Do They Really Report and We Decide?

Americans will get the president they deserve. Like children, most Americans expect someone else to take care of them. They expect entities such as government, political parties, insurance companies or financial institutions to provide them prosperity, security, physical safety, comfort and convenience in an environment conducive to unfettered playtime.

Americans have become too immature, unaccountable and irresponsible to understand that the pursuit of happiness is about meaning, not pleasure; that freedom entails responsibility, not license. No government in history was ever established to ensure that everyone may do whatever they please. But this fantasy persists in the psyches of many Americans, who expect to be taken care of and let alone — for a price.

That price is not just measured in dollars. It also includes permitting your thinking and decision-making to be manipulated by various powerful institutions. During the presidential election cycle, the two main political parties in conjunction with the media lead Americans by the nose to elect the president most beneficial to them (the institutions, not the people).

The Democrat Party, the Republican Party and the media spend a lot of money to carefully craft public opinion. They are powerful, not because they spend a lot of money, but because most people allow themselves to be manipulated by them. They don’t know how to think for themselves, so they have learned to respond to the “choices” presented to them. And those choices have been carefully screened to ensure that the parties continue to maintain their power and influence.

Americans don’t think for themselves. They look to others to see what the “majority” is saying because they are afraid of being “outside the mainstream”. It used to be called conformism. Rather than taking a stand on principles, most people just want to conform. And where Americans miss the boat is that American constitutional government was founded to conform to principles of individual responsibility and accountability to Biblical principles. Our Constitution holds government responsible to allow all citizens the freedom to work out those principles themselves, not to do it for them.

In his article, They Asked And He Answered, Bradlee Dean quoted John Adams, second President of the United States. In his diary on February 22, 1756 he wrote, “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God…What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”

Conversely, when the people of a nation no longer regulate their own conduct (conduct means what you do, how you live), but rather depend on institutions of politics, government or the economy to regulate them, then there is no reason to expect society to reflect virtues Adams ascribed to a Utopia or Paradise. Instead, society will continue to reflect oppression and tyranny.

Beware the danger of groupthink.

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Michael Day is a native Californian and a retired mailman, proud of the fact that while most of his friends were protesting the war in Viet Nam, he volunteered for the draft and served in combat with the U.S. Army Infantry. His diverse life experiences range from singing with the San Diego Opera to doing menial labor and being involved in church leadership for twenty five years. His blog, http://retiredday.wordpress.com, is an expression of his deep convictions concerning freedom and Biblical faith.

Michael Day

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