IF You Can Keep It. . .

Human Events:

The Ultimate Patriot & Gun Owner
by Susan Dale
11/17/2009

I have the honor to work for George Washington, ultimate patriot and optimum gun owner.

General Washington worked his entire life to establish a republic, always bearing in mind that man was weak. George Washington was the ultimate pragmatist of the extraordinary group of men known as the Founding Fathers, while at the same time the true visionary of the group. He was able to see exactly what it was for which they were sacrificing their lives -- not only what could be made to happen in the short term, the first true republic in history, but also what could be achieved in the long term.

What we are seeing now is not what General Washington meant by what he wanted to be achieved in the long term.

George Washington, having lived under what he and his fellow Founding Fathers came to feel was the tyrannical rule of George III, had a clear comprehension of what a free nation of men would be. The first principle of this was the role of government -- and it was expressed firmly in our original documents not what government was to do, but what government would not be permitted to do. George Washington, while he knew from the experience of the Revolutionary War that a loose confederation of states would not work in forming and keeping a nation, and that a central entity was necessary. This federal government, however, was not to be and never would be sovereign; in George Washington’s United States of America, the people -- the people -- are sovereign.

It has been perhaps lost in the mists of history that the supporters of the Declaration of Independence greatly feared the formation of a Constitution. These two pivotal chapters in our nation’s creation were viewed at that time as two entirely separate events in America’s history, not as a joint formation of our nation. Those who wanted independence from the mother country, England, wanted to avoid at all possible costs the creation of a central governmental entity, as all such historical experiences were limited to either a monarchy or to a military rule -- both of which were rarely benign. General Washington understood, more so than any of the other Founding Fathers, that a central government was necessary to pull together 13 very disparate states into a whole that could not only survive the difficult beginnings of a nation, but that could thrive to become a great nation providing the freedom to men that had never before been provided. He certainly understood that necessary checks and balances would have to be installed in the various branches of government in order to prevent any excesses resulting from a possible future generation’s leader’s lust for power. George Washington led the way in making sure that every possible obstacle was established to prevent this from happening -- the great pragmatist of the 18th Century Founders comprehending what man was capable of doing.

What he did not foresee was the eventual election of a group of people in the 21st century who would simply ignore that rules and laws on which our country is based, and would attempt to create a entirely new United States of America -- not an entirely new form of government, as throughout history failed tyrannies have been created by those determined to achieve total power over their fellow citizens.

In the 19th century, in a remarkable document entitled “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville recorded his observations of the United States of America, a nation he found to be a truly great and inspired institution. He concluded that there were numerous reasons for this greatness, and that perhaps the most significant of these was the morality of the people of the United States of America. De Tocqueville wrote that this morality was based solidly in the religious beliefs of Americans, and was primarily responsible for the greatness, and the uniqueness, of the nation.

It is tragic to reflect on the beginning of this extraordinary country to now. George Washington created a nation that defined exceptionalism -- ours, in large part due to this colossus of a man, and the qualities he and the founders instilled in later generations -- to now, to someone who hasn’t a clue what that term means. We are the only experiment that worked, and our president, tragically for him, doesn’t understand this.

Is there anything more obviously missing in our country today than this national strength that de Tocqueville credits our nation -- morality? One can see that everywhere in the liberal secularist majority in our government today -- from the blithe reaction of ACORN employees to the importation of Central American children to staff a house of prostitution formed by defrauding the government -- to the equally blithe and constant lies by our current president from everything from his past, to why his health “reform” fantasy would work, to his “love” for America while he attempts to destroy her, and to his efforts to take over control of every aspect of American life, destroying the precious gift of American individualism in the process. General Washington would expect the tyrannical efforts we are seeing today to be stopped by the checks and balances he and his colleagues created, and by the hardy souls who inherited the nation he gave us, and that the freedom he fought so hard to achieve would be restored.

As Washington’s fellow Founder and genius, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, said, “I give you a Republic -- if you can keep it.” The spirit of General Washington, and of Dr. Franklin, lives on.

You can see this in each one of the individual citizens who now stands tall and refuses to accept our freedoms being taken from us. General Washington wanted the people of this nation to be instilled with the ultimate strength of individual determination, and it is this extraordinary gift from General Washington and his 18th century friends, delineated in our founding documents, that prevents the current statist administration from succeeding in their destruction of George Washington’s precious republic.