Author Archives: theartfuldilettante
America is NOT a Democracy–and Should Never Be
America is NOT a democracy.
In a democracy, 50.1 percent have unlimited power over 49.9 percent of the population.
Democracy is mob rule.
In a republic, the individual and property rights of the citizens are paramount. Everything in the Constitution of the republic exists for one purpose only: to preserve the rights of the individual.
The individual does not exist for the sake of the state. The state exists for the sake of preserving the rights of the individual. The moment the state becomes committed to something else, it should be subdued or dissolved.
“Majority rule” is a good principle when applied to (honest) elections. But “majority rule” cannot mean the ability of the majority — the mob — to violate the rights of individuals or minorities.
As Ayn Rand once wrote, the smallest minority on earth is the individual. It’s the most vulnerable entity.
The sinister tyrants — epitomized by Bidens, Pelosis, Cheneys, Obamas, Bushes, Romneys and McConnells — who now occupy the federal government (and many state governments) in the USA keep accusing dissenters of “attacking democracy.” Lovers of liberty are right to reject democracy.
But these tyrants care nothing for democracy or republics. They will use the principles of either to advance their wealth, and their power.
They stand for nothing, other than their own unlimited wealth and power.
When they lock up peaceful protesters who objected to a questionable election in 2020, they’re not preserving the rights of individuals; they’re preserving their own power. Like all dictators, they are scared. Scared dictators lash out.
Liberty belongs to one entity: to the individual. The most profound and sacred right is the right to be left the hell alone.
Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason
Republicans: Curb Your Enthusiasm
I detest Communism and fascism — the policies of America’s Democratic Party — more than anything. Yet: I have mixed feelings about a Republican blowout victory next week. If it happens, there will be triumphant cries throughout conservative underground media.
But we have to remember: There have been Republican triumphs before, bigger than this one will probably be. And the net result? ZERO. Government has grown, the debt has grown, inflation has returned, taxes have gone up and the number of people dependent on the government dole (especially now with open borders) has gone into the stratosphere.
So curb your enthusiasm. Elections are a great way to send a message. But messages and talk, by themselves, have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to advance the cause of freedom in the years since Reagan left office. Reagan’s terms in office bought us some time. Trump’s term did the same, though because he served only one term, the impact wasn’t too lasting. Congressional victories of Republicans have done nothing. In fact, Obama bragged when he left office (accurately) that Republicans in Congress gave him more spending, taxes and control than Democrats did.
Be excited, but don’t kid yourself. We’re in deep trouble. And even if Republicans win big, the Deep State will act even more destructively than it did after Trump’s victory. The mask is off these rancid statists and we now have, in America, precisely the unwarranted, unlimited government our Constitution was supposed to protect us from, but no longer does. Why does it no longer protect us? Because the people in power brazenly and consistently ignore the Constitution. It means nothing to them. And they hold enough power, even without Congress, to tighten the noose on a population that — so far — seems completely unwilling to fight back.
Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason
Hammering Away at the Pelosis
In propaganda media, the truth or falsehood of a story is irrelevant. Today’s journalists are not in the business of finding truth; they are in the business of advancing narratives on behalf of elites in control.
The purpose of the bizarre Paul Pelosi hammer story is simply to shame patriots and dissidents into shutting up, after they’re blamed for an attack because of their “hate speech” in favor of, you know, things like the Bill of Rights.
Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason
Watch “5 Socialism Myths: Part 1” on YouTube
Watch “Electric Cars: Inconvenient Facts, Part One” on YouTube
In the Fall of a Republic, We are all Gangsters Now
Despite our problems, things have never been better, materially and technologically. Yet things have rarely, if ever, been worse psychologically and intellectually.
The material and economic comforts of today are not the result of the culture. The culture is frankly insane. We still enjoy comfort today because of the sanity, rationality, self-responsibility and economic freedom that dominated earlier eras. Not today’s era of snowflakery, faux science, group hysteria, paranoia and an unrelenting pathological need to control others.
If we’re to preserve, sustain and expand the wonderful world we have created, it’s imperative we fix our mental and intellectual states. On our present road of insanity, few of us will even want freedom, much less be able to handle it.
Your leftist, statist neighbor is happy to vote for someone who will force you, at gunpoint if necessary, to do something you would not otherwise do. It’s so easy! No blood, no unpleasantness. Just raw coercion and total control.
Yet it can’t last forever. And we are very near the endpoint. Trump’s movement was when it first became overt.
As our government becomes more and more corrupt, unstable and unsustainable, the question now is:
Will that same neighbor be PERSONALLY prepared to hold you up at gunpoint to force you to do what he/she wants you to do? Or hire an armed thug to do so? We are all gangsters now, especially since politicians no longer conceal their rotten, hollow, amoral natures.
Increasingly, the mask is off. Governments fall apart and collapse. That’s when you find out what people REALLY believe.
Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason
Elon Musk Can Permit Humor on Twitter, But the Leftist Gestapo Will Come for Him
“Comedy is now legal on Twitter” the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk wrote on Friday.
Leftists are humorless. Many leftists are in other contexts bright and witty, but they suppress their laughter due to fear of what others think of them. Ironically, the people whose opinions they fear are just as afraid of them, for the very same reason.
The humorless and self-suppression of leftism poses as progressive and innovative. It’s really just a reincarnation of old-school puritanism, the kind exhibited by intolerant despots at the Salem witch trials or by militant religious terrorists beheading journalists and knocking down skyscrapers in the early 21st century.
This sick way of thinking — the narcissistic, dogmatic ruthlessness of leftism — necessarily and always collapses into the brutality of a police state. America is almost there. Hat tip to Elon Musk for trying to take it on at this late stage of our sociopolitical malignancy. I wonder if he grasps the magnitude of the violent hatred behind modern, woke leftism, a hatred so virulent it could put the Nazis to shame.
It will take more than billions of dollars to defeat what is surely coming his way.
Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason
Try to be like the Greatest Generation, not the Snowflake Generation
Written by Jeanie D’Amico, sent to me by Judith A. McDonald
I’m old enough to remember the results of WWII. My dad was a war hero, he was muscular, strong, silent and wounded in his right hand but more damaged in his mind. I think he lived with the sound of war replaying in his head every day of his life after he came home. He had a group of army buddies who would come over to drink beer and reminisce about the war, I adored those men, but didn’t understand a bit.
What I remember is their bravado and optimism, one had a metal hook in place of a hand, I liked watching him open bottles and cans with his hook, he never complained. One had an artificial leg, I never heard him complain.
These young men were filled with pride and optimism, they had just defeated an impossible enemy that would have enslaved the world if it had been given the opportunity. Those men were heroes and knew it, they rejected the idea that they were individual heroes, but as a force, they were heroes. America was filled with optimism, there was nothing we couldn’t do or accomplish.
Those men and women built a new, urban America filled with innovation, nothing was out of reach. My generation grew up believing in American superiority, of accomplishment, nothing was impossible, anything could be accomplished. But, we were sheltered from the hard work, determination and drive that made our parents successful.
They assumed that if we were well educated, we could accomplish more than they did. But we sat in classrooms at a time in life when they were doing farm chores, chopping wood, caring for animals, canning and preserving food for winter. We became soft, but we still wanted the success that hard work brought our parents’ generation. Each generation since has become softer and softer to the point that young people need stuffed animals and safe spaces to cope with minor disagreements. We are not the same people who won two world wars, we are not the people who built skyscrapers, or invented all of our modern conveniences.
We must take off the blinders and see the world as it is, not the way my dad saw it, but the reality of the world of today. We forfeited my dad’s America, it’s time we recognize that. If we want an America like my parents’ generation, but an America with greater sensitivity to minorities and the disabled, we MUST first see the reality of where we are TODAY, not where we were in 1950.
We won’t do that listening to the mockingbird media and the corrupt looters and moochers, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start to do the hard labor to restore the country, politicians won’t do it for us and it won’t happen if we are sending our youth and treasure into another losing war or locking ourselves in our houses because we’re afraid of each other. Be like my dad, don’t be like the college student protesting about pronouns.
The Sheep’s Big Mistake
“The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd.”
African proverb