The U S S of A

I look out my window and see the same beautiful mountains that are there each morning and will be there when our society is long gone and think that there are certain things you get used to in your life, that you expect to live with, and even come to believe in. All my life, I've believed that I live in a free country; one that offers opportunity to those who are willing to work at it. It offered religious freedom to my great-grandparents who came here from Germany because they saw the opportunity to be a part of a community of people with similarly held beliefs, with the understanding that the government would leave them alone.

My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and believed that if they were careful, canned their own food, saved every dime, and used the equipment they still had to dig ditches for corn growers that they would come through it and offer their child the opportunity to attend college and become a teacher. My parents went to college, my mother earning her Master's degree in English, my father his Ph D in Sociology. Both believed in the opportunity to advance in our educational system; my father later started a successful private service business that provided the opportunity for his child to attend college. I myself believed that if I got my bachelor's degree, then my master's in business that I could develop a product or service in our economy that would provide not only a life-sustaining income, but the opportunity for my children to attend college or some similar preparation for a successful life. Reagan said, "We are the last place; if we fail [in keeping our society free] there is nowhere to turn."

For the first time in many generations, I believe that my daughters will not have the same opportunty to succeed that was available to me. We are so far in debt as a country that even my children's children will have no hope of extricating themselves from the yoke of their country's debt. We've watched as the intellectuals tell us that we must have this and we must have that in order to have "social justice." That, DURING A RECESSION, we must pass a far-reaching, society-changing entitlement program that is four years short of being "defecit neutral" over a ten year period. The double accounting, the assumptions given to the CBO in order to make it appear as though our debt doesn't grow are ridiculous on their face and those of us who analyze business financial statements for a living shake our heads in disbelief at the arrogance employed to sell this to the American people.

Considering the clearly preventable, yet now inevitable economic failure, makes us shake with anger for the lost years of income from our business that we see extending into the future: Our daughter's education funds gone, the declining value of our unsellable assets, the desperation and fear we see surrounding us in the our community all swirl around us like a strange cloud of impending doom. And through this cloud we watch the political arrogance of a President attempting to salvage his "political capital/Presidency," a Congress who can be bought with a ride on Air Force one, and a Senate who has become little more than an arrogant house of representatives, now only requiring a simple majority and making us more a parliamentary system than a republic. Rigid ideology with little to check or to balance will serve only to force us further in to social chaos and those who are truly desperate will then turn to anyone offering salvation.

This would all sound hauntingly familiar to those who saw the "transformation" of their country under Lenin, Stalin, and "put favorite Despot's name here." They extend a helping hand to the desperate, promising that the state will save them; they then use the power they gain to solidify the political construct. We have crept away from our Constitution and our founders would shake their heads in disbelief. Or maybe not. Maybe they would say, "This is no surprise. Governments time immemorial have had arrogant and misguided leaders that believed in edicts and taxation to benefit themselves in the name of the common good."

Jefferson said it best, "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.--We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal [and he did mean this in the "generic" sense], that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed.--that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness." He goes on to say that governments should not be changed for "light and transient" causes, and I contend that changing our economic system to resemble that of a socialist state is not a "light or transient" cause. Some would argue that we still have freedom, that the government is not forcing us to house the military and taxing us into economic ruin, but I would argue that this is indeed the case. We're just seeing it happen in a more modern setting.

I don't know where we'll find the place for our new state; as Reagan said, there isn't anywhere left to go. Perhaps Alaska, with its long history of rugged individualism, where the people might welcome a plan for secession. Unfortunately, our new country can no longer be in Montana, which is sad; we've lately attracted to our state those who are willing to turn away from free market solutions and sent them to Congress to serve with a long-time, entrenched, well-funded Senator who's audacity in crafting the legislation currently under consideration, that will change our society forever and plunge us into economic infidelity, is evident in his speaches and townhalls where only those who agree with him are invited. So, we can no longer think of our state as "The Last Best Place." When we find our new place, all who believe in freedom can relocate to our new, proud and free country. You might have to be repsonsible for yourself and help your neighbor, but we will encourage free markets, take the founder's idea about the checks and balances seriously and make a place where we can dare to hope and to dream again.