Tag: 1776

TBT^18,446,744,073,709,551,616: Happy Birthday, America!

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It is wild looking back at the past year’s posts, and seeing how liberty keeps rallying to victory every time it seems near to death.  A year ago, the future seemed uncertain; today, it seems as though a light is shining through the fog.  Yes, America still has problems—lots of them—but we’re finally experiencing competent leadership that—gasp!—puts Americans first.

So it is that, at 249-years-old tomorrow, it seems that, at long last, America is back.

With that, here is 4 July 2024’s “TBT^4,294,967,296: Happy Birthday America!“:

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TBT^4,294,967,296: Happy Birthday, America!

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Today the United States celebrates its 248th birthday.  Things seem to be looking up from a year ago.  The Usurper Biden short-circuited during last week’s presidential debate, while President Trump came across as a restrained but effective pugilist.  As I told my neighbor, one of the two came across as presidential; it’s pretty clear which one.

Tucker Carlson’s ouster from Fox News has been a Godsend for open discourse and dialogue.  Not only did he interview Vladimir Putin—perhaps the most important interview of the century—he’s hosted dozens of guests from all across the political spectrum and from all over the world, many of whom would have been too spicy for Fox News to touch.

Across the pond, Nigel Farage is shaking up an otherwise dull parliamentary election with his revitalized Reform Party.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.  It’s starting to feel a lot like 2016 again—and a lot like 1776.

With that, here is 6 July 2023’s “TBT^65,536: Happy Birthday, America!“:

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TBT^65,536: Happy Birthday, America!

The Portly Politico8 Comments

On Tuesday, American celebrated its 247th birthday.  We’re now just three years away from the “Bisesquicentennial,” or whatever the word is for “250th.”  That’s going to be a big one, for sure.

Since last year’s Independence Day post, things seem about the same.  The culture war rages on, but everything feels like it’s in a weird sort of stasis.  Yes, Trump has been indicted on (pardon the expression) trumped up charges.  Yes, Tucker got the boot from Fox News.  But even those events—which are major turning points—don’t feel all that consequential.  I mean, they are, but in a world where we’re constantly passing through one looking glass after another, crossing one Rubicon after the other, even the momentous has become mundane.

It probably doesn’t help that we all know the Trump indictments are a political witch hunt and are utterly meaningless in any legal sense, and that we all knew Fox News was going to defenestrate The Tuck sooner or later.  That doesn’t diminish the importance of those events, but they’re not exactly shocking, either.  Persecution of popular and effective figures on the Right is now just part of the new normal.

Such is the danger of the banality of evil—we come to suffer them, while still sufferable, because the alternative could be worse.  Jefferson wrote as much in the Declaration of Independence (emphasis added):

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Of course, these evils are far less sufferable than the tyranny the American colonists faced in 1776—and which they were already fighting against, starting with Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Indeed, the colonists were pushing back as early as 1765 and the Stamp Act Crisis; Lexington and Concord were just when Americans were shooting at the British (they started shooting at us in 1770 at the Boston Massacre).

Today, we have hundreds of Americans held indefinitely without trial because they moseyed through the Capitol Building with a police escort serving as tour guides.  Never mind that Leftists and myriad other groups have “stormed” the Capitol Building on multiple occasions, also disrupting the government’s business; they’re the beautiful people, right?

Perhaps it would do us well to reflect upon the Spirit of 1776.

With that, here is “TBT^256: Happy Birthday, America!“:

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SubscribeStar Saturday: The Spirit of 1776

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Disclaimer:  I do not endorse violence as a means to achieving political ends in normal circumstances.  That said, I reject the claim that “violence never solves anything.”  The vast annals of human history suggest the opposite is largely the case—violence has been the resort—sometimes final, sometimes not—to resolve any number of problems.  Our entire political system rests on the implicit use of violent force towards upholding the common good—and protecting those unable to protect themselves.  Jesus Christ died—quite violently!—for our sins, offering us ultimate salvation forever.

Further, our entire nation is founded on a last-resort to violence to secure American liberty:  the American Revolution.  Brave men pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honors to secure liberty and to defend their rights.  Over 4000 did make the ultimate sacrifice—and many, many more since then—to win and secure our freedom.  Sometimes some turbulence is necessary—as the Left has told us all of last year as BLM destroyed cities—to secure liberty.

That’s an uncomfortable concept—I don’t necessarily like it, and I am sad to see it has come to that—but it’s the foundation of our Republic.  I sincerely pray for reconciliation and healing, as did John Dickinson prior to the American Revolution, but I am not optimistic given Democratic control of the organs of power.  The storming of the Capitol will be used as a pretext—it already is—to oppress and imprison conservatives.  At such a point, the remaining options begin to vanish.

I am not calling for or advocating violence in any form—but I’m afraid it’s coming nevertheless.  Please pray with me for reconciliation—true reconciliation, not the dictator’s peace of bending the knee to Leftist insanity—and prepare for troubled times ahead.

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