Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Why is Gore Trying to Steal the Presidency? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (3328)	12/5/2000 10:26:17 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 3887

It's Not About Liberty Anymore -- It's About Winning Directly after Florida's Secretary of State, Katherine Harris declared George W. Bush the winner in Florida, Senator Joe Lieberman wasted no time thrusting his face in front of the cameras whining, "How can we teach our children that every vote counts if we are not willing to make a good-faith effort to count every vote?" If that's the case, then why was the Gore campaign fighting to disqualify the overseas votes of our men and women in uniform? But the lies and hypocrisy aside, let's look at the real issue at hand -- the issues of personal responsibility and liberty. The link between the two is a very close one, especially where government is concerned. Lieberman's question was a shallow one because the real question to be asked is, "How can we teach our children responsibility if we are not willing to be responsible ourselves?" Over the past eight years, the American people have criticized Congress and their state legislatures for relinquishing so much of their authority to the federal executive branch and with good reason. State law enforcement agencies have allowed their authority to be stolen from them by the FBI. State legislatures have ceded a good portion of their legislative authority to Washington and Congress has allowed itself to be rolled by Clinton and his henchmen in the various federal agencies. As a result, the executive branch of our federal government is more powerful now than at any time in our nation's history. But while the American people are busy pointing their fingers at their legislatures, they also ought to be pointing their fingers at themselves. One could say that Americans have had their liberty taken from them, but that would only be partly correct. There was no dead of night raid on the Constitution. There was no great revolution in the streets over our rights and liberties and the American people lost. Our loss of liberty wasn't that dramatic. It was simply because the American people stopped taking responsibility for themselves and what followed was they stopped holding their leaders accountable as well. As the Scriptures read, "Where your treasure is, there your heart is also," and as American culture becomes increasingly decadent, the majority of Americans are placing their treasure in material wealth and success and what it takes to get it. Oh sure, once a year people read about the fates suffered by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and perhaps they shed a tear or two over it but after the picnics and fireworks displays are over, who remembers anything about liberty? It's back to the daily concerns in our own lives forgetting that there is something greater than ourselves and unfortunately, that is what we're teaching our children. This election demonstrates that point. If Senator Lieberman is so concerned about lessons we're teaching our children, then he ought to be even more concerned that his campaign has taught children that 2+2=4 only if you want it to and if you want it to equal 5, then you keep recounting until it gets to 5. Then when you can't get it to do what you want, you hire attorneys and turn it over to the courts who will twist legal statutes in an attempt to make those numbers turn out in our favor . . . all at the expense of our liberty, but who cares? It's not about liberty anymore; it's about winning! Teaching our children about vote counting techniques is nothing compared to teaching them about liberty but how can we teach them about something that we have forgotten about ourselves? In 1944 Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand wrote, "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it." (Lisa Dean is Vice President for Technology Policy at the Free Congress Foundation.)