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Loss of Moral Compass Is The Root of America’s Decline

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I had a discussion with a friend the other day about the Presidential Election and how so many of her friends who are devout Democrats, but are not into the apparent growing entitlement mindset.  When I attempted to explain that people such as her friends who unabashedly embrace this new extreme political liberalism, and progressivism, would be shouted down as bleeding Communist and or un-American just 30 or 40 years ago and would have not dared to let such expressions be uttered publically.  This ever growing notion that everything bad that happens to someone is the fault of someone else, that if someone goes through life making bad decisions they can then look to take the wealth and benefits of those who have made good life decisions, and that the government, in particularly the federal government,  should do for someone which they chose to not do for themselves, i.e. provide them healthcare, retirement, or education, is relatively a new state of mind that has taken nearly 60 years. Since the “New Deal” and the “Great Society” enactments, governmental-paternalism and the relinquishment of all personal accountability and responsibility has now become generally accepted by a great number of Americans.

Today Americans actually view Socialism and Communism favorably; some preferably, to American Capitalism.  We have more Americans on Welfare and receiving some form of government assistance to meet basic living needs.  This would have been intellectually repugnant to Americans in my grandparent’s day.  But when one lives in a time when the notion of absolutes-that there are limits on one’s behavior and conduct- and traditional Americanism, such as a belief in God, love of this country, devotion to the family and union between a man and a woman, you have the right to what you earn, and respect for elders, is viewed as radical and cruel, what is there to stop the slide into the social moral abyss where everything and anything is acceptable?

As recently as last year a NY Times article by David Brooks stated  of an eminent Notre Dame sociologist’s  research of some  230 young adults from across America, “The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. “It’s personal,” the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’ I think that this type of attitude expressed sums up what a critical situation our nation is in morally.  This notion that one’s actions and behavior is strictly a matter of individual taste or choice is the genesis of this anti-judgment culture – where no one is allowed to judge someone else based on their actions.  Particularly if those actions result in negative consequences.  But, when those actions go astray, it is someone else who is the blame and who has to bear the cost of it.

What this mentality does is stifle and repress all critical discussions, constructive criticism, and any attempt for correction. The negative effects that may come from someone’s actions and the consequences thereof matters little when it comes to how it makes the individual feel.  If a woman wants to have 10 children, with no man in the home, no one else can judge because it’s a matter of her personal choice.  If an ethnic group chooses to wear their pants down below their rear ends and act in a perpetually angry and self-destructive manner, no one else can judge because it’s a matter of their personal choice.  If someone choses to only read romance novels and the sports pages, and only watch entertainment type productions on TV, therefore leaving them totally ignorant about issues that truly can affect  his or her life positively, no one else can judge because it’s a matter of their personal choice.   And if people chose not to prepare financially, spend more than they can themselves afford, and simply seeks to exist off of the labor, property, or benefit of others, no one else can judge because it’s a matter of their personal choice.  If our culture begins to simply be about the “Me” and now, not taking into account what the effects may be on the surrounding social environment today and in the future, no one else can judge because it’s a matter of their personal choice.  It’s all good.  Right?

Morality is defined as “the rightness or wrongness of something as judged by accepted moral standards.”  This great nation’s Christian foundation isn’t written in stone, no more than English being our official language.  It was presumed to be eternally self-evident through our actions and societal standards.  The very principle of taking from one American based on their wealth to give to another simply based on their lack thereof, by force via the government, used to be totally unacceptable in this nation.  Right and wrong behavior used to be more clearly identifiable as measured by our Biblical foundation.  And as a community of individuals we use to feel that it was our right to speak out on behaviors and actions that we thought to be out of line or inappropriate based on our foundation.

But those days seem to be going the way of the 8-Track Tape Player and the 18 year old virgin.  The people of the United States today have become a nation of no apparent standards, no absolutes. Where nearly anything and everything goes or can be excused.  Christianity is under constant assault in the nation and marginalized as to not offend other religions.  Ethics are on the decline amongst the young.  And Socialism is no long a four letter work culturally, as evident by the re-election of a man whom espouses nothing but a Marxist ideology of wealth redistribution and the dismantling of America’s fundamental base of individual responsibility and self-governance.  So with such a man as the face of America, his America appears to be the new norm.  One that is in decay and decline.

But, at the end of the day it comes down to what we as a nation of free-minded individuals are willing to accept morally.  What are we to accept as right and wrong, good and bad?  Does the question any longer matter?  Alexis de Tocqueville said once about America greatness, “America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good it will cease to be great.”  It is up to us to choose.

Condi’s Convention speech echoes warnings from the past of America’s self-destruction

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At the 2012 Republican Convention former U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in her speech, “There is no country, no not even a rising China, that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we fail to accomplish the tasks before us here at home.”  That got me to thinking of some other prophetic statements regarding America’s self-destruction spoken by others in the past such as, “If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers – normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free, Americans who have been lulled away into a false security.”,  Ezra Taft Benson;  “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”, Thomas Jefferson;  “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” and “Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.” President Ronald Reagan;  “If you establish a democracy, you must in due time reap the fruits of a democracy. You will in due season have great impatience of the public burdens, combined in due season with great increase of the public expenditure. You will in due season have wars entered into from passion and not from reason; and you will in due season submit to peace ignominiously sought and ignominiously obtained, which will diminish your authority and perhaps endanger your independence. You will in due season find your property is less valuable, and your freedom less complete.” Benjamin Disraeli;  and “The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” , stated by Mr. Alexis de Tocqueville.

What all of these prophetic statements speak of is America’s greatness as well as its curse.  Our nation was established with the greatest of intentions, that is to have codified in our foundation that man is to be governed not by man, but the Creator’s endowed rights to his life, his liberties, and his pursuit of happiness to be limited only by his equal respect to the same of that of the other citizen.  Our nation has an abundance of natural resources, natural gas, oil, coal, and precious minerals.  With our great nation’s unique  freedom to achieve to our wildest dreams and aspirations, we too have freedom to give in to our lowest desires and weaknesses.  We can be the greatest of people who continually look to achieve greatness and not settle for mediocrity, to become the best educated on what responsibilities are borne by our cherished freedoms, to live within our means, and take ownership of our decisions – successes as well as our failures – or we can be a people who celebrate the lowest of ourselves and cherish a life of triviality, be all too willing to exchange our birthrite of individual liberties and freedoms for the promise and illusion of government-provided security and social utopia – whether it is as a nation or globally – to look for others to be the creditors and bearers of our ill-temperance and irresponsibility.   If you take inventory of this nation’s situation today, you would realize that many of the prophetic warnings went unheeded to our detriment.  But it doesn’t have to be our nation’s future.  At the end of the day no one or no nation can defeat us, but ourselves.

Another of my favorite quotes that come to mind was said by Thomas Jefferson, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.”  And nor should it.

If its government is immoral, can America be good?

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The current occupant of the Oval Office seems to have a serious issue with issues of right and wrong, particularly when it has to do with the restraints of the Constitution.  The most glaring exhibits are of matters involving illegal Mexicans immigrants being forced to enter the country as other immigrants have done for generations, his attempts to place homosexual unions on par with that of heterosexual unions, and blatantly blurring the traditional lines of ethnicity and morality.

Ever since being placed as president of the United States he has done everything as he promised days before his election, “to fundamentally change America”.  He is doing all that he can to ignore and subjugate longstanding Constitutional principles of conduct. In particular his dealing with the law-making branch of government, the Congress, and his manipulative use of the regulatory powers of the Executive Branch. One of my favorite quotes is from Alexis de Tocqueville when he said of America’s moral standing, “America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good it will cease to be great.’  Is this how he looks to forever alter America, to dismantle its core?  First, he entered the office by being a complete enigma, an unknown entity, speaking words that triggered emotional responses at a time that the American people thirsted for hope for better a future and change from the perceived failings for past.  He’s like an unattractive gal who gives the last guy in the bar, who’s really emotionally distressed and depressed, a minute before it closes, some great tantalizing conversation and attention, saying all of the right things. The guy figures why not her?  But, now it’s the morning after and the guy is feeling like he was been taken advantage of because he has a house full of strangers, the locks on the doors have been changed, and his family jewels are nowhere to be seen.

Mr. Obama came into office promising to be the most transparent Administration ever, the most ethical, and would unite not just of the government, but the people.  Regarding his Administration being transparent, he has sealed all of his personal college transcripts and questions dealing with his actual birth certificate, and his past in general, still linger. I remind you that this isn’t someone who bounces a ball or entertains, but the President of the United States who has a unknown past to most Americans.  This Administration has been involved in one the most massive cover-ups since the Nixon break in with its involvement in the Fast and Furious covert gun-running program that ended up getting Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, age 40, killed by Mexican drug-smugglers during a gunfight.  Incredibly, as reported by  Forbes 9/28/11 report, the deadly gun battle started with USBP shooting bean bags at the smugglers shooting with AK-47s.  Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight.  Is it just me, or there something seriously wrong with our side’s rules of engagement when it comes to fighting Mexican bad guys at the U.S border?  I’m just asking.  The Administration’s Justice Department hasn’t yet come clean with the details of the covert operation run-a-muck, which led to for the first time ever a sitting U.S  Attorney General, Eric Holder, being held in contempt of the Congress.  The Administration effectively blocked for the AG by inexplicably invoking Executive Privilege so we the people may never know the truth of this horrific debacle.  What makes this offense so astounding is the fact that this may have all been done to manipulate the people into granting for the passage of more gun restrictions on legitimate gun sellers and dealers when massive amounts of guns used in gang and gun violence could be traced back to American guns stores.

Other examples of questionable ethical and moral actions have to do with this Administration’s unwillingness to abide by the traditional protocols and restraints applied by the Constitution when he unilaterally chooses to either ignore established law and or just creates its own regulatory policies, that in essence becomes law.  Thereby he totally ignores the fact that it is the Legislative, not the Executive, Branch that is empowered to make law and thus obliterating all pretenses of traditional Constitutional Checks and Balances.  Just a few examples; President Obama told the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, that allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex partnerships legally recognized in other states. This was enacted not through any process through the Congress or the courts, but just because Mr. O didn’t think that it was constitutional.  Mr. Obama also is the first sitting U.S. president to outright endorse equal marriage rights for gay couples and to dismantle the military’s longstanding ban on service by gays and lesbians, “don’t ask, don’t tell”. The law that allowed gays to serve so long as they simply keep their sexuality a secret. Both laws have been around since the Clinton Administration.

Also Obama’s Administration decided with the stroke of the pen to tell Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency[ICE], via the Homeland Security Department, to no longer enforce immigration violations by illegal immigrants, particularly those from Mexico and Latin America. The Executive Order allows anyone who was brought to this country prior to age 16 and who is under the age of 30 not to have to face deportation. In addition, they must have lived here for 5 years, obtained a high school diploma, and/or served in the military. Lastly, they could not have a criminal record.  But according to a FOX News report of 7/27/12, the ICE Union President Chris Crane claims that illegal immigrants are “taking advantage” of a new directive allowing some undocumented residents who came to the U.S. as children to stay in the country. The policy ends up allowing illegal immigrants to avoid detention without any proof — particularly so-called “dreamers,” or those illegal immigrants who would benefit under the “DREAM Act” proposal, which Congress has not passed but the administration  has partially implemented. And this is on top of a quietly imposed Administration Directive, as reported by the Daily Caller on 6/20/11, to top ICE officials that they need not enforce immigration laws if illegal immigrants are enrolled in an education center or if their relatives have volunteered for the US military.  Really?!  What about the Black and White poor and middle class Americans who are already unemployed and or under-employed?

So as Mr. Obama methodically pits homo-sexual Americans against hetero-sexual Americans, illegal immigrants against legal citizens, and rich American against poor American supposedly for the benefit of the “little guy” and in the name of “fairness”.  But, he does this mostly not within the traditional restraints and protocols of the Constitution, to which he supposedly swore an oath to, or with apparent and recognizable motives, but with a simple stroke of his pen and an unseen hand he makes the law-biding citizen question the very purpose of law if the head of the government shows such apparent disrespect and distain for it. Maybe Mr. O is following the teachings of one of his idols, Saul Alinsky, early 1900’s Chicago “community organizer”. He spoke of there being one single principle, which is to take power from the haves and give to the have-nots, to which he coined, political nihilism– to assault of the established order in the name of the “people”

The question that needs to be asked of this Administration, and all others, is what laws is law?  The ones that just are or just ones that you agree with?  What is the truth?  That which just is or that which it says it is?  And if the government is allowed to fudge the line of what is law and truth so blatantly who are the people to rely on for justice and truth?  If it is the people who decides who is to govern and represent us, and the government is immoral and unethical, not good, can the moral integrity of the nation and goodness of the people be without question?  Though too many of us want to take to the streets when a leader of a sports team or institution acts immorally or unethically, but let the president of the United States attempt to redefined what is is and be disbarred for ling to a Grand Jury, or have one cost millions in dollar and thousands in the lives of American sons and daughters in invading two sovereign nations for presumably “weapons of mass destruction” and retaliation for attacking the U.S on September 11, 2001, or maybe have one to pretend to be something or someone that he’s not, that’s acceptable.  Really?  Remember, we have the government, we have the nation, which we chose to have.