OPINION – If someone were to ask you about the future of America, would you be optimistic or not?
My friend Steve Millet recently traveled to a number of Southern Utah communities to visit with their citizens regarding their thoughts on the future of our nation. He did not seek out the powerful and connected, although a number of community leaders did come forward.
Those with whom he visited were average folks from widely differing circumstances who, nonetheless, voiced a common love and concern for America. Nearly every one of them expressed to Millet a growing awareness that something is very wrong in this country. They sense that America is transforming before their eyes, shedding her defining principles and her liberty. They feel the need to intervene before it is too late.
The evidence of what is happening to our nation is quickly becoming undeniable. And it is most visible in the effect it is having on our young.
America is drowning in debt that will burden generations yet unborn. The mindset of thrift has been replaced with a thirst for instant gratification and a culture of materialism. Real money has been replaced with irredeemable currency that has lost more than 95 percent of its purchasing power in the last 100 years.
Our children are growing up in a state of perpetual war with its attendant costs in lives, treasure, and personal liberty. Essential protections from government power have been sacrificed to build a national security state that increasingly focuses inward on the American people as the likely enemy.
Government schools indoctrinate our children, drug them into submission, and enforce zero-tolerance thinking on an increasing number of subjects.
Mothers have been forced out of the home and into the workplace as irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies make it nearly impossible for households to exist on a single income. Entitlement programs have actively subsidized single parent households creating multi-generational dependency upon government handouts.
People are finally waking to the realization that their freedoms and limited government are vanishing as our Leviathan has taken root and grown.
Which brings us to the real reason that Steve Millet sought the input of others throughout Southern Utah: What can we do to preserve liberty and the promise of America?
In the tradition of true statesmanship, Steve has gone to work starting where he is and working with what he has, without waiting for official permission. He has written and recorded songs and presentations that teach about the Founders and their foundational principles. He has been educating and inspiring audiences throughout Utah by organizing his Great American Constitutional Revivals.
None of this is done with the goal of financial gain. The message of liberty is one that must be freely shared. Millet works long hours and pays most of the expenses from his own pocket, with the help of a handful of donations.
I’ve participated as a speaker in two of Steve’s events and can vouch for the fact that he is the first to show up and the last to call it a day.
His goal is straightforward; teach the people the principles of freedom and the forgotten history of those who implemented them at our nation’s founding.
It’s noteworthy that Millet has not allowed himself to be sidetracked by shiny things like fame or the partisan call of political power. He understands that not all of America’s problems require a political solution.
Political parties exist for the purpose of getting candidates elected. This means that principles often take a backseat to the quest for simple power.
Millet’s approach is based in helping people learn the principles and practices of liberty for themselves and then safeguard those principles by living lives of individual goodness and personal morality.
The essential nature of knowing these principles is consistent with what James Madison taught when he wrote, “The Freemen of America didn’t wait until usurped power had strengthened itself in exercise, and entangled the matter in precedents; they saw all of the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.”
The beauty of Madison’s idea is that it works when applied at all levels of government. The only thing holding most people back is that they have not yet applied themselves by taking responsibility to educate themselves.
As Millet puts it, “If we would have our liberty, we must first understand what it takes to be free.”
These words carry real influence when coming from one who is not asking anyone to do what he himself is unwilling to do.
If there is an America to be saved, it will be saved by people like Steve Millet who are willing to learn and live the principles of liberty.
Bryan Hyde is a news commentator and co-host of the Perspectives morning show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @youcancallmebry
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.
He is a … Anyone with a basic understanding of economics would read this article and laugh. Its not worth going into specifics because all of the information presented is a complete fallacy.
Ed. ellipsis
OK so some deep pocketed right wingers are sponsoring him to spread more paranoia, hate and bigotry. You want people to think that Steve’s interpetation of the “principles of freedom and the founding princples of this country” are the only way! You want sheeple and not free thinkers. I can’t for the life of me figure out why you don’t renege your citizenship and find your eden. Your columns are filled with nothing but bigotry, hate and disdain for America. Take the lead Bryan show us your man and not just a squawk box! Renounce now!!!
Sounds like the mating call of the red white and blue chest-thumper. It appears that our biggest difference is that I don’t conflate our government with our country. America is made up of her people, traditions, principles, ideals and a host of institutions–one of which happens to be government. I’m glad this struck a nerve with you and got a reaction. I’d hate to think I was just preaching to the choir.
Good government is blessing, but what we have today is authoritarianism that’s rapidly approaching totalitarianism. If you can show me that this is what the Founders had in mind, I’ll consider your offer. Otherwise, you and I are going to have to wrassle to see who gets to stay.
And I’m curious, who’s the better alternative to the current totalitarian government? A republican President?
You’ve got to be kidding, right? This is not a matter of Republican vs. Democrat or left vs. right. Bush was as abusive of power when he was in office as Obama is now. It’s the state vs. the people. Find those who support limited government, and you’ll have a better alternative than the current two party establishment.
So… who cares to lay out a point-by-point rebuttal in a sensible fashion to Bryan’s points? All I’m seeing are posts that amount to a spitting for distance contest backed by name-calling and label-flinging.
Why bother? I clicked on the link “Steve has gone to work” and landed on good old Steve’s website complete with shopping cart for him to peddle his wares. Coming soon to his shopping cart – food storage, music, cds, dvds. Just another right-winger making a buck off of fear-mongering.
Well how about this:
-America is drowning in debt: Some Americans are, but not all. Many of us are just poor wage earners, but carry little or no debt. If you mean national debt, well you ought to distinguish, and God Tier up there has a good point. As for real money, yeah not the gold standard and yeah not the paper currency. But yeah the important point about our currency is that is still being exchanged and does buy things today…the Japanese and Germans before WWII did worse, and most other countries have, too, in fact Russia, rightly or wrongly, is historically infamous for not paying debts borrowed…
-Our children are growing up in a state of perpetual war: If they watch tv and read the news, sort of. But not actually and in their own country, and on that point no American generation has for a hundred years. And generally speaking, we are not in perpetual war by comparison to other countries today, not by a long shot…
-Government schools indoctrinate our children: Depends on which subject; I for one would prefer more children to be indoctrinated more with mathematics and Charles Dickens. ‘Zero tolerance’ should be defined rather than thrown about. And we seem to be weeding even caffeine and sugar out of the school system lunches, more’s the pity. Which drugs?
-Mothers have been forced out of the home and into the workplace as irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies make it nearly impossible for households to exist on a single income: Again, some of us Americans are poor wage earners, the sons and daughters of coal miners and the grandchildren of washerwomen. Poor people have been doing other peoples laundry for thousands of years all over the world. Compare us to the England of even a hundred years ago and we are doing pretty well…anyway that is at least debatable. This is an ideal that has never been realized, especially among the poor, who need that ideal the most. And I mean never ever realized, and I mean really really need it.
-What Leviathan? Not Hobbes’ Leviathan, surely. At least, not without proof. More statements.
And finally this
– Entitlement programs have actively subsidized single parent households creating multi-generational dependency upon government handouts: In some cases, it actually makes a twisted sort of sense for people to stay home, take care of their kids, and stay on the dole. I say twisted because the government has made it such that it makes more sense to someone who has 2 or 3 kids and is collecting child support to stay at home, rather than to try and live off of the McWage, receive no government benefits and pay obscene child care costs to people who don’t care about their kids. Also, in terms of helping single parents with government benefits, that depends on whether you are a primary caregiver or not. Parents who pay child support, whatever the reason, get the shaft every time. If you think otherwise, you’ve never been there and should keep your mouth shut.
And I’ll take the Chesterbelloc over the Jeffersonmadison Jaybird any day, so there!
Great job Steve and Brian. I’m glad Steve has the courage and conviction to stand up and discuss the principles which he believes in so sincerely. People like this have always caused me to Examine my current belief structure and study and research things out for myself. They sometimes help me discover questions I had never thought to ask, and this is a very valuable tool for helping people be able to think for themselves.
Good on you, Roy J! How’s that for “independent thought,” Brian?
Spot on Roy!
Change has been occuring in America since the signing of the Declaration of Indepence in 1776, and for the better I might add! So quit with your fear mongering and slick antics. Modern day ultra right wing conservatism is dead, as evidenced with the recent presidential election. 🙂 Sorry to burst your bubble.
Another huckster peddling Mormon feel-good revisionist historical fables. If you are looking to learn more about the history of our remarkable national experience, do yourself a favor… be skeptical of charlatans hawking goods on cheesy websites promoted by wingnut radio talk show bloviators.