Where is our nation going? What are we a nation of anymore? We used to be a sovereign nation of the United States where we had pride in our country and a Constitution to unify us. Nationalism has been replaced with a leader who apologizes for our country and looks to Europe for cues on how we should operate and our Constitution has become open to judicial interpretation. Thank you Spain for your support in Iraq. Thank you United Kingdom for your work in Afghanistan…but I don’t need you to help us determine our foreign policy. The Revolutionary War happened for a reason. No thank you to the judicial branch exercising legislative power. We are a great nation that will work for freedom throughout the world but defending our own freedom and Constitution is of utmost importance.

Thomas Jefferson said it succinctly when he stated, “Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.” We are becoming a global economy and it does us well to trade with others so I won’t go as far as Jefferson in saying we shouldn’t have allies…but I don’t think that was his exact point. We shouldn’t be aligned with other nations to the point that it influences our direction as a nation and I believe that’s what Jefferson meant. We are the great experiment. We are the United States. Our sovereignity is more important than our appeasement of another nation and it seems like we have forgotten that.

While there are troubles abroad, this nation is also being attacked from within. You’re berated for suggesting that we should monitor our borders and be discerning about who we allow to become citizens of our nation. Flying your flag can be interpreted as offensive but burning one is cheered as free speech. Is this really what the Founding Fathers intended?

Fiscal conservatism died with bailouts and stimulus plans. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” disappeared when the welfare culture continued to expand its reaches. I’m all for helping the less fortunate, but what happened to personal accountability? Our bleeding borders and our ever increasing government scope have created a culture of citizens who believe the government should take care of them. Again, I will quote Jefferson because his statement is so spot on.

Jefferson stated, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Bailouts, Obama-care, social programs…does any of this sound like what Jefferson was talking about? The role of the government is to protect us, not to provide for our every need.

The rhetoric has become so loud that people have stopped listening for good ideas and have chosen instead to wait for their favorite talking-head to tell them what they’re supposed to think. Partisanship has become so immutable with many to the point that a well framed argument from the opposition is deemed baseless and faulty before that claim even has a chance to be presented.

Rather than claim that you don’t know enough about a topic to have an opinion, you quickly jump to the defense of any issue if it was proposed by someone who shares a similar political affiliation with you. “Overhaul the best health care in the world…well Obama wants it so yes we should, no questions asked!” What happened to trust but verify? In a democracy, accurate information is our lifeblood. If we become a nation of people who are spoon fed what we are to believe then we run the risk of believing in false truths and that’s one slippery slope. The burden of proof is on you to back up your beliefs with facts. Our nation was not founded on blind allegiance.

When faced with something we inherently disagree with, the paramount action we take is to forward a story through email or show up at a location for a march. Is that the best we can hope for? Does that accomplish a goal? Have we lost our will? Have we lost our fight? Have we lost hope in our collective voice being heard and bringing about true change? Why?

Politicians used to be the voice of the people. Now, they are the voice of special interest groups. George Soros, a man who is betting against the United States succeeding, spends multiples of millions on “political activism” and has the ears of many on Capitol Hill, including President Obama…whom Soros has met with at the White House already. If Soros is investing in the failure of our nation, do you think he is going to push for what will make us a stronger nation? Why do we let this happen?

What happened to government by the people? The courts and the legislatures have become the architects of this country and who are they accountable to? Thomas Jefferson said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.” We are the safe depositories of this nation, not the Supreme Court or the President or our elected officials…could Jefferson have said it any clearer? Politicians are elected to do what is right for their constituents. It is becoming all too common that politicians are more concerned with making a personal career out of their public service than they are with defending the will of the people.

Who is looking out for our best interest? Who is invested in making this nation as great as it can be? When a trillion dollar health care overhaul bill has over 1500 pages of information to read through…when celebrities have become spokespersons for how we should handle international policy…when the price of a barrel of oil can fluctuate between $31 to $126 in a seven month period…when a White House pay czar can decide compensation at private companies…when all this can happen without a serious reaction from us, then I wonder if we’re even paying attention anymore.

For the past few years, I have felt like the last angry man who is left watching his country be lost to “tolerance”, “progress”, and “enlightened” culture. More recently, it feels like there is a possibility that some of us are waking up. Those of us waking up are tired of this culture pushing their way into how this country is run. You know the culture I’m talking about. They are typically the one’s who have no information to back them up and they can’t be troubled with looking into the possible outcomes of their view because they have a solid argument. Their argument usually goes, “You’re so close-minded” or “It’s 2009…stop living in the past”. Yep, can’t argue with that. Wake up America. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You may think that you are more enlightened because you have tolerance for everyone to do as they please so long as it doesn’t affect you but that outlook couldn’t be more short-sighted or faulty.

When I look at the “progress” that we are to uphold as being the next phase of our nation it makes me shudder. In this day, a woman is cheered as fully embracing her rights as a woman if she murders her unborn child. You are immediately considered a racist if you believe we should protect our borders and monitor who we allow in. You are considered the one who is not intelligent if you don’t believe we are simply an advanced version of apes. Nearly any type of deviant behavior should be accepted so long as it doesn’t readily affect you, and if it does have an affect on you, it better not be on the basis of moral grounds because morality has become subjective if not entirely unacceptable. John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” How far we have come from being a nation concerned with morality. If we throw morality out, does our Constitution have a chance? If the Constitution no longer stands, do we have a United States anymore?

It is because of many of these things that I take great pride in not fitting in. If these are the things it takes to gain acceptance in this world, count me out. Our nation pauses and the news networks go into 24 hour news coverage when a seriously confused and lost pop star dies but nobody blinks when a back page news item details the last moments of a soldier’s life who threw himself on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers lives. You can have your celebrity heroes, I’ll find my inspiration in those who are truly fighting for this country’s future and peace abroad. 

For the U.S. to have the greatest chance of continued success, the nation needs a return to sovereignity. Yes, we are becoming a global world…but this doesn’t mean we need to sell out our nation in hopes of appeasing other nations. American ingenuity and hard work needs to be encouraged and rewarded. Healthy American nationalism needs to take shape again. The Government needs to decrease in size, scope, and power while citizens need to take stock in the future of our nation. Good people need to grow a backbone and stand up for what is right. As Edmund Burke stated, “when good men do nothing, evil prevails”. It’s time to do something.

I’ll leave you with one last great quote from Ronald Reagan. Throw your partisan inability to hear wisdom from a different party than yours out the window and read it based on the actual content of the words. “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”