Atlas shrugged and walked away

Today, Atlas shrugged.....no longer able to hold back the "general welfare"


After election day, I am still not sure what to say or how to feel about it all.

I never had real confidence Mitt Romney would win, the polls never showed a real path, the people never fell too far from the giving tree.  But what now?

My first thought and perhaps second and third might be to burn it down.  Just let the country go and fade into whatever type of “socialism” it continues to move towards.  I know, before the fervent Left yells, “we are not socialists!” well then, whatever you feel like calling, the "ever expanding role of a central government in our day to day life and planning", then use that term.  More Government-ism?  Does that work for you?

Central planning, State controlled business, media control, whatever "that" is, we are heading towards more of it; period.  Don’t like the term?  Make one up, feel free.  Forward?  Power to the People? Or how about Change?  That is a good one.  Change; and we are at that.  We are moving from an individual type society where we are free to pursue our own Life, Liberty and Happiness protected by the Federal Government from the intrusions of others in the most lawful manner we can, to the best of our ability and labor.  Where we were free to demand the price for our production on the open market, free to extract our property from the toils of our self.  But now we move towards a more “fair” and “equal” based lot, where we are only able to pursue our Life, Liberty and happiness provided we can bear the weight of the regulations, the taxes, the wealth redistribution, the confines of the State; the shackles on our wrists so that we do not excel to well or too fast.  We move now towards a system that seeks to provide for us our happiness and our property and ensures that we do not get too far ahead of those less industrious.  We shall continue to move towards a State of equality where we will all be equal; equally poor.

Me, I can honestly say this election has made me tired.  I speak from the middle class, wishing for more yet bearing the weight of the little success I have garnered. 
I am tired of being vilified for my responsibility. 
I am tired of being called evil for my success. 
I am tired of paying more than my fair share and then being asked to pay more. 
I am tired of saying and doing and living with personal responsibility and being called selfish and uncaring. 
I am tired of paying the tithe to Government's Charity and then paying my own private charity. 
I am tired of being told I don't care about people because I do not think sending the Government more money is the solution for poverty. 
I am tired of being told "we" only need to spend a little more to make everything okay. 
I am tired of the idea that spending more money will make everything better. 
I am tired of the idea that removing personal responsibility and promoting Government responsibility will suddenly make Johnny read and multiply better. 
I am tired of having to correct the notion that health care and health insurance are the same thing. 
I am tired of having to explain that over 80% of Americans had and liked their health care and that maybe we should concentrate on getting the other 20% better access to it rather than take away access for the 80%.
I am tired of having to work harder so that others do not have to work, at all. 
I am tired of being made to feel guilty for having gotten where I am today. 
I am tired of living in the shadows with my God in what was founded as a religiously open and tolerant nation. 
I am tired of hiding my beliefs in the greatness of free market capitalism in what was the world's greatest example of a better living standard through industry of the Self.
I am tired of wanting people to come to our country legally.
I am tired of having to explain that choice starts before the morning after.
I am tired of explaining that granting a right to one cannot come at the expense of another.
If it is my flesh they want, they can have it.  If it is more they want, then more is what they will get.  Legally packaged theft, knocking at my pay check, tugging on my property, standing at my door.

The Republic is surely dead.  It was great while it lasted.  It lifted the world on its shoulders as Atlas did and it did not shrug; it carried.  The Republic showed the world what freedom could do nestled in the arms of Liberty; what a well meaning people could do in pursuit of their own Life and Happiness.  It rebuilt the cities crushed under the weight of tyrants and dictators, it airlifted hope to the people trapped behind walls and beckoned those seeking more to come to our shores.  Now, Atlas has shrugged and we have a Democracy of the masses, the raging mob full of spite for the successful (feared by the Founders) and the happy good-thought-policies of the people will reign supreme until we are all equal.  Equal in their life, their home, their wealth.  The smallest minority, the individual, is now gone and has surrendered final rights of their Life, Liberty and Happiness.  The collective reigns supreme, the masses have voted and the masses have spoken and the Bill of Rights will only holdout for so long.  The Constitution is now a living breathing article of limitation once used to protect the person, the citizen, it will now secure the Collective and promote the General welfare at the expense of individual Liberty. 
 

 There was a time when all men were created equal but that time has faded away.  We now use the Government not to govern with equality but to legislate equal outcomes.  It grants property from one to ease the lack in another.  It rewards single mothers and punishes wedded unions.  It demands tribute for the opportunity to be successful and demeans pride in thinking a person built anything.  It sets a progressive federal tax code that grows ever more based on income, then screams "pay more" to be "fair" and redistribute your excess.  There was a time when Government did not decide which businesses would win or lose, there was a time when Government did not social engineer the citizen to buy a house they could not afford or drive a car they did not want or use energy that was not viable. 

 

Rand was right.  de Tocqueville was right.  The Founders were right.

 

God Bless America, land that I knew.