I am a resident of the State of Washington, born of the State of Oregon, short time resident of the Republic of California, and past resident of the State of Colorado. I live in a region, a state, a city, and county where cultural norms set us apart and define our way of life... smoked salmon and bumper shoots in WA are just as important as Buffalo burgers and snow shovels are in CO... honestly, not many people in WA state own snow shovels, or snow tires/chains for that matter. Regional differences which should be embraced and better understood. We are no melting pot, but a group of liberty minded citizens wanting protection of personal property, protection from foreign invasion, and to be left the hell alone!
For years we have been force fed lies of "pledging allegiance to the flag" for "one nation, indivisible"... The idea that we are indivisible, that WE THE PEOPLE who have granted certain powers to a government for the purpose of universal liberty are not free to challenge said government should they veer off course, is criminal and corrupt!
Nationalism destroys state's rights.
Nationalism erodes individual liberties.
Nationalism kills.
Nationalism is a tool used to sway the people into servitude... If all we know is that we need to be "Good Americans" and that means nothing more than blindly becoming servants of the government - well - it is my hope that any reader of this blog sees the foolishness of this line of thought.
Nationalism is the driving force behind "Big Government", One government mentality, and the driving ideology that leads the consumers of the US to buy the line that it is the job of the president to "pay our mortgages" or "pay for our health care".
This is a lie. A Marxist Lie.
The Federal Government is in disarray. The President is more concerned with pitching in favor of the 2016 Chicago Olympics than the Natural Disaster Flooding that destroyed and damaged a large part of the Atlanta area. Federal approval is in the tank, the people have lost confidence in the government of the United States for good reason, they have failed. The Union is in need of collapse in order for liberty to survive, and with it the corruption of politicians needs to be washed away like a dirty Bourbon Street Sidewalk at 6 AM.
There is hope, real hope. Where the politicians fail, the people succeed. It is WE THE PEOPLE who built this nation. It is the people of the states who make up this Union. It is you and I who are responsible for taking hold of the reigns and emboldening our local and state governments, encouraging them to use their constitutionally protected sovereignty to retake representative powers of, for, and by their people.
Where the US is failing, they are tightening a stranglehold around the neck of the people of this nation... around the necks of the states... and we are all doomed unless we put an end to the idea of Nationalism, Empire building, and One World Government.
I no longer pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. I no longer fly the stars and stripes.
I fly a different flag:
and as I have stated in a previous post:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the original intent of this nation, and to the individual liberty endowed upon us, for which IT stands, representing a nation free from tyranny, a people banded together against such, under Nature's God, indivisible, ensuring the continued struggle for liberty and true justice under the rule of natural law, for all.
Where can we get one of your flags?
ReplyDeleteGP -
ReplyDeletevisit Americanflags.com by clicking this link. These flags are made in the US.
Fly 'em proudly! In fact send me a picture of your Gadsden flag flyin and I'll post it!
-Steve
Steve, thank you for this post.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. I love the flag and the founding principles it stands for.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate much of your sentiment and your support for liberty. But your conflation of patriotism with nationalism is misleading. And your connection of nationalism with Marxism demonstrates historical ignorance.
ReplyDeleteLove of the USA is not necessarily nationalism. And nationalism does not inevitably lead to a One World Government, any more than loyalty to the state of Colorado leads to nationalism or loyalty to your town leads to loyalty to your state....
While I vehemently disagree with the presidential administration and so much of the Congressional and judicial overreach that plagues us, I very much am proud to be an American and to pledge allegiance to the Constitutional Republic that respects "liberty and justice for all."
Also, one minor point ... in your quote of the pledge, you omitted the phrase "under God".
Ben - Patriotism is a tool currently used to build nationalist sentiment. To be a "patriot" is a skewed and corrupted title these days.
ReplyDeleteConsider the Patriot Act. What is patriotic about it? Nothing. It consolidates power at the top of the government, strips liberties from the citizens, and does it all under the guise of "being a good American".
There is no such thing as "Patriotism"... it is a fancy word for nationalism... True Patriots were men not afraid to cast off tyrannical rule, rebels, heros of this nation, and also its founders. We are at a loss for TRUE PATRIOTS.
My connection of Nationalism to Marxism is accurate. Though Marx was no fan of large government, the fact that his ideals are being used IN CONJUNCTION WITH NATIONALISM is not ignorant. That you deny it, however, is. To use one strategy as a means to an end is effective - and that the propaganda news media is pushing nationalism as a support structure for Obama's Marxist policy is simply the truth. That and the push of the Cult of Personality - the Cult of Obama is the "New Nationalism"... Remember, to be a good American now is to promise servitude to our new messiah!
Regarding my sentiment in the blog - when I said the system was failing, I meant that the system of nationalist ideology is failing... and it should. It is a danger to liberty.
Nationalism led to WWII... it lead to empire building by the US - um, I mean "spreading democracy with the USA as the leader of Democracy". Nationalism is A TOOL used to swell the support of the citizens - to get them to blindly cheer on their leaders while liberties are being stripped - and in this case the Constitution is being destroyed... North American Union, One World Government, etc... these are ALL REALITIES... and they are all, ALL, a danger to liberty.
I am proud to be a free citizen of a Constitutional Republic as well... Constitution... not flag. That flag is a battle flag representing something other than the Constitution... SO LONG AS IT IS USED AS A SYMBOL TO SUPPORT IDEALS THAT OPPRESS LIBERTY, I will not pledge allegiance to it, I will not fly it, I will not salute it, nor will I admire it.
Liberty and Justice for all, indeed. But it starts with the individual regaining control of local government, empowering local government as a force to quench the flames of tyranny spreading out of D.C. - the District of Corruption.
Regarding your minor point - I was quoting the 1953 official version of the pledge - but since I do not believe in the pledge, what does it matter what it says?
We patriots are showing up at Tea Parties and Town Halls. Patriotism is alive and well in the United States, more so now than in a very long time - just not the Patriotism our elected Statists want us to have. I'm not quite ready to give up on the stars and stripes, but I too revere the Gadsden Flag (a bumper sticker at the moment, but I'm going to get a flag pole and hang it on my door soon as well). When I was in DC on 9/12, there were so many Gadsden flags...you have no idea (unless you were there). It was nearly a sea of yellow flags.
ReplyDeleteCandle - You are mostly right. IF the right attains control of the hosues of congress in 2010 on the wave of support of the Tea Parties and DOES NOTHING but attempt to push their social agenda, rather than to systematically deconstruct the power structure which allowed the federal government (under Bush as well) to grow uncontrolled and unchecked, then you will truly be (as I stated) nothing more than a TOOL... under the guise of patriotism.
ReplyDeleteTo cast aside what no longer works is what the Tea parties represent... not "the right versus the left"... it is the Free versus the Tyrannical. I posted against Bush and his encroachment on liberty, and I do so against Obama.
Suppose Palin (for example) wins in 2012 against Obama, and we have a GOP President and, let's say one chamber of Congress. If they don't systematically return powers to the states and the citizens, if they dont shut down all these unconstitutional beaurocracies, if they don't shut down the debt machine which has crippled and killed this nation - I WILL STILL BE PROTESTING.
I am not a tool of a party... I am a soldier in the fight for liberty. The Gadsden is the symbol of liberty agaisnt tyranny... unfortunately the stars and stripes has come to represent tyranny... so I fold her up and put her away...
Great reply Steven. I'm 100 percent in agreement - and I too will still be protesting. The American People have learned what happens when you fall asleep. I do not think we'll have leaders that will return our rights to us - not unless we primary every one of these A-holes.
ReplyDeleteMr. DeGrow, what "constitutional republic" would that be? The Federalists set us on a course away from constitutionalism and republicanism, and toward empire, as many of the Antifederalists predicted they would. The republic was dealt a death blow by Mr. Lincoln and his Republicans whom you revere, in the aftermath of That War. American strongmen such as FDR, whom you execrate but who followed naturally in the steps of Lincoln, finished off the dying creature. Liberal-left politicians such as LBJ (and now Obama), have planted seeds of "hope and change" which germinate and grow in the soil fertilized by the constitutional republic's rotting corpse.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP still proudly declares itself the "Party of Lincoln." And Obama took the inaugural oath on Lincoln's Bible. Both the GOP and the liberal Democrats are the legitimate heirs of Lincoln.
As for saying that pledge, I don't know why you find it fitting to recite something that:
1) was written by an avowed socialist, albeit a "Christian" one;
2) was never envisioned by the Founding Fathers as something appropriate for a patriot to say;
3) was designed for children in the public school system, an institution both of us have come to detest for all of the reasons so eloquently stated by noted writers such as John Taylor Gatto, for the purpose of brainwashing those kids into a sense of patriotism that stemmed not from the ideals of the Founding Fathers, but from late 19th/early 20th-century American statism and the pressure to conform to America's “civil religion”;
4) is said to “stand” for a "republic" that no longer exists.
That pledge is said to exactly the sort of spirit of nationalism which Mr. Nielson and others here decry. Apologists among the Federalists tried to assure us that the new constitutional entity would be a federal one, not a national one, but a national one it became for the reasons Joe Sobrans sets forth here:
http://www.sobran.com/reluctant.shtml
If we truly want the American republic back, then we need to be prepared to do things far more radical than seek to elect Republicans, defend and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and even "return to the Constitution." We need to go back to the drawing board, having learned the mistakes the Federalists and their progeny made.
Yes, Steven, to hell with it. Literally.
ReplyDeleteGod save the republic, liberty, localism and confederalism.
God grant us in our generation, once again, individual and communal *normalcy*, health, and peace.
God DAMN the War Party, as well as the Party of "Hope and Change."