BEYOND THUNDERDOME (Part I)

(Because Waking Up is Hard to Do)


I can be a realist at times (no, really it's true), so I'm highly aware that the chances of this message actually reaching its target audience are pretty bleak. And I'm also vastly aware of the reason why: people in this audience just don't want to hear it. Most of them are snugly settled in the deepest throes of their euphoric sleep, and are either not ready to wake up and hear the unsettling messages I have to share with them, or they simply don't want to believe that something could be wrong (and therefore needs to be fixed...which means work).

I know all of this because I, too, was once a proud, card-carrying member of this non-exclusive club (we can call it the "See How Far You Can Bury Your Head in the Sand Club" or SHFYCBYHITSC for short), and to be quite honest, I never had any intention whatsoever of rescinding my lifetime membership. I was comfortable, and (at least I thought) happy. You see, it's far more comfortable to live in a fantasy world where everything is just downright peachy. Where everyone does the right thing, not out of obligation or legislation, but out of love for our country, liberty, and God. But this fantasy world is just that: a fantasy. It doesn't exist. And whether you want to or not, it's time to wake up.

Now, I will warn you that the process of waking up WILL NOT be an easy one. It can be pretty painful, or at least it was for me. I would liken it to the five stages of death:

1. Denial: No way, man! This stuff only happens in futuristic, apocalyptic Mel Gibson movies. It could never happen in America in the 21st century! That's crazy!
2. Anger: Quit weighing me down with your negativity, dude! You're killing my buzz!
3. Bargaining: Okay, so if I agree with what you're telling me, will you just give it a rest and let me get back to staycation (see post titled "Silent No More" for definition of staycation)?
4. Depression: Tina Turner looked so hot when she went beyond Thunderdome, I don't think that look would work for me in post-apocalyptic America.
5. Acceptance: Admitting there's a problem is the first step to getting help. And the next step is working vehemently to prevent us from reaching the end of the road that we're already on.

And part of the reason why I'm reaching out to all of the lullaby innocents of the nation, is because I feel it really is that important to help you see what's happening and where we're going. The things I will be writing about now and over the course of the next couple of weeks will be highly unpopular. But it's not my goal right now to make you feel good. Let's fix the problem first, then we can all go back to holding hands around the campfire while singing Kumbayah.

Okay?

We are currently living in a time of swift, volatile change. And this change is sweeping through our country like the strong wind that precedes a great storm. With every gust (legislation passed in Washington), destruction follows. It rips apart and dismantles our homes (the U.S. Constitution), it knocks over strong, sturdy trees (our individual liberties), and throws debris across our roadways (justice and due process) until we cannot pass. Yet, that is not the worst of it. The storm is still looming on the horizon, nearing slowly and ominously...and filling those who can clearly see it with absolute dread.

The storm that is coming...well, many believe it to be nothing less than a socialist revolution. And I don't mean revolution in the Paul McCartney "we all wanna change the world" sense. I mean the ugly, bloody, the end is near (!!!) kind of revolution that we've seen before in our history books. The ones that made us shudder and wonder just why no one did anything to stop them.
That kind of revolution.

Call me crazy if you want. I'm sure many people will. In fact, I believe I implied to my husband (God love him) that he had gone off the deep end when he initially tried to tell me some of this same stuff (you know...the stuff I didn't want to hear). At one point I even told him that he would have to stop -- just stop -- mid-conversation because I just couldn't handle what he was saying. And he stopped. And in the brief silence that followed, everything began to seep in and make sense. I was finally awake, too.

So, by this point you're likely wishing that I was less verbose and more skilled at jumping right to the point. Sorry. That's not how I was made. If our imperfect education system taught me anything, it was a knack for flair and long, complex sentences filled with zappy adjectives, casual chit-chat, and the occasional impressive, frilly word. I may also have a tendency to love the sound of my own voice and the eloquence of each of my carefully typed words as they grace the screen of my computer monitor. Ah, aren't they just magnificent? But I digress.

America today faces a lot of challenges, both internal and external.

Our government refuses to pass immigration reform laws that would better secure our borders both to the north and south at a time when it is becoming critical to do so. Terrorists are easily able to cross our lax borders into our country where they can sit and wait for instructions from their higher ups. You think Islamist terrorists don't still want to kill us? Well, why don't you pour yourself a nice, steaming cup of get real tea and sit down with a copy of Al-Zarqawi--Al Qaeda's Second Generation (which describes a seven step, twenty year plan to establish Islamic rule right here in America). And if that isn't enough to keep you laying awake, restless in your bed at night, consider this: the Mexican economy is on the verge of collapse, which means that our loosely controlled borders could soon be flooded with the influx of hundreds of thousands (if not more)desperate illegal immigrants.

Nationalized health care is on the horizon, spearheaded by our current administration. This is just another fancy word for socialized medicine, which is what our neighbors to the north and across the Atlantic endure. Health care for everyone is great, right? Wrong. It leads to health care for no one...well except for members of a privileged elite class for whom none of the rules apply. Why is socialized medicine bad? Try this on for size: the people of Great Britain have become so hopeless in waiting for dental services under socialized dentistry that they've begun pulling out their own teeth. Don't believe me? Try googling "Britains pulling out their own teeth" and see what all pops up. And that's only the beginning...the list of problems in endless, and to do real justice to it, I will have to dedicate an upcoming blog to the topic of socialized medicine alone. (Oh, and you can rest assured that I will.)

Government takeovers of banks and national private companies have already begun, and our own Timothy Geitner seems to have no problem with doing so. What he does have trouble with is answering the questions offered by Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who asked him several times in Congressional hearings just where in the U.S. Constitution the power to take ownership of private banks is given. His blank expression seemed to imply, "Constitution? What's that?" He provided no insight whatsoever. Oh, but our current legislators have no plans of stopping after the complete and utter takeover of our banking system. GM has already been acquired. And don't worry, drivers...your warranty is good with Uncle Sam.

Environmental policies, which are the lovechild of electrical and media giant GE, are being set in place now that could completely alter the way of life as we know it. Imagine a future where your government determines whether or not you use your air conditioner just too much when the mercury rises outside...and, if so, turns off your A/C from thousands of miles away. Think it would never happen? Think again. GE already has a "smart chip" which could be installed in every new product they manufacture which would allow two-way communication between your appliances and your government. Some electric customers in other states are already receiving letters offering "free" thermostats along with details about how they could save money by allowing their electricity providers to set the temperatures in their homes. Ah, the future is near.

Corruption. See: Acorn and Glenn Beck's current research on just what the heck is going on with that organization. He explains it all far better than I would. It's worth it...I promise. And he has facts, whistle blowers, and all the scandal you could ever dream of.

And then there's Progressivism. Which is just a nice, frilly, happy way of saying absolute government control. Here's the real meat of the story...read on. We are heading toward Socialism, plainly and simply put. We can call it something else, like "nationalized this" and "nationalized that" or we can follow the trend a couple of decades ago and refer to it in a more inflammatory way as a "New World Order", but no matter what we call it, it's still socialism. I recall the old saying: Don't sprinkle sugar on crap and tell me it's candy. A lot of what is going on right now is a result of the Progressive movement, which isn't really a new thing at all. It's been around (as a defined movement, at least) since the late 1800's and has had a tendency to ebb and flow according to political, social, and international sentiment.

Now, I asked a good friend today at work just what she thought of the word "progressive". She told me it didn't sound like a bad thing...didn't it just mean progress? Moving forward? I told her that was exactly what I would have thought the word meant, too. But it doesn't.

I read a paper this afternoon written by Thomas G. West, a respected Political Science Professor, and he quoted John Burgess (a well known Progressive political scientist) who described the ideal of the Progressive movement in the following way:

"The most fundamental and indispensable mark of statehood [is] the original, absolute, unlimited, universal power over the individual subject, and all associations of subjects."

Feel free to read that quote a few more times and allow it to fully sink in, because it's a very important statement.

Progressives are about absolute control over each and every aspect of each and every citizen's life. Sound familiar? It should. It was why we spent so much of our time and resources fighting against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism.

(Are you awake now?)

So, over the course of the next couple of weeks, I intend to educate you further on the origins, history, and effects of the Progressive Movement in our country. For those of you who are already well versed on this topic, you are more than welcome to CLEP out of this current coursework and proceed to the next level. The rest of you: pay attention, because this matters.