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Wednesday, December 4, 2024 - 12:41 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

It’s true, life imitates art.

In 1960 there was a cult movie called, “Little Shop of Horrors.” It was re-released in 1986; its new lead actor was a fella named Rick Moranis who played the owner of a flower shop. One day he cuts his finger and lets the blood run into a small plant. One thing leads to another and over time the small plant grows to a massive size, and becomes addicted to blood. That, of course, is a metaphor for the institution of government in America. We have fed it our blood, it has become addicted to blood and has grown so large it is trying to take over our lives.

The Founding Fathers of America were a remarkable group. Not only were they able to design a model of government unsurpassed in human history, they were also willing and did pledge, “Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” That was no idle pledge, in fact, they put it all on the line.

Today, we must be honest with ourselves, and take responsibility for having allowed the original model of government to get away from us. The model of a limited government, where sovereignty rests with the people is dangerously close to being in a death spiral.

A death spiral is a term used by pilots. It explains after the fact how a planes crashed because a pilot decided to rely on his eyes, his observations, rather than the instruments in the cockpit. Think of that in terms of how the forces of progressive/socialism have pushed hard to sell the idea that we should rely on the vicissitudes of personal judgement rather than the rule of law. Law, of course, was one of the instruments that we created to keep our plane flying safely. We are on the verge of a horrific plane crash in America, with nobody to blame, because we are the pilots.

If you take seriously those who advocate that a basic income for everybody (‘free money’) is an appropriate thing for our country, you have become infected with the virus of progressive/socialism. Only fools, they say, should have to work and produce their own wealth. Instead, we should be taken care of ‘cradle to grave’ by a magnanimous big brother. We are being told our savior is that monster plant, grown all out of proportions, addicted to our blood.  

Others have noted since socialism first came along roughly 100 years ago, that it sells the idea of government as the best remedy for all problems. How insulting! Where did our confidence go, our confidence in our own ability to fend for ourselves.

In spite of having no facts that would suggest we should accept such a scenario, the progressive/socialists persist; because they are delusional. The fiction of government as our savior would gain no traction without a cabal of co-conspirators. Walking point for the vast left wing conspiracy is the media, the journalists who have lost their bearings. They have tried to convince us, the last best hope for mankind, that giving our blood to grow government is good for us…and we have been lulled into complacency.

Being successful creates its own challenges, not least of which is the necessity of not falling into a stupor and failing to remain vigilant. Success is based on a word the left would ban forever: ‘work.’ Why work when government should take care of us…oh the lure of ‘free stuff.’ The welfare state is not a benign ‘safety net;’ rather, it is a spiders web designed to capture and never let you go. Have we really reached a point where we no longer value the joy that comes with earning your own self-respect?

Never forget the lessons of history, among them that, “Freedom is not free.” The blood we leave on battlefields is but the first installment on the price of our freedom. Being bled at home into that growing plant of noxious fumes (“The swamp”), we are bludgeoned by the progressive/socialist element insisting that we accept the smell of corruption. Don’t be fooled: the ‘Purple Revolution’ is not our friend.

My country, and the belief in the instruments that were always worth fighting for- and that kept our plane flying safely- should remain our true North. Let’s not buy the snake oil the progressive/socialists are selling.

Socialism is not now, nor has it ever been, successful. America should not become the next Venezuela, which is a terrifying example of that failed experiment.