Betrayal

Well, we are one week into the regime of President Barack Hussein Obama. Already there are causes for great concern, not just for conservatives, but for all who value timeless principles and the future of our Republic. Principled, thoughtful people have been triply betrayed. First, Obama's radicalism is destructive to our future and we must oppose several policies that are about to be implemented. The new administration is betraying all the devout voters who trusted that the President would still sanctify life and moderate some of his rhetoric and support traditional families. It turns out that his "guns and religion" disgust toward regular folk really does reflect his attitudes and values and that the pandering to evangelicals was mere window-dressing. Already we see

* The export of death by Executive Order. Liberals cannot see that economic freedom and opportunity stabilize populations, not draconian abortion efforts.

* Ending torture is good, but closing Gitmo without a plan and opening civil courts to military matters are reckless and self-destructive plans.

* Economic policies with no specifics or substance and with the record of 20th century history that refutes them all! Some intervention is needed, but not indefinite deficits and national control of the world's greatest economy. Why are we now more liberal than France and constructing socialism even as many nations are dismantling some facets of their centralized economies?

* The planned destruction of the traditional family, with policies (straight from the White House website itself) designed to trump the individual state's regulation of marriage and pander to the LGBT elites.

* Environmental policies that will hasten our serfdom. This regime is committing the "Either/Or" fallacy on a grandiose scale. We can become more green - AND drill for more oil. We are burning cleaner coal and diesel than ever, AND investigating new energy sources. We do not need to remove millions more acres of our land from potential productive use.

* Moves to end secret ballots for union elections. Why don't we just invite Jimmy Hoffa to come back and rule?

This list, alas, can go on almost ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

There is another betrayal, just as serious, that thoughtful folks must consider in order to place all these disturbing decisions in context. This is the betrayal of principles by both Bush Administrations, especially with the economy and immigration. Democrat or Republican, until the 1930s and especially the 1960s, living within our means was the aim, if not always the practice. Local and State governments actually had some resources of their own. Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed on some budget priorities, but all affirmed a real budget. Beginning with the failure to reign in spending and regulate our borders, and ending with the "Business Buddy Bailout" of 2008, thoughtful people have been betrayed. Why is legal immigration so difficult, along with insistence that our friends south of the border obey our laws?

The third betrayal is found in a Congress (and Californian Legislature) unable to regulate itself or control its lust for power. Wall Street helped hasten the current crises, but they were aided by a Congress that pushed loan policies so unrealistic that the warning signs since the late 1990s were simply ignored. The fact the Clinton appointees made tens of millions off these bad loans barely registers in a media so enamored with Obama and still nursing visceral hatred of Bush.

Triple betrayal: Bush's failures, Congressional lunacy and Obama radicalism - all dome while we amuse ourselves to death and wonder what happened.

There are positive ways forward that transcend party lines and narrow ideologies and will not please all conservatives or progressives. In the next entry I will propose plans that can take us "back to the future" as we reaffirm our timeless values and take quantum leaps forward.

The Possibilities of 2009

Now that we are weary of the "Best of 2008" programming, it is time to turn our attention toward the future. As I write, prognosticators and popular pundits are all making predictions and hedging their bets at the same time.

Instead of giving predictions, I offer possibilities. I recognize the potency of human choice and the permutations that flow from our decisions. Looking at history, have you ever imagined a world

* Where Hitler is accepted into Art School and becomes a successful part of the bohemian scene in the 1920s instead of the demonized dictator of a Nazi regime that results in over 50 million deaths?

* Where the Great Powers negotiate instead of mobilizing in 1914?

* Where Pope Pius XII speaks out loudly and specifically against the Holocaust of European Jews and calls on Catholics everywhere to resist this evil policy?

* Where The Palestinian Authority leaders unambiguously guarantee Israel's right to exist in secure borders and the PA and IDF begin joint operations to root our Hamas and Islamic Jihad?

OK, such are my counterfactual musings on a cold winter's night.

What about 2009? What are the possibilities ahead for the USA? Here is a sampling of possible futures, contingent on the choices of women and men in authority - AND the pressure applied by concerned citizens.

* If we finally agree that guns and butter cannot mix perfectly, let's cut domestic spending by 10%, make sure our military is effective and strategic (there is 15-20% that can be cut without a loss of effectiveness), and call on all Americans to produce more than they consume, we could have the greatest turnaround in economic history. Will this happen? Probably not. Too many politicians and robber barons want our populace on a new road to serfdom.

* If we construct Welcome Centers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas and LEGALLY invite, assess, categorize and integrate our friends who want to be part of our land, we can end the fear and violence and reaffirm the rule of law. Will this happen? Well, the Democrats cry "justice" and want cheap votes and the Republicans cry "free markets" and want cheap labor. Another opportunity we will miss. Besides, we cannot allow US citizens to receive the same in-state tuition benefits that "undocumented" students receive, can we?

* What if millions of Americans call for economic and moral accountability from their elected officials? How about an end to secret sessions, back-door deals and the violations of human and property rights by petty dictators? How about balanced budgets, clear communication, the end of union aggrandizement and corporate rapaciousness? Can this happen? YES! Many voices raised in unity DO make a difference. Countless ordinary neighborhoods are transformed as block-by-block people unite against gang violence, corporate redlining and hopelessness. Imagine hundreds of informed and passionate citizens insisting on an end to both egregious eminent domain policies and the payola schemes of developers!

* What if We insist on private-public partnerships to rebuild infrastructure? There is so much to be done and we need the creative genius of the academy and business and the proper oversight of government to coalesce. Bridges, roads, tunnels, wildlife preserves, sensitive habitats, urban renewal - all need attention. Here is a novel thought - let's stop looking to Washington, D.C. for every solution and re-empower local and state authorities and citizens.

It is too simplistic to say, "let the market run itself." Even Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and the intellectual father of modern capitalism, spent a a large portion of his work affirming the private and public virtues necessary for free enterprise to flourish! Unrestricted capitalism is not a solution. It is also illusory to think that a collectivist-statist economic policy will work. Whatever the ideology or language, an over-controlled economy does not ensure long-term freedom and opportunity. The answer? Real government oversight of the ethics, policies and processes of corporations, but not government administration or micromanagement.

My real hope for 2009 is that all thoughtful people will take an honest look within and without and find the courage to face reality and work sacrificially to solve the consequences of our unbridled greed and selfishness. These problems are beyond the Left-Right shouting on cable television. The great Russian author and dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, challenged his hearers at Harvard University: "The line between good and evil runs down the center of the human heart."

The Advent of Hope

Advent is the Season of Hope as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Over time, this momentous event of Divine humility has been commercialized, romanticized and sanitized - but the power of the Babe of Bethlehem is never eradicated.

Voltaire prophesied that the Bible and Christianity would be dead by 1850. The faith is dying a slow death in the West, even as it grows exponentially in the rest of the world. Non-Western missionaries are re-evangelizing the lands that originally brought the good news to them.

Why does Advent tug at our hearts? Why does Christmas still speak to millions, even in moments of cultural and economic turmoil?

The birth of a baby is a universal good. It resonates with our desire to see the next generation flourish.

Baby Jesus' parents were hard-working artisans living as a minority in a huge Empire. Their struggles with taxes, shelter and liberty touch the psyches of many in our world.

A dying, paranoid dictator tries to kill Jesus and does not care about the trail of blood and tears in the wake of the soldier's swords. From the Armenian massacres to the Kulaks, from the Holocaust to the Cultural Revolution, from the Killing Fields to Darfur, we see the innocent caught in the snare of ideological totalitarians.

The coming of the Wise Men to see the toddler Jesus reminds us of the universal message of Christmas.

The angelic choirs heard by humble shepherds helps us to remember that those who are condescended to and despised by elites are often the recipients of the greatest insights.

Jesus is announced as Lord and Savior. He is not praised for being a guru, a prophet or a rabbi. He is the final word in the Divine plan of salvation for all people. It is here that Christmas becomes "uncomfortable." As long as we speak in inclusive, pluralistic generalities about universal love and peace, Christmas is "safe."

Jesus of Nazareth was born to die. The creche of Bethlehem became the Cross of Calvary. The Savior announced by angels became the Suffering Servant announced by the Prophet Isaiah hundreds of years earlier. To receive the message of Christmas is to receive Christ as God Incarnate, the Lord of heaven, who, for our sake, humbled himself, took on our nature, died for our sins and arose bodily from the grave offering real hope.

The hope of Christmas is not only the hope of heaven for those who believe. Advent hope fuels our present partnership with God to see justice, love and peace begin to reign now. Advent hope means that humility is the pathway to honor, meekness is the road to majesty and forgiveness is the doorway to a better future.

I invite all who read this to take another look at the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and consider the invitation of God to join Him and all the faithful of every nation to love and serve one another.

Merry Christmas!

Sneaky Agendas

I was hoping to publish a warm-hearted Christmas article and get ready for the celebratory season of year-end family activity. I will still publish my gratitude for Advent soon - probably before week's end.

Events compel me to comment on the sneaky and subversive actions going on during our transition to an Obama Presidency. Here are some warning signs that our 220-year experiment with representative government is threatened by ideologues who think it is their prerogative to rewrite our Constitution.

Thomas Sowell, the august Hoover Institute scholar, wrote a book a few years ago entitled, "the Vision of the Anointed." In this work Sowell exposes the superiority complex afflicting the Left. Those coming to power really believe they have the obligation and opportunity to improve the Constitution.

Obama's intellectual and moral mentors are part of a radical, revisionist elite who see our Founders as slave-owning oppressors, our history as one of unimpeded colonialism and our future as a humbled participant in a world government. They are collectivists who believe that a qualified oligarchy should redistribute personal rights and accumulated wealth.

I know this group, because I went to university and grad school during the 1970s to 1990s as our educational establishments fell into the hands of former SDS members, with even Angela Davis getting tenure! As a University of California at Santa Cruz "Banana Slug" alumni, I am proud to say that my history professors were women and men of the highest integrity and their work reflected honest assessment of facts. Yes, they had liberal opinions and enjoyed using some of the tools of social history to evaluate the past. They respected my findings and ideas and none of them believed in creating an artificial narrative to serve political ends.

Alas, the current power-brokers and Obama himself have no problem manipulating history to serve their aggrandizing ends. I am still stunned by the audacity of Barak Hussein Obama's deceit. He insists that he did not hear Rev. Wright's racism and anti-Americanism. His campaign complained when his middle name was used in speech or print. Now it will be part of the Oath of Office on January 20.

Here is a sampling of the demagoguery passing for serious thinking:

For five years, leftist political writers have suggested that the "natural born" citizenship requirement for President be eliminated as outdated and unfair to our "nation of immigrants." This is a brazen attempt to undermine the intent of the Founders and possibly cover for the dubious records underpinning Obama's past.

The call for a Constitutional Convention simmers just below the surface. The agenda for such an unprecedented event is very clear: abortion, euthanasia, wealth redistribution and the redefining of First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth Amendment rights. A Convention in the hands of those educated over the past 30 years is a frightful prospect. By the way, we DO have a legitimate Amendment process!

Every four years the Electoral College comes up for review. If we want to destroy the American experiment in representative government, let's go to a straight popular vote for President. The role of states will be further diminished and the potential for all elections to end up in the House of Representative because of the intrusion of third and fourth parties looms large. Our current system is the fairest and most stable guarantee of balance and liberty.

The most egregious agenda item of the new elite is the geometric rise in government intrusion into the economy. It is a good thing to spend money on private-public partnerships for our infrastructure. It is not helpful to prop up companies that refuse to modernize. It is not right to pander to either Wall Street barons or UAW officials. No Honda or Toyota workers in the USA are complaining about their lot!

As citizens we need to be vigilant and not allow the sneaky political class to steer us away from liberty. We must

Learn our history - the good (The Constitution, the Civil War elimination of slavery and Republicans who started environmental protections), the bad (slavery, "Manifest Destiny" and Latin American interventions) and the simply factual (we have the most stable government in history and we rescued Europe twice in the 20th century).

Know our Constitution. It is a brilliant, sparing document that vests ultimate authority in the people. It also assumes a self-regulating, virtuous citizenry.

Defend for all others the rights we want for ourselves. Apart from direct threats to our nation, we have a system that allows us to debate and live with our deepest differences.

Conservatives lost out in this election season because of their failure to articulate a compassionate and cohesive philosophy. The utter lack of spending discipline, sane immigration policy, the delayed surge, the economic meltdown. and the inability of President Bush to communicate, opened a door to victory that any Democrat could walk through.

2010 is coming.

Straight Talk on Sex

The irrational and irreverent language of the No on 8 mob is a portent of future persecution of anyone of any tradition who attempts to defend morality in the public square.

In my lifetime we have gone from not even speaking about many sexual activities in public to displays of perversion I will not describe.

In the 1970s the gay activists wanted privacy rights and Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill that ended prosecution of consensual private activity between adults. Though I disagree with many choices some adults make, permitting private activity is better than inquisitional, time-wasting activity by law enforcement.

In the 1980s, gay/lesbian partners began to receive inheritance rights as well as benefits from private corporations. We also witnessed an explosion of "gay studies" in universities. Page Smith, historian and venerable founder of UCSC and no conservative, lamented the loss of serious academic and moral reflection with the creation of these nonsensical programs. His book, Killing the Spirit, is must reading for anyone interested in the decline of academics in the USA.

In the 1990s, civil unions and domestic partnerships became the rage. Anyone objecting was branded homophobic, intolerant and out of touch with reality. Gay and lesbian activity was mainstreamed in Hollywood and active recruiting of young people on secondary school campuses began in earnest.

As the 21st century dawned, the radicals set their sights on redefining marriage and Californians said a resounding "No!" to such a notion in 2000. Four radical judges decided to overturn the will of the people from the bench and Proposition 8 became a Constitutional necessity to protect the most important unit of social cohesion known to humankind.

The agenda of the radicals is the complete subversion of all traditional values. Anarchic, communistic, and nihilistic ideologies drive this movement. Any restriction on "freedom" is considered wrong. The irony is found in the intolerance of the radicals for any public dissent.

It is interesting that current protests are not happening outside Black or Hispanic Churches (70%+ for Prop 8), but only outside of conservative churches or Mormon stakes. Another fact should be noted: no orthodox synagogues or muslim mosques have been targeted. Only white-dominated conservative churches. Who are oppressed minorities now?

I do not see any of these protestors agitating for justice in Darfur, concerned about religious persecution around the world, working against genital mutilation in Africa or protesting the treatment of women in Muslim nations.

The fact of the matter is this: The Judeo-Christian and Enlightened foundations of the USA have created such freedom that these affluent, overfed folks have the time to think about gender and lifestyle and the liberty to create any value system they want!

In the 1970s and 1980s feminist and gay writers called gender a "social construct" and promoted freedom for men and women to pursue any behavior they desired. As genetic research increases, there is a frantic search for proof that sexual orientation is "wired" and therefore protected as a civil right. Note to radicals: YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. If orientation is a social construct and fluid during a lifetime, it is a choice and not protected as a natural right. There is no "gay gene" - therefore, the only way to grow a movement is recruitment and the normalizing of homoerotic feelings and actions, especially among vulnerable children and young adults.

The activists rejoice when a previously heterosexual man or woman in "outed" - but they howl in angry protest every time a homosexual leaves they gay/lesbian lifestyle and goes straight. The howls turn to visceral screams and threats if they become a Christian and urge people to repent of sin!

So far this blog may appear to be another review of old arguments. There are, however, several insights that will put all of the above thoughts in a larger context and challenge not only the gay activists but the straight conservatives.

Traditional morality, whether, Jewish, Christian, Muslim or even agnostic/humanist, affirms that sexual intimacy is reserved for the bonds of heterosexual marriage. The fact that some many choose to violate this demanding norm does not invalidate the seriousness behind the commandments. The failure of heterosexual, religious marriages does not make gay marriage right. The divorce rate among straight couples is not an argument for alternatives - it is a call to repentance and reformation on the part of those professing traditional values.

Defenders of Traditional Marriage must unite their convictions with a new determination to end the tidal wave of broken families and immoral, extramarital sexual activity. Celibacy outside of marriage and fidelity within, all in a context of humility, love and respect is the only way forward.

To speak against homosexual activity is not to condemn anyone, but to call forth a higher faith and morality that is better for the person. Homoerotic behavior is a sin - but so is heterosexual arousal outside of marriage. These sexual sins are part of a long list of vices that include envy, greed, hatred and other attitudes and actions destructive of community life.

Without transcendent, timeless morality, there can be no real virtue and without virtue, personal responsibility declines. When this happens, self-regulation gives way to totalitarianism and the center of our republic cannot hold. History demonstrates that a loss of ethical cohesion opens the door for oppression thought impossible just a generation before.

To all conservatives I issue a challenge to humility, repentance and love that embraces all people as eternally valuable while simultaneously refusing to compromise moral standards. For the religious, there is forgiveness for the truly penitent. For the non-religious, there is the determination not to lose personal sovereignty to the nightmare of governmental plutocracy.

To the gay activists I offer an invitation to real dialogue and a challenge - can you live peaceable among those who disagree with you? You have all the civil rights of every other citizen. You even have the right to a religious rite to solemnify your commitment to your partner. But you do not have the right to overturn anthropological, biological, historical, and sociological evidence concerning marriage and the future of our species.

My fellow thinkers, we created this mess forty years ago when we watched no-fault divorce sweep our land. We created this mess as we idly watched Roe v. Wade subvert the fruit of sexual union. We created this anarchy as we indulged in attitudes and behaviors that undermined our own values. As we stand up to these protests, we need to stand on our knees, imploring God for mercy and blessing those who make themselves our enemies. We must also not be weary in well-doing or allow ourselves a moment of compromise. This battle is for the very soul of our land and the hope of freedom for humankind!

By the way, to any radicals reading - it still takes an egg and a sperm to make a human being. Doesn't that say something about Nature's design?