Helene. And if it wasn't for help from FEMA, I would be stuck with massive damage I couldn't possibly clean up, because my insurance company wouldn't pay for most of the damage.
There was plenty of people here after the storm, state, federal, and relief orgs. There was a massive effort to get supplies and money to those who needed it. I don't know where you get your info, but most of what I hear on these sites is bullshit.
I know people who have been denied the measly $750 and one person was denied FEMA because the percentage of damage was devised to not cover. I’m glad you were helped, but FEMA pulled out completely over a month ago along with Red Cross while many families are still sleeping in tents.
Tax payer money is our money, and I think assisting citizens after disasters is a wonderful use of our money. A MORAL use of our money. A much better use than say, untold billions in handouts for wealthy corporate tax cheats.
I for one am grateful that there is federal emergency assistance and that I was able to get help for my massive damage from Helene, most of which my insurance company would not cover.
As a 60-something person who has been paying taxes since age 14, I've earned a little help for once.
Great speach! Sure don't hear talk like that on the congress floor anymore.
Reminds me of the old sayin about not ageeing but will defend your right to say it. Instead our moral cowardice has shrunk us to meekly nod in agreement and self censor.
Beat me to it. Thanks. Understanding what Adams meant by those words will serve us well if we, as a people, are intent upon making fundamental changes to our government.
Question: How do we turn this behemoth (the US government) back to the people if those same people no longer exhibit the traits touted by Adams and his fellow Founding Fathers? Taking Adams literally would lead us to the conclusion that the effort would be fruitless. It's the people who require those fundamental changes.
Nothing shows the downfall of America any better than the present President being the leader with a 50 year background of stupidity at best and absolute corruption at worst.
No, I haven't allowed it - I was often outvoted, except in 2020. That election was stolen. We don't have some magical power to change anything outside of the ballot box. The alternative is armed revolt. So I take no responsibility for our current situation.
What we have allowed is the total takeover of our education system that facilitated the complete dumbing down of the population to prepare for the communist takeover of our country that was started at least five decades ago.
We had the power to stop it then and we have the power to change it now.
First on the list is the complete abolishment of the federal Dept of Education.
Second on the list is run for and take control of your local school board.
“The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” by Charlotte Iserbyt is one of the scariest things I have ever read. Some will brand this book as conservative propganda. But those of us in the teaching profession wonder aload to each other and anyone else who will listen, what politicains are thinking about when they pass educational “reform” legislation.
It would seem impossible to make some of the decisions that are being made without having deliberately set about to wreck the education system in America.
If the facts laid out in this book are true (and the book is full of documentation) what is happening to education in Washington D.C. is worse than the Twin Towers tragedy and the attact on Pearl Harbor combined.
The promotional material for this book says that it should be required reading for parents.
I think it should be required reading for every educator or university student considering a career in education.
A difficult read, but eye opening to the point of being painful.
sure, I support you - please go ahead and get rid of the DoE. Oh wait, you have no power to do that, do you? Hopefully Trump can eliminate it and several other departments too. As for local schools, I am for tuition vouchers and the elimination of all public unions including the teachers unions and school boards. Parents should be the sole determinants of their children's education and how the schools are run. I want to end all government involvement in schools.
Not ideal for a state like Maine where all the power is in the hands of the southern 2nd Congressional district heavily democrat/communist lefties.
Ideally, any government entity associated with education would simply deal with minimum standards and everyone would get vouchers to send their children to whatever kind of school they see fit.
we are overgoverned. less school boards, more accountability. judge the results of education by what emerges at the other end of grade 12 and then university. and some of these degree programs ... ugh.
Except we do. We still have the power to exchange ideas with one another. And we can contact our state officials and get the word out so a similar "Crockett Moment" occurs when the "powers that be" are called on it.
As we well know, we can find whatever bills there are on the books and we can read them collectively. If there isn't an organization that does just that, and vets all the actions of our government, there should be. I'd sign up, show me where to look and I'll document what I've looked at. And the default answer of any new bill being offered should be "no."
We are exchanging ideas and talking about the issues. That doesn't equate to being responsible for the nations decline. Everyone has their own life to live. For many that means keeping a steady job and supporting your family. Most people don't have time for anything else or they have interests that don't intersect with becoming an activist for something. I'm in that group. My action is voting. I hope DOGE can do something and that Trump will act on their recommendations. I also hope he takes revenge on all the criminal scum who have dogged him and tried to destroy and kill him for the last 9 years. And it has been 9 years because they started as soon as they realized he was a viable candidate for president.
My votes were the same, but regrettably, I felt it necessary during the pandemic to self-censor for safety. Ditto prior to the last election from a public standpoint. It feels safer to speak out, but that part is mea culpa. Therefore, some responsibility, imo.
the hardship will be to find a non-corrupt, non-millionaire person wanting to become president and oppose all the corrupt, billionaire pressure (and survive it)
You seem to equate being a millionaire and having money as a sign of corruption. That is not what this essay is about at all. Being a millionaire is a sign of success in the "American" culture. A sign that people work hard and prosper, and some have more success than others. There is nothing wrong with this.
Bill Gates is corrupt. He built his fortune on a series of corrupt and unfair business practices. So yeah, I agree with Rosemary B. here. I don’t want Bill Gates shaping policy decisions.
Money isn't evidence of corruption, it certainly isn't evidence against it either. It says somewhere that "the love of money is the root of all evil." I think this is a truism. If I like money more than the service or product I render for money, that is where problems occur. In the Crockett example above, the politicians were all "help the widows and orphans" when it was taxpayer money involved, but how many were willing to give a week's wages of their own money to that effort? That behavior says a lot. And really we should be calling politicians on their BS early and often. Whatever policy they want to generate, let them be the first to adhere to it. They should "be the example the epitome of compliance." Or, if not, they should not put forth such bills and should be the first to veto or vote against them.
Money and success do not equate to corruption. Without innovators, successful thinkers and risk takers, there would be no jobs for those who do not have those attributes. Our system is symbiotic and NEEDS both. A good skilled worker, who takes pride in his ability is an asset to the innovator who provides an outlet for those skills and an income for him.
If you haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" you should and if you have, you must not have understood it. You might want to try again.
Well said, Ms. Mc. As I argued today on Truth: a lot of nativists think that wealth is static, that there is just one pie, and by golly only native-born Americans should get slices of that pie. They are in error. We need as many immigrants as we can get, of the sort that create FURTHER pies. Embrace dynamism, not stasis. Wealth, once created, gushes up, down and sideways, enriching us all. Keeping out those immigrants (again, of the right kind) impoverishes us, for a certain amount of wealth must be created, just to fight off entropy and decay.
I think you have missed the entire point of this essay. Government is downstream of culture. We must reclaim the culture that birthed American exceptionalism, and that culture will demand better leaders and be able to produce them.
It's interesting that people on different sides of the fence can read the same thing and think it compliments them. In case you didn't notice, this "excellent essay" condemns needless government and adherence to pointless policies.
Perhaps, you are the problem, not the solution. Ever thought about it?
Biden has a 50 year history of stupidity, mediocrity, lying, criminality, cheating and non-achievement. All the Democrats and also Republicans he "served" with knew it but didn't or perhaps couldn't do anything about it. Major blame lies with the voters of Delaware who kept him in office. Term limits.
Dead people vote in my state every year. Especially in left leaning counties.
We didn't allow it. It was stolen.
But your point remains.....many people are too stupid, or lazy, to try to understand how they should vote and why. Thanks, American Public Education, for pithing the brains of millions of kids for decades and decades.
When my grandparents came through Ellis Island there were rules: People had to pass a physical test; they had to have a sponsor, a job waiting for them, and a place to live; they had to learn our language; they had to swear loyalty to our country and had to assimilate; they would get no financial help from the government.
We have 11 million invaders who were not held to this standard and must leave until they prove they are willing to do everything required of them. They also have to do it legally and wait their turn.
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon Constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it."
--Judge Learned Hand, _The Spirit of Liberty_, 1944
For any serious law student/legal scholar, Learned Hand is the best jurist to never sit on the Supreme Court. Even SCOTUS seemed to have recognized that at one point. The epitome of what a jurist should be.
Amen. You have the clearest writing on what is actually going on in America today. I have seen a once great city Detroit fade into obscurity because of the insane (but profitable) policies of a corrupted establishment. Dishonesty, corruption and mediocrity are hailed as virtue, while the grievance elite beat the “structural racism” drum with one hand while they empty the coffers with the other. Every fetish is elevated to the status of divine revelation while the city crumbles….some of these people are immigrants and some are not…it little matters. What does matter as you so eloquently write is the values and standards of those who live and work here. At the moment, the low trust, low freedom, no golden age crowd has City Hall wrapped up. God willing, this will change.
Detroit is an example of immigration destroying an area. The blacks of the confederacy immigrated to Detroit and turned it into a wreck. The north would have been better off if The Great Migration never happened.
The great migration from the American South, as well as the wave upon wave of immigration from Europe, largely eastern Europe, both helped Detroit) become the international powerhouse that it once was.
It is post LBJ and post Great Society that things began to go to shit. The black folks who moved up from the South were overwhelmingly hard working, high standard folks just looking for a living wage and escape from Jim Crow.
What’s going on now has absolutely zero to do with immigration, internal or otherwise.
All those programs and handouts that supposedly destroyed black communities (as though they had no hand in it themselves) are also available to Whites. Yet amazingly a majority White community will not be marked by violence, sloth, stupidity and squalor. What a weird, wild coincidence. Best go put our thinking caps on to try and figure out that brain buster!
We reach those who are the problem by interacting with them. And we have a lot of opportunities for that. You can find these people on social media. Chances are you may run into them wherever you go.
Thank you for putting into words what I (and no-doubt many) have been trying to turn from nebulous thought to concrete plan. Welcome those who want to contribute their talent and effort rather than those who want to benefit from the toil of others.
Amen and amen. As a country we need to climb out of the ooze we’ve been sinking into, shake off the muck and find our way back to the bedrock on which we can rebuild the shining city. We have accepted lies and have opened our minds so much that our brains have fallen out of our skulls. For the future of the young people in America, we need to focus on correcting a hundred years of ridiculous policies that have been failures. We owe them an opportunity like we had. Thank you for pointing out that the rot is not only coming across the borders but that it’s also internal. Let’s clean our house and begin the reconstruction.
I owe no one anything. I made my opportunities as will those have to do. This type of attitude is why the ship is sinking. The we is the part I disagree with. The avg joe has not made this mess and muck. We continue to live and give respect where due. Heck where due. Stand up be brave say welcome but these are the rules.
My child is about to take the learner's permit test. The test is available in about 80 different languages. But the road signs...they're all in English. Doesn't seem to me that you should drive if you can't even take the driving test in the language the signs are in.
There was some road construction in my town that had detour signs instructing trucks to not proceed as there will be no turn around and they will have to be towed out. Turns out that the truck drivers that got stuck couldn't read English.
This is the fault of the owners of these shipping companies hiring cheap labor at our expense and creating a threat to public safety.
"Idea" is a weak word. America is not different from Liberia because of ideas, but because of PRINCIPLES. Specifically, the principles of limited governance, individual freedom, and rule of law. When you control for history, ethnicity, and geography, as in the post-Soviet states, dedication to these principles makes all the difference in terms of outcomes. https://technoskeptical.substack.com/p/post-soviet-states-prove-limited
Damn Straight! Those immigrants in the Ellis Island picture (from Catalonia?) and the one of workers taking a break on an I-beam in the sky did not have anyone handing out welfare checks, housing and college educations. It was sink or swim, and we all know how much cats hate to swim. My wife's grandparents had to go to Brazil 1st because there were quotas on European Jews in 1912. Her father was born there. They could immigrate here a couple years later. My father came from Norway in 1946 to finish college in Michigan and was sponsored by a Norwegian-American organization. He worked and studied through his college. Growing up, both families did not teach us children their cradle languages because they wanted to be American = part of this culture. Both families strived to become citizens.
It appears that a large segment of the current "newcomers" are here for the goodies the Biden regime has been handing out. Yes, a large percent want to become American citizens - the American Dream. But there is a large percent who want to take over the country insert their culture and religions and not tolerate what is here already. Bad actors from China and other places want to own what we have, to Conquer.
But the important thing is the carrying and absorption capacity of any country in any given period of time. Biden's invitation strangled our ability to assimilate the numbers while we are also being strangled by debt due to government spending. The border became a catch and release operation and a got away game.
H1-B is its own kettle of fuckery, and on top of the mass invasion it is no wonder the collective "we the people" are balking. We can't catch our breath or a break.
2. There is one or two obvious differences between Norwegians, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans... And Haitians, Syrians and Somalis. Those who would share your opening meme would argue this, which is not adressed here
I think your thesis aligns with something I have to come to understand: the particular “-ism” that a society chooses to adopt as the source of its organizing principles isn’t as important as the aggregate of individual commitments to the ideals from which that -ism precipitates. It’s the perversion of the ideals that spells civilizational doom.
And make no mistake: every system of ideals must spring from a “supreme ideal”; unrelated values can’t just be grafted together piecemeal. I would assert that two factors determine the success of a civilization: the quality of the supreme ideal — its relationship to cosmic reality; and the center-of-mass of the society’s level of commitment to that ideal. The form of the -ism subsequently adopted is secondary.
By the way, as an immigrant, I spent several years proving I was a bee and not a leech while millions of people poured across the southern border without having to prove anything at all.
100%. There is no need for long winded diatribes about ideology or related phenomena. Just start a 10 year moratorium on all immigration. That will give us time to catch up with the 50 year long flood logistically, politically, and socially. And provide time to reassess what a reasonable level of immigration should be going forward.
As for the internal demoralizers, we could also build an unscalable wall around California, New York , and D.C. for 10 years to give real America a break from their bullshit. That’s just a dream we have here in what those people derogatorily refer to as “flyover country” even if we know it will never really happen. Kind of like buying a lottery ticket solely for the purpose of dreaming for one week about being a millionaire.
Also, the men in the photo on that steel girder were Americans. Full stop. As were the people who built Hoover and Grand Cooley dams and put men on the moon.
It was John Adams that said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Here's an example someone should show FEMA or Newsome:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/01/pennsylvania_amish_build_a_dozen_homes_for_hurricane_victims_in_just_two_days_outpacing_newsom_s_promise_from_almost_two_years_ago.html
I don't know if it's religion or just an ethos, but i can tell you that we need to get back to a "can do" attitude.
In other words we need to get back to "building" things and flesh out all the cretins who got fat wallets for doing nothing.
This is a good example.
Isn't it great that we had FEMA reps claiming that the shelters the Amish built did not meet code? I believe they would make excellent fertilizer for future mountain trees.
Hi Hounddog...miss ya, buddy!
Hope alls well ya old geezer!...lol...:]
WE definitely need to toss the "can't do attitude" of avoidance. Much of Covid was predicated on the ideas of avoidance and accommodation. We must "flatten the curve" we have to "avoid overwhelming" the hospitals.
The old America would be of teh attitude of "try and break the system." Yes, people sacrifice..but the sacrifice was FOR something, not to avoid something. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, unless climate change? Unless evil bad novel disease? Unless people are being marginalized? This is trying to remake society so that the LCD can compete and flourish, and those who can excel are penalized. We should not be playing the accommodation disco unless it actually helps others "rise" to the occasion.
If you read the correspondence between the key figures in our founding history, and read the words of our constitution as written, in the context of the era, you see a fundamental difference in our legal structure and that of most other places at the time. Fundamentally, it is the people who posses the power, and who delegate it "upward" to governments. This was radical in it's day. That the law defines restrictions rather than establishes what is allowed contradicts the more common notion that the rulers, through law, establish what is allowed. You don't need permission if it's not prohibited. That was really radical at the time.
When I was young, this was taught in schools. Part of American History was to emphasize this "bottom up" power structure. This is no longer the case in government controlled curriculums. Kids are taught that all power belongs to governments, and government is the only way to achieve good. It seems not too strange that this would be the result of permitting government to control curriculums.
When I was young I encountered many people who thought they could tell me what I couldn't achieve. This is not new. For me the difference was I had two advocates - mom and dad - who reiterated and reinforced the idea of "can" - I could achieve if I did the work, had commitment and ignored those insisting that it was impossible. I had to believe in me, not expect others to do it for me. The reality is that there have always been and always will be road blocks and obstacles, people who want to keep others down, who believed in the zero sum game. What kids today need are advocates remind them they CAN, that they can use what abilities they have and figure it out.
"Kids are taught that all power belongs to governments, and government is the only way to achieve good." This is like the old Soviet system or the North Korean framework. Excellent point.
This is the best post of the day
Yeah I agree. I think part of the "can do" will come back once we expose the scoundrels who get rich by claiming they going to build something but instead get rich by doing nothing .
I think some of the "malaise" comes from that. People are like what's the point? Because the people that get rich for doing nothing make the barrier to entry too high with regulations, permits, etc
Yea, but I think we need to go beyond that. Not sure how it could work but WeThePeople need to be involved - not just Senators or Representatives or the gigantic bureaucracies that are sucking the lifeblood out of this country.
Each citizen who feels the way EGM and you and me do should get involved with the running of their city, county or state. THIS is where the true power lies. Too many don't feel as tho they have any responsibility in these arenas. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I believe we have a very small window of opportunity to get it done.
Exposing scoundrels is always good, but blaming others is the trap we need to avoid. Better to accept that "high tide raises all boats" - when we make it better for everyone, even the scoundrels will benefit too. Accept it and focus on how we can raise all boats - how we can expand opportunity for everyone.
What we must do is as you say, stop those "do nothings" from persisting the barriers that intend to prevent others from doing.
To paraphrase Smokey the Bear, only YOU can prevent destruction of America and the Rule of Law.
El Gato Malo wonderfully combines eloquence with erudition.
I don't know how he does it, but I know he does it!
I believe that Anabaptists closely modelled their Ethos on the ancient Cathar beliefs which were gnostic in origin and anti-authoritarian, ever mindful of the sovereignty of the human soul, thus anathema to the then dominant Roman Catholic church. The RC's launched a genocidal crusade spanning 100 years and spanning the lives of 19 popes. They succeeded in a pyrrhic kind of way.
The Cathars were dualists. The Anabaptists and their descendants are not. Dualists are not Christians; Anabaptists are. They shouldn’t be conflated.
"The Cathars"
*ahem* 'Cat-hars'
What Paul said!
Too many "middle men" these days.
Yes. Exactly. And middle men of middle men who just push papers and pencil whip the scorecard.
It's Middle Men all the way down.
much of modern (international) culture is about tearing things down, not building things. At the root of the "building" is the idea of opportunity. Once it was our culture to encourage achievement, to seek and engage opportunity. The culture movement of the 60s and 70s was not about taking away or tearing down, but was about expanding opportunity. The phrase "equal opportunity" was once taken literally, the intention to expand opportunities for all. That was a good thing It was coopted and has become attached to destruction of opportunity, rather than anything to do with equality. In deed, "equality" has been redefined to mean advantaged artificially a favored group by suppressing others.
Somewhere it became "not enlightened" to teach kids history, the ugly and the fair, to teach hard work and dedication, personal responsibility and honor as a path to success for everyone. The very concept of social and economic mobility, the defining difference of what was the American culture from most others - that you are not bound for life by the circumstances of your birth - has become the enemy of "enlightened people".
Make America Aware again - we've lost our identity. We are individuals who bind together with common goals, common ideals, that do not exclude nor supplant our individual differences.
There always have been a malignant element in American society. This started to metastasize around 125 years ago.
What is this 'culture' movement of the 1960's? What we are suffering now was the acceleration of the metastasis, where 'equal opportunity' became DEI, and anti-pollution and environmentalism became 'green'. Anti-war was a front for communism.
All facades.
Well said, TIOK
Musk once said: There is no "stuff" out there on the planet, you have to build it ...
Not necessarily EVs though ...
🎯
"how is it not hypocrisy for the grandson of immigrants to claim as a blanket statement that this is “their america”"
You hit it. The can do attitude. People left what ever they left to become Americans. Not hyphenated ones. No caste system from India. No landed gentry from the Continent. No one wanting something except a chance to prove themselves. Go ahead and spend time in the Korean, Chinese, Japanese community at Harvard and Stanford and you will know what I am talking about
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 One hundred percent!
That is 100% the test now for every American, especially those charged with positions in government.
It is not just courage that is required, but moral courage.
This speech by Davy Crockett exemplifies both what is needed in government and what is so sorely lacking:
https://review.capitalismmagazine.com/2019/10/not-yours-to-give-davy-crockett-on-government-charity/
Thanks for sharing this speech. Oh so true how easily Congress members give taxpayer money away to silly pork projects or other countries, but most wouldn’t give a dollar of their own money to help a constituent back home. If they ever give a dollar to charity, it’s with fanfare and asking for political donations. Take WNC Helene victims, only two members I recall ever went to actually help those people and they weren’t from NC.
Are you from NC? I am, and I just went through the massive damage from Helene. And if it wasn't for help from FEMA, I would be stuck with massive damage I couldn't possibly clean up, because my insurance company wouldn't pay for most of the damage.
There was plenty of people here after the storm, state, federal, and relief orgs. There was a massive effort to get supplies and money to those who needed it. I don't know where you get your info, but most of what I hear on these sites is bullshit.
I know people who have been denied the measly $750 and one person was denied FEMA because the percentage of damage was devised to not cover. I’m glad you were helped, but FEMA pulled out completely over a month ago along with Red Cross while many families are still sleeping in tents.
What an excellent post. I had never come across that speech. Pretty much tells it like it is.
I was astounded. Had never read it before and had no idea he was so eloquent.
Dag, that Davy Crockett speech should be read aloud in Congress.
Many thanks for that link !!! 👍👍👍
Should be framed in different dimensions and hung in EVERY room in Congress ...
Even in the rest-rooms, just for the guys and gals who look back into the bowl and sadly moan: what a blessing if I just could have kept it ...
GREAT IDEA!
I agree with Ryan, awesome.
My favorite topic. Other peoples money.
Tax payer money is our money, and I think assisting citizens after disasters is a wonderful use of our money. A MORAL use of our money. A much better use than say, untold billions in handouts for wealthy corporate tax cheats.
I for one am grateful that there is federal emergency assistance and that I was able to get help for my massive damage from Helene, most of which my insurance company would not cover.
As a 60-something person who has been paying taxes since age 14, I've earned a little help for once.
I see Rob Henderson's "luxury beliefs" in action.
Suzie, that speech could have been made by Congressman Thomas Massie today. Thank you for sharing it.
"He had shamed it to death." Six words we need to remember.
Great speach! Sure don't hear talk like that on the congress floor anymore.
Reminds me of the old sayin about not ageeing but will defend your right to say it. Instead our moral cowardice has shrunk us to meekly nod in agreement and self censor.
Beat me to it. Thanks. Understanding what Adams meant by those words will serve us well if we, as a people, are intent upon making fundamental changes to our government.
Question: How do we turn this behemoth (the US government) back to the people if those same people no longer exhibit the traits touted by Adams and his fellow Founding Fathers? Taking Adams literally would lead us to the conclusion that the effort would be fruitless. It's the people who require those fundamental changes.
Thanks! I was trying to remember the author of that quote.
This was the quote that came to my mind immediately.
Why do you keep posting this spam in every reply to multiple accounts?? Be better!
spam/delete
Reported x2
Excellent essay.
Nothing shows the downfall of America any better than the present President being the leader with a 50 year background of stupidity at best and absolute corruption at worst.
We have allowed it.
It's time to stop it.
No, I haven't allowed it - I was often outvoted, except in 2020. That election was stolen. We don't have some magical power to change anything outside of the ballot box. The alternative is armed revolt. So I take no responsibility for our current situation.
What we have allowed is the total takeover of our education system that facilitated the complete dumbing down of the population to prepare for the communist takeover of our country that was started at least five decades ago.
We had the power to stop it then and we have the power to change it now.
First on the list is the complete abolishment of the federal Dept of Education.
Second on the list is run for and take control of your local school board.
“The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” by Charlotte Iserbyt is one of the scariest things I have ever read. Some will brand this book as conservative propganda. But those of us in the teaching profession wonder aload to each other and anyone else who will listen, what politicains are thinking about when they pass educational “reform” legislation.
It would seem impossible to make some of the decisions that are being made without having deliberately set about to wreck the education system in America.
If the facts laid out in this book are true (and the book is full of documentation) what is happening to education in Washington D.C. is worse than the Twin Towers tragedy and the attact on Pearl Harbor combined.
The promotional material for this book says that it should be required reading for parents.
I think it should be required reading for every educator or university student considering a career in education.
A difficult read, but eye opening to the point of being painful.
sure, I support you - please go ahead and get rid of the DoE. Oh wait, you have no power to do that, do you? Hopefully Trump can eliminate it and several other departments too. As for local schools, I am for tuition vouchers and the elimination of all public unions including the teachers unions and school boards. Parents should be the sole determinants of their children's education and how the schools are run. I want to end all government involvement in schools.
There is no need for a national DoE when every single state has one.
Not ideal for a state like Maine where all the power is in the hands of the southern 2nd Congressional district heavily democrat/communist lefties.
Ideally, any government entity associated with education would simply deal with minimum standards and everyone would get vouchers to send their children to whatever kind of school they see fit.
I'm for that!
we are overgoverned. less school boards, more accountability. judge the results of education by what emerges at the other end of grade 12 and then university. and some of these degree programs ... ugh.
Except we do. We still have the power to exchange ideas with one another. And we can contact our state officials and get the word out so a similar "Crockett Moment" occurs when the "powers that be" are called on it.
As we well know, we can find whatever bills there are on the books and we can read them collectively. If there isn't an organization that does just that, and vets all the actions of our government, there should be. I'd sign up, show me where to look and I'll document what I've looked at. And the default answer of any new bill being offered should be "no."
Maybe DOGE is addressing this issue.
We are exchanging ideas and talking about the issues. That doesn't equate to being responsible for the nations decline. Everyone has their own life to live. For many that means keeping a steady job and supporting your family. Most people don't have time for anything else or they have interests that don't intersect with becoming an activist for something. I'm in that group. My action is voting. I hope DOGE can do something and that Trump will act on their recommendations. I also hope he takes revenge on all the criminal scum who have dogged him and tried to destroy and kill him for the last 9 years. And it has been 9 years because they started as soon as they realized he was a viable candidate for president.
My votes were the same, but regrettably, I felt it necessary during the pandemic to self-censor for safety. Ditto prior to the last election from a public standpoint. It feels safer to speak out, but that part is mea culpa. Therefore, some responsibility, imo.
"We don't have some magical power to change anything outside of the ballot box."
No, the point of the essay is that we DO. The government is not America, Americans are America.
the hardship will be to find a non-corrupt, non-millionaire person wanting to become president and oppose all the corrupt, billionaire pressure (and survive it)
You seem to equate being a millionaire and having money as a sign of corruption. That is not what this essay is about at all. Being a millionaire is a sign of success in the "American" culture. A sign that people work hard and prosper, and some have more success than others. There is nothing wrong with this.
Bill Gates is corrupt. He built his fortune on a series of corrupt and unfair business practices. So yeah, I agree with Rosemary B. here. I don’t want Bill Gates shaping policy decisions.
Bill Gates is bad. Bill Gates is a billionaire. All billionaires are bad.
God is love. Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is Blind. Stevie Wonder is God.
you can't argue with that logic!
A Hypothetical Syllogism all wrapped up in a Modus Ponens- Yummy!
Why did the WEF Dark Lord Bill Ghate$ meet with DJT recently? Inquiring minds wish to know....
well, the corrupt part is kinda the main annoyance - a real party crusher
and encourages more corruption
Money isn't evidence of corruption, it certainly isn't evidence against it either. It says somewhere that "the love of money is the root of all evil." I think this is a truism. If I like money more than the service or product I render for money, that is where problems occur. In the Crockett example above, the politicians were all "help the widows and orphans" when it was taxpayer money involved, but how many were willing to give a week's wages of their own money to that effort? That behavior says a lot. And really we should be calling politicians on their BS early and often. Whatever policy they want to generate, let them be the first to adhere to it. They should "be the example the epitome of compliance." Or, if not, they should not put forth such bills and should be the first to veto or vote against them.
Money and success do not equate to corruption. Without innovators, successful thinkers and risk takers, there would be no jobs for those who do not have those attributes. Our system is symbiotic and NEEDS both. A good skilled worker, who takes pride in his ability is an asset to the innovator who provides an outlet for those skills and an income for him.
If you haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" you should and if you have, you must not have understood it. You might want to try again.
Well said, Ms. Mc. As I argued today on Truth: a lot of nativists think that wealth is static, that there is just one pie, and by golly only native-born Americans should get slices of that pie. They are in error. We need as many immigrants as we can get, of the sort that create FURTHER pies. Embrace dynamism, not stasis. Wealth, once created, gushes up, down and sideways, enriching us all. Keeping out those immigrants (again, of the right kind) impoverishes us, for a certain amount of wealth must be created, just to fight off entropy and decay.
I think you have missed the entire point of this essay. Government is downstream of culture. We must reclaim the culture that birthed American exceptionalism, and that culture will demand better leaders and be able to produce them.
How many hate billionaires ?
Many.
How many want to be billionaires?
Most.
I don't hate them.
And I start drinking too early in the day to be one.
*shrug*
At least I have Cheetos.
You've sentenced us into mediocracy right out of the gate with that statement.
It's interesting that people on different sides of the fence can read the same thing and think it compliments them. In case you didn't notice, this "excellent essay" condemns needless government and adherence to pointless policies.
Perhaps, you are the problem, not the solution. Ever thought about it?
Slo Joes term is proof that Transnationals write checks and We The People vote.
My local Congress person had an 8 million dollar campaign stash....where did it come from?
Biden has a 50 year history of stupidity, mediocrity, lying, criminality, cheating and non-achievement. All the Democrats and also Republicans he "served" with knew it but didn't or perhaps couldn't do anything about it. Major blame lies with the voters of Delaware who kept him in office. Term limits.
Dead people vote in my state every year. Especially in left leaning counties.
We didn't allow it. It was stolen.
But your point remains.....many people are too stupid, or lazy, to try to understand how they should vote and why. Thanks, American Public Education, for pithing the brains of millions of kids for decades and decades.
When my grandparents came through Ellis Island there were rules: People had to pass a physical test; they had to have a sponsor, a job waiting for them, and a place to live; they had to learn our language; they had to swear loyalty to our country and had to assimilate; they would get no financial help from the government.
We have 11 million invaders who were not held to this standard and must leave until they prove they are willing to do everything required of them. They also have to do it legally and wait their turn.
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon Constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it."
--Judge Learned Hand, _The Spirit of Liberty_, 1944
What a quote. Thank you for sharing. TIL!
For any serious law student/legal scholar, Learned Hand is the best jurist to never sit on the Supreme Court. Even SCOTUS seemed to have recognized that at one point. The epitome of what a jurist should be.
A Constitution is only as good as the hearts and minds it is written on.
~I am sure someone must have said this somewhere.
Amen. You have the clearest writing on what is actually going on in America today. I have seen a once great city Detroit fade into obscurity because of the insane (but profitable) policies of a corrupted establishment. Dishonesty, corruption and mediocrity are hailed as virtue, while the grievance elite beat the “structural racism” drum with one hand while they empty the coffers with the other. Every fetish is elevated to the status of divine revelation while the city crumbles….some of these people are immigrants and some are not…it little matters. What does matter as you so eloquently write is the values and standards of those who live and work here. At the moment, the low trust, low freedom, no golden age crowd has City Hall wrapped up. God willing, this will change.
Detroit is an example of immigration destroying an area. The blacks of the confederacy immigrated to Detroit and turned it into a wreck. The north would have been better off if The Great Migration never happened.
No, it is not.
The great migration from the American South, as well as the wave upon wave of immigration from Europe, largely eastern Europe, both helped Detroit) become the international powerhouse that it once was.
It is post LBJ and post Great Society that things began to go to shit. The black folks who moved up from the South were overwhelmingly hard working, high standard folks just looking for a living wage and escape from Jim Crow.
What’s going on now has absolutely zero to do with immigration, internal or otherwise.
The blacks voted for the great society, welfarism, and urban political machines. Just like they do back in that shithole called Africa.
No one can deny that you are right
All those programs and handouts that supposedly destroyed black communities (as though they had no hand in it themselves) are also available to Whites. Yet amazingly a majority White community will not be marked by violence, sloth, stupidity and squalor. What a weird, wild coincidence. Best go put our thinking caps on to try and figure out that brain buster!
Daaaamn.....you are on a tear and I LOVE it.
The only thing is that you are likely preaching to the choir.
I already felt this way and I suspect most of your readers do as well.
How do we reach those who are 'the problem?'
We reach those who are the problem by interacting with them. And we have a lot of opportunities for that. You can find these people on social media. Chances are you may run into them wherever you go.
Start making tictoc videos?
Well it worked for all those Dancing Nurses during COVID.
Thank you for putting into words what I (and no-doubt many) have been trying to turn from nebulous thought to concrete plan. Welcome those who want to contribute their talent and effort rather than those who want to benefit from the toil of others.
Amen and amen. As a country we need to climb out of the ooze we’ve been sinking into, shake off the muck and find our way back to the bedrock on which we can rebuild the shining city. We have accepted lies and have opened our minds so much that our brains have fallen out of our skulls. For the future of the young people in America, we need to focus on correcting a hundred years of ridiculous policies that have been failures. We owe them an opportunity like we had. Thank you for pointing out that the rot is not only coming across the borders but that it’s also internal. Let’s clean our house and begin the reconstruction.
I owe no one anything. I made my opportunities as will those have to do. This type of attitude is why the ship is sinking. The we is the part I disagree with. The avg joe has not made this mess and muck. We continue to live and give respect where due. Heck where due. Stand up be brave say welcome but these are the rules.
My child is about to take the learner's permit test. The test is available in about 80 different languages. But the road signs...they're all in English. Doesn't seem to me that you should drive if you can't even take the driving test in the language the signs are in.
There was some road construction in my town that had detour signs instructing trucks to not proceed as there will be no turn around and they will have to be towed out. Turns out that the truck drivers that got stuck couldn't read English.
This is the fault of the owners of these shipping companies hiring cheap labor at our expense and creating a threat to public safety.
Is it not also the fault of the men driving the trucks? Have they no agency over their own lives?
"Idea" is a weak word. America is not different from Liberia because of ideas, but because of PRINCIPLES. Specifically, the principles of limited governance, individual freedom, and rule of law. When you control for history, ethnicity, and geography, as in the post-Soviet states, dedication to these principles makes all the difference in terms of outcomes. https://technoskeptical.substack.com/p/post-soviet-states-prove-limited
Damn Straight! Those immigrants in the Ellis Island picture (from Catalonia?) and the one of workers taking a break on an I-beam in the sky did not have anyone handing out welfare checks, housing and college educations. It was sink or swim, and we all know how much cats hate to swim. My wife's grandparents had to go to Brazil 1st because there were quotas on European Jews in 1912. Her father was born there. They could immigrate here a couple years later. My father came from Norway in 1946 to finish college in Michigan and was sponsored by a Norwegian-American organization. He worked and studied through his college. Growing up, both families did not teach us children their cradle languages because they wanted to be American = part of this culture. Both families strived to become citizens.
It appears that a large segment of the current "newcomers" are here for the goodies the Biden regime has been handing out. Yes, a large percent want to become American citizens - the American Dream. But there is a large percent who want to take over the country insert their culture and religions and not tolerate what is here already. Bad actors from China and other places want to own what we have, to Conquer.
But the important thing is the carrying and absorption capacity of any country in any given period of time. Biden's invitation strangled our ability to assimilate the numbers while we are also being strangled by debt due to government spending. The border became a catch and release operation and a got away game.
H1-B is its own kettle of fuckery, and on top of the mass invasion it is no wonder the collective "we the people" are balking. We can't catch our breath or a break.
Two thoughts immediately spring to mind:
1. Obligatory Scalia https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggz_gd--UO0&pp=ygUVc2NhbGlhIHZ1bGwgb2YgcmlnaHRz
2. There is one or two obvious differences between Norwegians, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans... And Haitians, Syrians and Somalis. Those who would share your opening meme would argue this, which is not adressed here
Scalia was a national treasure. I do not believe he died of natural cause.
Let's face it. White men have to start kicking ass again.
YES as a White woman I support you 100%!
I think your thesis aligns with something I have to come to understand: the particular “-ism” that a society chooses to adopt as the source of its organizing principles isn’t as important as the aggregate of individual commitments to the ideals from which that -ism precipitates. It’s the perversion of the ideals that spells civilizational doom.
And make no mistake: every system of ideals must spring from a “supreme ideal”; unrelated values can’t just be grafted together piecemeal. I would assert that two factors determine the success of a civilization: the quality of the supreme ideal — its relationship to cosmic reality; and the center-of-mass of the society’s level of commitment to that ideal. The form of the -ism subsequently adopted is secondary.
Amen to the amens. The rot is internal. The old America attracted bees, rot attracts flies.
By the way, as an immigrant, I spent several years proving I was a bee and not a leech while millions of people poured across the southern border without having to prove anything at all.
Until we do that, close the border.
100%. There is no need for long winded diatribes about ideology or related phenomena. Just start a 10 year moratorium on all immigration. That will give us time to catch up with the 50 year long flood logistically, politically, and socially. And provide time to reassess what a reasonable level of immigration should be going forward.
As for the internal demoralizers, we could also build an unscalable wall around California, New York , and D.C. for 10 years to give real America a break from their bullshit. That’s just a dream we have here in what those people derogatorily refer to as “flyover country” even if we know it will never really happen. Kind of like buying a lottery ticket solely for the purpose of dreaming for one week about being a millionaire.
Also, the men in the photo on that steel girder were Americans. Full stop. As were the people who built Hoover and Grand Cooley dams and put men on the moon.