Our country, if we can keep it - by Bob Weir

 

Yes, it’s a paraphrase of what the great Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, said after the Constitutional Convention in 1787. When Elizabeth Willing Powel, an American socialite and a prominent member of the Philadelphia upper class, asked Franklin, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy,” he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” What the great inventor, author and signer of the Declaration of Independence was saying is that the Constitution they developed created a system that requires vigilance and attention to self-governance. That means citizens are required to be informed and active in preventing the government from becoming tyrannical. As former subjects of King George 111 of England, the colonists, fed up with being taxed while not having any representation in Parliament, among other abuses of power, had emigrated to the new world in search of personal and religious freedom.

To obtain that freedom they had to go up against the foremost global and imperial power at that time. One can only imagine the courage it took to declare independence from the British Empire. When the founders made their intentions clear, they were deemed “traitors” and they knew they’d be executed if they lost their quest for freedom. The rest, as they say, is history. We, the descendants of those brave pioneers, are the fortunate recipients of the magnificent country they risked their lives for. And, for the past 250 years, most Americans continued to be grateful and to enjoy the bountiful rewards of being citizens of this republic. Millions of military men and women have fought and died on battlefields in foreign lands when the homeland was threatened by authoritarian governments.

After establishing our military dominance, it became evident to the enemies of freedom that the US could not be toppled from the outside. Hence, we could only be vulnerable from within. But what could our enemies offer hundreds of millions of people who regularly enjoy more food, clothing and shelter than the rest of the planet? Well, how about using mind-controlling propaganda to convince them that they’re the progeny of malevolent slaveholders and greedy capitalists with no redeeming value? How about planting the seeds of racial conflict by referring to whites as “supremacists,” while refusing to acknowledge that blacks are among the most successful and prosperous people on the planet. Anyone who thinks blacks are being held back because of their skin pigmentation is living in a 1950s-time warp. Or, given the hypocrisy they so often reveal, it might be a sweet memory for them.

Another way to destroy us is by opening our borders to millions of unvetted aliens from every crime ridden, uncivilized territory on the map. With a devious plot to defeat our socio-economic system, they’d freely accept hordes of savage criminals, released from prisons in corrupt nations, then furtively transported to every state while feeding, clothing and housing them with taxpayer money. Moreover, when a president is elected on a pledge to end the corruption and reverse the tidal wave of primitive humanity that has been foisted on us, they’d employ every evil tactic in their malicious repertoire to crush him. President Trump has been through a lot to save this republic. He has many traits of the founding fathers, not the least of which is his love of country and the courage to fight for it. How sad that so many others refuse to see their liberty and birthright being stolen by the venal philosophy of leftwing orthodoxy.  

All of the foregoing is to remind Americans that they have a better lifestyle, by far, than people in any other country on earth. If you’re lucky enough to be a citizen of the US, you have won life’s lottery. Yet, as I look at the current political/social landscape, I see a large number of ingrates, exhibiting contempt and hatred for the wealth of freedom and opportunity handed to them by their forebears. I believe that’s because it was handed to them. They didn’t risk their lives for it; they didn’t bleed for it; they didn’t sacrifice limbs for it; they just sat back and enjoyed it. That enjoyment has been twisted to suggest that we should feel guilty about our standard of living, as if being well fed means we’re starving others. Au contraire, accomplishment isn’t a zero-sum game, any more than character is. Ultimately, if we are to keep our country, we must grasp the fact that the prerequisite for our good fortune is the freedom that was paid for by patriots, fighting valiantly for it. Accordingly, if we expect to keep it, we must have the courage to continue fighting for it.