Sunset in America

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

I hope my compatriots can muster the Spirit of 1776 today, but I find a celebratory mood somewhat hard to come by, given the decayed state into which our Republic has fallen. The last five years in particular have accelerated the breakdown of the political structure that was so painstakingly crafted 237 years ago by the Founders of our country.

The current catalog of symptoms is depressing: arbitrary arrest, a blanket of universal federal surveillance, the logging and storage of all personal communication by the government, warrantless searches of private houses by SWAT teams, the total management of day-to-day personal minutiae through federal laws and regulations, the confiscation of property without due process, levels of taxation that would have made King George III blush — the list could go on and on indefinitely.

The recent “history of repeated injuries and usurpations” visited upon American citizens could never have been envisioned by the Founders, because the technological substrate which enables them would have been unimaginable. What could the Bill of Rights say about pilotless aircraft hovering unseen over American cities to keep an eye on anything citizens might do? Or the secret capture and storage of all cell phone calls by federal agencies?

The emerging tyranny comes in a form that the 18th century could never have dreamt of. 237 years after it was written, the Declaration of Independence is fast becoming an archaic and meaningless scribble of faded ink on parchment.

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The political basis of the Thirteen Colonies in the late 18th century was very different from that of today’s United States. The Industrial Revolution lay several decades in the future, and the economy of the colonies depended on agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and light manufacturing performed mainly in cottage industries. Under these conditions, the Founders set up what they saw as an agrarian republic.

Theorists such as Thomas Jefferson believed that the virtue of the new republic derived from the virtue of its productive citizens, who were mostly yeoman farmers. Thus the Constitution was designed to protect and encourage smallholders by restricting the franchise to those who owned property. The Founders prudently guarded the new system against the depredations of propertyless voters, accurately predicting that they — lacking the virtue inherent in the ownership of property — would eventually “vote themselves the contents of the public purse”.

The structure of the Republic was carefully devised to balance competing interests so as to preserve the virtuous underpinnings of society and protect industrious citizens from the depredations of special interests, speculators, glib charlatans, and foreign powers.

Unfortunately, the house built by the Founders was divided against itself and could not stand. The cataclysm of the Civil War produced the single greatest erosion of the structural protections built into the federal Republic. Each major war since then knocked additional stonework out of the original edifice. Universal suffrage and the founding of the Federal Reserve dealt the final blows to the Republic, and the past century has seen generation after generation of citizens voting themselves the contents of the public purse.

Given that the public purse is stuffed with fiat money, it is effectively bottomless — or so it seems. Sixteen trillion dollars of sovereign debt so far, and increasing exponentially. The party just goes on and on.

At some point the pretend money will be seen for what it is, and then nothing but moths will emerge from the public purse. After that… Well, it’s hard to predict what will happen after that, and it will probably be something none of us wants to contemplate. But it will surely be the end of the Republic as we know it.

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Such is the gloomy Fourth of July that I woke up to this morning.

I’d like to conjure it away with thoughts of fried chicken and potato salad and fireworks and watermelon and beer. But then I open up the news websites, and the reality of what we face returns in force, and cannot be denied.

There remains an enormous well of virtue in millions of individual ordinary Americans, but very little is left in the federal government, and none in the executive branch. Virtue resides with earnest, God-fearing, productive hard-working citizens, the “tea partiers” reviled by both major political parties. It does not reside in our politicians or in the unelected apparatchiks of the permanent federal bureaucracy.

More than thirty years ago Ronald Reagan spoke of “morning in America”. But that was then, and this is now. The sun has risen past the zenith and is rapidly descending towards the horizon. Sunset in America is fast approaching.

We face a growing tyranny in this country. It comes from within: in our avarice and short-sightedness we elected it ourselves, over and over again. But it is tyranny nonetheless.

Thomas Jefferson had it right:

Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Independence Day is above all else the commemoration of a defiant resistance to tyranny.

But who will resist the new tyrant?

28 thoughts on “Sunset in America

  1. I have faith in you, cousins. This is your birthday, that day upon which your forefathers, my ancestors also , produced one of the most seminal statements of how men must live free if they are prepared to stand and not yield, and for that alone I love you.

    Yes, you are young in terms of the rhythms of time and we over here are old, tired and disarmed but I do wish that we too had a second amendment, the right to bear arms, but we do not and for all of our sakes please do not let that simple essential be taken from you.

    Happy Independence Day you wonderfully rebellious bastards.

    S III

    • Never surrender, never give a inch. You wish you had arms? Well go get ‘em then. The British establishment forbade arms for the Irish for many hundreds of years. But we got ’em anyway, somehow. The French brought ’em over sometimes; the Spaniards let a few float ashore from the galleons coming to grief off the west coast and even the Germans off-loaded from submarines and ketches and the like. We even organized a few sorties ourselves to places near and abroad where guns were just a commodity. It was useful that so many other nations had issue with the English crown.

      I doubt there was an Irishman ever lived who thought Britannia could be forced to her knees. I know I didn’t. And with such little resistance, without a whimper and I don’t get any satisfaction from it. Because if Britain falls, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Spain, Belgium, France, Sweden, Denmark and Norway will fall like dominoes. Some of these countries are already occupied; the PC’s just refuse to admit it.
      We fought you with nothing for a thousand years. We never surrendered. We rebelled; you killed our leaders, or exiled them and brutalized us and each time from the ashes a new generation of resisters was born weaned on the words ‘No Surrender’.

      If you think the Bobbies are being a little hard on Tommy you need to see how they treated unarmed, peaceful marching protesters in Derry as recently as the ‘70’s, in the heyday of the Beatles. Killing and battering protesters was the norm in those days. So you are convulsed by a few minor un-niceties being perpetrated against the EDL? You aint seen nuthin’ yet. This is just beginning, just a little push and shove and Tommy didn’t even get his shades knocked off, for Billy’s sake! This is a stroll in the park compared to what’s coming and once the lid comes off run for cover coz the likes of what is coming the western world has never witnessed.

      http://goo.gl/VLv5T

      http://goo.gl/5ohAp

      http://goo.gl/xhGQY

      • Hello Max. I looked at the videos and then spotted this video http://goo.gl/91Aqq which I think tells an even grimmer story. I was born in 1972 and I heard bits and pieces of what happened but until now I did not delve in very deeply. The way the RUC behaved against the Catholics in Derry was disgusting. I had no idea. I had been led to believe that the Irish Catholics were the cause of the problems. I am shocked to discover how wrong my perceptions were. We British owe the Irish an apology. If your words are prophetic I am very worried about the future. I pray you are wrong.

      • Max, you mourn England’s falling and recognize the danger, once it’s gone, to other European states. Yet you celebrate the bloody rebellion that helped to bring about that fall. We need to think strategically – maybe the ‘other side’ in the Civil War was righteous, but our whole country – not just the ‘enemy’ side – would have been weakened if it had fractured apart. Unlike some, I hope and pray for a peaceful solution. Civil War sux.

        • What rebellion am I celebrating as I amn’t aware? If it is a good one I will get right on it.

  2. You are not alone. This tyranny has overtaken all European countries and those of European settlement. Remember what we used to say in England, “It’s a free country”. Nobody says it any more because nobody believes it any more. We have three political parties who over the last 60 years have followed an agenda which is wholly different from that of their electorates, who would never have imagined that one day they would be governed by a Commission on the Continent which can override their elected representatives or that they would find themselves on their way to being a minority in the country that their ancestors have inhabited for at least a thousand years, if not 12,000.

    I have just learned from Russia Today that there have been demonstrations in the USA against the NSA. None of this has been mentioned by the BBC. The NSA through its affiliates in Europe and other Old Commonwealth countries is Big Brother personified.
    The foreign minister of Ecuador has told us that America and hence the hitherto free world is ruled by elites. Are these the same elites that John Kennedy referred to before his assasination? Both America and Britain and several other European countries are going under as those elites follow the plan drawn up many decades ago. The One World prison brought into being through the device of multiculturalisation as a way of eroding free speech is on its way. Who will dare to fight back before it is too late?

    • Russia Today? Consider the source.
      If there have been actual demonstrations against any of the revelations about this domestic surveillance, I haven’t see them either.

      I doubt our MSM is carrying any reports because I don’t think the pressure has built up enough.

      However, what is spreading is the understanding of how militarized our police and ancillary agencies have become.

      This article from the Richmond Times Dispatch is an analysis of the phenomenon:

      Committed Any Felonies Lately?

      IIRC, we ran this story in the news feed last week, but I didn’t realize how ‘old’ the information was in that very recent ‘news’. This second one, an opinion piece, says the incident occurred in the first week of April. Which means someone sat on it for a while.

      And from the essay, which reports a number of arrests and jail time, comes also this startling map:

      Raid Map

      We are losing our freedoms just like Europe.

  3. I am relieved that I am not alone in feeling that. Normally July 4th is at the top of my holidays. A feeling of fierce pride came over me hearing the Sousa music, and during the fireworks I reveled in feelings of pride over our fierce independence and defiant freedom.

    I find myself melancholy today as the fireworks are a celebration of a reality that has left.

    I don’t know if I can stomach the charade tonight.

    This from a veteran of the Mideast with a greivious wound suffered to resist Jihad.

    Ddog

    • Thank you for your service, sir.

      Enoch Powell was right,
      And now we have to fight…

      • Enoch Powell, who had a very logical brain, unlike his opponents whose actions have defied any logic, worked out the following equation; mass immigration by peoples wholly alien by race, culture and religion + small country with 12,000 of history and a homogeneous population at least 800 years old, apparently the third most stable in the world = big trouble.

        In fact it occurred to me that if mass immigration on such a scale had been by our fellow Europeans then trouble would have occurred much sooner, as the word “racist” could not have been used to silence us, only xenophobia; but that eventually they would have been assimilated in a way that our fellow Europeans can be but non-Europeans cannot, they can only be integrated. In fact Powell spoke of the Vikings, saying that because they were so similar by race – Danish and English dna are indistinguishable – once they were christianised and settled down to farm a much more sparsely populated land they were rapidly assimilated. Compare Irish immigration, which was the major source prior to 1948.

        The fact that mass immigration has been by wholly alien peoples has delayed the inevitable confrontation as draconian race relations laws had to be brought in which would not have been necessary for fellow Caucasians. But because these immigrants cannot be assimilated without totally altering the national identity of this European and culturally Christian country then the bust-up when it happens must inevitably lead to bloodshed, unless the one worlders admit their evil plan is unworkable and reverse the whole insane process.

  4. Btw, thanks for the sentiments from our old world cousins. May you prevail in your struggles to return freedom and restore the great culture that set the stage for our great past.

    • Thank you for your courage and service. When push comes to shove, how will the US army react? How does the rank and file and even officers under the rank of Major get their information? What restrictions are they under as to access to information? What does the military REALLY think about the usurper in the White House? I hope you feel free enough to answer these questions. Semper Fi.

      • You are right that I worry about answering. I am navy, but involved in ground operations. My team mates are and were elite. So they are typically more patriotic and with higher aptitude than many. Our take was major disillusion with the current regime. We feared for political retribution if an error was made or perceived to be made.

        My main shock was returning to the US permanently after nearly ten years overseas. I could not fathom the degradation in freedom and culture.

        I have a fatwa declared against me but I am accused of racism when I show trepidation near Muslims whose women are in burkhas. Btw, I can’t remember seeing one prior to leaving. Now every trip to the mall I see several in the major subra an metro area in the south where I live.

        We had the same media info as you and
        Could compare that with the reality we saw.

    • I’m beginning to regret the fact that we kicked you out in the first place. From the view out of my window today, the 18th century British Empire doesn’t look so bad after all.

      • I caught a snippet on the BBC’s Radio 3 last night from what I think was their Night Waves programme. A group of earnest people were obviously discussing the British Empire. Somebody said, “With so many people of Asian descent living in Britain today it makes discussing the British Empire a bit problematic.”
        These earnest left-wing people have, unfortunately, no sense of irony. Did the speaker not realise that without the British Empire there would not be millions of Asian descent living in Britain?
        Plus, if the British Empire was so terribly awful for them then why did they flock here and still do so in their millions once they gained independence? They are not only opening Indian restaurants on every street corner but they are doing so with Indian or Pakistani labour as they do not employ the local indigenes. Whether those workman have just arrived from the Sub-continent nobody knows. So much for them being a boost to our labour market. Besides, there were only 300,000 British in India at the height of the Raj when the population of the Sub-continent must have been about 400m. It has since tripled, mostly since the British left. Were it not for the fact that their own maharajahs were working hand in glove with the British there would have been no British Raj. So why don’t they have a go at the descendants of those same maharajahs in the same way as people on the Continent executed those who collaborated with the Nazis?

  5. Happy Independence Day to our American cousins from Canada. I feel for you Baron and Dymphna, because I often feel that way myself. The forces of Freedom seem so strong, yet we free people must dig in harder and fight even more. When I think of the fantastic people who write on this site, and whose writings and videos you educate us with, I feel comforted. We may be down, but we sure aren’t out. In the words of one of my major heroes, Winston Churchill: Never give up. I believe he repeated it many times in the same speech, never ever ever ever give up. What choice do we all have, knowing what we know about what is facing all of our countries, but to fight. Thanks for always fighting and lending comfort and hope. I hope this might comfort you a wee bit?

  6. Oops, meant to say the forces against freedom, must proofread better!

  7. The last battle for the West will be fought in America and it will be long and ugly.

    • I hope so. Here in Europe we are depending on you. Just as your totalitarian elites are ruling us and the whole hitherto free white world then only when America fights and America will be right will we stand a chance. And don’t say we always need you to finish the job but Churchill’s position in having an American mother made him able to persuade America to join the fight in World War 2 when many there probably preferred us to sort out our own European mess.

      This is why you must not give up your weapons. Remember all those coffins they have got ready down in Georgia is it? for the day when you finally crack. They have brought in the third world to the hitherto first to do their dirty work for them. You can’t blame the third world, the door was opened wide and they rushed in like to quote the Americans kids in a candy store. But they must be asked to peacefully resettle and we will then help them but oil and water just do not mix as has been shown throughout time immemorial. Just listening to the Vienna Philharmonic, the quintessence of European culture. If only this nightmare had not been foisted on old Europe by the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know who heeded Satan’s invitation to be given the whole world if only they bowed down and worshipped him.

  8. I have been a daily visitor to this site for about 2 years. This is the first time I have felt compelled to post. I would like to thank you all for the work that you do here and to let you know that I appreciate your efforts. I too found it difficult to be celebratory today. After basking in the melancholy for a bit; I hung out my flag and went to work tending my garden while awaiting the arrival of my children on leave from the Army. We sat down to share a meal and spent a few hours around the fire; discussing the current state of the nation. The tyranny we face today is unlike what our founders faced. The death of this nation is coming at us a cut at a time. The only advantage we have at this point is the hubris in which these tyrants operate. Passive resistance through self-reliance is the key to victory. Happy Birthday America; may we find our way back!

  9. Did you good folks know that Winston Churchill’s mother was American? If not, you now know for sure.

  10. I’m getting here late, but I also felt pretty glum on Thursday. I didn’t think there was much to celebrate.

    I quit flying my flag after the last election, except for Memorial Day. I flew it upside down on the Fourth, then packed it away again until Veterans Day in November.

    • Enough of your feel-good drivel Rickl!
      Seriously, though, I haven’t flown my flag very much lately. I wonder if we’ll get to the point that we AFRAID to fly the flag.

      • In a number of European countries, flying the national flag is considered “racist” because it makes certain members of the community feel “excluded”.

        Britain and Sweden head the list of places where the flag is deprecated. In the UK, more than one person has been charged with breaking the law for displaying the Union Jack.

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