Are We the Jellyfish the "Progressives" Claim We Are

The spectre of an elected American Caesar looms large over us in November.

One pundit argued after the horrific terror attack in Nice, that it is the fault of the French for making Muslim males feel disenfranchised. Well I've shoveled horse manure before and calling it "rose petals" doesn't improve the smell.  The idea that somehow a wily group of smart leaders can tell us all how to behave in such a way as to make Muslim males feel good about themselves so that they will magically become peaceful and cooperative is wishful thinking at best and treats young Muslim males as mere wind-up toys at worst.

Cultures are self-determined as is the response of members of that culture to the challenge of integrating into a new culture to which they have migrated. Some cultures and individuals blend willingly. Others resist, invade and overwhelm the culture of the place they move into. It rather depends on why a group of people move to a new place. Do they wish to become part of their new homeland or to make their new homeland into what the old world was?

America is almost unique in the world in its ability to absorb new cultures and blend their strengths into the fabric of our own. We once described ourselves as a melting pot and for much of our history, for good or ill, we have been that. Some Americans along the way have resisted the influx of new people with their odd customs and strange accents. But we've managed to take them all in and make Americans out of them. With arguably rare exceptions, the young males of those cultures found ways to not become "disenfranchised". The promise of America has been strong enough that every new culture we take in has embraced that promise and, in effect, "enfranchised" itself.

Take the Irish. The Irish were every bit as marginalized, mistreated and abused as any culture except perhaps African Americans, when they migrated in large numbers to the United States as famine and war pushed them out of their homeland. The Irish male had every reason to feel disenfranchised, what with signs everywhere that read "No Irish Need Apply".

The Irish, however, pushed back and refused to allow the American dream to be taken from them and their children. By working hard, winning land for themselves and making themselves fully American, despite the presence of bigots and exploiters who tried to abuse them. They did NOT commit massive acts of terror. Sure they protested. There were strikes and demonstrations. But the Irish also committed acts of patriotism, serving honorably in the nation's armed forces. They committed acts of responsibility by supporting themselves and their families as best they could. They educatedg themselves and their children and became fully American citizens who stood up and claimed for themselves the blessings of liberty.

Jellyfish don't do a lot of swimming. Mostly they drift along on the tides. The thing that makes me so angry at the progressive socialist movement in America is that it treats us like we're all mindless jellyfish. Progressives try so hard to turn us all into passive victims as though we had no concept of inalienable rights, no intelligence, and no minds of our own; as though we are merely the product of manipulation by our genetic betters - those ordained by survival of the fittest to rule over us jellyfish. This attitude is nothing but an attempt to resurrect the old idea of a genetically superior "nobility" - a blight that once plagued the Earth and one that the US Constitution once almost extinguished.

Israel once cried out for a king and God gave them what they desired, much to their detriment. We in America are running two such would-be royals for president in November. God help us, but He may grant us our wish as he did ancient Israel. The results will be the same old string of catastrophes that all-powerful kings and queens have always brought down upon the heads of their people.

President Obama wanted to be king, but enough of us opposed his naked power grab to minimize the damage he tried to bring down upon us. Sadly, the organized opposition appears to have gone over to the dark side and the spectre of an elected American Caesar looms over the land. We are being told by our betters that despite the fact that the two candidates are viewed as unfit for the office by two-thirds of Americans, that we must choose one or the other - the lesser of two evils.

It's time we resurrect that old American revolutionary spirit once more - a spirit that gave us the courage to say no to tyranny whenever and wherever it raised its ugly head. Sadly, whether we survive as a free nation or not may depend on whether or not we can resist the government's attempts to disarm and neuter us. The founding fathers were wise to guarantee our right to bear arms in the Constitution. An armed people will never climb willingly onto the trains to Dachau and Auschwitz. We will not, as Dylan Thomas exhorted us, go gently into that good night. 

I don't know about you but I plan to "rage, rage against the dying of the light.

© 2016 by Tom King