Is it too late?

Is it too late for the United States of America?  Are we doomed to follow the timetable Sir John Glubb outlined in “The Fate of Empires,” surviving about 250 years?  Or, are we different from the failed empires he studied?  The outcome is our choice. 

We are unique among the nations of history.  We designed our own form of government, a government so unique that it was viewed as an experiment. 

The Founding Fathers believed the people must control the government, a near heretical belief at that time.  But so convinced were the Founding Fathers that they went to war against the mightiest empire in the world, the British Empire.  And they did so with nothing more than a dream and a rag tag army, knowing if the war was lost they would be executed for treason. 

They set aside the risks, the threats and reason, declaring their independence from the British Empire, declaring a new republic, a new democracy.  No other nation started with such a grand dream. 

And, our Founding Fathers were right.  This republic, this democracy of the United States of America, is still the hope of the world. 

But do we still have this uncompromising love of freedom or have we become too selfish, losing our sense of country, patriotism and duty?  Is our moral and ethical decay such that it is too late to return to the foundation of our greatness? 

We easily trade our pride for a handout, our self-sufficiency for a government promise.  We demand entitlements and guarantees, not freedom and opportunity.  We demand the government correct the unfairness in life, ignoring the reality that life is unfair. 

The Founding Fathers understood and accepted that life was not fair.  They knew that any government, no matter how socialist, Marxist or communist it became, could not change that.  With common sense, they accepted what they could and could not guarantee. 

So they offered us not fairness in life but three things: safety from foreign invasion, freedom from government rule and the opportunity to do the best we could with our lives.  The common sense Constitution they created has been the secret of our success for over 200 years. 

And, we will self-destruct if we cannot return to our “real” American values, the values that gave us this nation.  We must once again issue a declaration of independence from our government, saying “Thanks, but no thanks.” 

We must be willing to accept the macaroni and cheese of freedom rather than demand the steak of government handouts.  We must return to a citizen government, as intended, rejecting professional, career politicians. 

We need citizen representatives who are not incumbents, who do not have seniority, who do not have the contacts and power to get things done, because that system has failed us, primarily profiting the legislators, not the citizens. 

We need citizen legislators who arrive in Washington needing to ask people for directions to the Capitol.  We need citizen legislators who enter the Senate or House chamber and do not know where to sit. 

We need citizen representatives who do not know the rules of the “game,” who loudly holler foul when Congress goes beyond the Constitution, who loudly holler foul when the Supreme Court rewrites rather than protects the Constitution. 

We need citizen representatives who are not politically correct, who see their time in Washington as a short term service for country rather than a long term career for self. 

We need citizen representatives with enough common sense that if they see it come out of the back end of a cow, if it looks like it, and if it smells like it, they will call it what it is. 

We need citizen representatives like Harry Truman, whose wife said when asked if she could get the president to say “fertilizer” rather than “manure,” “Heavens no. It took me 25 years to get him to say ‘manure.'” 

Let’s say “manure” and prove it’s not too late. 

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