With the advent of the Fourth of July, I know the expectation is that some patriotic prose is expected. I also know there have been many previous Fourths when Americans could have legitimately asked whether the United States of America would survive.
Why now? We date the Fourth from 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was published by representatives of the Colonies who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
However, the nation we celebrate began in earnest on May 25, 1787 with a quorum of representatives from seven states met in Philadelphia to draft a Constitution. They met in secret. They were all Christian. They were all white. They were the best and the brightest of their generation and, arguably, of many generations since.
By September 17, 1787 all twelve of the delegations had approved the Constitution. Out of the 42 members present, 39 delegates signed it.
When New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it, the Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788. The first Congress convened in New York City on March 4, 1789. On September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve Amendments, including those known today as our Bill of Rights and sent them to the states for ratification. On December 15, 1791, Virginia ratified ten of the twelve and they became part of the Constitution.
By a single vote of a single Justice of the Supreme Court, we managed to hold onto the Second Amendment just days ago. That is frightening. If Sen. Obama becomes President Obama, the appointment of new members of the Court could do extraordinary damage to the Constitution.
That is why on July 4, 2008, it is legitimate to ask if the United States of America can survive.
There are other reasons to raise the question. Specifically, they are the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate of whom only a minority wants to stop the illegal invasion of America across our southern border or begin to drill for the vast amounts of oil and natural gas known to exist in our nation.
When you have a Senate Majority Leader saying, as Harry Reid did, that “oil makes us sick. Coal makes us sick,” and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, saying we cannot and should not drill our way to a decent level of energy sufficiency, you have a leadership that is certifiably insane or too stupid to be allowed to ride a bus unattended.
There is the Islamic Revolution that is alive and well among at least a hundred million Muslims of the more than one billion in the world. Pretending that we are not a war with them is suicidal.
When you have a $14 trillion economy and the only thing the mainstream media can write about is a Recession that is not in effect or a Depression they predict is just around the corner, something is very wrong with what passes for journalism in America.
Is the deficit too high? Yes. Is our money supply too cheap? Yes. These things can be fixed if we can just elect a Congress that will not repeat the spending frenzy of the passed eight years.
So, yes, it is proper and necessary to ask if America can survive. It’s not the 300-plus Americans I worry about. It is the steady flow of illegal aliens that worries me. It is a government that is not supporting American industry, entrepreneurs, and small businesses that worries me.
It is a bloated and wasteful federal government that worries me.
It is the people in elected offices from the Congress to the local governments who worry me. A lot!
