Monthly Archives: November 2016

Ideology and Freedom

My, what a time we live in! How very profound are it’s implications!! Everyone who loves his or her country and hopes to live a life that is at least fairly free, should stay tuned until you’ve read and digested this article completely.

First of all – who am I? And what information do I have to share with anyone concerning ideology?

I am a 90 year old male, well educated, a Navy veteran of World War II, and a person who has had (at least) 3 professions in life.

Ideology, according to my dictionary, is well defined.  Here’s what it says:

“Ideology is the science of ideas, is the manner or content of thinking characteristic of an individual or class.”

Now, please allow me to offer a more distinctive definition: Ideology is the core of a person’s individual belief, about anything, but seems to major in one’s beliefs about the most important things in life.

Of course, we can observe that word meanings sometimes can – and do – change over the course of many years.  The word “square”, as it pertains to an individual, used to mean upright, fair, honest and believable.  As in music, I can heard the words of an old song – “Mary is a grand old name.”  Speaking of Mary, the song says – “and there is something there that sounds so square – it’s a grand old name.”

Now today, the word SQUARE means boring, out of date, a person who is not “cool”, so to speak.  In addition it typically means that this person is not acceptable and his beliefs aren’t modern.

Keeping this illustration in mind, please allow me to put to rest a misunderstood idea that is quite important to understand, but is a constant challenge for some folks to accept.

The notion that a high official in any capacity will completely follow the law that he or she has pledged to uphold no matter what, is typically an errant view. Why?  Because they typically act in interpreting that law in the light of their personal ideology.

Is this wrong?

In many cases, it may well be.

Let’s take, for an example, the current situation with our Supreme Court.

It seems that in recent years, that more appointed justices have clearly shown their liberal philosophy of government in their Supreme Court decisions.  It is critical to understand that the next president of the United States may be in a position to appoint 2 or more justices to the court, and this could potentially cause a drastic alteration in the direction of future Supreme Court decisions.

Common sense allows us to look back over the years and observe that many Supreme Court justices have followed their own ideologies in rendering decisions, rather than the law of the land or the intent of the original founders.

The same is true of lesser judges and administrators.

Here is where the core issue – ideology and freedom – comes into sharp view.

Conservative and considerate justices – both in the Supreme Court and lower courts – who render decisions according to the law, do so for two primary reasons: it is the law, and it meshes with their own ideology.

And the ideology of any law based on this country’s founding is this – FREEDOM and JUSTICE must be preserved, or those judges and justices have prostituted the law of the land.

I am unapologetically a political conservative, and the laws which governed our nation from the beginning are politically conservative, and the result is this – NOW GET THIS!!  Conservatism promotes and protects individual freedom.

Now suppose there are some who don’t like the term “conservative” (due chiefly to wrong teaching  and / or misunderstanding). Who cares what you cal it if freedom of each individual is preserved and honored?

Your personal freedom, the freedom of your neighbor, even the freedom of those who may be politically opposed to you, who cares about the title of the government philosophy? It is the freedom of the individual that matters and that must be preserved.

Freedom for each of us means freedom for all of us.

True conservatism is – and represents –  yes, even guaranteesfreedomto each person – no other form of government ideology has rules and guidelines that so completely protect each person’s basic rights.

And what about the so-called liberal officeholder? Where do they stand in the actual and political scheme of things?  The liberal party has moved so far left in our time that their espoused ideology is now actually contrary to the laws and principles of our Founding Fathers. They believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be flexible and open to personal preference, political pressure and cultural whims.  They disregard the intent of the Founding Fathers and instead interpret the law in a loose fashion –  totally opposed to the original intent of the first adopters and formulators of our laws.

Now dear reader – stay with me. I have been utterly appalled in recent days by some of the interviews with many young people on city streets of our nation (Watters World on Fox News) who don’t know the most basic of U.S. history. Most didn’t know who fought in the Civil War, many did not know the basic history of our Revolutionary War – they didn’t even know it was our war to break us from England – because of our desire to worship God as we saw fit! They didn’t know it was the ragtag colonial army of the U.S. colonies trying to break away from English rule. It is truly pathetic to see the utter lack of basic knowledge of our history with so many of our young people.

Where is the truth taught to a free people? If our public schools cut out references to God, freedom, how our country was founded and what we stand for, what can we expect in the voting booth? Our “revised history” – cutting out the very fiber of what our nation was founded upon – is creating an unaware and ignorant electorate – and the left hopes they will be easily swayed and controlled both now and in the future!

Let’s briefly go back to the basics of two major types of governments in the world – this is entirely appropriate given what we have established above as a lack of proper teaching about our country’s founding to our young people.

DICTATORSHIP & SOCIALISM

In the olden days, dictatorship took the form of a king.  Absolute obedience to his rules were demanded, or off with your head! We call this today, in many cases, Communism.  It isn’t true communism, but we understand from Soviet Russia, Chine, North Korea and other countries, that is is really dictatorship.  In many cases, absolute power was seized by one group – usually the army – and absolute power was then set up, including a dictator and his cohorts.

Next we have Socialism – and in spite of the fact that we can learn an abundance of lessons from countries who have completely failed when implementing socialism (think Venezuela, for instance), most still don’t understand what it is NOR realize that at this point in time, the U.S.A. has become a socialistic country.

How is that, you ask?

Simply in this way – one of our two great political parties in our country has tended, since F.D. Roosevelt, to go socialistic – a very BIG government with many negative ramifications, and loyal followers of a president who will do anything to keep the elite in power.

It is true that a country can arrive at socialism without a military take-over, or without many people being killed.  In that case, it is essentially an implosion from within.  But socialism results in big government and ALWAYS means fewer freedoms for “we, the people”.  Perhaps no one will be shot for disagreeing with the leader (or it will be deemed “suicide”, as so many reports we have watched of late), but you can count on it that dissenters will be marginalized, ridiculed, and if possible, ruined financially.

So in the long run, the amount of freedom for the people under both DICTATORSHIP and SOCIALISM is the same – NOT MUCH.  Under socialism, every rule or idea for equality is denied and undermined, so that the ruling entities can stay on top.

The “Biggies” of Socialism

  • Higher Taxes
  • More regulations
  • Avoidance to real solutions to any big problems
  • Higher national debt (which should be abhorred by any thinking person)
  • Environmental regulations (that are ill-timed and in some cases, absurd)
  • More government “giveaways”
  • More promises than anything else

And – oh yes – a foreign policy that is between lies and doing absolutely nothing about foreign problems.  And we have a slow but sure weakening of our military, even though more military hazards now exist in our world than ever before.

And socialism does not value self help – the Middle Class in the U.S.A. is on the way out, and no opportunities for the betterment of one’s own life can be tolerated because the government knows everything and the poor middle class person knows nothing.

Also, there is no plan by the ruling elite to unburden the vast middle class -the middle class is stuck with a horribly low ceiling of hope and betterment, and accomplishment that is as low as it can be without an open rebellion.

Folks, Socialists love no one better than themselves – they want power over your life and will do anything and say anything to get it and keep it. They use hidden methods to tax you (think Obamacare, for instance), and then give your money to others whom you will never know.  

Unelected TASKMASTERS are what we have today.

So it should be apparent by now why there are fewer jobs and fewer and fewer good jobs.  President Obama openly called PROFIT – a DIRTYWORD!!

And you need to understand the socialistic mindset toward jobs and their scarcity. It has been shown time and time again that socialistic leaders are unwilling to do the things required to change the job outlook.

At what point in our not too distant past were good and plentiful jobs restored with a proven history of success? Just take a look at the Reagan years – 8 of them – where radical changes were made that put Americans back to work again and put our country back onto a prosperous and strong track once more.  We have so many Americans in need of a good job in these times!

The rich have always managed to do fairly well in good times and in bad.  But it is the Middle Class, the real back-bone of the U.S., that has the greatest lack of jobs and income.   And of course, the poor are in a very discouraging situation as well.

And this is crucial – even though the U.S. is so far geographically from the Middle Easy, our citizens here in the U.S.A are not being protected from terrorism and its prospects, as the U.S. Constitution demands and as common sense would also dictate.

Illegal aliens, some of them having been deported a number of times, have murdered U.S. citizens – and the socialists have done nothing about it.  And our country is being bankrupted by illegals, who have added to our economic burden as a nation.

How is it that illegal aliens can vote and get on the government dole (paid for by your tax dollars) and yet our veterans are suffering – and in some cases, dying – waiting for critical help from the Veterans Administration?

What kind of signal does that send to our veterans?  Do you suppose they feel appreciated for their supreme sacrifices to maintain our freedom?

Dear friends, Obama and his socialistic experiment and the downgrading of our country’s great values will continue if the socialists are elected again.  There will be little left of a great and proud country in another 4 years of disaster like the last 8 years.  Lies and mismanagement and failure have characterized the last nearly 8 years and we cannot tolerate many more years of the same.

So folks – what government ideology do you have?  Millions of people agree  that the present socialistic ideology is ruinous for our country.  So whether or not you totally agree with the one candidate who can and will change our country’s ruinous slide – you need to vote for the ideology which can and will restore sanity to the US.A.

Believe me when I tell you – almost all true socialists will never change their crippling, destructive government philosophy.  So, then, those people need to be soundly defeated and marginalized at the voting booth (and double check your vote before you leave – reports of voter fraud and changing ballots are rampant).

Just how badly do we want our country and our leaders to return to common sense and proven policies?

Those Americans who doubt that real change can happen are selling short the millions of voters who desperately want these changes to occur.

There is no time nor place for pettiness or personal preference.  The Republican candidate who has emerged the winner in a literal sea of candidates, must be supported boldly, openly and as others have said before me – “Running Hell-Bent for Election” if we are to win.

Dear Friend, what is your ideology of government?

Written by William W Figley  May 28, 2016

“My name is William W. Figley – and I approve this message.”