Social Sense
Mustang, I could not have said it better myself. Good post amigo, I'm proud to call yo friend.
Gosh, is it too bold to say that the likes of Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin are our in company with our latest traitors, for their outlandish attacks on the US effort in Iraq and at detaining/interrogating known terrorists?
In her book Treason, Ann Coulter neatly catalogs the treasonous nature of the American leftist elite and the Democrats, reaching back to early in the last century. There's a lot of food for thought there... as there is here in this most inspired post, Mustang. Nice job.
Mustang,
I wish I'd written such an erudite piece about this topic! For years, I've been screaming, "But that's TREASON!" Yet, as you've pointed out, rarely are their prosecutions, let alone convictions for the only crime named in our Constitution.
May I post a link to this on my blog? I won't be offended if you say no, but I would really like for my students to see this piece.
Mary Hunter,
Don't you just love Coulter's book "Treason"? A few of my homeschool government students read it last term.
Thank you GM for your kind words.
AOW, you may feel free to link to any post that you consider worthy of your students' time.
Hunter, one issue that stands out in my reading for this post was the issue of "action" over "words," which many legal people regard as in conflict with the First Amendment. Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin, as well as many others, have the right to say what they want, but the question for me has always been whether it should be said. As senior politicians, I would have expected both of these men to think about the effects of what they had to say.
At times, I have the privilege of sensing Americanism. No, not some hackneyed somethings D. C. Washington conservatives spout rotely in their assumptions that they are automatic Americans. Your words are the words I would expect from those most elegant of Americans, the Marines. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Marines are people you don't have to ask to clarify any element of their patriotism. As a career Navy doctor, I always felt honored to be able to take care of Marines.
Your words about treason touched me. Among other responses, I know that I am not alone, as an American who deeply cares for his country and its supreme values. It is so easy to feel isolated and alone. It is so profound, at a metaphysical value level, to be in touch with that great American subconscious which is still so strong in our land.
Because of this bond, from American to American, we know that we can cinch up our courage, and double our resolve, and we will prevail. God only knows what we have to endure and overcome in the process, but we will prevail. Maybe not in my lifetime or yours, but we will prevail.
Thank you for writing this. I feel privileged to have read it.
George Mason
Mustang,
Please add Representative "Baghdad Jim" MacDermott of Seattle, Washington, to your list of overt traitors--a disgraceful human being who doesn't deserve the honor of being called an American.
Nearly 50% of our population professes beliefs tending to support the views of the traitors mentioned in your piece.
We can place the blame squarely on our school system. The immediate predecessors of today's Postmodern nihilists saw an opportunity to seize the hearts and minds of an entire nation through its school children.
They began their anti-Enlightenment effort to hijack the schools, complete with their captive audience, simultaneously with the founding of the system in the mid 1800s.
Their goal was literally to "deconstruct" the United States, which was the first nation in the history of mankind to be designed from scratch and based on reason and human rights.
They wanted our country to be just another collective like those in Europe from which we had just freed ourselves.
They worked very hard, and by the 1950s, a "critical mass" had been created. By the 1960s, their success had become headline news. From that time on, their views grew in popularity and became quite fashionable. The Jane Fondas et al. now needed fear no consequences for their treachery.
It is because of the success of the Postmodernists that we have PC, multiculturalism and moral equivalency. It is because of their success in inculcating generations of school children with this drivel that today's most dangerous enemy--Islam--is creeping into our classrooms to disarm our children with respect to the danger.
It is because of their success that today, none dare call it "treason."
Yes, treason is a word you don’t hear often. There is no distinction between the loyal opposition and those who cross the line to the enemy’s side. If you accuse someone of treason, you’ll be told that you’re trying to suppress free speech. The 1st amendment has become the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Last year, I was disappointed that not more was made of Kerry’s damnation of America during his anti-war days, or his secretly meeting with the enemy while still officially in uniform. I saw him on Meet the Press in the spring of 2004. That smug SOB smiled at his early 70s senate speech, said he was excessive, but refused to say how when Russert pressed him. He regrets nothing.
The left in charge of the media believes that patriotism and honor are not longer a force in America. They forget that vast region of red state and red county America were people still believe in our county. But as long as the left has a stranglehold on higher education, we have a major problem and uphill battle.
Was it treason to supply arms to Iran?
Jason,
Well said. I would only encourage you to widen your concern to include the earliest years of education, and not reserve it for higher education. Far too often, it is too late by then.
The "mindset" of an adult has its origins in the years before puberty. There is one other period during which serious change can occur with relative ease, provided the issues are addressed explicitly, and that is the years between puberty and the mid-twenties.
After that, the battle is truly uphill. That's why it is vitally important not to allow the malignant forces of the Left to have their way, unobstructed, with the minds of our children.
We must take the responsibility of teaching them, point-by-point, why the Left is wrong.
We would never think of taking our four-year-olds and throwing them in the pool, and just telling them "Swim!" We would first give them lessons.
We must give them lessons in thinking, too, and not expose them, unprotected, to the Left.
You’re right, cubed, it has to start earlier. I’m more familiar with higher education. Hopefully, Mustang and AOW, for example, are reaching the younger minds. And you, if you a teacher, too!
You are so good Mustang. Truly. I don't understand the change in mentality from the 50's to the 70's and today regarding the punishment for treasonous actions by the US Government. Maybe it's political correctness. I think it's more that the Left has taken over the culture and education. It's one swing of the pendulum. Hopefully this will swing back now to the Right for the next 50 years. I don't know how they undo the damage to Constitutional Law though due to the use of "Precedent".
Toni, I think we are experiencing a "no consequences" society. It occurs to me that when our government lowers the bar, as in the case of prosecutions for treasonous acts, it is difficult to reverse that trend. The effect of this, of course, is that we have a serving US senator who IMO is guilty of treason. There is no question but that he provided aid and comfort to the enemy of the United States. The question, then, is how do "we the people" insist upon reversing this trend?
Maybe a key element to charging a American with treason is that they must aid the enemy in a time of war. Since there is no war going on, at least not one declared by congress, or in other words legal, any one aiding and abetting Muslim Extremists cannot and should not be charged. Same thing with Vietnam, Congress never declared that war either. In my opinion if war is not declared then the enemy is not defined, therefore to charge anyone speaking out against these undeclared wars with treason would be bullshit.
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