What is Wrong With the USA and What Will it Take for You to Get Involved?

by Diane Rufino, March 4, 2024

Here is a list of “problems” that conservatives have offered to explain why they are at the point of giving up:

• Democrats are incessantly harassing Donald Trump, using the courts, claiming violations of the Constitution, and weaponizing all levels of government, to get rid of the one individual they believe they need to – Donald Trump. They tried everything they could in his first administration but it wasn’t enough. In particular, they cite Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as the reason he should be prohibited from running for president [“Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.’]
• Democrats are willing to destroy our precious democracy (ie, our election process) and our rule of law for political power and ambition. Democrats are tearing apart the country in a manner not seen since the Civil War era, apparently convinced that democracy can’t be trusted (ie, people themselves can’t be trusted) and so it must be sacrificed as the price of destroying a man so evil and ineffective – Donald Trump. In 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln was the final straw in a Union that was hopefully going to stay together. With his election, South Carolina immediately seceded, and then 10 other states followed the following year. With the election 100 years later, in 1960, the country faced another constitutional crisis, where protests were out of control and government agency leaders felt they could be more responsible controlling the federal government than President John F. Kenney. It was in the early years of the 1960s that a plan was hatched to have him assassinated in Dallas, TX. Overnight, with the ascension of Lyndon B. Johnson to the White House, government policies reversed course.
• Americans are at each other’s throats, politically and psychologically, and the country appears to be fatally divided. Revolution and/or secession seems to be brewing. Thomas Jefferson once said: “If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable.”  After that, he said: “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.”  After that, he said: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Then he said: “I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.” Then he said: “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.”  And finally, he said: “I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.”   In general, Jefferson reminded us that the spirit of our Founding must be preserved by citizens who love liberty enough to be vigilante. (“Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it will require unremitting vigilance.”)
• Taxes are way too high
• Gas prices are too high, with food costs predictably following. Money doesn’t go very far any more
• We are letting into our country far too many illegal aliens. The government refuses to enforce our lengthy immigration laws (“lengthy” in the amount of time it takes for an emigrant to become a legal US citizen)
• The US has a lack of respect on the international stage
• There is a gross abuse of our election laws and election processes
• There has been a steady and growing revision and elimination of our nation’s history. (Examples: The removal of Confederate statues and monuments, the name changes of streets and buildings, etc)
• American citizens have little confidence in their governments – national, state, and local
• There is political and social indoctrination in the classroom and in our universities
• WOKE-ism is the new social plan.
• The “new American” is a member of the DEI crowd (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Gone are the proper education and the appreciation of the history of our nation’s founding, founding documents, and founding principles.
•  We place too much emphasis on court opinions.
• There are too many laws. Americans are convinced that there are so many that they are inadvertently breaking at least 1 each day.
• There is too much selective enforcement of laws. Democrats choose when and where to ignore or break laws when it suits their political ambition. Republicans either ignore it or refuse to play the same game. [This reminds me of a discussion that was had between England’s Sir Thomas More and his daughter’s fiancé, William Roper following a viewing of Robert Bolt’s play A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Speaking about the topic of the Rule of Law, More insisted that man must first break a law before he could be arrested. Roper disagreed, arguing “Would you cut a great road through the law to get to the Devil?” (In other words, if one believes that it’s OK to break/ignore certain laws and if this should happen over and over, when do laws essentially become meaningless)
• Religion has become a “bad thing.” Liberals are finding that it poses a significant obstacle to their agenda.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET YOU INVOLVED?

• If the incessant litigation and schemes against Trump are ramping up your anger against Democrats, then get out and VOTE FOR TRUMP.  If you have been grateful for Trump’s policies (2017-2021) and are outraged at the attempt to bar him from having his name on the 2024 presidential ballot by asserting the third section of the 14th Amendment (which is a post-Civil War clause of the 14th Amendment, forced upon the defeated Confederate states, never intending to be used in an election year by an opposition party to disbar a rival presidential candidate), then get out and VOTE FOR TRUMP.  If his name is not on the ballot, then WRITE IT IN. Trump is NOT an insurrectionist. January 6 was merely a frenzied protest that caused no violent or physical harm to anyone in the government. [*** By the way, the 14th Amendment challenge asserted by the Democrats is the ultimate act of election interference. It is also an act of treason].

• If the incessant and ambitious schemes of the Democrats (DNC) at the expense of the Constitution, our fundamental American systems and institutions, and your individual liberty, enrages you and causes you to feel like giving up, you should join groups, visit the state legislature regularly, write to our legislators, write letters to the Editor, sit in on local boards of election, volunteer to serve, etc. By the way, while Democrats apparently don’t trust “democracy” (don’t trust people to vote) as the basis to get rid of Trump once and for all, yet they encourage their citizens who are registered as Democrats (and non-citizens).

• Revolution is necessarily a good thing – that is, if one believes government power should be wielded from D.C. If sovereign power is delegated downward, towards the local level (closest to the people), then that would be a different story. In referring to revolution, he warned: ““The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” The key, most of our Founding Fathers understood, was to keep the new republic fairly small. The ancient Greeks understood this and that is the reason they organized themselves into individual city states, each with their own rule and their own form of democracy. Our Republic was ever intended to be able to manage and govern 50 states and a population of 336,673,595 (mid-2024). There is no way that the limited number of legislators in D.C. could effectively manage the issues and concerns of that many people. The momentous growth of the federal government over the past many years, and the self-importance that our federal courts display today have made a mockery of the government system articulated by Jefferson in his Declaration of Independence. “A government of the people, by the people, and for the people” has, right under our noses, morphed into “a people taken care of by their government.” Liberty is always the best reason to get involved, to volunteer, to run for office, to become a hero to others (to inspire others).

• If you can’t stand the high federal taxation rate or if the increase in federal IRS agents has finally gotten under your skin, talk to conservative legal organizations about filing suit (class-action lawsuits) challenging the government’s spending of taxpayer money

• The case US v. Texas, addressed last year by the Supreme Court may perhaps be a correct opinion in that the Court upheld provisions in the US Constitution that gives the federal government the authority to enforce immigration policies (Longstanding Supreme Court precedent recognizes Congress as having “plenary” power over immigration, giving it almost complete authority to decide whether foreign nationals ( “aliens,” under governing statutes and case law) may enter or remain in the United States. But while Congress’s power over immigration is well established, defining its constitutional underpinnings is more difficult. The Constitution does not mention immigration, but parts of the Constitution address related subjects. The Supreme Court has sometimes relied upon Congress’s powers over naturalization (the term and conditions in which an alien becomes a U.S. citizen), foreign commerce, and, to a lesser extent, upon the executive branch’s implied Article II foreign affairs power, as sources of federal immigration power. While these powers continue to be cited as supporting the immigration power, since the late 19th century, the Supreme Court has described the power as flowing from the Constitution’s establishment of a federal government. The United States government possesses all the powers incident to a sovereign, including unqualified authority over the nation’s borders and the ability to determine whether foreign nationals may come within its territory. The Supreme Court has generally assigned the constitutional power to regulate immigration to Congress, with executive authority mainly derived from congressional delegations of authority). The remedy, which was never addressed by any justice, is NULLIFICATION. If a State doesn’t believe an opinion to be constitutional

(Remember, federal courts are tasked with interpreting laws in light of the US Constitution. That is their only task. They cannot make new laws and they cannot alter laws to make them “more constitutional.” Also, one should read Alexander Hamilton’s explanation of Article III in The Federalist No. 78, in which he assures all the states that the federal judiciary will always be the weakest of the three branches)

Federalist No. 78:  “According to the plan of the convention, all the judges who may be appointed by the United States are to hold their offices during good behaviour, which is conformable to the most approved of the state constitutions; and4 among the rest, to that of this state. Its propriety having been drawn into question by the adversaries of that plan, is no light symptom of the rage for objection which disorders their imaginations and judgments. The standard of good behaviour for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government. In a monarchy it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince: In a republic it is a no less excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative body. And it is the best expedient which can be devised in any government, to secure a steady, upright and impartial administration of the laws.

Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary on the contrary has no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even5 for the efficacy of its judgments.”

• If gas prices are too high, get rid of the administration that caused such an insult. If the cost of living has gotten too much, get rid of the administration that caused such an insult. GET RID OF THE DEMOCRATS ! 

• Elect politicians and government officials who will command respect on the international stage. Elect TRUMP and MARK ROBINSON.

• Do you trust the “coincidental” reports of a “new pandemic’ (remarkably at the start of this new presidential election). These reports are code for “election abuse.” DON’T TRUST THE REPORTS, and RESIST THE COERCION to get vaccinated. More importantly, vote for responsible conservative candidates who will address the tendency to vote illegally and fraudulently.

• If the incessant and ambitious schemes of the Democrats (DNC), especially as it relates to the revision and elimination of certain aspects of our nation’s history, enrages you and causes you to feel like giving up (“What can I do? I give up.”), you should join groups, visit the state legislature regularly, write to our legislators, write letters to the Editor, sit in and participate in pubic expression on local boards of election, engage in public expression at county commissioner meetings, volunteer to serve, etc.

• If the growing ignorance and skepticism of Americans in their nation’s history (including founding history) and founding documents and principles causes you worry and fear, get involved with the state and with local politics (the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), per Section IX of the state Constitution) and local boards of education. If there is a chance (speak to your state reps about this), vote to take power away from the DPI and give more power to the local boards. Tutor your children or grandchildren, or even a group of students. Volunteer to tutor in the school system on this topic.

• If the incessant and ambitious schemes of the Democrats (DNC), especially as it relates to the INDOCTRINATION in the classroom and at colleges and universities, you should join groups or start groups, visit the state legislature regularly, write to our legislators, write letters to the Editor, sit in and participate in pubic expression on local boards of election, engage in public expression at county commissioner meetings, volunteer to serve at either, etc.

• Woke-ism is a noun derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke, an adjective, has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.

• Section IX of the NC State Constitution The North Carolina Constitution, specifically Section 2(1), establishes the General Assembly’s ultimate authority and responsibility for the public education system in the state. This authority extends to the creation and oversight of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The DPI plays a crucial role in organizing and managing public education, ensuring equal opportunities for all students.

• If the national trend to “wait for the Supreme Court to rule” and if you are not concerned that the justices are political appointments by the President,  NOTE that the Supreme Court got it wrong on many occasions: Here are just a few notable ones – Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857 – probably the most notorious of all; the bar to citizenship has been overturned by the 14th Amendment), Texas v. White (1869 – secession is unconstitutional; Secession is ALWAYS extra-constitutional; it’s the final act of a frustrated and subjugated sovereign State), Pace v. Alabama (1883 – affirming Alabama’s anti-miscegenation law under the US Constitution. In 1967, the Court reversed in Loving v. Virginia), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896 – “Separate but Equal” doctrine. The Court rejected this policy, as it relates to public education in 1957 in Brown v. Board of Education), Korematsu v. US (1944 – affirming the constitutionality of Japanese internment camps on the west coast; it’s case has not been overturned), Roe v. Wade (1973 – granting women the unfettered right to an abortion. The Supreme Court rejected this opinion and reversed in the 2023 case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), Bowers v. Hardwick (1986 – affirms state law banning sodomy. The Court reversed in 2003 in the case Lawrence v. Texas), Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978 – allowing the government to regulate indecent speech over the broadcast medium. The decision reaffirmed the notion that the government has a freer hand to regulate the broadcast medium than other forms of media), and Bostock v. Clayton County (2013 – asserting that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity; this is the domain of the nation’s legislative branch).

• The “new American” is radically different from prior generations. Many are obese and/or covered in tattoos and facial earrings. Baby-boomer adults get nervous when listening to them. We can, and do, refer to them as Generation Zers. Surveys conducted in the fall of 2018 (more than a year before the coronavirus outbreak) among Americans ages 13 and older found that Gen Zers are progressive and pro-government (they believe government should absorb more power), most see the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing, and they’re less likely than older generations to see the United States as superior to other nations. Generation Z represents the leading edge of the country’s changing racial and ethnic makeup. A bare majority (52%) are non-Hispanic white – significantly smaller than the share of Millennials who were non-Hispanic white in 2002 (61%). One-in-four Gen Zers are Hispanic, 14% are black, 6% are Asian and 5% are some other race or two or more races. Generational categories, such as baby boomers, Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z, are ubiquitous in American culture, featuring prominently in news stories, marketing materials, and published research. Despite their prevalence, there is not a universally accepted definition of generational boundaries, and even the labels themselves are points of contention. Being a member of a more diverse generation increases the probability of regular social interactions with people who do not share your racial or religious background, sexual identity, or sexual orientation.

• If you believe that there are too many laws (and there are !), it is important that you speak to your state and federal representatives about it. They most certainly feel the same as you. Americans are convinced that there are so many that they are inadvertently breaking at least 1 each day and this causes fear which then prevents them from getting involved to do anything about it. They don’t want to be labeled as a “trouble-maker” or “political opponent.” But laws that still linger on the books are still active and can come back to haunt us. They MUST go.

• If you believe there is too much selective enforcement of laws and believe that Democrats choose when and where to ignore or break laws when it suits their political ambition, Republicans either ignore it or refuse to play the same game. [This reminds me of a discussion that was had between England’s Sir Thomas More and his daughter’s fiancé, William Roper following a viewing of Robert Bolt’s play A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Speaking about the topic of the Rule of Law, More insisted that man must first break a law before he could be arrested. Roper disagreed, arguing “Would you cut a great road through the law to get to the Devil?” (In other words, if one believes that it’s OK to break/ignore certain laws and if this should happen over and over, when do laws essentially become meaningless)

• The right to exercise one’s religious beliefs is guaranteed in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution. The very first part of that amendment reads: “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that: regulate an establishment of religion (the “Establishment Clause”); prohibit the free exercise of religion (the “Free Exercise Clause”). Religion plays a significant role in shaping the virtue and morality of Americans. Sadly, its influence has evolved over time, most often targeted and discriminated against by liberal (“Woke”) groups who see religion as a barrier to their lifestyle choices.  The importance of religion includes the following:  
• Offers guidance on how to life one’s life
• Teaches us gratitude and humility
• Gives us a purpose in life
• Gives us hope, faith, and belief for a better and brighter future during hard times
• Guides us to know what is right and what is wrong
• Promotes unity in society
• Teaches us how to treat one another
• Unites races, genders, and social standings as one
• Promotes morals and values in society
• Guides legislators and government officials in making good and productive laws

The Founding Fathers recognized the importance of religion and morality. George Washington stated that they are “indispensable supports” for political prosperity. John Adams emphasized that statesmen may plan for liberty, but it is religion and morality that establish the principles upon which freedom securely stands. Alexis de Tocqueville credited religion for the “goodness” of America. Given the importance of religion for the virtue and morality of Americans, the US Supreme Court did a lot of damage in three decisions (a minimum of three): First was the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education case, a so-called landmark case. Hugo Black, formerly a member of the KKK and then appointed to the Court in 1937 by FDR, historically and dishonestly pulled a phrase from a personal letter sent to the Danbury (CT) Baptists from Thomas Jefferson. The phrase read: “the First Amendment was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and State’…that must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”  Second was the 1962 case of Engel v. Vitale where the Court ruled that no official state prayer, even if it was neutral, would be permitted in public school classrooms. And the third, the 1963 case initiated by Madalyn Murray O’Hair Abington School District v. Schempp, where the Court ruled that no Biblical or other religious passages would be permitted in public school classrooms. After these opinions, violence among youths began to soar and the number of abortions (illegal at the time) began to do so as well. In summary, while religious commitment has shifted, religion continues to play a vital role in shaping virtue, morality, and societal values among Americans.

Something that every conservative NC citizen should do is VOTE to change the state constitution (specifically, Article I – the right to honest elections and Article IX – the creation and deposition of authority with the Department of Instruction.

SACRIFICING DEMOCRACY TO DESTROY TRUMP ?  (mostly by Victor Davis Hanson, The Epoch Times)

The magazine THE NEW AMERICAN and its parent organization, The John Birch Society have been warning for generations that the blessings of liberty that we’ve enjoyed as Americans are increasingly endangered by the growth of government (at all levels – national, state, and local) beyond their constitutional restraints and the corresponding erosion of responsibility. I have been promoting this warning for many years now. In fact, that is the reason I started the Tea Party in my county 15 years ago.

America’s drift from fundamental principles of good, effective, and responsible government has been by design and has been inevitable. Bad policies have caused our country to go off course, but these policies can be changed.

At the founding meeting of the John Birch Society in 1958, founder Robert Welch warned of the direction the policymakers of his time were talking about:

• “Greatly expanded government spending – for missiles (for so-called homeland defense), for foreign aid, and for every conceivable means to keep persons loyal to government – is wasteful.”

• “Higher and higher taxes”

•  “An increasingly unbalanced budget, despite the call for higher taxes, is taking the country in the wrong direction.”

• “Wild inflation of our currency, leading rapidly towards its ultimate repudiation, is also taking the country in the wrong direction.”

• “Government controls of prices, wages, and material, supposedly to combat inflation, is giving reason to redefine the purpose of the federal government.”

• “Greatly increased socialistic controls over every operation of our economy and every aspect of our daily lives threatens to invalidate the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights, and our notion of individual liberty.”

• “Far more centralization of power in Washington DC and the practical elimination of our State lines is practically destroying our fundamental government structure of ‘Dual Sovereignty’ and rendering the Tenth Amendment obsolete.”

• “The steady advance of federal aid and control over our educational system, which is leading to the complete federalization of our nation’s public education system, has engrained in the minds of Americans that a federal Department of Education is constitutional.”

Welch also warned about other plans to take the United States off course, including “the gradual surrender of American sovereignty, piece by piece and step by step, to various international organizations, of which the United Nations is the most notable example.”

Those warnings were issued more than six decades ago, and unfortunately, they have held up well against the best of time. Tyranny has been creeping in. Donald Trump changed the course while he was in office and even promised he would do so when he promised to return the government to the people in his 2017 presidential inaugural message. Yet, even though many have recognized the ominous signs of tyranny as the country has increasingly gone off course, many others have dismissed the continuing warnings of the John Birch Society and its publications, including THE NEW AMERICAN, and conservative speakers and journalists as alarmists and as those adopting a conspiracy theory mindset.

But since 2020, there has been a seismic shift in the understanding of the American people that something is seriously wrong. In 2020, government authorities  used the COVID-19 pandemic to require Americans to wear masks, to compel them to take experimental vaccines, and to prohibit them from going to church, to school, or to work. The same year also witnessed widespread rioting that the Left justified as a natural response to the supposedly “systemic racist” system in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

The pandemic was also used as a rationale for the unprecedented ramp-up of mail-in voting and the use of drop boxes that contributed to the large-scale voting irregularities that marred the 2020 presidential election. Was the pandemic a scientific “emergency” as the Biden administration and as most state governors claimed, or was it a ruse to permit the voting irregularities that put Joe Biden in the White House?

Then there was January 6, 2021, and the arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of pro-Trump supporters who went to the Capitol building to hear Trump speak and to protest the flowed election results. The fact that the January 6 protesters are being treated differently than left-wing rioters has not been lost on the American people. All of a sudden, a dual system of justice became obvious.

If the relentless harassment of Donald Trump hasn’t been enough, the ordeal of the January 6 protesters is a powerful wake-up call that our precious freedoms are receding. Yet, while this awakening is leading many to become involved in the freedom movement, others are fearful to speak out because of the prospect of government retribution. To those that fall in the latter category, please consider a warning that has been handed down from Hiram Mann: “No man escapes when freedom fails. No man escapes when the best men rot in filthy jails. And those who cry ‘appease, appease’ are hanged by those they tried to please.” Reference:  Victor Davis Hanson, “Sacrificing Democracy to Destroy Trump,” The Epoch Times, January 17-24, 2024.  Referenced at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/sacrificing-democracy-to-destroy-trump-5564265