5 Signs That We Haven’t Lost America Yet

Just when you thing everything's going to the devil in a handbasket, something comes along to encourage you that you're on the right track.

For the last 5 years, it's been a daily onslaught of attacks on our Consitiution and the freedoms for which so many died to protect. And I mean daily!

We have fought the good fight to maintain our freedoms and our sanity, and last November was quite a blow. But as Gilbert & Sullivan said, "Faint heart never won fair lady", and over these past tumultuous years, conservatives have displayed their hearts are strong.

Paula Bolyard writes a piece at PJ Lifestyle, and she has decided to "consider many of the positive signs around us that all is not yet lost".  She writes....

5 Signs That We Haven’t Lost America Yet

After a week of depressing headlines, signs of life on the American horizon

by Paula Bolyard  --  May 20, 2013 - 2:00 pm

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline

Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shore, China’s under martial law

Rock and Roll, cola wars, I can’t take it anymore

Billy Joel – “We Didn’t Start the Fire“

Benghazi, Boston bombings, the Gosnell trial, the Cleveland kidnappings, the IRS targeting conservatives, DOJ snooping on the AP, war games with Iran and North Korea, civil war in Syria…

Last week my ability to mentally process world events felt like a cell phone when the data is throttled — it was almost too much to wrap my mind around. Some days I fantasize about life as a low-information voter, not caring about anything more important than what some Kardashian is up to. Barring sudden brain malfunction, I’m not likely to experience that kind of apathy any time soon, and the fact that you’re reading PJ Media tells me that you’re likely in the same boat.

Instead of spending the weekend wallowing in all the terrible things happening in the country and around the world, I decided to instead consider many of the positive signs around us that all is not yet lost.

And so I bring you:

5 Signs That We Haven’t Lost America Yet:

1. We Are Raising Constitutionally Literate Kids

I don’t ever remember reading the Constitution growing up — or even anyone talking about it. I imagine we must have perused it at some point during a “social studies” class, but we certainly never studied it in any detail. Thanks in large part to the Tea Party, now the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Federalist Papers are again household names. Millions of Americans are raising their kids with a deep understanding of our founding documents and a respect for them that will certainly translate into public policy eventually.

And we are just now beginning to see the maturation of the first wave of an explosion in homeschooling that began in the early 1990s. Studies show that homeschool graduates are far more likely than their public school peers to vote, work for or contribute to a campaign, attend a protest, and contact a public official about a policy issue. They also tend to adopt heir parents’ beliefs, which tend to be very conservative politically.

Is it possible that a young conservative resurgence is bubbling right below the surface? I think it’s very possible!

2. Conservatives Reproduce More Than Liberals

The states that vote for Republican presidential candidates have the highest fertility rates. Utah families have 2.7 children each compared to 1.7 in Vermont. Homeschoolers have 3.5 children per family (thank you, Duggar family, for raising our team average!). One economist who looked at the numbers thinks that even the increase in the Hispanics, who tend to have more babies and vote Democrat, cannot make up for the deficits of the lethargic left. This is a numbers game, and their obsession with abortion, birth control, and one-child families as a part of their holistic carbon-footprint-reduction plan will eventually catch up with them.

3. The Media Is Increasingly Democratic

Besides your parents, do you know anyone who relies solely on the mainstream media for their news anymore? Recently, the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced a switch from 7-day to 3-day home delivery service in an attempt to cut costs. In recent years the paper has degraded into little more than partisan hackery (with above-average sports coverage), and it has obviously hurt their bottom line.

The way Americans consume news has changed and the Plain Dealer hasn’t kept up. Gone are the days when the experts at the editorial board could tell everyone in their circulation area whom to vote for. It’s hard to believe that there was a time when voters relied on newspaper editorial boards to choose their candidates. How absurd! Today, instead of a handful of media elites controlling the flow of news, “We the People” can drive the stories and help to create the narratives. The American people pushed the Gosnell story out in spite of the MSM. Benghazi is still in the news despite the best efforts of the MSM to cover it up. Social media, blogs, cable news, talk radio, Plain Dealer – we don’t need you anymore. The gatekeepers are gone.

4. The Church Grows with Persecution

This one is for the Christians. Since the very first days of Christianity, the church has grown through persecution. Severe persecution by Nero in the Roman Empire only made the church more determined and helped to spread the growth of Christianity. In modern times, the underground church in China has exploded under Communist persecution, and it is rumored that the church is growing even in the brutal totalitarian regime in N. Korea. Though I don’t foresee Communist atrocities in the U.S. anytime soon, I think a time of testing is coming to the American church. We saw the first ripples with the infringement on religious liberty in Obamacare, forcing religious organizations and Christian businesses to provide contraceptives and abortion pills in violation of their religious beliefs. Now we hear that the IRS has been targeting conservative groups and individuals, including Billy Graham, Samaritan’s Purse, and pro-life groups, some being asked to disclose the contents of their prayers, as if the government ought to know that. Churches and individual Christians who continue to defend traditional marriage now find themselves outside of the mainstream of popular opinion and will likely face consequences if they don’t enthusiastically embrace a lifestyle their faith teaches is sinful.

Although this all sounds rather dreadful, there is good that can come from it. In recent decades, the American church has been awash in excess, entertainment, and theological emptiness. Pews have often been filled with parishioners seeking a feel-good experience or a mildly entertaining worship event. At a time when Christianity increasingly confronts hostility in our culture, we will see the wheat separated from the chaff. Those who are in it for their “Best Life Now” will beat a path for the exits, and the church, as always, will grow with persecution — not with market-tested church-growth numbers, but in faithfulness and obedience to Christ.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV)

5. The Libertarian vs. Conservative Debate

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a bit of a civil war going on in the Republican Party right now. Back in the days of “McCain for President,” the divisions in the party were between the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and the conservatives. The RINOs, who run as conservatives during the primary and go on to govern as big-government statists once they’re elected, never seemed to fully understand the principles of conservatism, limited government, or free markets, except to the extent that those buzz words could help them win re-election if sprinkled on their speeches.

With the ascension of the Tea Party, liberty is back in style and it’s not kooky to be a libertarian anymore (though if you leave a 10-mile long comment about auditing the Fed on my Facebook page, I’m still not going to take the bait). Even card-carrying social conservatives (me included) are not ashamed to say, “I have some libertarian leanings.” Saying the “L” word doesn’t get you shunned from most social circles or even church circles these days (although if you’re pushing legalizing weed at my Baptist church, there’s going to be a problem).

More and more, the low-information RINO legislators are finding themselves irrelevant in these substantive debates about the size and scope of government. While Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are quoting Tocqueville and the Federalist Papers, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and others of the old Republican guard are busy tinkering under the hood of our behemoth federal government as it spirals out of control.

Very soon the debate in the Republican Party will no longer be “How big can we get away with making the government?” Instead, it will be “How small can we get away with making it?” The RINOs have neither the experience nor the intellectual heft to answer this question, as they only know the formula for growing government.

Of course, the big-government Republicans still control the party. They will fight and try to kill (figuratively, of course) conservatives and libertarians who will wrest from them the power they’ve taken a generation to accumulate. But their days are numbered.

So take courage, my friends. We haven’t lost our country yet. There is much to be hopeful about, despite the bleak headlines.

Bruce McPherson Drops GOP Affiliation

Wow, apparently votes out-trump principles, as Bruce McPherson (currently in a close race with Democrat, Eric Hammer for county supervisor in Santa Cruz, CA) is going-for-the-votes.

McPherson said, "I don't want to be identified as right or left."  Americans have a critical choice this November, and this man doesn't want to take a stand on principles? Let me give him a hand -- Grow a pair, and defend your country, not your hide!

This is the kind of 'moderate' thinking that makes conservatives pull out their hair. Nothing could be more clear in this upcoming election. We will either be a country run by its people, as founded by some of the bravest men and women in history in search of religious and personal freedom, or a country run by government.

We have already had a major taste of it over the past four years, and we are close - so very close to losing our freedom. America does not need people like McPherson, afraid to take a stand for the sake of power. Sound familiar?

Being a huge believer in things happen for a reason, Obama truly woke up the sleeping giant to save a country that's been losing its freedom bit by precious bit over the last few decades. Now, California needs a major clean out, and it's going to take years to do it, but we should never give in:

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." Sir Winston Churchill 1941

REMEMBER OLD GLORY!



It was a day I will never forget.  After screening, what I thought was, another annoying solicitation phone call, I heard the words, "We're looking for the granddaughter of James Montgomery Flagg for a dedication in his honor at Fort Knox."

It was early spring in 2001, ironically just 3 months before 9-11, and plans were underway for a regal ceremony filled with high ranking military, honor guard, military marching band, a full fledged canon salute, and congratulatory letter from President George W. Bush.  The dedication was on Flag(g) Day, June 14th, 2001 year of Our Lord. It was also the 226th birthday of the United States Army.  Now the James Montgomery Flagg Memorial Field.

Flag Day was also a special day for Flagg's daughter (my Mother), who celebrated it each year with her own brand of pomp and circumstance.  So, Happy Flag Day to a great patriot, Happy Flag Day to my Mom, and Happy Flag Day America, the greatest country in the world.

Remember Old Glory!

This Thursday, June 14th, is Flag Day. It commemorates the same day 235 years ago, when, in 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution "that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." Since that time, generations of Americans have celebrated the flag as a symbol of our God-given freedoms and God-blessed nation, and in every American military campaign, "Old Glory" has been a symbol of our freedom.

Interestingly, "Old Glory" was the name that Captain William Driver placed on a flag he was presented in 1831. The nickname given to that flag became so well known that during the Civil War, the Confederates tried unsuccessfully to confiscate and destroy Captain Driver’s flag that he had sewn into his bedcover to protect. In 1862, when Union soldiers occupied Nashville, Driver took out his flag and flew it over the Capitol as a symbol that "Old Glory" stood firm.

We still honor "Old Glory" today by celebrating Flag Day each year. The first Flag Day celebration occurred in Wisconsin in 1885, when a schoolteacher had his students observe June 14 as "Flag Birthday," or "Flag Day." This idea inspired others around the nation to continue the practice and as the celebrations grew, the idea received national recognition. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation calling for the national celebration of Flag Day, thus establishing it as a national event.

As you celebrate this year’s Flag Day, educate yourself on the greatness of America's founding, and inspire others to do the same! Happy Flag Day!

(hat tip Wall Builders)

THE OBAMA SPENDING BINGE

Lying has become an art form with Obama. He has been one from the beginning when he promised America, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor". Last week he told such a whopper, that even the Washington Post gave him 3 Pinocchios. The comparisons he uses with President Reagan are insulting, but be that as it may, Obama's Iowa campaign speech was full of whoppers, the best one being:

"But what my opponent didn't tell you was that federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any President in almost 60 years."

Keith Hennessey, economist who served 6+ years as Director of the National Economic Council for President George W. Bush, has responded with a detailed list of the flaws, and writes:

Problem #1: The President argues that his fiscal stimulus law, enacted in February 2009, had a big positive effect on the growth rate of the economy. We are now asked to believe that President Obama’s policies did not significantly increase spending but did significantly increase economic growth. This is, to say the least, an intellectually inconsistent argument. The whole Keynesian fiscal stimulus argument is premised on a significant increase in government spending.

Problem #2: Mr. Nutting assumes that since a President serves a four year term he should be measured for four budget years. But since budget years begin in October and Presidential terms begin in January, the fairest and most accurate way to measure the budget effects of a one-term President is to look at five budget years, not four.

Read more of his brilliant analysis here.

JOIN THE HOPE & CHANGE STICKY-NOTE CAMPAIGN

As we near the Nov-2012 election, more and more Americans are realizing how crucial it is. Help Americans join the crusade to get out the vote by sending a reminder: How's That "Hope & Change" Working for You? sticky notes. Bring your own pad with your written message, or pick up some pre-printed pads at Patriot Depot, join the Facebook campaign.

Remind them
At the Pump (gas prices were $1.89 when Obama took office)
At the Grocery Store (shelves are a good spot, especially cereal)
At the Doctor's Office (where Obamacare is kicking in)
In Restrooms (the towel dispense is nice and suttle)
On Shopping Carts
On ATM machines (right where you pull out your money)
At Flea Markets (where we have to sell our possessions to survive)
At Fast Food Drive Throughs (on the order screen by the price)
On Bulletin Boards (in markets and local restaurants)
At the Car Wash
In the Laundrymat

We've got to call attention to the failure of the Obama Administration, and make them accountable for these higher prices and this no-growth economy. These are an inexpensive way to spread the word of Obama's failure while having fun at the same time, and we've all got some. Place them where it hurts the most; next to the price of food or beside the price of gas, not obstructing it.

Inflation is hurting America and it not being reported because they have change the template. How can you not include gas and food? We pay for it every day, and it should be a constant reminder of why Obama cannot have another four years. And those four years would be completely un-tethered. Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden have talked of ruling without the consent of Congress, and that should scare the daylights out of every red-blooded American.

If you feel comfortable, take a photo of it and upload it on your Facebook, or on the Facebook page of "How's That Hope & Change Working for You Campaign?", or post it here. Remember to be respectful, not destructive, respect property rights. We are the silent majority, respecting every individual's right for freedom and the opportunity to express our beliefs.

God bless America

Jan Brewer's Photo with Obama

It's about time someone stood up to the Emporer With No Clothes, and Governor Jan Brewer's just the one to do it.

As Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum says:

Barack Obama wasn't interested in accepting Governor Brewer's invitation to visit the border himself. He just wants to use executive-branch powers to stop Arizona from doing anything to defend itself.

Obama picked a fight with a female Governor and she didn't roll over. Three cheers for Jan Brewer.

Read her brilliant piece here:

Jan Brewer's photo with Obama

OUR ELECTORIAL COLLEGE IS IN PERIL

Our freedoms are under attack on a daily basis, and we are working hard not to sound like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". It's important to pick your battles, and this one fits the bill.

While the "state controlled' media is not reporting this, New Zeal writes: a "progressive strategy is underway to eliminate the role of the states in electing a U.S. President. By transferring electoral votes to a national popular vote (NPV) this 'Compact' would usurp the role of the states as safeguarded by our Constitution. In doing so, it could also neutralize Obama’s critics — totally."

There is a movement, the National Popular Vote Compact (NPVC), and, as statists do, it's working its way through each state like a cancer. Heritage writes: a number of state legislatures have "already adopted an agreement in which participating states would allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, rather than the winner of the popular vote in their state. The agreement would go into effect when states with a total of more than the 270 electoral votes (the number required to win a presidential election) have adopted the agreement."  Unconstitutional doesn't give this assault justice!

Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum has written extensively about the dangers of a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con). One of her excellent pieces "Beware of Attacks on the Constitution", she writes specifically how "The Electoral College Serves Us Well".

If not watched, bit by bit the statists will overturn our liberty, and by the time it's noticeable, tyranny will be the rule of the day. (Respects to Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny")

It's going to take all of us to stop this. You can find your contacts from the local assemblyman, to governor, to senator and above HERE. As my devoted grandfather would say: