American Independents

I came back from a trip to Europe last week. Our family visited 7 countries in nearly a month and threw in the Vatican for good measure. It was a fascinating trip and I enjoyed sampling the culture in each country and for the limited time we had, getting a small flavor of their character. While we were there, I was committed to being an ambassador for America. I did not want anyone to see our family as “ugly Americans”, and I was very conscious of displaying the character of our country. But I wondered …. which character? Who is the average American? What remains quintessentially American in these days of division and polarization? As I walked the beaches of Normandy in France, I felt like I knew our character. Self-sacrificing, hard charging, believers in justice, sympathetic, self-reliant, willing, disciplined, committed to what is right, standing firm in the midst of the fight.

When I observed a screaming child throw herself on the floor in the coffee café in Garmisch, Germany repeatedly, and watched her mother doing nothing to correct that behavior while people were literally forced to step over her, it was then that I wondered what people thought of the America she lives in.

There is a battle royal to redefine American values and identity. The “Fundamental Transformer in Chief” on Pennsylvania Avenue, has made certain assumptions about the American character that are at odds with the America I grew up in. His executive branch has codified those assumptions into practice. 43% of all Americans pay no Federal income tax. 49 million Americans are on Food Stamps. 20% of all households are on some sort of government support. 48% of black teenagers are unemployed. (For context, in 1960 that number was 8%.)

According to the prevailing Progressive rhetoric, we did not build “it”. We are the beneficiaries of Government. We are not self-reliant. We cannot take care of ourselves. The winds of big corporations, and Wall Street and those big billionaires are just too much for us. We need Government to get us through the day. We need their help.

Economically and culturally we are similarly misled and miscast. Ours is a history of abuse. We killed off the Native Americans. We enslaved blacks to build the country. We stole the West from Mexico. And capitalism has taken all the wealth that rightfully belongs to the citizenry. The Haves are evil, the Have Nots are victims. The 1% vs the 99%. And the vestiges of our evil history must be rectified, reversed and “deconstructed”.

Just recently, the Washington Redskins discovered they have no identity. The name “Redskins” is politically incorrect. It ceases to exist. The Patent office decided this without a consensus from anyone, not the owners of the team, its fans, nor as we discover as a response to a single complaint. Except from the Patent office. Unilaterally. It’s called Deconstruction.

In the pursuit of this objective the Transformers are relentless. The IRS is busily destroying emails and correspondence that prove what we already know. Conservative and religious groups were specifically targeted for their beliefs because they are in opposition to the Progressive Left. The message is that the government will find you, harass you and make it impossible for you to exercise your political leverage if your viewpoint is not in lockstep with the powers that be. They may even audit you. Repeatedly. Nixon only went so far. This corruption is institutionalized. OSHA, EPA, FEMA, FDA, FCC, are all poised and ready to squash anyone who is a threat to the New Order. There is no oversight. When Congress is in Democratic hands, the infractions never see daylight. The Attorney General practices selective prosecution and enforces the laws he sees fit to enforce. Goodbye Defense of Marriage Act, rock on Black Panthers in Philadelphia. When the Republicans are in control of Congress, emails disappear and protagonists plead the 5^th. And the Attorney General smiles benignly at being held in contempt of Congress along with Lois Lerner.

Hollywood is busily grinding out propaganda with the identical world view. Now we have anti-fracking movies, in addition to the typical movies about evil corporations, religious fanatics (always Christian), and fostering and promoting a social agenda that most Americans historically have found antithetical. If you don’t embrace the homosexual/transsexual/whatever sexual lifestyle, you are now a bigot or some kind of evil hater. Our Transformer In Chief is making jokes about crack cocaine. Anything and everything goes, as long as it is in the name of tearing down the America we used to know and putting out this new transformed America.

Facebook is using its millions of subscribers as guinea pigs. Testing protocols, behaviors, and as always, collecting data. Google and Amazon the same. I am sure it won’t be shared with the government. The NSA. With the watchers. Unless it serves their purposes. The Transformer himself said recently, “you don’t have to worry unless you are an enemy of the United States”.

What exactly is an enemy of the United States? Which United States? The one I grew up in, or the one that is being shoved down my throat.

For my part, I no longer go to movies and pay Hollywood actors and directors to continue this war on my values. I don’t buy food at Arby’s, whose progressive CEO is sending his profits to the organizations I detest. I don’t go to Target, who today announced they don’t want people with guns in their stores. I approve, as I don’t want to shop where my values are ridiculed or prohibited. I have freedom to make those choices. My wallet may not be much, but it’s what I have.

As to the information gatherers, I rarely use Facebook. I am curtailing my use of any website that requires cookies. I don’t join social media. I don’t respond to “offers”. I watch little TV. I will try and buy more books used. Or borrow them. I am shrinking my profile. I am trying to “get small” as Steve Martin used to say about something entirely different.

As an independent American, I have a responsibility to make responsible choices that align with my values. No matter that the marketers have convinced us all that we must have them to do business or to be a part of things. Yes, I may miss a few opportunities. But not broadcasting a selfie at Omaha Beach all over the internet is hardly a hardship. And it does not provide the watchers with any information about my thoughts and opinions. Or how I choose to use my time. Or what kind of American I am. I very much would like to deprive them of that.

I can’t disappear entirely. But if I lower my profile, I may slip through the bureaucratic cracks of the inefficiencies that I can still depend on from a government that is too big to do much of anything right. I might be left alone while they perfect their logarithms. To keep my independence, I have to exercise the freedom NOT to participate in this seismic shift of fundamental transformation in America.

On this Independence Day, I choose to remind myself that I am independent. I will stand still, rather than follow the currents that are pressing against me. I will do my best to withstand the momentum. People died to give me the freedom I have and I would be unappreciative of their sacrifice not to exercise it.

Ronald Reagan used to say that real change is what happens when families and neighbors talk around the kitchen table or over the backyard fence. And I will remind those around me in our kitchen table conversations that in spite of the relentless propaganda, pressure, and unending Deconstruction, that truth still matters. And we are not alone.