THESE Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls

In “The American Crisis” – published 2 days before the first Christmas in our newly-declared Independent America – Thomas Paine followed his opening statement with this:

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

The Boston Tea Party, which happened 3 years before Paine made these observations, was the culmination of years of frustration with oppression by Britain’s King and his Parliament. American Colonists had reached a point beyond which they would go no further and committed themselves, together, to stand up against the tryanny of taxation without representation. There is no great mystery behind why today’s anti-big-Government activism movement named itself the “Tea Party” nor should there be any confusion as to why they protest; there are many similarities between how the King treated the Colonists and how President Obama and his legislative agenda, treats us now.

Government has grown too large, and its tentacles reach too deep into our personal lives and our livelihoods. It spends American treasure on wasteful initiatives at a TRILLIONS of dollars rate faster than its revenues can keep pace with. These, just like Paine’s, truly are the times that try men’s souls.

“We, the People” have always been better suited for the calls to innovation, creativity, and sacrifice. And yet the Federal Government continues to take over the private sector, or tighten its grip on those of us trying to survive within it. Historically, however, we know that when these things the Federal Government is increasingly assuming control over have been allowed to be done in the private sector, private enterprise and efficiency meets no equal, including the Federal Government.

That a movement rises up against these things from a central authority should be no surprise. That its critics would define the resistance in bigotry or racism terms, or accuse it of having some ill-conceived notion (allegedly) that “Democrats are bad” and destructive of the American dream and our way of life, only serves to prove the rightness of Paine’s warnings 234 years ago.

Critics of the Tea Party are no different than Paine’s “summer soldier” or “sunshine patriot.” Their inability to defend Obama’s policies …even their inability to articulate why they are better than any others that have been proposed these past two years… and their silence on the larger issue of Federal encroachment on our rights and our liberties and our freedoms suggests they don’t have a reasoned nor superior explanation. They choose, instead, to call people names and hurl wild accusations and avoid engaging them in principled and well mannered debate. This can only mean one of two things; either they really don’t comprehend how many of our rights and our liberties have been (and continue to be) taken away from us, or they just don’t care.

If it’s the former, Tea Parties and those who will follow them will do well to continue trying to educate. If it’s the latter, then Democrats and Liberals and Progressives will, by the actions of the rest of us, find themselves wandering in their own wilderness in very short order. This is an American fight – a fight for our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…it is not a fight that was engaged or won through partisanship and selfishness back then, and it won’t be won in modern times on those terms either.

[Note: This post originates at Liberty.Com]