American Revolution Two

“No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar” – Abraham Lincoln

There is a strange irony in the notion that Obama is a great orator. Yes, his soaring speeches swept him into the White house. Take them away, and the outcome might have been very different. But how authentic are the words being spoken? Are they even to be trusted?

With his first year in the books and his first State of the Union address this week, we can take a closer look at his words and the way he communicates. Is Obama a great orator, or something very different – a pathological liar? After all, anyone can make a great speech if they are not concerned with the truth.

(GASP! How could he?) Hold on, stay with me here…

Consider this line of reasoning for a moment. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Obama is so dependent on the teleprompter? He simply cannot survive without it. His use of the teleprompter is not only excessive, it’s downright embarrassing and now the butt of many late night jokes and editorial cartoons. So, why the obsessive dependence on the teleprompter?

The answer is becoming obvious: The messages being communicated are so steeped in sophistry that the deliverer must be careful not to contradict, expose his doublespeak and trip over the truth. (GASP!) Think about it. Does the truth need such scripting and constant control?

“Deceit and falsehood – especially if you have a bad memory – are the worst enemies a fellow can have” – Abraham Lincoln

If someone is telling the truth, they don’t need such controlled speech and commentary. Yes, most modern day presidents have used teleprompters – but not on EVERY occasion and for EVERY instance of public address. The other day he used it for addressing the press at an elementary school. Another recent meeting found him using it to address 20 people!

The reality is this: truth comes from the heart. It doesn’t need spoon fed prompting or even memorization. If even half of what he’s telling us is in the realm of truth, then why not speak from the heart? Why not ever just address the people from the beliefs deep within? Is he scared to go there? Is he scared of what might truly come out? Consider that the teleprompter might just be a way of keeping the real Obama in-check, undercover and out of sight.

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln

Honest Abe is on to something here. If we don’t have the facts, how can we possibly solve the problems we’re facing? How can Americans trust their government and the solutions being put forward if we aren’t dealing in the realm of truth and reality? If we don’t have the facts, we don’t stand a chance at defeating our enemies, solving our domestic problems and preserving this nation.

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.”
- John Adams (Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law, 1765)

The American people deserve to know whether or not we have a man of integrity and truth in the Oval Office. Do we? I believe the teleprompter tells all…

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 4, 1777

What does it take to live in a free nation? Money? Laws? A strong central government? Above all else, it takes responsibility. In order for free people to remain so, they must be responsible for preserving and protecting this unalienable right. No one else can shoulder that responsibility. Our most damaging fault as a nation has been the abdication of this responsibility. Americans have become far too lazy and apathetic when it comes to having the personal responsibility it takes for living in a free nation. Too many of us just don’t understand what it takes to sustain freedom, prosperity, and security. Nor do enough of us grasp the absolute that “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance” and that “liberty can just as easily be lost by neglect from within as by attack from without,” as orator and fellow Tennessean Thurman Sensing said decades ago in his commencement speech, “The Responsibility of Living in a Free Nation.” We’ve been excellent consumers of this inheritance, but terrible stewards. A steward is a care taker, not a careless consumer.

So as stewards of the greatest legacy of freedom and liberty known to the history of mankind, what is our primary responsibility? I would argue that our primary responsibility is knowledge and understanding of three essentials:

1. Our history, heritage and the sacred foundations that made us who we are.
2. The proper role of government in our constitutional republic.
3. American exceptionalism and what it truly means to be American

If we understand these essentials (at a minimum), we’re on our way to having what it takes to keep the republic. Benjamin Franklin understood this all too well answering, “A republic, if you can keep it” to a woman who asked what the founders had created upon exiting the Constitutional Convention. He and his co-founders were keenly aware of the audacity of the experiment the young nation was embarking upon. The first ever government that belonged to the people (not vise-versa) would require extraordinary responsibility.

“Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge.” – James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, 1790

Inherent in the essentials noted above is the proper understanding of “the pursuit of happiness” – one of the unalienable rights etched in that sacred charter of freedom. The key word here is “pursuit.” How much weight can one word carry? In this case, the entire load of our current crisis. It’s the ever increasing dependence on government for our sustenance that could be the death knell of this teetering experiment of freedom. According to Mr. Sensing, “Too many of us look on our government as some sort of inexhaustible storehouse of wealth, apparently forgetting that in a free nation, the government…never will have any money that was not first provided by the people back home.” This warning was spoken over 50 years ago to a group of graduating Vanderbilt students. How ironic…

What the Left refuses to acknowledge is that the road to serfdom is littered with efforts to guarantee  happiness and equal results. They attempt the impossible in vain. What Mr. Sensing said next is eerily prophetic:

“There is only one real difference between a free nation and a slave nation – in a free nation, the people accept the responsibility for their own welfare; in a slave nation that responsibility is assumed by the government…In the years ahead, therefore, as you notice to what extent this responsibility is turned over to the government, you can gauge to what extent the people are losing their freedom.”

What say ye? Is it too late to reclaim the mantle of responsibility? Even if it was, would you surrender, or fight on?

This post is dedicated to fellow KA and good friend, Thurman Sensing, Jr., a true steward of freedom and a statesman, having served in WWII and carried his father’s legacy with great honor.

Founder’s quotes courtesy of The Founder’s Quote Daily by The Patriot Post

Of the many unpopular and detrimental actions taken by this current administration, one of the most insidious has been his attack on Capitalism and the free market system. It is the producers and the risk takers of this country who’ve been in the cross hairs for the past year. Anyone with even the most basic understanding of economics would realize the path taken thus far simply does not work and never has (i.e. spending to get out of debt, growing government to create jobs, penalizing those who create jobs, increasing taxes & debt ceilings, taking over private companies, etc.).

President Obama has said from the beginning that he aims to “transform America.” In light of the destruction underway – spiraling debt, growing unemployment, etc. – one must be wondering just what he’s working to create. Just what does President Obama want us to become? His disdain for traditional American values and the foundations that have made us great has been evident since the beginning. Here’s the question we need to be asking this president: Do you really believe that socialism and the redistribution of wealth works, or do you simply detest this country so much that you truly want to see it leveled into mediocrity so we can cozy up with a dying Europe?

Though his narcissism would prevent him from learning anything, I’d still love for Obama and his handlers (most of whom have never worked or had any success in the private sector) to chew on this video for a while. This is a favorite of mine – one that bears watching again and again. If you haven’t seen this classic segment with renowned economist Milton Friedman, you’re in for a treat. Uber-Leftist and bleeding heart Liberal Phil Donahue is taken to task on the merits of Capitalism…

What do you think? Is Obama really that naive to believe in the redistribution of wealth, or does he really want to cut America down to size? Enter you comments below…