Crossing the Rubicon

I wrote the following piece back on 10/26/08, admittedly from a dark vantage, and of course the Nashua Telegraph refused to run it...

Crossing the Rubicon (10/26/08)

In a chilling video I remember seeing several years ago, three young Bosnian men were being summarily executed by Serbians. As the first young man is shot, the correspondent narrates, “Note the equanimity and peace of mind of the boy on the left. He is already dead – and knows it – it’s just that the bullets haven’t passed through his body yet.”

I feel like that young man must have felt as we approach the coming election. Just as the young Bosnian knew his immediate fate, so do I. The election is already over, it’s just that the votes haven’t been cast yet. (Full disclosure – I am a republican, fiscal conservative and was a Romney supporter during the primaries).

On November 5th we will awaken to the realization that the Democrats will be in possession of the White House, the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof Senate. Within two years it will have a Supreme Court that aligns with the liberal agenda. This unprecedented concentration of unchecked power will have profound and lasting impact on all Americans.

In an email entitled “Reaching 60” on 10/21, Hillary Clinton writes, “Sixty is the magic number. If we reach 60 Democrats in the Senate, then the days of Republican obstruction are over. With Barrack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”

She is correct. There will be no limits on the power of the Federal government until the election of ’10. Not since 1800, when the discredited Federalists were thrown out of office (with the exception of the Judiciary of John Marshall) will we have seen such a sweeping seizure of power in America.

Future historians will regard the Election of ’08 as an inflection point in American history. If, since FDR, we have been on an inexorable journey from one side of the river (capitalism, rugged individualism, personal accountability, upward mobility) to the other (re-allocation of earned wealth based on need), and we find ourselves already on the far side of the river, the Election of ’08 will signal the demolition of the bridges that could have brought us back to the America fought and died for by legions of our ancestors.

Americans will awaken on November 5th having crossed the Rubicon.

The rationale for every policy from November 5th onward will be based on “need”. Those that have a “need” (and can provide support to those in power – quid pro quo) shall be rewarded by the systemic taking and re-allocation from those who have earned this country’s wealth. Hard work and innovation will be rewarded with confiscation and vilification.

The targets in the first year will be the obvious “villains” of the liberals – Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big (fill in the blank). But what Americans have not thought through is what the Government will do when it has wreaked havoc on the biggest producers among us and “still” can’t understand why the country is dysfunctional. It will go after each of us. It will try to make us all into the cripples that are dependent on the government.

When “need” becomes the basis of claims against what we each earn, so long as there is a person who makes $1 less than you, your income is not safe. When Americans realize that THEY are the targets of the government’s next re-allocation scheme, it will be too late. After all, whom do we think will determine “need”? Within four years we will reach the goal of “fairness” that the current mob demands and that Obama seeks (it’s a good thing to spread the wealth around) – we will all be equally miserable and poor (except, of course, for those in Washington).

Yes, we are dead; it’s just that the bullets haven’t passed through us yet… unless we do not provide our consent on Election Day to our very extinction.

Craig Powers