Rebels of the World Unite!

There was a time that I was very out spoken against Rush Limbaugh. That he is an ideologue is obvious to everyone, he is a broken record of anti-“liberal” ramblings who grabs on to sound bites and plays them and tells his audience that whatever they just heard proves he is right. Sometimes they are taken out of context, sometimes he IS right. What I specifically criticized him for was not appearing in public, for never going on other shows, for never debating his opinion. I used to argue that this proved his position was weak and that he could not defend it. I argued this until this week. One thing that slowed my criticism is that currently, he is right, the country is opposed to what the Democrat party is doing, the country agrees with Limbaugh. And then came the epiphany ... I attempted to debate the proposed health care bill with people on both sides of the issue ... I now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, why he does not emerge from his cocoon to debate issues.

I am not a Republican, I am not a Democrat, I am not a Libertarian ... my views diverge from every organized group of people I have ever met. I have called myself a communist for most of my life, but that stems from academic study of Political Science and no actual interaction with “communists”. While in college I met some “communists” and realized that I did not know how to classify myself, but I was not whatever they were. I agree with Steve Krug, Karl Hess and if you really listen to what he says, Glen Beck. I believe that government is inherently corrupted, I believe that people are smart and are able to govern their own lives, I believe that freedom is the single most important value on this earth. I believe that government has too much power, I believe that government has given corporations too much power, I believe that decisions should, (with the exception of the common defense) be made at a very local level. I believe that only minimal taxes are necessary and the revenue should remain locally. I believe that people do actually care about each other and that, given the opportunity, will make decisions to benefit the group (if it is small enough). I believe in the supreme power of the community ergo I called myself a communist.
The “Health Care Reform Act” may or may not do many things, but what it does do, with out a shadow of a doubt, is strengthen and swell a swollen federal government and feed private insurance corporations 26 million new customers. Health care related stocks are up, and you need no further proof that this law is good for corporate America, and when it comes to corporate America and the American people it is almost always a zero-sum game. In the past week I have heard people I respected say some of the most morally repugnant things I have ever heard ... and by morally repugnant I mean things that go against all that I aspire our nation to become. Politicians who lie cheat and steal their way into office (I mean all of them) and then spend their entire term lying and making smokey back room deals to maintain their power, all the while ignoring the will of the American people ... and let’s just forget about one of them having a sliver of respect for what the people have intrusted them with ... well, Jesus said it best in Matthew 7:17-18 “Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can not produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.”So when a body of corrupt law makers get together to pass legislation that is supposed to be good for their nation what comes out of the process is corrupt, evil. They justify it all to themselves, it’s ok for special exemptions and considerations for unions, Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida, they rationalize that it’s fine to go against everything they have ever stood for to “pass the bill”. Those whose electorate demanded true government run healthcare back down, those whose electorate demanded that the sanctity of life be taken into consideration reverse course and when millions of Americans stand together and protest with a unified voice, the politicians and the news media paint them as loons who are too stupid to understand how great it all is. And yet there are those who think it is a great leap forward ... people who claim to despise corporations are gleeful that insurance corporations are getting new mandated customers, people who reject Nazism are calling for more government control ... they don’t think it goes far enough. People who have spent no time researching what the law actually contains argue that it is great for their nation. It is not without it’s positives, and maybe you think that the negatives are outweighed by them, maybe you think it is great that the law nationalizes student loans. I don’t know, I just know that the reason that this is the greatest nation on earth has nothing to do with people’s standard of living ... it is true that our poor enjoy great comfort (when compared with other nations) ... what makes this nation so great is the basic principles that are its foundation. Corney quotes you hear all the time, “... we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ...” or the purpose of our government “... to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity ...” When the Constitution was done the states rejected it, no debate, just a simple no. Why, you ask? Because the document allowed for the future possibility of a central government that was too strong, so the bill of rights were added. Read them. Read them and understand the fears of the people 230 years ago. They trusted their neighbors with guns, guns to defend them against the government, they demanded rights for the accused, churches, dissenters and individual states. That is what makes this nation great, and every step away from a castrated central government, every reduction in freedom, every assault on liberty, every attempt to control the great people who make up this great nation robs us of the once secure blessings of liberty that were to be bestowed upon us and then granted to our posterity. In America you were to be free to make your own way, to succeed or fail of your own efforts ... you were not to be servant to the nation or corporations. Anything is possible, and acceptable, if it honors the principles our nation was founded upon. You want to be an atheist? A Christian nation that believes in freedom and liberty says that you can be of any faith you wish, even no faith at all. But it is still a Christian nation. And to those that say the principles of our founding are corrupted by the times, or by the misadventures of the founders ... Albert Einstein was a womanizer and the theory of relativity is no less true. Their purpose for establishing this great nation was true and their motivations were honorable, they formed a good tree and good fruit, we dishonor them and their purpose and we hand our liberty to men and women not worthy of the honor. Our nation’s survival is tied forever with the individual liberty of our citizens, so debate all you want but remember, please, to not trust a powerful government, restrict them at every turn, make them afraid to try to control you, afraid to ruin our collective futures ... let us all agree that things can improve without empowering the federal government, that we have the power to enact meaningful, positive change upon our nations healthcare and countless other areas and that we can maintain our liberty and our individual power at the same time. I now believe that Rush Limbaugh speaks only on his radio show because it is impossible to debate someone who believes something fundamentally different than you do. You cannot explain your opinions to someone who shares none of your values, and America I pray that you will remember the rebellious spirit that was forged on July 4th 1776 and has been the cornerstone of each and every one of our great moments as a nation.