We Do Not Want This

The Obama budget must be killed. We do not want this. You may hear and read a thousand different explanations as to why, most of them in the language of finance or economics. But the explanation that will do the most good is deeper than that. It springs from the answers to these questions: (1) who are “we”? and (2) what is “this”?.

“We” are individuals. Every single one of us. We are unique, intrinsically valuable, purposeful, and capable of lives of great goodness, generosity, nobility and sincerity—under two conditions: we live in freedom; and we see ourselves as ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator’, or, in the Bible’s terms, made in the image and likeness of God. “We” are not animals, and we are not defined by material accompaniments—skin color, gender, physical appearance, or even size of our bank account—but by our spirituality—our fidelity to truth, our humility in the face of our shortcomings, our ability to discern and aspire to and be responsible for that which is good. We have within us everything it takes to experience outside of us a society characterized by progress and good will toward our fellow men and women.

America’s founding established the framework of limited human government that best enables each and every one of us to discover and be who “we” are. We have been blessed by it and have thrived under it; we have innovated, created, produced and achieved in every field of human endeavor far beyond any other era of human history.

But let’s be clear again: “we” are not the imaginary stereotype of a nationalistic breed called ‘Americans’—i.e., blonde-haired, blue-eyed, 35-50 year old, white-skinned, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. We are humanity, when living in the spirit of freedom and identifying ourselves as the created, not the Creator.

“This” is a worldview that denies—sometimes subtly, usually deceitfully, and always aggressively— who we are. “This” says we are not unique; and our lives are not much more than a joyless, arbitrary, meaningless period of existence between birth and death. “This” says we are nameless, faceless parts of groups called whites, blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, feminists, chauvinists, racists, bigots, rich, poor, middle class, and on and on and on. “This” smothers individuality and freedom; it assigns helplessness and victimhood to accompany every unpleasant condition, offering no way out and no way forward other than a promise to bring down anyone who appears to rise above helplessness and victimhood. “This” says there is no Creator other than maybe some mindless collection of matter that went ‘bang’, and ‘this’ discards progress as indefinable and undesirable in comparison to the order and ‘equality’ and ‘justice’ that will follow if all authority and law is transferred away from the Creator and into the hands of the superior ones.

“This” is godless intellectualism. It will tell us what we can and can’t do to address what ails us—physically, mentally or emotionally; it will tell us how much we can earn and what we can spend it on; it will tell us what car we can drive (or if we can drive), what kind of light bulb we can use, what kind of toilet we can have, what temperature we can keep in our home, what food we can eat, what water we can drink. “This” will order us to hand over the majority of the fruits of our labors to ‘this’ so that ‘this’ can continue to ’care’ for us and tell us what to do. And ‘this’ will bully, intimidate, ostracize, criticize, persecute, and yes, crucify, anyone who dares to not do what ‘this’ tells us to do.

“This” is the worldview of Obama; “this” is what is represented by his radical left agenda; ‘this’ is embodied in his budget blueprint.

“This” is a lie.

As Easter approaches, and with full knowledge of the wrath, fury and scorn that will follow this statement, it’s nevertheless worth making: it is really the resurrection that proved “this” to be a lie, and St. Paul who urged us never to believe it again-- “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage”.

We vehemently oppose what Obama is doing to destroy the America of the founding; it is not too much to say it is an offense against humanity. But even if his budget passes, it will not change truth. The truth is “we” have inalienable rights from a power greater than ‘this’; and that same power drives the lesson and path of history: we need not, and will not, accept this.

We will overcome this.

Paul Gable

Posted March 28, 2009