Researching the national political scene could become depressing in an era when Progressives dedicated to fundamentally transforming America hold almost total control of the media and the government, especially when they’re working hard to turn a recession into a depression.  However, the Obama drama is like watching a slow-motion train wreck – if not inspiring, at least it’s entertaining.  Daily, we’re assaulted by a Washington elite dedicated to proving Saturday Night Live never went far enough into satire to capture the nonsensical folly of our elected leaders.  

Hourly, our intelligence is insulted by people telling us they want to spend more money to lower the deficit and balance the budget as the deficit climbs higher and faster than ever before and the national debt careens past satire into the theater of the absurd.  Minute by minute, we’re assaulted by news like the fact that the self-admitted communist who was purged from the White House in the middle of the night is now an American treasure.  Or that the President’s longtime pastor and mentor, the Rev. Wright, recently honored Minister Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer award.  Is that the last trumpet I hear?

Concentrating on this everyday could become depressing, but I realized long ago not to take it too seriously – it all perishes with the using, and it’s the things that won’t that are important.  Besides, I look to my local Chesterfield County government for a more realistic notion of how America is doing.  The leaders I see are actually struggling to come to grips with the dire economic times we face.  They aren’t charging it to the kids, taxing the citizens into poverty or begging for handouts from bloated state and federal governments.  They’re making the hard, unpopular choices, cutting this and limiting that in order to maintain a balanced budget.  Yes, it’s hard work.  Yes, it’s likely to lead to some of them not being re-elected.  And yes, it’s what they volunteered for and what we chose them for.

In some areas, this picture won’t match reality.  In some places, such as California, Illinois, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Los Angeles, the Progressives who’ve controlled these places for generations desperately try to find new ways to plunder their citizens as they contemplate bankruptcy.   However, no matter how the remaining proponents of ever-expanding entitlements and pork-barrel budgets try to prop up their house of cards, there are daily more citizens who get it.  Not one to profusely quote President Clinton, I’m happy to recommend that we all repeat together, “The era of big government is over.”  Our elected officials need to get it instead of following the lemmings over the cliff.

Yes, this could get depressing, but I believe in American exceptionalism and a can-do attitude.  I believe that our history and our future have been and will be defined by our devotion to limited government and the liberty and opportunity this provides.  

Throughout our history, when the days looked the darkest, Americans braved the icy Delaware to surprise the overconfident mercenaries. We surrounded the largest army of the greatest empire on Earth at Yorktown and birthed freedom from oppression. After the professional soldiers of the former masters came in like a flood chasing the representatives of the people and burned our new capital, we met them again on the way to New Orleans and handed them the greatest defeat their arms had ever suffered.  When the dispute over slavery finally ruptured the wound that had festered since independence and other nations thought we would devour ourselves in a nightmare of blood and steel, we rose from the ashes, re-united and became the greatest industrial power the world has ever known. When the Nazis and Fascists of the 20th century thought they would rule for a thousand years, America led the rest of the world in defeating them.  When the Soviets and other Communists sought to crush freedom under their collective heel, the United States held high the beacon of freedom.

Yes, no matter how out of fashion it may be with the media or the liberal establishment, I believe in American exceptionalism and the can-do attitude of the American people.  No matter how hard our progressive leaders try to grow our traditionally limited government into a cradle-to-grave welfare state, I do not believe they’ll succeed in suffocating the light of liberty that burns bright in the breast of America.  And since I’m quoting presidents today, I want to end with President Ronald Reagan, who told us: “A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.”

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System.  http://drrobertowens.com © 2010 Robert R. Owens.

dr.owens@comcast.net