Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: July 15, 2010 - #1029 - Title: Vote Tuesday but reject ‘Obamish’ like promises (4320)

Next Tuesday, July 20, will be Georgia’s turn to select from amongst the several party candidates the two candidates who will be pitted against each other on the November ballot. And as I listen to the candidates political TV ads, and read their literature, asking me to vote for him or her on Tuesday I often cringe. I cringe because the words and promises being made in many of these ads are ‘Obamish.’

            What do I mean by the word ‘Obamish?’ I mean these political ads emulating candidate Obama’s campaign promises during the 2008 election. And as most Americans know today, only 18 months later, those promises made by candidate Obama during the campaign were hallow dishonest promises, promises made with his fingers crossed behind his back simply to get a hurting and gullible public to vote for him and his commitment to ‘fundamental changes’ using ‘change and hope’ as the hook. What candidate Obama didn’t tell us was that his ‘fundamental changes’ would lead to socialism and the destruction of the principles of freedoms that has provided Americans with the highest standard of living ever attained on this earth.

The TV promises being made today by candidates, in both parties, to win your vote on Tuesday are aimed at a hurting but gullible voting electorate. And many of the political ads are as deceptive and dishonest as were Obama’s. Georgia voters need to reject those candidates who ‘seek power to get gain’ next Tuesday.  Many of the promises being make can not be sustained and are not realistic in today’s economic environment – and are contrary to the principles of freedom found in America’s foundational documents.

Recently I reread “Stand Fast by Our Constitution,” a book by J Reuben Clarke that contains ten talks he gave between 1925 and 1957, including one he titled “Why I am and American.” His message this time sunk deeper into my soul – it touched me deeply. Clarke, a learned American, learned what it meant to be an American first hand having worked for the State Department much of his life, including being Ambassador to Mexico. In a talk given in 1952 titled ‘Let us not sell our children into slavery’ he provided a review of ‘Roman Law vs Common Law’ that describes the conflict we as Americans see today.

At the end of the Roman civilization the Romans were ruled by two absolute tyrants – Theodosius and Valentinian. Beginning in 429 AD these men codified all previous Roman Laws and gave themselves absolute power over the people. They became the legislators, administrators and final judges on all matters. What they said was law. The Romans had no say in making the laws they lived under, as we Americans have had beginning in 1787 – but could lose if the administration continues on its current path to socialism.   

Quoting from page 140 and 141 of Clarke’s book Georgia voters can see just how important it is to reject those candidates, who like the Roman emperors, are flattering the people with words familiar to Georgians today, words like security, price fixing, black markets, excessive taxation, socialized medicine, corruption in government, and separation of Church and State. “Under these [Roman] laws,” Clarke said, “the entire population was organized as one vast army. All, including the highest officials, were strictly classified, and even the least had a station. In substance this meant that everyone did what he was told, and did not act without permission. There was a great body of secret police to report disobedience; there was a ‘special’ secret police appointed to watch the ordinary secret police. These laws were framed to provide security. We, of today have heard that same kind of security talk. But, in fact, all this bred not security, but scarcity, scarcity of grain, of materials, of men. (and here is the meat of his talk) The mere making of laws (or promises), even in an absolute despotism, does not change the great laws of nature and economics (God given laws) – neither then nor now, for there can be no permanent stability where men are not free. (Consequences followed) In fewer than forty years from the issuance of the Theodosian Code (476 AD) the Empire of the West (Rome) fell, not withstanding the operation, under complete autocratic powers, of economic devices enacted to promote the welfare of the people and to preserve the empire; some of these devises were the same ones that we have been told (in 1952) will rebuild our economic structure and preserve our free institutions. These devises failed with Rome; they will ultimately fail with us (America).”  And we see them now failing under Obama in 2010.

Can America fall, like Rome? It can! So remember that those who promise you Utopia lie to you for power and gain. Reject them as you would the plague. Also remember Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence that it was ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God’ that are the cornerstone of America’s liberty. To vote for those who promise Utopia, using ‘Obamish like’ promises, is to vote for self destruction and misery. So vote Tuesday but reject those who promise you Utopia.