Friday, March 21, 2008

John Adams - Episode 2

At the end of the Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had made for the people. He responded "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it."

At the end of the second episode of the HBO miniseries "John Adams", I found myself a little fogged up. There was a literal tear in my eye and I knew not from whence it came. I pondered why at this joyful point in the show I should involuntarily find myself sad.

Then I remembered Franklin's words of nearly ten years later. How we found these men of honor and integrity in one place at one time is an impossible congruity. I know of no member of our government of either of the major parties of the caliber of these our founding fathers. In fact most of them are either trying to exploit it to their own ends or to outright destroy the very principles of our Declarations of Independence and our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The one who came closest to being on a par with those who made our country ran as a Libertarian Party Presidential candidate in 1988 and a Republican candidate this year. But while he seems to recognize that it is not the purpose of our Federal Government to manage every facet of our lives, Ron Paul was flawed in not recognizing that the primary purpose of our Federal Government is protecting us from outside threat. Whether or not our Iraq involvement was wise is totally immaterial. All the wailing and blaming can not close Pandora's box. What is certain is that withdrawl after the fact without stabilizing that country will be a disaster that will haunt and threaten our safety in the future. Yet Representative Paul was as good as it got.

So a tear forms in my eye as think of the choices for President of this country that I will be offered this November, and that these are not on the caliber of Washington, Jefferson, or John Adams. We have the choice of three Senators with no executive experience, and dubious intent:
A man described as the most liberal in the Senate who wrote a book explaining how the rich (read those of us who work for a living) owe (the effort of our lives belong to others == slavery) the poor (those who won't);
A woman who is the definition of Fascist and the epitome of ego, telling the people what they want to hear;
or,
A man who in the name of taking influence peddling out of politics has taken my freedom of speech in the process.

No wonder I had a tear in my eye. John Adams, where is your equal?

2 comments:

clzuhde said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
clzuhde said...

Some big typo in the last one...HA!!! ANYWAY...as I have been saying, "Voting this November will be like the TV show, Fear Factor. We will need to eat a bug to stay in the game. It will just depend on how big and nasty a bug you want to eat." To clear it up, no I do not watch the show. The commercials are bad enough.