"IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA"
a weekly column published every Sunday by
Ron Ewart, President of the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

For the week of:
Sunday, February 5, 2017

The "In Defense of Rural America" column archives are available HERE.

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"100+ Years of Progressive Rule Unraveling"
From * In Defense of Rural America *
By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
and nationally recognized author on freedom and property rights issues.
We are helping to spread freedom and liberty around the globe.
© Copyright February 5, 2017 - All Rights Reserved

The Democrats are shocked, dumbstruck, blinded-sided and apoplectic! How could a brash, untamed, crude billionaire businessman appear on the political scene and shake the very timbers of 100 plus years of Progressive rule? How dare this champion slayer of the establishment challenge the Progressive Way that has been silently and with premeditation, infiltrated into the fabric of America and lies embedded in every American institution, as well as being part of the cranial synapses of at least four generations of millions of duped Americans.

From President Wilson's Sixteenth Amendment, to FDR's unconscionable perversion of the U. S. Constitution and his giant leap into socialism, to President Johnson's Great Society failed welfare experiment and to President Obama's delusion of hope, change and foreign policy through appeasement, America, on the flawed ideology of Progressivism, has slid so far from its roots of individual liberty and international influence and power, as to be unrecognizable. America is flat broke and deep in debt.

But for years and to this day, much of America was and is in silent foment from Progressive rule. Taxes mounted to the point of wealth confiscation to pay for Progressive policies. Regulations at the federal, state and local levels were growing exponentially. By the late 1960's radical environmentalism had taken control over every human activity and added strangling regulations and huge costs to everything Americans buy, including their homes, energy and food.

From 1950 to 2016 the national debt, mostly under Progressive rule, grew 20 fold from less than $1 Trillion in 1950 to almost $20 Trillion in 2016. During Obama's 8-year term in office, the national debt doubled from $10 Trillion to $20 Trillion. (20,000,000,000,000 one-dollar bills laid end to end would reach almost 2 billion miles into deep space, or 247,000,000 miles past the orbit of the Planet Uranus.)

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), by 2026 the national debt is estimated to increase to $33 Trillion because of unfunded Progressive legislation. The cost burden to taxpayers for regulations, welfare, benefits to illegal aliens and government give-away programs keep increasing.

(See: "The Masses Need A Course in Economics, Capital and Freedom")

Government intrusion into our private lives has risen to the point from which revolutions are born.

Federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and U. S. Fish and Wildlife were and are attacking ranchers and farmers across the American West like never before, in the name of radical environmentalism. Those unwarranted attacks on private land ownership have led to seething anger and armed standoffs between ranchers and armed bureaucrats.

Businesses were and still are being overwhelmed with regulations, taxes, time-consuming paperwork and many businesses have had to endure unwarranted raids by drunk-with-power federal agencies, on trumped up charges. To escape the taxes and regulations, large businesses that could, were taking their manufacturing operations offshore. Cities, run mostly by Progressives, were being decimated and headed for bankruptcy and ruin as the manufacturing jobs dried up and the cost of welfare for the victims rose. As a result, these dying cities have become a greater drain on the federal budget.

Our foreign policy based on Obama's weakness and appeasement, encouraged the rise of radical Islamic terrorism and Americans were dying in significant numbers in lone-wolf mass attacks right here in America. Overseas attacks on innocent civilians by Islamic terrorist were and are increasing.

Russia and China have taken advantage of America's weakness and are engaging in armed incursions into other sovereign nations, or claiming possession of whole oceans and international shipping lanes.

Illegal immigration into our country from central and South America and enemy nations has become a mass illegal invasion of America from cultures that are not compatible with a free society. They have brought with them drugs, sex slaves, disease, crime, terrorism, a socialist mindset and in some cases a quasi-religion that seriously conflicts with America's Judeo-Christian heritage. These illegal aliens protest in the streets for "their" rights, while waving the Mexican, or some other flag. The cost to taxpaying Americans is in the multi-billions of dollars every year. The criminal negligence and mismanagement by the federal government of this human invasion should be considered on the level of treason.

(See: "Sanctuary Cities Slap Every Lawful American in the Face")

The seeds of dissent and discontent were and are boiling in undercurrents across the land. Utterances of resistance were silent no more. Talk of armed revolution danced more frequently in the minds of some reactionaries. The size of militia groups grew larger. Open violations of law by normally law- abiding citizens were becoming more frequent. Rising regulations were making more Americans lawbreakers.

Throughout the year and a half campaign he continued to throw indelicate arrows at everyone who dared to challenge his candidacy, including the press and his Republican challengers. When it wasn't going his way, he placed the blame on the polls, or cheating by other Republican candidates. It didn't matter. He called his Republican opponents all kinds of names. It didn't matter. One by one his challengers dropped out, not being able to excite those people that rallied around Trump, that Hillary Clinton called a "basket of deplorables". He promised things to his Republican patriots that could only be accomplished if he was King, but the patriots hung on and they grew in numbers every day. In spite of every negative torpedo the press and the Democrats could throw at him, including being called a sexual predator, to just about everyone's surprise, Donald J. Trump won the Republican nomination. Meanwhile, all the soothsayers were betting on the candidacy of "Crooked Hillary", as Trump loved to call her. They were betting on her all the way up to 11:00 PM Eastern Time on the day of the election.

During the three months from the Republican Convention, leading up to the November 6th election, Trump continued his barrage of tweets and indiscrete utterances. He would say outlandish things that couldn't be supported by the facts. It didn't matter. His loyalists remained steadfast. Instead of allowing minor irritants to pass, he would tweet a response that would set the media on fire and prolong the irritant. It didn't matter. He defied all the nay-sayers, odds-makers and prognosticators and by 11:00 PM Eastern time on the day of the election, one by one the swing states fell to Trump and the Electoral College was his. Trump was now President-Elect and the Democrats were dumb-founded, in disarray ..... and mad as Hell. How could this have happened when Hillary was pre-anointed by the Progressive elite and the press for her to become the next President of the United States? The skids were greased and over a billion dollars in donations were spent, but she lost anyway. It was unfathomable!

Nevertheless, from the day of the election to Trump's Inauguration on January 20th, 2017, the dissenters and detractors never gave up. The Democrats were shocked and bewildered and the press couldn't figure out how they got it so wrong, not realizing that the 2016 election was a referendum on Progressivism. Negative press against Trump flowed like water over a falls and continues to this day and will continue for the length of his presidency.

Progressivism has weakened the very fabric of America's strength, her people and made them wimps, serfs and hopeless dependents on government. Progressives have divided America up into constituency groups of race, age and gender (Democrat voting blocks) who constantly challenge conservative principles for and on behalf of the Democrats, while beating the political drums for a free hand out, or a special benefit, without regard to the cost. That is why America is flat broke and deep in debt.

With any luck, he, President Donald J. Trump, will bring back the pride of being an American and truly make "America Great Again", economically, financially, culturally, spiritually and militarily.

Hopefully, Trump can also arrest this man-caused global warming insanity being foisted upon the American people by environmentally crazed Progressives. (Three years of alleged warming is nothing compared to geologic time. The planet has warmed five times to today's temperatures and higher in the last 500,000 years prior to the industrial revolution.)

(See: "Please, Please, Democrats, Sue to Defend Climate Change")

It's no wonder that Democrats, liberals and Progressives are scared and shaking in their boots. Good Lord, women might lose their free contraceptives, free loaders might lose their government checks and illegal aliens could be deported. It's no wonder they are marching in the streets in large numbers. Their world of collectivism, multi-culturalism, political correctness, "free-stuff", amnesty for illegal aliens and the one-world-order could be collapsing around them.

If Trump is even partially successful and we expect him to be, the fallacy of Progressivism will be exposed once and for all. The socialist poison they have fed to the American people for the last 100 plus years will come up against the Trump anti-dote of freedom that neutralizes their poison. Progressivism will be on trial all across America and with a little help from providence, freedom, liberty, the American people and the free world will be the winners. A successful Trump presidency may very well prevent the revolution that was coming to America, if Progressivism were to prevail.

However, we caution those that intend to rest on Trump's laurels, hoping he will reverse the course of history forever. But Trump will eventually fade from the scene and the Progressives will make another attempt to infect America with their socialist poison, if the free people of America let their guard down for one second.

Throughout history, all Republics eventually evolve into socialism and after years of socialism the people finally resort to the last alternative to preserve freedom ..... revolution. We don't have to repeat history if the people will always maintain the mindset that freedom isn't free and acknowledge that, "we are only one generation away from slavery."

"Progressive rule may be up for grabs for now," but it has a nasty habit of re-appearing as a lesion on the skin of humanity, if the people don't take the difficult task of incising that lesion every now and then ..... by any means necessary.

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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached by e-mail for comment at info@narlo.org or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.

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