History is a never ending river of events that flows each day through and around our lives. Many of us participate, others choose to live their lives in ignorance. Some swim upstream and others go with the flow.
In recent months, it's those individuals swimming upstream that have captured the imaginations of a weary and increasingly fractured electorate. You know the names; Palin, Beck, "Tea-Publicans." I have two recommended reads for you this morning. First up, the Washington Post: "For Conservatives, A Political Surge." Next, a post from Erick Erickson, founder of the influential web site Redstate.com who pens: "A Very Necessary Republican Civil War."
Our republic has thrived with a dominant, two-party political system going all the way back to our founding. Yes, the names have changed, but it's now clear that we are in the early stages of our next political earthquake, which may transform our political system yet again.
In 1800, Thomas Jefferson championed the Democratic-Republican party that snatched power away from John Adams and the Federalists. Decades later, Abraham Lincoln leaves the Whig party for the Republican party and takes control away from the Democrats and the new Republican party nearly dominated the presidency until FDR brought the New Deal to the forefront and transformed our country into the new paradigms of "entitlement and big government," that now threatens our very survival. (Democrats in congress propose $1.8 Trillion increase in the nation's debt ceiling).
It's this very reason that I subscribe to the potential for a political earthquake and the resulting revolutionary changes that will be demanded by the American voter.
Fiscal conservatism will drive this seismic shift in the electorate. Not as a pragmatic party plank per se, but as a powerful force that's deeply embedded into our very DNA. The instinct for survival. This is the great conflict that awaits our nation. Those who realize we can't sustain a behemoth federal government and the trillions of crushing debt that we have amassed verses those who believe with every vote they cast that government exists to save them from destitution, despair and depression.
Some say it's now time for a revolution. Ron Paul inserted this theme to his platform for the presidency and may have spawned a movement that has since morphed into a powerful establishment also known as the Tea Party.
Others use stronger words, such as tyranny. It reminds me of the writings from Plato's Republic:
"Tyranny is not a matter of minor theft and violence, but of wholesale plunder, sacred and profane, private or public. If you are caught committing such crimes in detail you are punished and disgraced; sacrilege, kidnapping, burglary, fraud, theft are the names we give to such petty forms of wrongdoing. But when a man succeeds in robbing the whole body of citizens and reducing them to slavery, they forget these ugly names and call him happy and fortunate, as do all others who hear of his unmitigated wrongdoing." [Republic344a-c, H.D.P. Lee translation, Penguin Books, 1955, p.73.]
(Emphasis added)
The "next Lincoln" will face the potentiality of another civil war where we find ourselves confronted with the bondage of slavery once again:
The borrower is slave to the lender. When you are in debt to another, you enter into a slave/master relationship with your creditor. (Proverbs 22:7)
This leader will find us confronted with a "new wall" that must be torn down...the wall of big government blocking the freedoms of the people it was created to protect.
If the Republican party is to survive and thrive. It must return to the roots of its origin.
The Republican party must once again represent the voice of the people.
"If the Republican party is to survive and thrive. It must return to the roots of its origin."
I wrote about this in my "Politics of Soda Pop" article on Iowa Defense Alliance.
http://iowadefensealliance.com/2009/09/07/guest-commentary-the-politics-of-soda-pop/
"The Republican party must once again represent the voice of the people."
The reason I left the Party -- too many of the party & elected officials do not listen to "We the People."
http://www.electshaw2010.com/
Tom
Posted by: Tom Shaw | December 10, 2009 at 07:29 PM