The Modern American Tradition Is The Illusion Of Freedom

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – The American tradition is not necessarily changing power.  The American tradition is congratulating one’s self on the illusion that there is this thing called freedom.  If you were to define freedom, what is freedom?  Is freedom freewill?  Is it the exercise of freewill, living under the moral order of God?  Is that what freedom is?  If it is, then please explain to me how you are free today.  You certainly may be free to do certain things but under penalty of confiscation of wealth and under penalty of imprisonment. Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  As you listen to that montage about dissent being patriotic, and as you read the incoming news that a new president — that many but not all of you disagree vehemently with — has now been coronated, I’m sorry, inaugurated yet again, is it equally patriotic to oppose Obama as it was to oppose then President Bush for his tyranny, which are admitted by true conservatives who had not put up much of a fight or protest as mightily against such a review?  Will the voices of dissent be honored in the public square as legitimate voices of concern and patriotism, or will they be shouted down as the grumblings or musings of a racist, backwater few unworthy of the public square?  I think you already know the answer to that.

My response to that would be to make sure when you’re voicing your dissent, you’re voicing it in a polite, gentleman-like, temperate manner so as to inoculate yourself against that kind of criticism, even though there really is no way to fully inoculate yourself.  In other words, if they’re going to come after you, they’re going to come after you.  I wonder what the patriots at the inaugural ball were thinking yesterday when they booed Paul Ryan when he left?  According to the Weekly Standard:

[reading]

Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee in the last election, was booed at President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration today. “If things had gone differently in November, Ryan might have departed the Capitol on Monday as the vice president of the United States,” reports the Huffington Post. Ryan’s statement on Obama’s inauguration: “I congratulate President Obama on his inauguration, and I join the country in celebrating this American tradition. The president and I were political opponents. We had strong disagreements over the direction of the country—as we still do now. But today, we put those disagreements aside. Today, we remember what we share in common. We serve the same country, one that is still in need of repair—and is still the freest on earth.”

[end reading]

Mike:  More free than the Swiss?  More free than the Republic of San Marino or Monaco?  More free than those little bastions we keep hearing about popping up all over the place?  I wonder what kind of an Internal Revenue Service they have in other countries that claim to be free.  I wonder what kind of Transportation and Security Administration they have in other countries that claim to be free.  I wonder what kind of wealth redistribution schemes they have in other countries that claim to be free.  I wonder what kind of eviscerated civil liberties they used to have in other countries that claim to be free.  The list, of course, could go on and on and on.

The American tradition is not necessarily changing power.  The American tradition is congratulating one’s self on the illusion that there is this thing called freedom.  If you were to define freedom, what is freedom?  Is freedom freewill?  Is it the exercise of freewill, living under the moral order of God?  Is that what freedom is?  If it is, then please explain to me how you are free today.  You certainly may be free to do certain things but under penalty of confiscation of wealth and under penalty of imprisonment.  You are not free to do things like not purchase health insurance policies.  If you drive an automobile in certain states, you’re not free to not purchase a policy from the GEICO gecko.  Are you really free?  Are you free to go out and free range around and find cows you want to eat, slaughter them, and maybe share some of the meat by sale to your friends?  No, you’re not, because you have to have a USDA stamp on it or your state has to approve of these things.

It was interesting yesterday, to me, and I think of these little things out in the real world because that’s where all of us live.  The ignition lock on my Saturn Vue — yes, I still drive the 2004 version of the wagon queen family trucks.  The ignition lock jammed and the key was stuck in it.  It’s been giving me problems.  I knew it was only a matter of time before it left me stranded somewhere.  Of course, it locked in a position where it was on.  That means the battery ran itself down and I couldn’t get the key out.  I had to call a locksmith.  The locksmith showed up and did what’s called an extraction.  He ultimately got the key out.  He worked the ignition back into working order by lubing it up and doing a couple locksmithy things.  He got it working for me.

I noticed on the side of the van, when it showed up, he was licensed by the State of Louisiana and had his license number on the side of the van.  I had given no consideration to that whatsoever.  My only concern was can you get here this afternoon and can you unlock the wheel and get the vehicle started?  I must say to my state legislators and Governor Jindal, thank you so much for protecting me from the vermin that might be out there crawling across the southeast Louisiana countryside right now seeking to free people’s ignition locks without state licenses.  Shudder the thought!  What an absolutely horrific state of being we would be in if we did not have licensed locksmiths.  That made the level of service, perfected I must surmise.  Otherwise, why would you go and apply for the license?  So I got the ignition working and I have to try to find a replacement, meaning since the president put Saturn out of business, good luck to Mike.  There is no more Saturn car company to manufacture replacement ignition cylinders for it.  I’ve got to try to find one after-market.  Good luck to me.

To answer the question again, about this exchange in power, about all the grandiose balls and events that were supposed to transpire — here’s a question: If yesterday was not a holiday, just pretend that yesterday was not Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday so it would not have been a federal holiday.  Would the peasantry and citizenry been afforded the opportunity in the land of the free and the mobile home of the brave to celebrate along with their allegedly-elected representatives, and to celebrate the peaceful exchange of one power to the other — although this was just a resuming of a previous extended power.  Do you think we would have been granted the day off if you wanted it?

Would you have been granted some manner of government emolument — that’s what they would have called it in the 18^th century, so we could have partaken of all the great, extravagant events that were going on at the Capitol?  [mocking] “Mike, you could have gone to the Capitol.”  What if I didn’t want to go to the Capitol?  What if in my capacity as a free American I wanted to stay here and enjoy the freedoms of southeast Louisiana?  Shouldn’t I have been accorded some manner of celebratory goodies?  Shouldn’t we have had celebration parties paid for by our magisterial government in every corner of the land?  Wouldn’t that have been fair?  Why should the bigwigs in DC get all the lobster and bison steaks?  AG, did you get a bison steak yesterday?

AG:  That was not on my menu.

Mike:  Did you get a lobster yesterday?

AG:  Would have been nice.

Mike:  You were even near where the events were taking place.  Were the outside-the-green-zone inaugural celebrations paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture?

AG:  They were not.  I thought most of the payment of yesterday was private donations.

Mike:  They raised money.  There’s a presidential inaugural fund.  Some of it is raised.  I think last year for Obama’s inauguration, if I remember the story correctly, how strange would this be that somebody would plan this thing and it would go over budget and they would run a deficit on it?

End Mike Church Show Transcript