By Randy Rossi -
Why are some countries like America incredibly successful and so many other countries like Venezuela total failures in which their people suffer horribly? Culture! Counter to the liberal position that all countries are equal, they aren’t and most of the time it is their people’s own choice of culture that decides if they succeed or fail. After all the people of Venezuela chose a socialist dictator as their president and now they are suffering because of their choice! Sadly, America is now in a culture war in which the very culture that made us so successful is under attack.
America became the most powerful and prosperous nation in the history of the world with the largest and most prosperous middle class the world has ever seen because of our unique culture. But now our wonderful country is at serious risk because liberals, Democrats, and the liberal media are aggressively attacking the very culture that made us so successful and different from most of the world. A recent Gallup poll showed that roughly a third of Americans believe we are in a second Civil War and it may get violent in 5 years. They are right because we are in a culture war in which Democrats, liberals, and the liberally biased media are trying to destroy the very culture that made America so great while conservatives who believe in that culture are fighting hard to defend it. And the outcome of that culture war will determine if our kids and grandkids will get to live in the same wonderful nation that we did.
We were blessed in that our country was initially settled by immigrants that risked their lives and fortunes for freedom of religion and for the right to control their own lives. Most came from Britain which had a religion controlled by the government which they disagreed with. Many of those initial immigrants were Puritan Protestants but there were people of all types of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths that wanted the freedom to worship as they pleased. The culture they had in common was an intense belief in God, belief in a strong family, individual freedom, hard work, and a disciplined democracy. They originally came from countries in Europe where the government could control every aspect of your life and they were willing to risk their lives for freedom. That felt so strongly about freedom that they eventually declared independence from Britain, the strongest military in the world, and risked everything with low odds of success for freedom. And by the grace of God, they won!
The other miracle that created our unique culture was that we were blessed by having incredibly brilliant and highly educated “Founding Fathers” that studied over 2,400 years of democracy to find out why they always failed with an average life span of just 200 years. As an example, John Adams read 14,000 books and Thomas Jefferson read 5,000 books on the history of democracy to learn from the mistakes of the past (I saw both of their libraries!). And they came to several brilliant conclusions. First, as Thomas Jefferson said so brilliantly, “Democracy is nothing more than mob rule in which 51% of the people can take everything from the 49%”. That is why our Founding Fathers gave us a Republic with a Bill of Rights to forever protect the freedom of the people from the “mob”. Benjamin Franklin said it best when he said “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty (a republic) is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote”. The bottom line is our Founding Fathers protected certain unalienable rights that the “mob” can’t take away from us like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and others. This was a first in human history and as a result, we became a nation with a culture of freedom, self-dependence, hard work, and civic responsibility. And that unique culture is what made America the most powerful and prosperous nation in the history of the world!
Now that brilliant culture that made America so great is under attack by liberals and Democrats. They don’t like the idea of freedom of religion and holding people accountable to the laws and morals found in the Bible. They don’t like the rules of acceptable behavior that have been part of civilization for thousands of years. They don’t like the idea of people having the freedom to be wealthy determined by their own skills and hard work. They want to “redistribute” that wealth. They don’t like the idea of the “people” bearing arms to protect their freedom and safety. They want the people to be controlled by the government. Just like Venezuela. That is an attack on the core values that our Founding Fathers gave to us. And that is a threat to our great democracy.
This is as serious as it gets. Every responsible American who loves their country and their children has to do their civic duty and stay informed and aggressively participate in the debate, defend our values and Bill of Rights, and vote. As Pericles said, “Any citizen that doesn’t pay attention to politics has no right to live in Athens”. Or as Plato said, “The price of apathy in public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”. If Democrats win and impose their socialist values on us, our kids and grandkids will pay a heavy price. President George Washington said it best “It is the citizen’s choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptable and miserable as a Nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment when the eyes of the World are upon them”. We must all do our civic duty and defend the core values that made America so great!
