America has a choice. A choice between progressives or conservatives to run this country.
In the presidential race, we have a progressive masquerading as a center-left Democrat, Joe Biden. We also have a populist with conservative instincts, maligned by the media, the Democrat establishment, and even the whole globalist elite, Donald Trump.
The prize is the most powerful country with the largest economy in the history of the world. One candidate sees America as a country to control and exploit, the other one sees America as a country of great freedom and incalculable potential, a country that a president has an obligation to put first in all of his or her thoughts.
The choices seem disparate but Conservatives and progressives have one thing in common. They both believe “something” is wrong and needs to be fixed, they just don’t agree at all on what that “something” is. That “something” is all the difference between freedom and subjugation.
Conservatives
Conservatives believe that the founding documents of the United States have provided the most freedom for the most people in the history of the world. They believe that the principles embedded in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be adhered to, defended, protected, and preserved. They believe in the oath that all federal employees and elected officials take:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
President Abraham Lincoln considered the Constitution the only guard of our liberty: “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
Conservatives believe that the founding of the country is good, that the people of America are good, but the government is out of control. They believe that the officials, both elected, and especially unelected, are overstepping their bounds and abusing the great powers with which they have been entrusted.
Conservatives believe that the problem, the thing that is wrong, is that the government is no longer by the people or for the people. The people running our government think that Americans are their servants, providing them with an endless and ever-increasing revenue stream and that is a serious infringement of our liberty.
Progressives (leftists)
Progressives see government as the solution to their problem, which is America. To them, America is inherently racist. To them, America has committed unforgivable sins. To them, America uses more than her share of resources. America is too rich and too free for their taste. They think America drives too much, etc. For progressives, the real problem is America.
Remember when President Obama or Candidate Obama said he wanted to “fundamentally” change America? “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” — Barack Obama, October 30, 2008
His progressive wife Michelle went farther, “We are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.” — Michelle Obama, May 14, 2008
If our founding, our fundamentals are good, why would they need changing? But President Obama was and is a progressive, and for him, the Constitution is fundamentally flawed and inherently racist. How does a progressive really uphold the oath of office, the oath to defend and protect a document they don’t even believe in?
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t think the Constitution applies to the modern era. As Egypt was preparing to write a new constitution, Ginsburg counseled them: “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.”
She then suggested that Egypt look to South Africa and the European Convention on Human Rights, not the US Constitution. It seems that Ginsburg should recuse herself from interpreting a Constitution that she thinks is archaic and unfit to govern modern life.
Why do progressives think America is the problem? Why do they think the constitution is fundamentally flawed?
I would posit that progressives view the Constitution as an obstacle, something standing in the way of their totalitarian instinct. They think people should not be free, they should be controlled. One of the members of FDR’s Brain Trust, Guy Rexford Tugwell, knew that what they were doing to take control of America in the name of the people’s well-being was antithetical to the Constitution.
The battle between progressives and conservatives is decades old and hoary with age. Progressives have made impressive inroads in dismantling the rights and freedoms the Constitution guarantees to Americans, such as the right to our own property (money), the right to bear arms, the right to worship God, and the right to speak, the right to be free from government intrusion, etc.
They have been gaining ground for almost a hundred years now, growing the administrative state, saddling employers and businesses with strangling regulations. They have successfully destroyed any hope of affordable and high-quality health care as they continue to push regulations that interfere with the freedom of both providers and patients. Higher education and science are so beholden to progressivism, they are losing their legitimacy and value.
Instead of pursuing happiness, many Americans find themselves fearing the future. Anxiety, not happiness, is the constant state of many, wondering if the government, state or federal, will pass more laws that destroy their jobs or destroy their home values. Sadly, the progressives have us just where they want us.
What is the solution? Don’t vote for progressives. Study the Constitution and the fundamental principles that created America. Fight for your rights. Remember, America is not the problem, progressivism is.
In the end, it really isn’t Biden vs. Trump, it is freedom vs. control, it is conservatism vs. progressivism, it is the Constitution vs. totalitarianism.