Lurking Tyranny

I don’t say a lot of political things on my blog, and this won’t be a long post, either, but I think this is more than simple partisan politics and I feel a need to post some thoughts here. 

At a recent commencement speech in Ohio, our president said this: 

“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted."

My very first reaction when I read that was, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” You know, if you say it often enough, people will think it’s true. Some of the people anyway. Methinks the man protests too much there. I ask why should we ignore ‘these voices’? Just because the president says so? 

Sneer, jeer, pooh-pooh all they want, ‘assure’ the sheeple all they want, there is a reason some (many) of us are distrustful of too much government. Repeatedly saying there’s not a problem and encouraging people to reject ‘those voices’ doesn’t make ‘those voices’ wrong. When the Constitution and the system of checks and balances are trampled upon, it makes it hard to trust the leaders who do it. Some of us don’t trust our leaders or their worldview, and this isn’t reserved only for the current leaders. The past administration was willing to sacrifice some of our freedoms in the name of 'safety' too. And I liked that president....but not everything he did. I pray for them, as a Christian citizen should. I respect the office, and I recognize that some government is necessary. But I also believe that government isn’t supposed to usurp too much control over other spheres of life, and government shouldn’t be looked to as a savior. At least, when this is the case it very, very often has bad consequences for the people who are governed. 

So, respectfully, there is a reason we ‘warn of government as.....some sinister entity,’ and warn of tyranny lurking just around the corner. Recent examples include: 

The Benghazi affair

The IRS affair

DOJ and AP phone records

To only name a few. 

And while I’m ranting, there’s a reason a lot of us don’t have much respect for the mainstream media, either. The pitiful coverage of the Gosnell affair, for one glaring example. And while I’m on that tangent, NARAL is a scary group. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Way to spin up the spin machine. I have NO respect for them or their opinions. Zip, zero, nada. This man killed human BABIES. And the ones he managed to snuff out before they were ‘unfortunately’ born alive were human BABIES too. And much as our increasingly self-centered culture wants to ignore and deny this, a matter of seconds and location doesn’t change that fact. And the NY Times trying to confuse the issue by calling the BABIES fetuses does NOTHING to alter that glaringly obvious fact. 

And while I'm at it, in for a dime, in for a dollar, why was Angelina Jolie the top trending story on CNN all morning? Not to be rude, ahem, but why do we care about her when all this other stuff is more IMPORTANT? (In the sake of fairness, top trending story has finally changed this afternoon - I checked before posting this, but I wonder if that's because they just can't avoid it with the recent press conference having just happened.) During the heat of the Gosnell trial the story we heard most for DAYS it seems was Reese Witherspoon's troubles. WHO CARES? Why is pop culture more important to us than things that actually could affect our real lives? We live with our heads in a pop culture bubble, thinking we're 'informed' but we're just entertaining ourselves into a virtual stupor. WAKE UP, people.

But.....if they say something often enough, sheeple begin to bleat it and believe it. If that offends someone, too bad. I’m offended and grieved by all of this and more.