Pleaase tell me I'm wrong about Americans today.

[CentralTexas]

I grew up hearing about the legend of the Alamo and Texas heroes of the period.And I watched John Wayne movies, Andy Griffith as sheriff and war movies were Americans were the good guys. In school I was taught the founders were heroes, with the emphasis on their good points not their bad. I grew up believing in patriotism (but not blind allegiance) and that giving your life for our country as our revolutionary war heroes did was a great honor.
I do mean die for Americans freedoms- not politics run amok...
I'm concerned there aren't enough Americans willing to die for our Constitution anymore and few even vote. The general populace is ignorant of current events, or the reality behind them and as long as the mini van starts and the cable TV works they can be led to enslavement and go happily.
Comments like "I can't die for my principles my family needs me","I'm a hunter why do I care if they ban AK-47's" "Why vote or get involved. it's a waste of time" shake my faith in my fellow citizens.
Am I the one out of step? Are we past the power curve and there is no turning back? Am I stressing and wasting my time trying in vain? The Raich (sp) decision from the Supreme Court clearly says the Federal Government is the top dog in all matters and states rights be damned. The last time that happened wasn't Lincoln president?
CT

 

[Refirignis]

I'm concerned there aren't enough Americans willing to die for our Constitution anymore and few even vote. The general populace is ignorant of current events, or the reality behind them and as long as the mini van starts and the cable TV works they can be led to enslavement and go happily.

You're absolutely right: that is the situation. My own family is a prime example: they don't give a damn except for what is right in front of them, and they won't care until it's too late (making them care is futile).

"Why vote or get involved. it's a waste of time"

Same response they give.

Am I the one out of step?

No. You're just awake; everyone around you isn't.

 

[R.H. Lee]

It's the world we live in, CT, and it's not changing anytime soon.

 

[fjolnirsson]

I vote.
I write letters.
I email.
I telephone my elected representatives and chew them out.
I vote with my pocketbook.
I work to change things locally and nationally. I am involved in the formation of a new political party.
I educate those I know about current events.
I would not hesitate to die for my freedoms, and those of others.
We all get discouraged. It helps to take a break from the insanity, from time to time.
Others will pick up the slack until you return to the fray.

 

[mhdishere]

CentralTexas,
I think there's good cause to be optimistic. John Stewart Mill made reference to a class of people who are only kept free thru the exertions of better men than themselves.

There are exceptional people around now. Such people are always in the minority, but at times when the need is greater the supply seems to be greater too, it's as if "ordinary" people become exceptional people when such people are needed. The guy who only cares that the mini-van starts and the cable TV works is the same guy who'll be doing what he needs to do. Want proof? Talk to some WW II vets sometime. They were ordinary guys before they joined up, they were ordinary (although different) guys when they came home. They had their faults, fears, and dreams, and they formed an army that brought the greatest armies the world has ever seen to their knees. In 1940 these same guys probably only cared whether the new Ford started and that the radio worked. In 1944 they hit Omaha beach.

Maybe I'm just a natural optimist, but I think the USA is, and will continue to be the greatest place on earth. There will be setbacks from time to time, but those strengthen us.

 

[joab]

I grew up hearing about the legend of the Alamo and Texas heroes of the period.And I watched John Wayne movies, Andy Griffith as sheriff and war movies were Americans were the good guys. In school I was taught the founders were heroes, with the emphasis on their good points not their bad.

These wre the same legends and heroes that systematically exterminated an entire culture and enslaved another and built their country on the backs of people who were not allowed to reap the benefits. The movies showed all that was good and none of the bad.

America is now as it has always been

we're just not buying the hype anymore.

 

[2nd Amendment]

I'm not certain there are exceptional people around today. Not in the numbers required to make meaningful change. I believe this is a symptom of what I was talking about in the thread I started the other nite. We've legislated and educated and medicated greatness and risk taking right out of ourselves. We've achieved such a level of comfort and insulation from any of life's real challenges, and replaced them with the fake challenges of the urban consumerism society, that most of us don't even know what greatness is.

Likewise nothing has come from the outside to force us to toughen up or excel beyond our average. Even 9/11 was an excuse to cower for most people, crying for "safety" and "security" and other such impossible fantasies all the way. That short spurt of pride and desire for vengeance was simply too difficult to keep up, under the pressure of the cable bill and the kids needing new Nikes and getting the paperwork for the third mortgage filled out...

 

[Yanus]

And the lesson for the day is................

The cultures with the highest levels of technology will always be the dominant ones. Through out history it has been thus and will always be so.


Yanus

 

[The Real Hawkeye]

I am involved in the formation of a new political party.

Judging from the literature on your web page, your efforts would be better spent, IMHO, supporting the American Libertarian Party. They have essentially the same platform that you do. The US Constitution Party is 90% identical to your positions too. Too bad we cannot unite the US Constitution and American Libertarian Parties into one larger party which compromises on certain small points where they differ. This was the appeal of Ronald Reagan, i.e., he appealed equally to traditionalist conservative Americans and Libertarians. That's why he won in two landslide elections. If there was another Ronald Reagan today, he'd still win in two landslide elections. There is a huge chunk of Republican voters whe are ideologically closer to Congressman Ron Paul (TX) than to George Bush, and they would probably put us over the top (or at least make us contenders) if we had a viable candidate for this new party.

 

[jefnvk]

I'm concerned there aren't enough Americans willing to die for our Constitution anymore and few even vote

Heck, we got people who refuse to stand in line for an hour or two, just to turn around and yepp voter fraud because it wasn't convenient.

Contrast that to the Iraqis who were getting shot at and blown up when they went to vote.

Sometimes, I think a few years under a dictator control of some other nation is what we need to get the whole spirit of freedom back into people.

 

[2nd Amendment]

These wre the same legends and heroes that systematically exterminated an entire culture and enslaved another and built their country on the backs of people who were not allowed to reap the benefits. The movies showed all that was good and none of the bad.

America is now as it has always been

we're just not buying the hype anymore.

Now that's humorous. Unsupportable leftist fantasy, but humorous nonetheless.

Let's take it apart anyway...

There was no harmonious "culture" here when the Europeans arrived. There were hundreds of violent, usually primitive, warring tribes who often filed their teeth into points, the better to inflict damage up close and personal. They killed each other, they killed animals, they wrecked areas in their building and their fires and their waste and debris.

They fought the Europeans tooth and nail off and on for centuries and killed at least as good as they got in return. They cheated and stole and back-stabbed and were in every way human, no less or more honorable than any other race. Just people, and trying to smeer this "victimized honorable culture" label all over them is, again, downright laughable.

Meanwhile...

America is not as it once was. Technologically we're better than ever. Enviromentally we're probably better than ever. Monetarily we're bigger than ever but the foundations are rotten. Socially the foundations have been rotten for decades and the rot is spreading. Politically we're in a big, fat ugly mess. The times they are a changin' and it ain't all good(though it may not all be bad).

But the American people over all are buying more hype than ever, including the kind of stuf you're trying to sell here.

 

[fjolnirsson]

Judging from the literature on your web page, your efforts would be better spent, IMHO, supporting the American Libertarian Party. They have essentially the same platform that you do. The US Constitution Party is 90% identical to your positions too. Too bad we cannot unite the US Constitution and American Libertarian Parties into one larger party which compromises on certain small points where they differ.

It'd be nice. The main popint of difference, as I see it, is Immigration control, which the Libertarian party doesn't want. The Constitution Party is a little too Christian for my taste. Not that there's anything wrong with Christianity, I just don't see it as a neccesary part of the Party.
I do support the Libertarian party while I work at this project. I tend to vote Libertarian, for the time being. This new party is focusing on local, grass roots efforts, rather than trying for the brass ring every time without first building a viable voter base.

Oh, and it isn't my web page. I'm just a supporter and contributor. The page itself, and the party idea, is the work of another man.

 

[2nd Amendment]

Yeah, a lazy SOB who has four new pages of work sitting in Editor waiting for a friend to do some new graphics and design.

*sigh*

But it's coming...just gimme time. Hell, we've got all the time in the world, right? :banghead:

 

[fjolnirsson]

and enslaved another

Hmm, no. They were enslaved by neighboring tribes, not by Americans. America used slave labor, sure. Even expanded and helped make it more profitable, sure.
Cultures throughout history have enslaved each other. It is the nature of man to oppress his fellows. Look what we have today.
Demonizing what our founders did by pointing out their flaws is silly. Because they weren't perfect, that negates everything they did?

 

[fjolnirsson]

Yeah, a lazy SOB who has four new pages of work sitting in Editor waiting for a friend to do some new graphics and design.

Well, as far as that goes, I need to get off my tuchiss and start working on stuff, too.

 

[testar77]

I really really

wish that I could tell you that you are wrong!. I see that you have some of the same frustrations about our society as I do. But at least everyone is in touch with their feelings . Oh yeah, as far as voting goes, here in Washington we let some people vote twice, and even being deseased doesn't stop you from voting, oh yeah and let's not forget about the unusually high amount of felons voting!

 

[Gordon Fink]

Pleaase tell me I’m wrong about Americans today.

No. You’re not wrong about Americans of today, but you are wrong about the Americans of yesterday.

~G. Fink

 

[joab]

Now that's humorous. Unsupportable leftist fantasy, but humorous nonetheless.

Of course it is, anything that doesn't fall lock step into your John Wayne induced fantasies of how America grew to what she is is an anti American leftist.

Unsupportable?

That's right there was no trail of tears and no slavery, and the Irish and Chinese were welcomed with open arms.

Give me a break, and they call Southeners revisionists

 

[joab]

Demonizing what our founders did by pointing out their flaws is silly. Because they weren't perfect, that negates everything they did?

Exactly where did I say that? I'm just not pretending that we got here by a mnadate from God

They were enslaved by neighboring tribes, not by Americans. America used slave labor, sure. Even expanded and helped make it more profitable, sure.

Well when you put it that way i guess slavery was a good thing.

 

[Art Eatman]

Shucks, you can get even more discouraged at today's Fred on Everything.net.

For the vast majority of US folks, life has been really, really nice and easy for some 60 years. IMO, anyway. That doesn't provide impetus for emotional or moral "toughness"; certainly not on a daily basis.

Doesn't mean it's all gone, though.

I hope.

Art

 

[2nd Amendment]

Of course it is, anything that doesn't fall lock step into your John Wayne induced fantasies of how America grew to what she is is an anti American leftist.

You don't know me nor anything about me. With that and the other thread you got locked and then this fantasy about the history of the Amerind you have effectively established the fact you will say whatever feels good without any facts at all.

Unsupportable?

Utter fantasy.

That's right there was no trail of tears and no slavery, and the Irish and Chinese were welcomed with open arms.

None of which has anything to do with the other claims you made above nor my refutation of same. In fact, frankly, it's almost bizarrely out of context here.

Give me a break, and they call Southeners revisionists

Umm, no, not those who actually have a clue. It would be those who think the Civil War was about slavery who are called revisionists and if we're going to assign a geographical location to them it would generally be North. Regardless, this again has no relevence to your historical revisionism of the history of Amerinds or their ultimate defeat.

 

[2nd Amendment]

Exactly where did I say that? I'm just not pretending that we got here by a mnadate from God

No, you're forwarding a a view of history that says those people who were here "first" were near perfect dwellers in harmony with nature yada, yada, yada while the European and all his ways were evil bastards who did big mean things to the helpless "Native Americans".

Nobody is buying it, BTW.

Well when you put it that way i guess slavery was a good thing.

Do you even try to debate the actual point? Especially when it's your point being debated? What he said was that WE did not institutionalize slavery against the Amerinds, they did that to themselves, in conflict with your revisionist history. But instead of deal with the rebuttal you come up with the above lame strawman? Yeesh.

 

[rick_reno]

I hate to pop your balloon - but as long as their Big Mac is hot, the general populace is happy.

 

[joab]

You're funny 2A

 

[2nd Amendment]

You're surrender is noted and logged by pretty much everybody. Thx.