Still Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize

By Jeff Abler - March 22, 2010

Back on August 8, 2009, I had posted the following (and much more) here on the KY912 site:

… It would also be easy to allow ourselves to feel discouraged when they force through passage of both of these bills [Nationalized Healthcare and Cap and Trade] against unprecedented public opposition (they have the votes and they will pass them regardless of the will of the people or the cost – they have already stated this frankly and demonstrated it with the house vote on Cap and Trade). As big as these battles are, we are after something much bigger. As easy as it would be to be discouraged by these apparent set backs, we should be invigorated by the insight and knowledge that these same extreme actions (which they will tout as victories) will in the end be the tipping point of their own undoing. It is these extreme and desperate actions on their part that provide us the path to our prize.

Now that the event has occurred, I'm finding it useful and instructive to reflect upon where we were at that time almost eight months ago, where we are now, and where we are going. As stated at the time this was written, the number of individuals awakened was growing, but slowly. We were just in the process of figuring out what it was that had drawn us together, and what we should do to reclaim our prize. Our existence had been ignored by the mainstream media throughout tax day and the fourth of July, then belittled and dismissed, followed by mischaracterization and dismissal by politicians. But we were not deterred. With town hall meetings, our voices rattled them, and they cracked. Their transparent lies of astroturf and racism and the violent attacks by their union henchmen exposed the fear they had been trying to hide.

...But now, I have seen the reaction to our efforts thus far. I have seen the fear and lies masked in arrogance and anger. I have seen the reckless desperation that is obvious to all but those unwilling to let go of the arrogance. I have seen the shameless attack by the mighty against the common man. I have viewed it together with the entire nation, and I understand he will only arrogantly escalate his attack because he has no alternative and he knows no other way. This abuse will become so blatant that it will become obvious to all, and it will provide to us that which we otherwise were slow in producing. [growth in our numbers]

Indeed, our rate of growth increased, and our unity of purpose strengthened. We saw the result on 9/12 in Washington DC, and we were inspired by the experience. Predictably, more belittlement and lies came in the reporting of this event, and we smiled, as we knew their weak charade was further food for our growth.

As passage of Nationalized Healthcare (and the coming wave of legislative efforts over the next seven months) now further escalates the rate at which people will be awakened, it is wise to assess if the course we plotted seven months ago is still the way to continue. Indeed, the three things we must continue to do to reclaim our prize are (very much paraphrased):

1. Educate ourselves, get to know and support one another.
2. Grow our numbers and peacefully and intelligently speak our mind.
3. Elect representatives who believe as we do, and are willing to follow our founders intent and return to the Constitution.
   

Some of the landscape has changed. Much of the emphasis when writing in August dealt with the scope of the our target being much beyond any single individual or political party.

In accord with its arrogance, this administration promotes the misconception that they are our target. Meanwhile, their long-established adversary sits quietly by, extremely frightened, hesitantly relieved that their proclaimed foe has engaged and attacked us, hoping that we will forgo our greater ambitions and become consumed by the battle with the arrogant, wishing that the recent accusations of their foe towards us were true, that we were part of a cunning plan on their part, and that our focus was simply the demise of their foe. ...

But we are motivated by so much more than one person or party.

Through a century of manipulation and progression, our two major political parties have been infiltrated and distorted into warped ideology that has enabled and fostered the evolution into a system of legalized blatant corruption. Within the bounds of this system, those who hold what were once our most esteemed posts of honor, now audaciously sell off our individual liberties for the maintenance and extension of their own personal wealth and power and that of the lobbyists and special interest groups with whom they are allied. Interwoven with this insidious allegiance, a parallel evolution occurred in our fiscal policy, monetary system, and tax system that now places us on a brink of extreme economic crisis. The manipulation and complication of these systems has served the perpetrators well in that they provided them the means to exchange with each other the wealth and assets they extract from the productive portion of society, while masking the extent of this looting through inflationary monetary policy and deficit spending. While doing so, they have somehow managed to permeate conventional thought with absurd fiscal reasoning and practice, promoting the notion that debt is good, saving is bad, and fiscal recklessness will now be rewarded at the expense of those who have been fiscally responsible. ...

The desire then was to restore both parties to fundamental American principles and values so that healthy debate and action regarding the most critical and meaningful issues can occur. Back in August, neither party in Washington got it. While one of the parties' Washington contingent appears to have been sucked deeper into the hole, there are significant signs of progress with representation by the other party. It has become common in the last couple of weeks for the most vocal legislators in the Republican party to actually be singing our song of freedom and the Constitution. A few of them (like Paul Ryan, Michele Bachmann, and Steve King) have shown reason, sincerity, and passion to a to a level that demonstrates that they do get it. Several others have shown glimmers of substance as well (though it is sometimes difficult to tell if they are just jumping on the band wagon, or if it truly comes from the heart). The most important thing is that the conversation has changed. Rather than debating who is the most compassionate in their negligence of the borders, or which type of stimulus handouts are the best, the healthcare bill is being challenged on Constitutional grounds and issues involving states rights.

We have come a long way in a short amount of time, but we have much further to go. Now that nationalized healthcare has passed in the predictable ugly manner and further displays of legislative malice and arrogance are on the horizon, they will feed our growth at an even more accelerated pace assisting us in our quest for the prize.

The prize we seek is built upon fundamental truth, and the barriers to it are built on a network of deception. That is why we will succeed. Things without substance and truth supporting them will not stand the test of time. Their constructors will have to keep adding to the complexity and absurdity in order to mask the reality and ineffectiveness in what they are doing. The absurdity will become more and more apparent. Eventually, the structure must topple. While the achievement of the prize is an ambitious goal, and one which will require significant effort and hardship, this hardship is tiny in comparison to that which faced our founding fathers centuries ago as they were seeking the same prize. They did so with no precedent. They had to create and define a prize never before experienced in history, and never before tested. They did so under risk of life, while facing the most powerful empire of the day. They provided our prize as the foundation of this nation. Our task is not to generate a new prize, it is simply to reclaim the one that they provided to us.

Jeff Abler (Mar. 25, 2010) - common citizen, husband, father, engineer by profession, amateur patriot by necessity

Entire blog from August 8, 2009: On Astroturf, Intimidation, and Encouragement: Keep your Eyes on the Prize