The American Dream

One of our best family vacations in recent years was to Washington DC. We were able to spend nearly a week exploring the capitol and engaging our representatives.  We had the opportunity to visit the House of Representatives but the White House did not make the agenda as it is by appointment only after background checks and busy schedules are reconciled. The trip was beyond our wildest dreams nonetheless and there were some disappointments like the dimly lit documents at the National Archives. Which begs the question as to which copy were we looking at since we sent the actual Declaration to the King.

We marveled the enormity of history, the art and the boldness of the architecture that seemed larger than life in every quarter. We marveled at the ornate distinct architecture at every destination with giant pillars and buildings that seemed taller than they really were by their sheer scale. When you entered each hall the inside was more ornate than the exterior and every hall was replete with art and wall to wall history. It’s so ornate you walk around in a daze trying to take it all in as you read quotes of famous philosophers, writers and principles of scripture adorning every hall, doorway and precipice. I guess we were just simply in awe that this was the seat of our fed government, the seat of the land of liberty.  It was like we were walking around in a living museum and we were part of the story. When we saw it in action in real time it was surreal because it is a living breathing place. Our Constitution in action, well what’s left of it I’d say based on the recent trends. The actual seats of power in DC are the hub tasked with protecting our constitution which is the framework of the American Dream. The beacon of Freedom and Liberty that shone the world over is centered there in those halls but not just as a place but a legend or an Idea in action, animated by people.

No doubt there must be high security in D.C. we saw it everywhere we looked. I have to admit it was astonishing seeing all the many different police agencies in action all around.  We saw them shut down city streets at a moment’s notice to protect Black Suburban motorcades protected front and back by secret service and military style security with rifles and hard looks parading now and then out of nowhere. The place is so controlled and locked down to protect the seat of our government that nothing happens there unless the police allow it.

After checking in with the FBI we were allowed to sit in the gallery during a House session.  Certainly not as big as it looks on TV but a very uplifting experience as you can see the portrait of George Washington presiding over half the chamber and the bold “In God We Trust” over the speakers head just like chambers of Porterville City Hall. Well not really but you get the point.

The Library of Congress was the most ornate building I have ever seen.  It was breathtaking to wander the halls and take it all in. James Billington presided over the library of Congress for nearly 30 years and he retired the year we visited and recently passed in 2018.  I would have loved to have met him and ask him about his book “Fire in the Minds of Men” subtitled origins of the revolutionary faith.  We did get to see the original Thomas Jefferson Library that once was his private collection that was donated to restart the library of congress after it was burned down. The British returned to try and reclaim the colonies that declared independence a generation before and burned down the original library in 1812.

We had the pleasure of visiting the Supreme Court. We captured a great family photo of the portico out front with the American Flag waving and the central tenet of the Declaration of Independence carved in stone proclaiming “Equal Justice Under Law”.  I commented to my family very succinctly “It doesn’t say social justice”.   One of the rules when you visit the Supreme Court is that there are no photo’s allowed inside the main chamber so I will describe what I saw. The double door entry to the courts inner chamber is adorned with the 10 Commandments. When we entered we saw that the gates that guarded the walkway surrounding the chambers seating area with the Ten Commandments at regular intervals all the way around the perimeter. Far above in the very tall main chamber on the wall near the very high ceiling above the Chief Justice seat at the center of many great philosophers and lawgivers carved in stone is a depiction of Moses and the Ten Commandments. It is an experience I will never forget as I never learned any of these things in school. I remember asking the docent presiding over the tour a simple question after his presentation “Is the Supreme Court ever wrong?” After a long awkward pause and several dirty looks from the crowd the docent did not answer my question and moved on to answer other questions. Outside the Supreme Court on the portico on the opposite side of the building from “Equal Justice Under Law” is another depiction of the Moses holding the Ten Commandments proclaiming “Justice Guardian of Liberty”.  The Supreme Court is a must visit if you ever get to DC.

The Lincoln Memorial was a moving experience as it is a more common area and usually full of people visiting like ourselves. There have been a lot of films and speeches there in front of the reflecting pool facing the Washington Monument.  I have a great admiration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights message and movement that echoed the Declaration of Independence. The very spot where that speech was delivered is marked clearly to remember where he stood in that great historical moment. However I didn’t like his new chiseled depiction at the new memorial dedicated in 2011, he looks a bit too Chinese and not a good likeness but that’s my opinion of the monument not the man.  Definitely better than that monstrosity embrace in bronze they just put in Boston. The speech heard round the world led to a generation that clearly understood discrimination was bad which was in stark contrast to our parents who still had PTSD from the generation before on the subject of discrimination.

In fact the Marxists have hijacked the Civil Rights movement in many ways co-opting the idea and misapplying it to the Trans movement that is actually destroying women’s sports. Marxists have been hard at work fomenting the embrace of Indiscriminateness as a civil right, which it is not, and never will be.  My generation messed this up big time with a full embrace of the false moral imperative of indiscriminateness. We are finding out know the hard way that indiscriminateness is the only thing worse than discrimination.

The collective guilty conscience of my parent’s “if it feels good do it” generation has shown us that indiscriminateness may even be worse than discrimination. We have a whole generations raised on Marxist principles of neutrality (political correctness) that leaves a power vacuum and cedes power to bullies. After all standing up for what you believed in might just be a reflection of our biases so many went silent and turned into cowards. We can’t discriminate between good or evil, success or failure, winners or losers, or any behaviors that lead to success over behaviors that lead to failure because that MIGHT be discriminatory and reflect bias. That was not what Dr. King was talking about in his speech.

This remains a remarkable memory to have stood on that very spot where this historic speech was delivered. Unlike the Declaration of Independence you read about in books you can easily watch the moving “I Have a Dream Speech” delivered on that faithful August day in 1963 day in front of the Lincoln Memorial. One gets a sense of real history as you stand on the spot where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his landmark state of the union 1963 speech nearly 200 years after the original Declaration of Independence was penned and signed, giving birth to this great nation in 1776. Ideas change the world when acted upon. It takes great courage to communicate and champion those ideas when faced with great opposition from the culture and MLK was a master communicator in his courageous passionate delivery hearkening back to the birth of our great nation with the courage and conviction of the founders themselves.

Marxist Ideologies can be found everywhere in the start of the 21st century America namely in school, government and now culture since the mainstream church has ostracized itself. Its seems at times as if the whole country has hoisted the white flag of surrender in the culture war sidelining itself out of fear of offending people. The power vacuum simply creates a space for evil failed and wrong as the church abdicated their responsibility in the culture war.  Madison wrote about this in the Federalist Papers and simply called special interest groups factions, but he makes plain that large factions where to be guarded against to protect the Liberty that the Founders sought to achieve for all individuals.  I would posit the founders did not anticipate the small factions uniting using technology to create mega factions fueled by money and greed like they have today. The Declaration of Independence was about individuals not groups, factions, political parties or special interest. In its humble simplicity the Declaration of Independence points directly to God in several distinct ways. This is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights speech was all about. It was not meant to be used and abused by Marxists or political factions.

To guard against factions our Constitution of these United States was designed with checks and balances to protect against factionalism in general in its decentralized design. The first separation of power is government from the people in a representative republic. We elect representatives to serve us not despots to rule over us. France is a democracy and they are on their 13th constitution in that unstable country that claims to have perfected democracy by lopping of the heads of the opposition in their civil war that is taught as a revolution in school. America is not a democracy despite what the media has been conditioning us to think in their repetitive conditioning and deceitful marketing.  We have crossed the Rubicon when folks in our media began saying things like guilty until proven innocent, which is an inversion of the all jurisprudence since our founding.  In a Free country the media doesn’t try to help the government censor people. In a Free country the media is part of the checks and balances on power. Seems to me we have taken our freedom for granted and we are no longer even desire to be free.  TRUE Liberty became a passing fad as we entered the 21st century and is now regarded in postmodern thought as passé.

Reminded once again by the golden calf story in the good book as Moses. When the Law is brought down from the mountain many people deciding that worshipping a golden calf was good.  We all know how that turned out.  Many people of faith forget that most of the references to kings in the bible are written as warnings and that most of the kings were not good. Even kings started out good they were corrupted as is the fact of our never changing human nature.  When you read the Old Testament you find quite clearly a warning to people who wanted a king to rule over them. Despite the clear warnings in Samuel about the abuses of kings the people clamored for a king to rule over them because they did not want to think for themselves. Ironically they really didn’t want to rule themselves or be free. Most people choose the path of least resistance throughout time and I for one am thankful that our founders did not choose that path. Good leadership secures the blessings of liberty.

Remember Moses came down with the law and in his time he started a representative republic from those commandments. The parallels to the founding of America are astonishing.  The established laws of the Ten Commandments became the framework for a representative republic.  The warnings were very clear about how submitting to a king outside of God leads to oppression but as was then and now the people wanted the path of least resistance despite the warnings.  We may have some democratic ideals but America was founded as a Representative Republic. The First separation of power is “We The People” and we send representatives into the government realm to represent us throughout.  In an honest democratic election process, those in power are connected to the people they represent and serve people and to protect and defend the constitution with the constitutional framework.

Remember the Declaration makes plain as you read it that just as we declared independence from a tyrannical king that we have a duty to throw off the shackles of a tyrannical government if it becomes despotic. In other words the highest law must be used to restore the law amongst men.  The American founding is the goal of a government instituted among men to protect those God given rights and Liberties. The goal has always been individuals living out the highest good achieving the most freedom, knowing that this could only be achieved with a religious and moral people.

Ben Franklin had much influence in that time for example as a great writer, publisher and inventor who embraced creation.  When the founders were at an impasse in the debates in the sweltering heat in Philadelphia it was Ben Franklin that suggested that the men pray, and soon after that, humility lead to an agreement.  As the founders departed it was asked by passers by what they had come up with and Franklin again made an astute observation saying “A Republic, if you can keep it”.

Madison, Hamilton and John Jay wrote The Federalist Papers, eighty five of them, which contain the reasoned principles that undergird the constitution under the publius pseudonym. Publius was a real historical figure depicted as an archetype that essentially means accessible to the poor or the humble neighbor.   Madison has two very good quotes that I’d like to share here with you all.  In The Federalist Papers, amongst the writings about what the constitution means and why it was written the way it was. Madison makes a very salient point about the balance of power opining that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition” in Federalist 51.  Another very salient point about human nature and culture can also be found in the same Federalist 51 when he makes plain the reason for government itself writing: “If men were angels no government would be necessary.”

Well it seems the founders actually though deeply on the subject of liberty and this magnificent framework designed to establish the America Dream. This is what MLK was trying to remind us of in 1963. We have definitely lost our way again ignoring the basic tenets of that framework and our responsibility.  Only a mature understanding of freedom and individual liberty is humble enough to understand that we cannot have freedom without individual responsibility. In short “there is no such thing as forced freedom or forced liberty”. The government’s primary role is to protect us from each other not lord over us.  One of my favorite Ben Franklin quotes since I was a child is “If you trade Safety & Security for Freedom you will lose both and deserve neither”.

We must live out our creed embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Principles of our constitution described in great detail in the Federalist papers to truly understand what was echoed in the MLK Speech. It is a never ending journey of truth and maturity that we set out to accomplish for our posterity and out of reverence for those that have gone before us.  It is a promise of today and tomorrow that requires real action and real courage to make real these bold ideas. It is the boldness to seek and achieve the goals our founders laid out for us. Though we continue to fall short MLK reminded us of how to do this and at what great sacrifice we must make to live out that creed standing on the promises of America’s Founding. What most are not taught in today’s Marxist anti America culture they can still learn for themselves by reading and studying original source documents. Clearly America was built on the foundation of Liberty & Justice as defined by our Lord and Savior and the promise of eternal life from our Creator outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

The strangest thing about this generation is that we have been so hypnotized by technology and prosperity that we have not yet stopped to realize we have been led into a Platonic Cave.  We have allowed ourselves to become prisoners in the allegory where we only see the reflection of reality and have willfully traded freedom for a padded prison cell. We are told reality is in the artificial images and light reflections on the wall. Our indiscriminate culture has led us to accept the artificial as better than reality not realizing what this leads to and why Plato wrote the allegory.  Temptation has lost all control and we stop only to pray only for more grain and wine as we suffer the consequences of our sloth and decadence.

The original debate about abortion went from a debate about life to an irrational death drive claiming abortion as a public good. The treasury secretary came out on TV recently and said abortion is good for the economy and the State of California is now paying for abortion tourism calling it healthcare.  Any rational person would say hold on a minute this is not a public good this is more like child sacrifice.  No longer is this a rational discourse but an evil enterprise this is beyond politics. In a rational free society we don’t discuss castrating and mutilating children as a public good.  This is what indiscriminateness leads to.  The vast majority of people didn’t vote for this. The vast majority of people know that it is wrong to accept, advocate, and promote child mutilation & castration as a public good. Any objective view of this reveals that we are well past politics and into an artificial realm. We are now living in Plato’s cave and it’s a dystopian nightmare not the American Dream.

This is no longer politics this is a spiraling demise. The indiscriminate culture has embraced a mindless and relentless death drive towards and androgynous society. This is not progress. Most if not all of our institutions are now captured by this ideological possession. This is no longer a free republic when media protects government and speech is regulated or censored. This is not the American Dream and we would be wise to go watch the MLK speech again in its entirety.  We would be wise to go back and read the Declaration of Independence again. We would be wise to read the Federalist Papers and take heed the writings of Publius.  We would be wise to understand that the American Dream rests on the bedrock of Christianity and the Judeo Christian ethical definitions of right and wrong.  We would be wise to stand against this evil rotten culture we are living in. We would be wise to restore the original definitions of Right and Wrong in our culture that lead to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  We must reject the artificial Intelligence that brought us here. We must find a good place to stand and begin restoring the American Dream. We must reject the culture of ignorance and apathy that lead us here.

The debate is no longer left or right it is returning to right or wrong where it belongs.  It’s long past time to remove the ideological shackles and emerge from the cave this current culture has led us into.  The internet helps us see what is really going on despite the Orwellian media that refuses to perform its primary role as a check on power. In short we might just say plainly we are the media now in this age of technology. The open source decentralized information exposes the corrupt corporations, culture, government and worst of all our “education systems” flaws and outright lies. None of us wants to accept or believe how bad it really is but we are starting to see more clearly as government and media work to censor everyone who calls them out. This bankrupt culture is so captured by technology and love of money that we are about to throw the baby out with the bath water if we don’t reverse course.

Technology has enabled factions to gain power like never before. Media is no longer reporting objectively showing its clear bias. Legacy media no longer focuses on the process of our constitutional republic. We are now operating like a banana republic outside the constitutional constraints.  We are no longer debating the ethics of things even promoting things that destroy our social contract and calling them good. We stopped trying to balance the budget piling up debt that leads to more suffering from inflation as a result. We are no longer focused on “Rule of Law” or “Equal Justice” or the American Dream that MLK described in 1963.  We are no longer focused on the good, right and just things but the base temptations of power and control that the founders warned us about when they wrote to a tyrannical king in our Declaration of Independence in 1776. 
 

Originally published in the Porterville Recorder's 4/26/2023 issue.