by Kerry Thomas
May 8, 2009
When you write opinion pieces, y0u get
criticized. It’s part of the exercise
of freedom of speech and the press.
I was going to simply ignore William
Green’s rantings in the May 8 Lakeland Times. But Green crossed a line with me. He resorted to personal insults, something I don’t take lying
down.
When you venture into the arena of ideas, Mr.
Green, it’s best not to come unarmed.
Space does not allow me to go through Green’s
idiotic prattling item by item, so I’ll just address his most egregious
assertions.
Green finds the idea that “America is too great to
fail” offensive. Too bad. You don’t have a right not to be
offended. And that notion alone speaks
volumes about Mr. Green’s belief, or the lack of belief, in America.
Green fails to grasp the obtuse idea that it is
the consumer, not government regulators, who determine which businesses succeed
or fail in America. Try as they might,
no government can repeal the law of supply and demand.
Green cannot grasp the concept that Congress
cannot legally enact ex post fact laws, which means that Congress, no matter if
controlled by Republicans or Democrats or Whigs, is prohibited by the Constitution
from declaring an act that was legal at the time it was performed to now be
illegal after the fact.
Under the Constitution, no law can be applied
retroactively.
Obviously, Mr. Green is unfamiliar with our
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Throwing off a despotic government doesn’t
necessarily mean an all out revolution.
America has an electoral process that can accomplish just such results,
peaceably. I never said “much like was done in
1776.” I remind readers of the words
Jefferson wrote in the Declaration, wherein he declared it was a right and a
duty of a free people to throw off any government that becomes
destructive of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and to provide new guards for our future
security.
William Green thinks
that is “ridiculous
and absurd.”
As
for this idea that America voted overwhelmingly Democrat in 2008, according to
the federal election commission, Barack Hussein Obama received 69,498,216
votes. That was 52.87% of votes cast in
the popular election. This out of a
population of roughly 305 million, 80% of whom were eligible to vote.
In
reality, fewer than 1 in 4 Americans voted for Barrack Hussein Obama.
According
to William Green, “the Obama administration is taking the action to elicit dialogue,
exchange of ideas, and the search for viable solutions to deal with these
issues.”
Democrats
have this absurd obsession with “dialogue” about “issues.” Here’s a radical thought: How about actually fixing problems, instead
of eliciting dialogue?
Spending
too much? Spend less. Need to increase government revenues? Lower tax rates. It’s worked every time it’s been tried. Kennedy’s tax cuts, Reagan’s tax cuts, even George W. Bush’s tax
cuts all produced an increase in government revenues. Every American who actually paid taxes received a tax cut under
President George W. Bush. And,
according to IRS figures, the percentage of taxes paid by “the rich” (top 10%
of taxpayers) went up under his presidency, from approximately 38% to over 40%.
I
used the incandescent light bulb to illustrate how our
federal government has regulated virtually every aspect of our lives. By legislating their discontinued use beyond
2014, our federal government has inadvertently endangered us all, by all but
mandating the use of mercury-laden compact fluorescent lights.
Your freedom to choose between incandescent and
compact fluorescent lights was taken from you by an over-reaching
government. Which by the way I also
wrote about when it happened in 2007.
Green
seems obsessed with this idea of 100 days.
My perspective on history goes a little beyond that. I’ve been writing opinion pieces on the
virtues of Liberty and self-governance for over 25 years. Critical of both Republicans and Democrats.
Be
part of the solution, not part of the problem?
I
did not vote away my Liberties. I’m not
an attorney, nor a legislator. I
haven’t the power to take away your freedoms.
The
concepts upon which America was founded are universal principles inherent in
every person. Our government was not
formed to confer these God-given rights upon us, but to safeguard them for
us. Our Constitution clearly spells out
the powers delegated to our government, as well as those prohibited to it.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who
falsely believe they are free.
It
is unfortunate that people like William Green cannot recognize it when their
Liberties are being stolen from them by those in whom they placed their faith.