By
Ron Ewart
July 3, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
"The
reason the country continues to drift toward socialism and big nanny government
is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something
for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the
country." —Lyn Nofziger
"America requires immigrants who want to become American citizens
to pass a test about the Constitution and our form of government, but
any stupid 
Tom,
Dick, or Mary American can vote to fill their pockets with free handouts
from government, with no knowledge of America and that for which it stands,
or how many paid the ultimate price to preserve its freedom."
—Ron Ewart
The big news in June of 2013 was the U. S. Supreme Court striking down
certain elements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required specific
precincts in mostly southern states that were predominantly Black, to
fall under Federal control if they wanted to change or modify the voting
process in those precincts. The rationale for the high court's decision
was that the conditions that allegedly restricted the Blacks to vote in
1965, no longer exist.
"The 1965 Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification
or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to
deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote
on account of race or color. Specifically, Congress intended the Act to
outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy
tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern
states had prevented Blacks from exercising the franchise." (Source
— Wikipedia)
But here is the situation in a political nutshell. The Democrats wanted
all Black voters to vote, no matter how illiterate because they know the
Blacks will vote for Democrats. The Republicans didn't want the Black
voters to vote because they would always vote Democrat and created literacy
tests to inhibit the Black vote. The Republicans had good reason for not
wanting Blacks to vote. Illiteracy was rampant in the Black community
and any Black vote was based on what they could get for free from the
government. The Democrats promised the most free stuff ..... for the generally
illiterate Black vote. It is easy to conclude that the Blacks believed
that the "free stuff" from Democrats was reparations for the
treatment and discrimination they have endured from the predominantly
White population since America was formed. It is also easy to conclude
that most Blacks still believe that way and for that reason most Blacks
still vote Democrat because Democrats promise the most "free stuff"
to Blacks ..... for their votes.
Today, most Blacks are found in high-dense inner cities, or in or near
government strongholds (think Washington DC). Many are still considerably
illiterate, have a high incidence of broken families, single mothers and
high school dropouts, a high number of illegitimate children and they
are still voting for Democrats. They tend to find jobs in the public sector
and less in the private sector. As in all generalizations, there are exceptions
of course however the statistics tell the tale of why Blacks suffer from
a greater degree of illiteracy than do Whites.
From credible sources between the years 2010 and 2012 we learn that 78% of Whites graduate from high school, but only 52% of Blacks graduate. Whites show a 29.1% out-of-wedlock birth rate, while Blacks show 72.3%. Whites earn a medium income of $54,620 while Blacks earn $32,068. Whites have a little over 7% unemployment rate, while Blacks suffer from 16% unemployment. Culturally, Whites tend to look for opportunities, while Blacks look at themselves as victims and in need of government intervention and subsistence. That is the mindset the leads Blacks to vote for Democrats in huge numbers. The unfortunate part of these statistics is that the fertility rate for Whites is 1.8 births per family while the rate for Blacks is 2.1 births per family. What is even more troubling is the birth rate for Hispanics is 2.4 births per family. The Pew Research predicts that by 2050, the White race will be in the minority. This is not racial ladies and gentlemen, this is factual.
Thomas Jefferson warned us in many famous quotes about maintaining our liberty, but the following quote sums it up about what happens when the people are ignorant:
"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness. Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils of tyranny and oppression, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."
But alas, anything can be corrupted by those seeking power or seeking to indoctrinate the people with a certain ideology, agenda or bias. And although America set up a great public education system, as advised by Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers and administered by the states, the federal government stuck its nose into the "mix" with the creation of the U. S. Department of Education. Now, with federal programs like "No Child Left Behind," "Race to the Top" and "Common Core Education," the federal government has corrupted the curriculum of the entire American public education system with a hidden socialist agenda, buried in these so-called education programs. Hiding in the details are collectivism, multi-culturalism, political correctness, radical environmentalism, man-caused global warming, social justice and one-world-government. All races, majority and minority, urban or rural, are being brainwashed by the very education system that Jefferson said was necessary to keep us free.
The consequence of this federal indoctrination is now we have a dumbed-down population, majority and minority, urban and rural, that has become good little American robots who engage in group think and dependence on government, instead of focusing on the value of their individuality and the absolute sanctity of their individual freedom.
Which brings us to a two very touchy subjects:
1. Should there be education and literacy tests for voters, covering the constitution and our form of government, similar to the tests that are required of immigrants who are seeking American Citizenship?
2. Should any American citizen receiving any kind of government handout, be precluded from voting on any issue that could maintain or increase the handout?
We'll take number two first. In the political decision-making process, any politician, official, or bureaucrat that has a financial or other interest in an issue upon which he or she is to vote, administratively, quasi-judicially, or judicially, he or she must recuse him or herself from voting on the issue. Such a situation is called a conflict of interest. In Washington State, with which we are familiar, they have codified the conflict of interest issue into a law called the "Appearance of Fairness" doctrine.
On the Ethics Resource Center website discussing "Conflicts of Interest" they write:
"Democracies and free markets absolutely rely on the integrity of their systems for the free flow of information and objective decision-making. Conflicts of interest act as a cancer that eats away at those institutions. Any society that cannot effectively address or prevent conflicts of interest will soon find its democracy and its free markets in states of collapse."
If politicians, officials and bureaucrats are prohibited by law from profiting by administrative or judicial proceedings over which they exercise control, why then are Americans citizens given the right to vote on issues wherein they will profit from their vote? Would not citizens voting their own self-interests be just as damaging to a Republic as politicians voting for their self-interests, as the Ethics Resource Center admonishes? However, since so many Americans are receiving some sort of government handout, it would be impossible to administer a voting program that would screen out those voting their own self-interests. It has reached the point where the "citizen conflict of interest" problem is totally out of control and has no political or constitutional solution. Americans will continue to fill their pockets with their vote and God help the politician that tries to reduce it or take it from them.
Now, with great delicacy, we will take on the first question.
A good con man can sell, with eloquent oratory, the snake oil that he claims will cure all ills. He can be especially effective if his audience is ignorant of the facts, as are way too many Americans. The more ignorant the audience, the greater the power the con man or the government has over the people.
Once again we quote from Thomas Jefferson:
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, (A)nd if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
The question is, how do we educate a significant segment of the American population to the point where they can vote intelligently and for the right reasons, if their only reason for voting is to see how much they can "take" from government? If this is their only basis for casting their vote, why would they care about individual freedom and liberty?
A nation is only as strong as its weakest link. If it grows weaker through ignorance and raw greed and loses its individual pride of achievement, self-reliance, independence and individual responsibility, a nation's future is pre-ordained. It will fail. If the general voting population only cares about what it can get for free, America is doomed as a free nation. In such event the con man spouting eloquent oratory (think government) will convince you that all of your troubles will be swept away if you will just buy his sweet-tasting elixir that promises miracles beyond your wildest dreams. As the mentally challenged Forest Gump said, "stupid is, as stupid does."
The hard truth is, the one-man, one-vote principle only works to maintain freedom, IF and only IF a super majority of the voting population is sufficiently schooled in the language and history of the country, math and the general sciences, literature and geography, all wrapped up in an envelope of the foundation of freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen, the provable reality is that we are but a very young and successful species on the third planet from a common star, in a garden-variety galaxy among billions of similar galaxies, in a Universe, the dimensions of which are not yet fully known. The country called America, located on the third planet from the Sun, was and hopefully still is, the shining star of the potential success of the human spirit under freedom. Nevertheless, America’s survival is not a sure thing. If only we could convince the people that if everyone had the same knowledge, one person or group could not "lord" over another. Only objective education in individual rights, the absolute value of freedom, the necessity to learn and know provable facts and the eradication of myth and non-truths will allow us to continue as a very successful species. The clock of human history is still ticking and America’s future is up for grabs, depending on what we do. But if every stupid Tom, Dick and Mary American is allowed to vote to fill his or her pockets, our future will most likely be written in blood.
Very soon Independence Day 2013 will be upon us. As we celebrate the 4th of July let us not forget that only one country on Earth has shown the best in man and what can be accomplished under the combination of inalienable freedom and our God-given goodness. If we lose that freedom and the goodness that flourishes under it, we shall surely descend into the abyss of the evil within us, where greed and avarice are the rule, rather than the exception. We are dangerously close.
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Freedom, liberty, independence and self-reliance are our heritage. It is those characteristics that made us one of the greatest and most prosperous nations on Earth. If we refuse to defend and maintain it, we condemn all future generations, including our own children and grandchildren, to a life of dependence and the humiliating chains that come with being dependent. But even worse, we dishonor the memories and the sacrifices of all those who gave their lives, their limbs and their minds in defense of our freedom.
� 2013 Ron Ewart - All Rights Reserved
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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. Mr. Ewart can be reached by e-mail for comment at ron@narlo.org, or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.
Website: www.narlo.org
E-Mail: ron@narlo.org
