By Robert Eugene Simmons Jr.
On November 2, 2010, the liberals suffered a defeat at the hands of the people over their policies implemented over the last two to four years. As a result, Many Republicans and Tea Party supporters are jubilant in their celebration, and even the often morose Glenn Beck has been heard to be excited about what he calls a turning point. However, the cold, hard reality is that liberalism suffered a defeat but not a crushing one, and the war is far from won. In the past, victories in these minor skirmishes have resulted in people becoming complacent. The battles that are not making the headlines in the war on freedom continue to rage despite the victory.
Although it may not be festive to rain on the victory parade, it is important that we consider the top ten reasons why there is a lot more work to be done.
10) The aristocracy is still there in Washington. Although many incumbents were swept out of office, the vast number of them were reelected by their constituents. The ruling elite is still composed of self-styled aristocrats who know what is best for you, your family, and your children. They still look down on the masses as unwashed and slightly stupid. They still possess the same arrogance that allowed them to pass TARP and the auto bailouts over such huge numbers of people in bipartisan opposition. The bribery and corruption is still there and as virulent as ever. Furthermore, the aristocracy in Congress still exempts itself from laws it imposes on the serfs. Although term limits for all federal offices could go a long way in solving this problem, no directive to this effect was passed on the 2.
09) The bureaucracy in Washington has never been more powerful. The list of government agencies with the power to control every aspect of your life is astonishing. The FDA, EPA, IRS, DHS, FSOC, and HHS are still out there, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of the alphabet soup of unelected bureaucracies not beholden to the voter and the whims of the electorate. The power of these agencies has grown massively during the Bush and especially the Obama administrations. They are the government within our government.
08) The Federal Reserve still remains unchecked. There may be a bill garnering bipartisan support from nearly three-quarters of Congress to audit the Federal Reserve, but this bill has been stalled in committee, and the Fed still remains able to do pretty much anything it wants to our currency. Printing money is no longer necessary in a world governed by computers. All someone at the Fed has to do is enter a number in a computer somewhere, and there are suddenly billions more dollars in existence. The Federal Reserve is not an agency of Congress, and Congress has little power to audit it. In fact, the power of the Federal Reserve to control our economy is patently irrational. If you asked Americans if it would be OK that a private cartel of bankers would have the power to do anything they want with the economy and create money at will, I doubt few would say yes. However, that is currently the state of affairs.
07) The spending obligations are still there, and the economy is still bad. Walk around your neighborhood and ask people if it is OK that you cut their government check. Most will be happy if you cut the checks of others, but they don't want their cut of the supposed pie reduced. Our unfunded financial obligations totaling in the tens of trillions of dollars haven't gone away because of the election. They are still there, racking up interest and ticking away to financial disaster. Combined with high taxes and increasing regulation, the economy doesn't look about to improve much anytime soon. In fact, if taxes go up in January, it is likely to get much worse. Until we get taxes and regulation under control and people start to realize that they need to lose that government check, we are still in big trouble.
06) The unions still have control of the government. In this election cycle the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has come out of the shadows and placed advertisements directly attacking candidates who wish to rein in AFSCME's ridiculous pension and benefit packages. The government is infested with unions who have lost all shyness in forwarding their free-stuff-for-us agenda. Through union dues collected from taxpayer-funded salaries, they use our tax money to run advertisements for candidates and issues. On top of that, these unions still get health care plans that no one in the private-sector middle class can afford, and they still get ridiculous pension plans that allow some to retire at 55 with 85% of their largest career salary pension as well as health benefits for life. Even this ridiculous compensation is not enough for AFSCME; they want more.
05) The Republican Party hasn't become conservative yet. The RINOs and progressives in the Republican Party have been dealt a blow, but not a severe one. Several RINOs got reelected, and the Republican Party establishment is still something of a good ol' boys network who believe they have a moral imperative to rein in those evil Tea Party people. Republican Party insiders are still coming up with revolting vitriol for Sarah Palin (never on the record, of course), and many of the party bosses are still entrenched in the idea that they are entitled to their power as part of the aristocracy. Those who would save the republic are still hampered by the party. Until the Republican Party changes course, the Tea Partiers and other independent conservatives and libertarians will still be rolling a rock uphill.
04) They still are neither reading nor writing their own legislation. Congress has become a somewhat sleazy money-raising, telemarketing center that sometimes actually votes on things. The fact that they don't read their own legislation has become infamous of late, but the fact is that they don't write it, either. The writing of the legislation is farmed out to armies of lawyers and often lobbyists. These lawyers draft immense pieces of legislation totaling in the thousands of pages that are not only impossible to read before voting, but impossible to understand without a hundred lawyers and ten years of work. Yet our congressmen and senators continue to approve these pieces of legislation without having a real clue what is in them.
03) It is still impossible to obey the law. If Congress doesn't know what is in its legislation with its army of lawyers, how likely is it that the average citizen will know what is in it? We have a situation where there are thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of pages of laws that every citizen is subject to every day. Do you know them all? Remember, ignorance is no defense for breaking the law. After you figure out all the laws that apply, now go work on the regulations. Regulations passed by the EPA, DHS, HHS, SEC, and so on still have the full force of law, and you can still go to jail for violating them. Of course, even the most diligent citizen would not be able to know the law because it is intentionally written in a confusing manner. Chances are you have violated a few laws and regulations today without even knowing it. When you have a state where it is impossible to obey the law, you have tyranny.
02) There is no animal quite as dangerous as a lame duck. Right now there are dozens of quasi-socialist legislators who have nothing left to lose. Although we have seen an unprecedented expansion of executive branch powers under the last two presidents, it could very well get much worse in the coming months. Until January, the liberals have an iron grip on both the House and Senate, and they no longer have to fear the voting populace. They are caged and cornered, and they will most likely lash out. You can expect to see several pieces of legislation fly through Congress at breakneck speed. The card check bill, cap and trade, and every other piece of left-wing legislation will potentially be on the table. The liberals know that Republicans will have to wait at least two years to get any of it reversed, and they see this as a golden opportunity to push through such legislation now, when Obama will veto any attempt to repeal it. Furthermore, they know, as I do, that any hopes that Obama will tack to the right and moderate are the very foundation of naiveté.
01) The socialists and Marxists still have your children. Throughout America, leftist teachers dominate K-12 education, and they have no moral or ethical problem with indoctrinating your children. They are doing it daily in their selection of books, movies, reading materials, lecture content, and so on. When you take your kids to school today, realize that you are dropping them off at something akin to a Maoist reeducation camp, where they will be taught the glorious benefits of Marxism and Socialism whether you want them taught these things or not. Those fortunate enough to be able to afford private school may be able to avoid this, but the vast majority of children are being marched into Orwellian academies on a daily basis to build the future for the Marxists and progressives. By the time they get to college, transformation of these kids is almost complete, and it will ramp up in full force in college. Professors with tenure and no fear of sanction will actively fail any child whom they suspect of being conservative and have no qualms about doing it. This has been the progressives' major project for fifty years, and they have it mastered. The teachers' unions keep out all but a few token conservatives here and there, and they know exactly what they are doing. The teachers and their unions aren't even trying to hide their agenda. They speak openly about it, and many conservatives stick their heads in the ground pretending they didn't hear it.
The November 2 election was not the end of the war, but rather one minor victory in a small side skirmish. The battle rages on, and the and the war is still very much in danger of being lost -- if not in this generation, than in the next. If conservatives, Tea Party activists, and others get complacent, the war will be lost. It's not time to celebrate; it's time to get to work.
