SATURDAY EDITORIAL

Why America Is Going Downhill
by M. Sidney Wallace

America’s history is full of a myriad of events testing the spirit of her people. There have been wars, financial disasters, medical maladies and countless governmental blunders that have knocked the nation to its knees. Each time Americans bounced back when their leaders reminded them that they were the government and clearly defined what was necessary.

The common man knew that his God gave him certain rights. He also knew that his government’s primary tasking is to protect those rights. He trusted in his neighbors and worshiped his god as he personally saw fit. The successful citizens worked hard, saved their money, and bought property to make a better life for their family. If another tried to steal his property, the citizen felt confident that his government would stop the thief and punish the unlawful because that was a primary responsibility of his government.

The common man knew that his American freedom of choice was better than anything in old Europe, Africa, the Persian Empire, or the Orient. These ancient lands were thousands of years older and yet could not even feed their citizens. Their basic problem was the same 200 years ago as it is today – their governments.

America’s founding fathers were knowledgeable of world history. They understood that the common man simply wanted two things from their government.

1. The freedom to worship his own personal god, and

2. The freedom to choose how to live his personal life.
The government they created was a bare minimum government that would protect the citizens from foreign enemies that desired to return them to enslavement. They also, wrote basic internal laws establishing a moral code of conduct for the citizens. The founders fully realized there were still a multitude of problems in American society. They also knew that no government could correct these problems. American society would solve its problems on its own if the government simply insured equality of opportunity for all. Every person inherits the exact same risks of life at birth. How individual handles these risks should be a personal choice.

Over the history of the United States, a small group of leaders have inspired the citizens to accomplish unbelievable feats by getting out of their lives and letting them make the best choice for themselves. People willing to work, plan, and save benefited enormously. Persons desiring government to take care of them can expect a meager subsistence level of support at best.

Just after 1900, created by a desire for personal power American politicians started looking back to the Old World for leadership. These self-important politicians lost faith in the American common man. They started believing that they could build a utopia in America for everyone. They started accepting the teachings of Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. These socialistic politicians like Wilson and Roosevelt, started telling the common man that they knew better and that he should allow them to choose what was best for the American society. In the short history of the United States every form of fascist and socialistic governments around the world has, or is, collapsing under their own incompetent governments. Personal freedom as American’s know it is nonexistent in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Syria, China and too many more to name.

America has always bounced back from any adversity. The problems of today have a very simple solution. We do not need erudite scholars from Ivy League schools to tell us how to solve our problems. To solve America’s problems we need to remove all legislation that says the government is responsible for an individual’s wellbeing and put the responsibility for personal welfare back on the individual.
America was not built on government actions; however, government actions will surely cause its destruction.