You Are Losing Your Republic

You no longer have a press corps. You no longer have a sound body of journalists. Without such a thing, you cannot have this republic.

The news media are deeply beholden to the Democratic Party. There is no investigation of Barack Obama's record. When John McCain points out that Obama supported a bill prescribing a sex education curriculum for students including kindergarteners, the news media ran with the Obama camp's story that the bill was only for helping kids avoid sexual predators. This story is false. McCain was right. Go read the bill. Reasonable people may disagree and argue over this point. (This thread suffices for that.) But there is no denying that the news media were on Obama's side. It reported as a matter of fact that McCain had lied.

By the same token, the news media do not investigate Obama's record and interrogate him about their findings. Instead, they leave it hidden. They stay silent.

The news media worship Obama and interrogate Palin. She has substantial experience in the executive branch of government. He has none. She is a genuine and accomplished reformer. He is a pretender. The media stay silent.

The news media will make Obama the next president. You will have a man in the White House who has accomplished nothing in his life. A man who pretends to be a reformer on your side but who is nothing more than a garden variety Chicago Machine politician, an easily discoverable fact which your news media refuses to disclose to you.

Of course, Obama is on the left. This dovetails with the other ailment your republic suffers. That is that it is a democracy - a democratic republic. But as Alexander Tytler said, "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." This is where we find ourselves.

As Franklin said, you have "a republic, if you can keep it." But we can't keep it. We are wealthy and slothful. The poor amongst us have multiple cars and air conditioning. We have more opportunity for good lives than any society in history. Instead of living such lives, we prefer to complain. Fewer than half of us love liberty and virtue more than comfort and pleasure. Our Congress is run by crooks who do not love liberty and virtue.

You can't easily tell when you've turned the corner into the final chapter, because the corner isn't sharp but smoothly gradual. In fact, though, you've turned the corner. We are slothful, uninterested, and misinformed. Crooks are now able to have their way with us by becoming elected officials.

The only question now is whether the process is reversible. A lengthy and bitter economic depression might result in a subsequent chastening, sobering, and recovery of self-control and common sense in the body politic. I know of no other hope.

POSTSCRIPT: By the way, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are institutions of the Democratic Party the function of which is, in large measure, to provide poor people with houses they can't afford and to provide Democrats with an opportunity to cook the books and reap a large income. Bush and McCain tried to clean the mess up but the Democrats stopped them. You've been ripped off. Go find out for yourself. You won't read it in your "news media."