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A Voice from Fly-Over Country
March 30, 2011
It’s Time We Stop Pretending
by Robert L. Hale
MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA — Most of us are familiar with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the King’s Magical New Suit. The story goes like this: “Your Majesty,” said the swindler tailors, “This is a magic suit.” The truth was that there was no suit at all. But the clever swindlers said, “Your Majesty, to a wise man this is a beautiful raiment, but to a fool it is absolutely invisible.”
Naturally, the King did not want to appear a fool, and so he bought the swindle — hook, line, and sinker. Yet he was indeed a fool. While standing there naked, he allowed himself to be convinced he had been given a beautiful suit that only existed in his imagination.
America’s voters have fallen for the same swindle that Grimm’s tailors sold the king in this famous fairy tale. America’s politicians are swindling tailors. But what is happening to America is no fairy tale.
For more than 70 years, America’s political system at all levels — federal, state, and local — has been brainwashing the American people. We have been told the purpose of government is to take care of us, and we have foolishly accepted this lie wholeheartedly.
We have been told — and have chosen to believe — that government will create jobs, eliminate poverty, end crime, wage war on drugs and terrorism, protect our borders, give us prosperity, educate our children, provide for our retirement, provide health care, protect the environment, and make the world safe.
All this, we are promised, will be done if we just trust our political leaders, do not question them, and give them our hard-earned dollars and our freedoms.
Today, America is more than $14 trillion in debt. We have fewer freedoms, more intrusive government, more poverty, and more crime. Our borders are unprotected, our education system is in a shambles, and our economic system is less prosperous. Our Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, postal system, and Amtrak are bankrupt. Numerous states and dozens of cities and towns are on the verge of bankruptcy, terrorism is on the rise, and government is the single biggest obstacle to job creation.
The question is this: Can Americans wake up, acknowledge government is not the solution but rather the problem, and throw out the swindlers?
The swindlers are fighting for their very survival. Those who have used government to steal the public blind are not going to leave voluntarily. They are going put up a vicious and savage battle.
To understand what we citizens are up against in our battle to take our own government back, we need to look at what is happening in Libya. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, an acknowledged terrorist, is being challenged by those he rules. In response, he has declared war on his people and unleashed a massive military campaign that is killing and terrorizing tens of thousands.
Politicians in America are not threatening to unleash military power against us thus far. Instead, they are attempting to frighten us into believing that anyone who opposes or questions the status quo is to be feared and ignored. They tell us that without government, we will have no medical care, no safety net, and no hope.
Exactly the opposite is true. These same people are proposing to increase the national debt by another $6 trillion over the next five years. It is unlikely anyone will be foolish enough to lend us money to continue our politicians’ spending spree. What is certain is that we will see our standard of living drastically decline, and America will become a beggar among nations.
It is time we stop pretending that our political leaders — Democrat and Republican alike — are anything other than swindlers. How much longer are we willing to believe the lies told us by America’s political class? How long will we continue to believe it when we are told, “Your Majesty, to a wise man this is a beautiful raiment, but to a fool it is absolutely invisible.”
There is not much time left for America. This is not a fairy tale; it is real, and the swindlers will destroy all they touch if not stopped before it is too late. And it is getting very late indeed.
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A Voice from Fly-Over Country is copyright © 2011 by Robert L. Hale and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved.
Robert L. Hale received his J.D. in law from Gonzaga University Law School in Spokane, Washington. He is founder and director of a non-profit public interest law firm. For more than three decades he has been involved in drafting proposed laws and counseling elected officials in ways to remove burdensome and unnecessary rules and regulations.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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