Sit down, put your feet up, smoke 'em if you've got 'em

I’ve read various and sundry blogs and comments upon them concerning secession from the United States by individual states. While it certainly makes sense to me - if not to my liberal/Democrat family members and few friends who are also liberal - it will never happen. I would love to live in a free state that has rejected what has become of America, but I realize it is a pipe dream.

Oh, I don’t doubt an attempt might be made, and it would certainly be better for everyone involved if it could happen without an uncivil war, but the Left - the collectivists - will never accept the possibility that some of us should be allowed to live apart from those who enjoy ruling or being ruled and nannied by a large and powerful government.

Those who remember their history may recall that this was tried once before, and we all know how that ended. I can see no reason to believe a current attempt would have any better ending, in fact it would either be worse or would never occur in the first place. There simply doesn’t exist the desire for freedom from governmental diktat that did just before the War of Northern Aggression - “Civil War” (although it was decidedly uncivil) which was between the Southern states and the Federal government. Not between the Southern and the Northern states - it was Lincoln and Congress who decided it couldn’t be tolerated, not the governments or population of the Northern states.

The Left and the Powers That Be, aka: Those Who Would Rule Us, will never allows us to separate from them. They could not exist without the fruits of the labor of the productive. They will never give up their addiction to other people’s money, as they know they would starve and die if they became dependent upon their own efforts. Unfortunately for all of us, they also cannot seem to get the fact that abusing those who are productive will never increase their output. It will only damage them until they can no longer be productive, or until they realize they are pushing a rock uphill and give up on their own.

We have seen in microcosm - the Occupy protesters - how the Left feels it is the responsibility of those of us who are productive, who are better off due to our willingness to work and provide for ourselves and our families, to support and provide for those who do not wish to work, as well as those who feel it is their “right” to have someone else pay for their healthcare, their childcare, their food, their housing, their transportation, even their entertainment. We have seen that the Left has no desire to recognize the right of the individual to his own property, be it his land (as in Kelo ) or his economic property, his income and bank account.

The Left, supported from below by the FSA ["Free Sh*t Army", for my liberal relatives who might not have heard the appellation] , the entitlement culture, has deemed that there is such a thing as having “too much”, “more than you need”, “what you ‘ripped off’ from the rest of us” [true in the case of crony capitalism, where Obama and Congress rewarded the large financial institutions which were the major beneficiaries of TARP and later bailout schemes]. Those in power on the Left actually understand that there needs to be a productive segment of society, or they would have no source of income themselves, but as unwilling as they are to give up their income to succor the entitled, the “poor and hungry”, they feel it is acceptable to tax the productive into poverty in order to supply those entitled souls who vote them into office in exchange for the spoils of this theft from the productive.

I have a cousin whose husband is a very compassionate registered nurse at a hospital in Connecticut. He is a principled (not my principles ;-) and intelligent man who wishes to help others, especially those in need. Unfortunately, he appears to be unable to understand that the theft of property from those who produce actually reduces what is available to be used to help those who are truly in need, because so much goes to those simply unwilling to work and provide for themselves and their families. He is unaware of the fact that the Right gives to charity much, much more than those on the Left who talk about the “poor” but then cling to their own money like a drowning man to a floating log. He has bought into Karl Marx’s line about “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. Sorry, John, but it is true. Marx knew that a lot of compassionate people would swallow that one, hook line and sinker.

I have a young friend and former co-worker who is also a registered nurse. He and his mother, whom he lives with and helps to support, have experienced hard times. They had some periods in their lives when they needed healthcare that they could not get covered by insurance, or when they couldn’t afford insurance. I don’t recall his exact explanation, but IIRC he might not have even been able to get the care he (or she) needed, although that seems unlikely given that few emergency rooms will turn away those in need simply because they cannot - or will not - pay. Perhaps he could not pay and did not wish to end up in debt for the needed care.

[We both worked with an orderly who made a great deal less money than we did as RNs. He needed neurosurgery for his neck, which he received in spite of not having any insurance at the time. He is still paying it off, but he is paying for it out of his own pocket. He is my age, and even though he may not live long enough to repay the entire debt, he is doing what he knows is the right thing. Believe it or not, he votes Democrat.]

Whatever the case, my fellow RN is totally in favor of stealing from the productive - the 50% (is it still that high?) who pay taxes to support the 50% of Americans who do not - in order to provide healthcare for those who cannot afford it. He works in healthcare, so he is aware of how many who claim not to be able to afford it simply feel it is their “right” to get it without having to pay for it, but he remains adamant that it should still be “free” (aka: paid for by us tax payers) because there are a few truly destitute people who cannot afford it. He is another compassionate and bright individual who abandons reason when it gets in the way of what he wants - to provide for those “in need”, including his mother and himself. When asked about it, he cannot discuss it, as questioning his worldview angers him too much to be willing to discuss “politics”.

Hell, yes, I know I am singing to the choir here, as most of the folks who follow my blog are reasoning adults with a fairly firm grip on reality and who believe in personal responsibility as well as the inviolability of personal property - aka: conservatives, members of the Right (not to be confused with “Republican” or even “Libertarian”, although the small “L” libertarians come fairly close). People who understand that America does need to defend herself, although that doesn’t mean attempting to bring “Democracy” to countries that are still living in the seventeenth century and are incapable of doing otherwise at this time. People who support our men and women in the military, if not the military adventurism and manipulation we have seen in Bosnia, Libya, Iraq, and - to a certain extent - in Afghanistan, although I find myself in favor of whacking Al Qaeda and the Taliban, even if I understand that the real target should be Saudi Arabia, who funds and supports those groups.

So, here I sit. One more small voice trying to awaken a few souls who otherwise might not ever get the message. One barely articulate fellow hoping to shed a little light upon what we are facing, and how it has come to be this way. Better men - and women - than I have tried and failed. I fear that most of our fellow citizens will not awaken until it is too late, when they find themselves prisoners in the gulag of oppression to which America is headed.