The Demise Of A Republic

July 4th, 1776 was the beginning of a grand experiment in the history of the world. It was a unique historical moment and our founding fathers had high hopes that this fledgling republic would be a bastion of freedom and liberty. They guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the framework of a constitutional republic of the people, by the people, and for the people. Now, 240 years later, the momentum that propelled the United States of America into a great and thriving republic has been lost, and the slow and steady demise is nearly complete. One need only look at the stark reality of the current political landscape to see Lady Liberty lying on her death bed struggling to breathe. So what happened to our once great republic?

One could argue, and I will do so, that FDR and The New Deal programs of the 1930's marked the beginning of this demise. The New Deal was a series of social liberal programs enacted in the United States from 1933-1938. The programs were in response to the Great Depression and were intended to provide relief to the American people and spur the economy. The result was a massive increase in the federal debt and a vast increase in the power and bureaucracy of the federal government. It produced a real shift and a political realignment that made the Democratic Party the majority and led to them holding the White House for seven of the next nine terms from 1933-1969. It was the first real repudiation of our founding fathers and a true change of course and ideology from a limited federal government to a massive bloated bureaucracy. It sowed the seeds for the future harvest, if you will, and now that harvest is almost ripe and ready to be plucked.

The next major marking point in this demise took place thirty years later. The Great Society programs of the 1960's were pushed by Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party and further expanded the breadth and scope of the federal government. It created such programs as Medicare and Medicaid and greatly increased entitlement spending and social programs to combat poverty and racial injustice. It made the food stamp program permanent and created more federal agencies and bureaucracy. As most people find out, when new government programs and agencies are established, they never sunset and go away. They continue to grow and need to be fed more taxpayer money. The Great Society programs have greatly added to the federal debt and continued to keep our republic moving away from our founding fathers and heading towards this ultimate reshaping and transformation into a social democracy.

The last phase of the demise of our republic is currently taking place. It began with Barack Obama becoming President of the United States. He has continued the transformation by doubling the federal debt to $20 trillion and continued to grow the size and the reach of the federal government. With 45 million Americans on food stamps, that is one in seven citizens, and the enactment of Obamacare, he has managed to get more people dependent on the government for their well-being and general way of life. Half of all Americans don't pay any federal income tax and the top 20% of American taxpayers pay 84% of the taxes. We have reached that tipping point and now society is trained to rely on government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave. The honest truth is that we are putting the final nails in the coffin of Lady Liberty.

Maybe we were too naive or maybe just too ignorant to believe that our republic would end up different than the Greeks or the Romans. Much like the Israelites rebelled and turned their backs on Moses and God after being led out of the chains of bondage, we have rebelled and turned our backs on the founding fathers and God and the unique gift that was given to us. We deem ourselves smarter and wiser, but we are far from it. God gives us free will to choose our destiny. We have chosen, either consciously or subconsciously, to turn towards the chains of tyranny and forgo being free. Much like watching an accident about to happen, we feel helpless. But we haven't been helpless. Not in the least. Indifferent, yes. Apathetic, absolutely. Ignorant, unquestionably. But far from helpless. We blame the politicians, but make no mistake about it, it is we the people who put them in those positions and allowed them to kill our republic. As you stand over Lady Liberty lying on her death bed, and as you look into her eyes as the tears flow down her face, the reflection you will see staring back at you will be that of we the people. We didn't kill her with a stab to the heart or a gunshot to the head, but with a million different pin pricks that eventually drained the lifeblood out of our vibrant republic. God bless the soul of our republic, for it deserved a much better fate than this.