Newt Gingrich

If you aren’t familiar with the unlikely collaboration between Alison Krause and Robert Plant, the multi-Grammy winning “Raising Sand” CD, you should give it a listen. It is a masterpiece of synergy. The track entitled “The Trampled Rose” is a haunting vocal by Ms. Krauss showing the range or her wonderful voice. You can listen to it here: The Trampled Rose

It tells the plaintive story of a young woman who gives her lover a single rose that is emblematic of all that she feels. She expects him to treasure it, placing the importance on it that she does. Instead when she walks out on the street she finds a rose trampled into the mud. She slowly realizes that it was the very rose she gave him and he discarded it as soon as he was out of her sight. Her heart is broken at the magnitude of his betrayal.

There is a parallel story unwinding on a larger scale, even as you read this. We the people of the United States of America have bestowed upon Barak Hussein Obama the highest honor and the most sacred trust possible for us to bestow upon a human being: The Presidency of the greatest nation in the history of this planet.

According to Article 1 of our inspired constitution, there are only two duties that he, in return, is sworn to. The oath of office for the President of the United States of America taken directly from Article 1 of the constitution says it best:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The stewardship of preserving, protecting and defending our constitution the charter of our liberty and the American way, is our most sacred rose, entrusted to only 43 other humans in the history of our country. Mr. Obama accepted our “rose” and swore that oath, with his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s bible, no less. There is evidence that as soon as he was out of our sight, he discarded this rose and trampled it into the mud. What betrayal! Think he had his fingers crossed? What about the members of congress who swore the same oath? Why do they go along?

Thomas Jefferson counseled: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” To think that ours may be the generation that fell asleep on guard duty and failed to preserve America’s liberty for our posterity! After all the vigilance and sacrifice by previous generations in order to pass it intact to us, that would be shameful beyond words.

We have had forty three presidents before Mr. Obama, some good, some not so good, some were most excellent and some were disastrous. But none were traitors. We may have disagreed with how they handled their stewardship, questioned their honesty, competency, morality or even their sanity. But we as a nation have never had cause to question their loyalty. Have we come to that now?

Don’t worry; I will not drive us both into the dirt by reciting a litany of evidence of Mr. Obama’s disregard for this sacred document or his assaults on our liberties. What I would like to understand, however, is WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? Why do you have to come to a blog like this to hear these thoughts expressed? Where the voice s of those public figures with ambitions to lead us? Why do these “leaders” pretend this is a case of partisan politics as usual?

Mitt? Sarah? Newt? Cat got your tongue? We need our leaders to step up and call this what it is! Timidity and fear of the spotlight will serve neither you nor your country! Dr. Alan Keyes, and Dr Ron Paul seem to display the courage for a lonely swim against the current.

I wonder what our founding fathers would think of us now. Are we all armchair patriots? If the signers of the Declaration of Independence had hesitated to step forth and condemn the then legal and lawful government of King George for fear of condemnation or capture, where would we be now?

I saw a fitting message for Mitt, Sarah, Newt and all the others who would lead us, in a twitter user Bio of all places! “Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow… Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead… Just go stand over there somewhere.” Put another clichéd way, Lead, follow or get out of the way!

I am not waiting for someone to get the courage to step forward. Consider this a “help wanted” ad:

Wanted, for a thankless and potentially dangerous job:

A real leader! Your gender, race, or religious preference doesn’t matter. You must, however, be willing to sacrifice your privacy, peace, career and family and even your life if necessary.

This job has been vacant for over 200 years. Although we have faced many crises as a nation since then, we have never since had to face a situation parallel to the American Revolution.

You will be mocked, reviled, ridiculed, spat upon and probably shot at. Though you must never break the law, you will be accused of crimes ranging from inciting riots, mayhem and insurrection to treason and who knows what else. When this happens you must be wise enough to take it as a sign of your success and keep pressing forward.

Those you will lead are a rag-tag bunch. Many are armchair patriots who will need to be motivated to stand up from their chairs and trade the rhetoric for action: strenuous, thankless, discouraging and sometimes dangerous action. We are an independent lot and can’t seem to agree on anything. Our civic duties, to date, have been primarily focused on the political process and casting our vote for the candidates of our choice. We don’t follow well and each of us has our own ideas of what needs to be done. We are a whiney lot and will question and complain about your solutions while not offering any better alternatives. We all love our country, but few of us have ever been called upon to sacrifice anything important or take any real risks for her. Our primary skill is talk and avoiding the limelight. We are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents. We are the folks you will be leading!

The opposition is well organized, extremely well funded with the financial might of the US government. They have the power to raise and deploy trillions of dollars in their service! They have the might of the US military and the forces of Homeland Security on their side. They are supported by millions of unquestioning zombie-like automatons, and their leader is very charismatic and effective.

Any applicants?