Dr. Robert R. Owens

New Speak is nothing new in politics, and the concept of words having power to shape reality was not invented by George Orwell. Look at the original debate of the ratification of the Constitution, and as a consequence how we have studied, learned, and even shaped the debate in this lecture concerning the ratification of the Constitution. First, what about the terms, “Federalist” and “Anti-Federalist” how appropriate were they during the debate?

To understand the debate over the ratification of the Constitution it is necessary to first establish the context, for the study of a text without a context is a pretext. Therefore, each of the next three weeks I will post one installment of a short refection on the ratification debate. Was the Constitution the first document produced to form the United States of America? Does it mark the beginning of our nation and its government?

Who will the GOP nominee be? Will it be someone who could fire up the rank-and-file or will it be another in the long line of “It’s My Turn” RHINOs that the Party sets up to get knocked down? Will Romney be the next McCain, the next Dole, or the next George H. W. Bush? Four more years of managed decline without a re-election to restrain him and President Obama’s transformational vision of America as just another country may become more than just the content of his latest apology or the lesson taught to our children in public schools.

The Greeks face an economic implosion, so President Obama wants to borrow money from China so he can bail out Greece. The looting of America has a tremendously high price, and it remains unclear whether Republicans in the House have what it takes to force responsible change. Come on Charlie Brown, kick the football. Lucy promised she won’t move it this time.

The Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media constantly trumpets the claim that President Obama was a Professor of Constitutional Law. But in this long over looked quote from a radio interview a Pre-President Obama laments the negative liberties he sees as a flaw in the Constitution and waxes eloquent in defense of the redistribution of wealth and the positive power of an intrusive welfare state. Personal liberty is always and only possible when and where external control stops.

Today many have forgotten that the “TEA” in the modern Tea Party stands for “Taxed Enough Already!” Millions express frustration and the belief that our elected representatives no longer pay any attention to us once they get to Washington. Are we about to learn that if history doesn’t exactly repeat itself it sure does rhyme?

On March 19, 2011 President Obama’s administration declared war on Libya by launching 112 Tomahawk missiles at targets within the country. I say the administration declared war because the United States Congress was not consulted. Congressional leaders weren’t even advised of these acts of war until 90 minutes before the bombs started falling. And this was not really consultation. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said “I wouldn’t call it consultation as much as laying it out.” To quote Bob Dole, “Where’s the outrage?”

By ignoring the unambiguous meaning of the 9th and 10th Amendments and by stretching and twisting the meanings of a few vague clauses the Progressive leaders of our Federal government have interpreted our Constitution to mean anything needed to do anything desired. How can I say, “The Constitution Failed”? What I am saying is our system is broken, it is no longer functioning as designed, and we need a re-set button.

How do we end our dependence on foreign oil? How can we achieve the energy independence which every President since Nixon has said is a matter of national security? Stop wringing our hands and moaning about our situation, stand up like our ancestors have and boldly declare our energy independence!

One man does not make a movement and one leader does not encompass the enemy in an irregular war. This is especially true in the case of Bin Laden and his brain child Al-Qaeda. This organization is post-modern or perhaps pre-modern in style. These international conspirators are not united by personal contacts or unified by strategic planning; instead they’re forged into an inter-active whole by solidarity of purpose and continuity of world-view. In such a structure the death of any one person no matter how highly placed or inspirational will not have more than a marginal impact.

President Obama publicly laments the rise in fuel prices. However, could this rise in energy costs be government policy? This isn’t a supply problem. Mr. Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu believes that Americans should pay for gas at the same rate as Europeans which at the time of his statement was seven to nine dollars a gallon.

In America today millions are rising up and saying, we will not have a nation drowning in debt and limited in power! In the face of these assaults on who we are and what we can do the American people refuse to give up! In the face of the best government money can buy taxing us to penury and spending us to poverty the American people continue to produce, to work, and to hope.

Now the battle looms to raise the debt limit. This is an inside-the-belt-way shell game wherein the parties of power each beat their chests and growl at each other about who is the most responsible before they both vote to increase the limit on their collective credit card.

The government drifts rudderless into the whitewaters of war, the mission changes with each new speaker at the podium, and the President appears more interested in sporting events and vacations than in doing his job. With a foreign policy this well directed, the unintended consequences are the only consequences we should count on, which makes one wonder how unintended they are.

Once American said things like, “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute!” Once we said, “Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead!” And “I have not yet begun to fight!” Today the whine seems to be, “Where’s my share?” “How about me?” and “Don’t touch my entitlement. Cut someone else.” This isn’t what we inherited from our parents and it isn’t what we should leave for our children.

Today America faces an economic earthquake and a social tsunami. The lack of a historical perspective may well prove to be the undoing of our nation. Once a people are divorced from their past they live in the Eternal Now and those who set the agenda can always change now. The study of History not only provides context it also provides an endless number of lessons, illustrations, and warnings.

We’ve allowed demagogues preaching a false gospel of man-made global warming chanting songs of pollution hysteria while serving sacraments of social guilt to give our enemies a chokehold on our energy artery. The next time you pull into a gas station, as you pump your fuel look at the price. Remind yourself we have a Secretary of Energy who thinks the price should be at European levels and a President who has said energy prices will skyrocket under his programs. Now ask yourself, “If that’s their plan, what’s mine?”

We can’t spend our way to prosperity. We can’t borrow our way to solvency, and we shouldn’t condemn our descendants to a life of limited opportunity crushed under the debt for the entitlements we wanted but couldn’t afford. Thomas Jefferson made it clear that the practice of robbing our children and grandchildren because we cannot quit spending is not a valid way to manage our affairs.

Are we to be the generation that drops the ball? Each generation of Americans has bequeathed to their posterity a land stronger than they received. We were handed the unquestioned leadership of the world and after less than two decades we have frittered it away.

Buying health insurance will no longer be an option because failing to do so will be illegal. In other words, “Don’t not do that!” or face the full force of the law and miraculously not doing something becomes doing something. In effect the Federal Government maintains for the first time in American History and perhaps in the History of the world that not doing something is doing something. It is this type of newspeak, circular logic, and sophistry which destroys the credibility of those who tell us less is more.

From the day the Constitution was signed to the day it was ratified this country rang with the impassioned speeches and stirring essays of the opponents and the proponents of our founding document. Today is the day and now is the time for the debate to once again stir the hearts of the nation, will we have a limited government, personal liberty and free enterprise or are we going to have something else?

To watch our President bow, to see the communist flag flying at the White House it’s easy to believe China has assumed its place as the Middle Kingdom: the land between heaven and earth where Red Emperors sit on Dragon Thrones doling out cash to rescue the poor barbarians who can’t seem to balance their books. When will our increasingly imperious banker call the note? Perhaps only Hu knows Wen.

Conservatives are confronting a relentless opponent who has gained strategic and tactical advantage. An opponent, supported by the media, in control of the educational and entertainment establishments who has the cohesion of shared ideology and goals. Strike now while the iron is hot. Do not commit the 8th deadly sin of procrastination or the voters won’t hesitate to try something else the next time around.

This isn’t rocket science. We aren’t trying to figure out the orbit perimeters of a sling-shot around the moon to reach Saturn. This is Political Science and Economics: the arcane arts of who gets what, when, and how. If we want manufacturing and innovation to grow reduce taxes to the lowest in the world and take the steel boot of regulation off the throat of free enterprise and watch our manufacturing base and our industrial output soar.

Since his election, as the economy languished, the American people from across the political spectrum have sought leadership in the quest for a recovery. And what has been the response of our Progressive President and his Progressive-dominated Congress? Constant promises to focus on job creation to cover the enactment of a radical agenda designed to transform America.