PrintApril 4, 2010
Love, Fear, and Tyranny
I was plenty scared in the fall of 2008. As the weather cooled and the economy collapsed, my financial security crumbled. Then, on November 4th, freedom and rational thought lost at the polls. A year and a half later, I feel powerless while the arrogant radical and dogma-breathing congressional thugs fundamentally transform my country into a socialist hell.
People like me are understandably angry. We are witnessing Barack Obama's and the Democrats' roughhousing of America. Michigan Representative John Dingell admits that the goal is "to control the people." The only barrier between freedom and totalitarianism is the United States Constitution. It has been demoted to near-irrelevance by Democrats' corrupt health care takeover.
We the people must remove the tyrants and preserve the Constitution. But we must take care. We find ourselves taunted by holier-than-thou Democrats and soulless media puppets. "Violent right-wing extremism" would be the perfect excuse for banning the voice of liberty from the airwaves with an emergency "fairness doctrine." So what can freedom-loving, traditional Americans do? We can promote the principles of individual freedom.
As leaders and teachers, we can help voters understand how progressive tyranny has darkened the American character with fear and anger. We can help voters see how the Democrats control the people with distortions of history, illegal mandates, and outright lies. We can inspire peaceful but decisive action that will crescendo this coming November.
This may be easier than one might suspect. Let's recall, painfully, that hopey-changey rhetoric got Barack Obama elected. The lesson is not lost on traditionalists. Moving people to act really is about the right words at the right time -- at right times over and over again. Voters are ready for teachers bearing substance, real hope, and positive change.
Hopey-changey burnouts are beginning to listen to how wealth-redistributionist, anti-business, nanny government approaches destroy society, while libertarian emphasis on individuals, entrepreneurs, and small government invigorates society. Traditional Americans' task is to teach burnouts the contrast between prosperity-killing, self-reliance-destroying nonsense and wealth-growing, accountability-oriented common sense.
Identifying voters who are open to what traditional Americans have to offer is not rocket science. Among the obvious candidates are unemployed Americans, friends and relatives who haven't voted in years or ever, and the worker complaining about Washington corruption while servicing your air conditioner or painting your house. Voters hungry for guidance surround us every day.
When a man at my gym declared that ObamaCare would make health insurance premiums fall, I asked, "Why do you believe that?" Five minutes and half a dozen questions later, the man discovered how open-ended inquiry is used to teach new things to adults who know it all.
Overhearing my conversation with the man, a nearby woman advised that the new health care "thing" would be "fine" because "Katie [Couric] says so." I wondered aloud about the honesty of the news media, and the conversation came alive. I wrote "Media Research Center" and "Big Journalism" -- adding HowObamaGotElected.com for good measure -- on a business card and extended my hand. The woman could not contain her curiosity. Another recovering Obamamaniac is now finding truth every day. Discovery feeds the desire for discovery.
Of all the things that inspire people to discover truth, anger motivates particularly well. The 70 percent of Americans angry over federal government policies and the independent voters who strongly disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance comprise a ready-made group of students willing to listen to reason.
Particularly dissatisfied are small business owners. Law now requires that a company employing fifty people or more either provide workers with government-approved health care plans or pay government-mandated penalties. The fifty-employee rule together with the Democrat health care monstrosity's taxes and other burdens has turned small business owners into eager travelers of the road to smaller government. With thirty million small business owners nationwide, most of us have several potential students living in the neighborhood. Time to get neighborly and discuss the electoral path back to freedom and prosperity.
Achievement-oriented parents who want to raise achievement-oriented children already have one foot on the path. Judging from the response to my three recent articles on progressive indoctrination in schools, parents have had enough spread-the-wealth, anti-achievement, "social justice" propaganda. Traditional Americans can lead, teach, and grow parent groups that will turn passion into votes.
Through leading and teaching, we can reverse the damage done by progressivism. But let's be clear. Progressives have come to dominate America by training educators to render generations of kids ignorant to real collectivist failures and angry over contrived free-market evils. Cleaning out the festering government corruption and cultural decay wrought by kids who never grew up won't come easily. But as persistent leaders and teachers, we can make it normal again for achievers to share the fruits of achievement in the way that moral people have always shared -- out of morality, not in response to government force wielded by pompous ideologues that run fast and loose with taxpayer money.
It is time to reclaim the national conversation. As traditional Americans, our determination can turn back tyranny and carry liberty to victories in 2010 and 2012. Though fear and anger will be our companions, love for country will fill our hearts with resolve. Our mission as leaders and teachers is to coax out the love of freedom that brings out the best in Americans.
A physicist, former high-tech executive, and writer, Chuck Rogér invites you to visit his website, chuckroger.com. E-mail Chuck at swampcactus@chuckroger.com.
