Star One Smart Blog's

An excellent essay posted by Ric Locke over at the PW Pub that I read this morning brings to mind a letter Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote to Henry S. Randall, where Macaulay is predicting the future of America, pointing out some of the pitfalls of our democratically-styled government (and predicts that, given our constitution, America will eventually fall to barbarians.)

"Your fate I believe to be certain, though it is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your labouring population will be far more at ease than the labouring population of the old world; and, while that is the case, the Jeffersonian polity may continue to exist without causing any fatal calamity.

"But time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be low, and will fluctuate with you as with us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams, and in those Manchesters and Birminghams, hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then, your institutions will be fairly brought to the test. Distress everywhere makes the laborer mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators who tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one man should have a million while another cannot get a full meal.

...

"...I cannot help forbodeing the worst. It is quite plain that your government will never be able to restrain a distressed and discontented majority...The day will come when....a multitude of people, none of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expect to have more than half a dinner, will chose a Legislature....On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for vested rights...On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists....and asking why anybody should be permitted to drink Champagne and to ride in a carriage, while thousands of honest folks are in want of necessities..."

"Your constitution is all sail and no anchor.... Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand; or your republic will be...laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth Century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth;—with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions."

This from the Democratic Chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee: "We can't win militarily". We. can't. win.

We've heard that from Leftist Democrats for years, now, and from everyone else who seeks to gain politically from every problem or casualty our military forces suffer (including Ron Paul)...everyone who puts their BDS above rightful support for the troops.

We have a badly-needed defense appropriations bill that's withered in the House because, even with the successes of the Surge, Democrats are withholding funds, basically not supporting our troops. The fact is, WE ARE NOT LOSING THE WAR!

"The trend toward better security is indisputable," writes the Associated Press. U.S. military and civilian deaths have declined sharply. Anbar Province is pacified, Iraqis are streaming back to Baghdad, and al Qaeda in Iraq is on the run. Time's Joe Klein, a critic of the administration, admits the gains and advises Democrats not to try to cut off funds. Conservative columnist Tony Blankley claims "a very real expectation that next year the world may see a genuine, old-fashioned victory in the Iraq war."

"Look at all the people that have been displaced, all the [lost] oil production, unemployment, all those type of things," "We can't win militarily." "To change the political law, it doesn't seem to me you need the military stability,"

The funding standoff will force the Pentagon to make budget cuts at bases in the U.S. to cover the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, including sending furlough notices to as many as 100,000 civilian employees, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. She said the furlough notices could start going out before the Democrat-led Congress returns from a two-week Thanksgiving break "We are calling on Congress ... to send the president supplemental war funding without arbitrary surrender dates and without micromanaging the war before they leave for their next vacation, which is going to be around the Christmas holidays," Mrs. Perino said.

There you go.

One thing for certain...we can't win without the troops. We can win with support from Americans here at home; start by calling your vacationing Congressional Representatives and telling them to get back to work and Support the Troops.

And that means ignoring John Murtha and the rest of the losers on the Hill.

The classroom displays were first suggested by the non-profit group In God We Trust — America Inc...

"I encouraged the trustees to put this on the agenda," she said. "It's very important. We need to promote patriotism and promote it in our schools. We can’t just assume that the younger generations are going to have that strong love for God and their country the way the older generations do."
...

"It’s not political. It’s not religious. It’s patriotism," Sullivan said. "American patriotism is love of God and love of country. It's pride in our country."

"Protesting are soldiers is wrong period! Protesting them with your little picket signs shows the world that there is no distinction between your dislike for the war and your disrespect for the troops."

"Some schools have gotten so lax as to not be pledging allegiance to the flag everyday," Sullivan said. "We can easily get out of the habit of doing good things. (Patriotism) is something that continually needs to be taught."