America: The Final Chapter

Like a mother lion protecting her cubs, the Bush administration went into ‘overkill’ in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The result was the unforgiving assault on civil liberties, and the dismantling of the centuries old Law of the Land, the U.S. Constitution. The sequence of the amendments in the Bill of Rights is no accident. Fox-TV commentator Glenn Beck once asked viewers which amendment they considered the most important. At the end of the day, the conclusion was the First Amendment, freedom of speech, is the most important because without free speech, the remaining amendments would be rendered worthless. The First Amendment establishes policy. The Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, is the enforcer and protector of all the rest. The Second Amendment stands in the way of total tyranny and without the First Amendment, you would not be reading political books such as this. A variety of executive orders and onerous bills designed to strip citizens of their constitutional rights have been passed under the guise of “necessity” or “national emergency” but they ultimately equate to the same thing – loss of freedom. The ill-named Patriot Act, for instance, was rammed through Congress in less than a month after 9/11, and contained several sections that were declared unconstitutional by the courts in due course. The first executive order was issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1861 when he activated troops to defeat the Southern uprising. Authority for such orders must come from either the Constitution or through statutory grant of power, yet draconian executive orders have been put in place over time that would make America resemble Hitler’s Germany given the right ‘emergency’ opportunity. Any president who abuses his executive order authority undermines the protection of constitutional separation of power, which the Founders put in place for that very reason. Additionally, Bush operated under a veil of secrecy and extremism that alarmed the public and treated with contempt the open way of life envisioned by the Founders. History will more than likely paint the Bush administration with a duel brush, however, given the circumstances surrounding 9/11. The Constitution took a direct hit with his over zealous desire to protect the nation but it also was clear that this president sincerely loved his country and intended no harm to it. And then we got Obama. His past associations with militant and sometimes even criminal individuals and organizations, as well as his self-proclaimed Socialist views along with policy failures in the few short months of his new presidency, have left the majority of citizens fearful for the future. His disdain for public opinion or input, and vindictive sensitivity to any personal criticism or negative assessment of his view on issues, is of grave concern. It would appear that under his watch, the nation will continue the downward spiral from a free Republic. America is in peril because we have followed the road that led away from the perimeters of the Founders who, in their incredible wisdom, were able to view the future and see what devastation could be wreaked on individual liberties, separation of power, and loss of states’ rights if each presidential administration failed to follow the clear and firm dictates of the Constitution. Tragically, too many administrations did just that. Like a rabid dog in a feeding frenzy, greed, self-serving motives, hidden agendas, and even blatant incompetency at the hands of those we trusted to conduct government in our behalf, on our behalf, and for our behalf, has resulted in betrayal and the systematic demise of a once great nation. America: The Final Chapter first examines all the presidential administrations and their respective policies to determine how the nation journeyed from an open and free society to a nation under attack by its own government and speculates on the future and lifestyle its citizens will live as a result. Each presidency is viewed through the lens of the Founders and the Constitution in an effort to better understand how we have strayed in over 200 years from the pure vision of the Founding Fathers and insightful objectives of the Constitution to an uncertain future. The U.S. has come “full circle” from its initial fight for freedom from oppression. We now find so many of those hard fought-for liberties have been infringed or disappeared altogether over the decades and we again are fighting to regain the principles and rights promised us by the Founders. “We the people” have lost trust and faith in how America is being run and the time has come for a defiant administration to reduce centralized authority and place it again in the hands of the people as it was intended…before a “final chapter” brings down democracy.