On what we DID agree upon ...

"The question facing the American people right now ... is a question of whether or not we, as a people, WANT all our "problems" solved by the government rather than by ourselves. We (the Bund) may NOT want that, but it is undeniable that many in America right now do want that... because they see it is free and easy relief from the daily troubles that plague all of us."

I completely agree. That is the choice, the fight, before us.

This is what I mean when stating we must defeat the argument, the entire premise, not just the man. I gave a history lesson on the "man" simply to illustrate there is nothing about his ideology for us to compromise with.

I've thought a lot about this - the appeal of the president's message. Not just now, but the fact that this state based ideology rears its' ugly head every other generation or so. And on a philosophical level this is the conclusion I've drawn about what our mind set, our argument, must be: as thinking people we must all agree that man is imperfect. By definition then his society will be made imperfect. The president and his followers insist they can remedy this. Where we would insist that the only path to the optimal society is to ensure maximum liberty for the individual, he believes we can achieve paradise in this life by state mandated collectivism. What we must know with certainty is that man can not achieve paradise in this life. There is no collective salvation. Any more than there exists a collective Right. There is no Right that I do not possess as an individual that suddenly becomes available to me as part of a collective. To believe such is to immediately devalue the worth of the individual. There is no responsibility belonging to society that I am not called to personally. To do is to immediately devalue charity. And in turn there is no salvation available to me as part of the collective that I can substitute for personal salvation. To believe so is to immediately devalue the worth of the soul.

That is the defining issue of our time - can man best achieve "salvation" (or the optimal society)through self rule, or must he be shepherded into collective salvation bound and gagged within the arms of the state? Having chosen where we stand, we must demand that those seeking elected office, especially those claiming to be on "our side", do the same.