Truth and Freedom

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the important relationship between truth and freedom in a republic such as the United States of America.  A democracy is a governing system where each person has a vote as to any action taken, and this system works well in groups small enough to meet together to discuss problems and solutions.  A republic is a governing system where the people elect representatives to do the business of the people, but the people retain the power.  The Framers of the Constitution of the United States established a republic because they expected their new nation to expand until it covered the entire area between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, and they wanted to install a system of government that would work for a relatively small nation as well as a nation of over 300 million people.  

                    The Framers understood that they were establishing a government that would work only if the people maintained good morals, such as honesty and integrity; in other words, the Framers knew that dishonest and wicked leaders could destroy their new nation.  The Framers were inspired to put five elements into the Constitution to safeguard the liberty of the people: 

1) Separation of powers into three independent branches of government - executive, legislative, and judicial; 2) The Bill of Rights' guarantee of freedom of speech, press, and religion; 3) Equality of all men and women before the law; 4) The federal system, with a division of powers between the nation as a whole and the states.  5) The principle of popular sovereignty - the power of government comesTruth from the people.

                    The worst fears of the Founders for our nation are coming to pass.  Many of our leaders are dishonest in numerous ways.  Some of them perform their business in such a way that they personally benefit at the expense of the people.  Other leaders tell outright lies to deceive the people and gain power over them.

                    Jesus Christ taught, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).  If we can be free by knowing the truth, then it stands to reason that we can be enslaved through lies. 

                    Adolf Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist German Worker's Party, and he came to power at a time when Germany was experiencing economic problems.  The German people were not idiots but well-informed citizens who read newspapers and listened to radio broadcasts.  Hitler wove his magic by giving a different message to different groups; he basically promised each group whatever they wanted to hear - whether it was tax cuts, new laws, plans for redistribution of wealth, or reducing the power of the labor unions.  The people did not realize that he was lying to them and thought he was wonderful.  Even the Jews believed that the government was acting for the good of the people.

                    Hitler revealed his real plans to only his closest associates: "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.  Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." 

                    Hitler wrote in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, "The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one" (as quoted by Andy Andrews in How Do You Kill 11 Million People? - Why the Truth Matters More than You Think, 32).  Hitler's words have been read by many people, particularly the German people who believed his lies and suffered greatly from his deceit. 

                    For the past four years we have listened to many lies told by Barack Obama, members of his administration, and other supporters.  The main stream media simply keeps repeating the lies until the majority of Americans come to believe them!

                    Thomas Sowell is a very wise man who is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (website tsowell dot com).  He wrote an article about this topic and titled it "`Cooling Out' the Voters."  

"Confidence men know that their victim - `the mark' as he has been called - is eventually going to realize that he has been cheated.  But it makes a big difference whether he realizes it immediately, and goes to the police, or realizes it after the confidence man is long gone.

"So part of the confidence racket is creating a period of uncertainty, during which the victim is not yet sure of what is happening.  This delaying process has been called `cooling out the mark.'

"The same principle applies in politics.  When the accusations that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton first surfaced, he flatly denied them all.  Then, as the months passed, the truth came out -- but slowly, bit by bit.  One of Clinton's own White House aides later called it `telling the truth slowly.'

"By the time the whole truth came out, it was called `old news,' and the clever phrase now was that we should `move on.'

"It was a successful `cooling out' of the public, keeping them in uncertainty so long that, by the time the whole truth came out, there was no longer the same outrage as if the truth had suddenly come out all at once.  Without the support of an outraged public, the impeachment of President Clinton fizzled out in the Senate.

"We are currently seeing another `cooling out' process, growing out of the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on September 11th this year.

"The belated release of State Department e-mails shows that the Obama administration knew, while the attack on the American consulate was still underway, that it was a coordinated, armed terrorist attack.  They were getting reports from those inside the consulate who were under attack, as well as surveillance pictures from a camera on an American drone overhead….

"Why then did both President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice [and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] keep repeating the story that this was a spontaneous protest riot against an anti-Islamic video in America?

"The White House knew the facts -- but they knew that the voting public did not.  And it mattered hugely whether the facts became known to the public before or after the election.  What the White House needed was a process of `cooling out' the voters, keeping them distracted or in uncertainty as long as possible.

"Not only did the Obama administration keep repeating the false story about an anti-Islamic video being the cause of a riot that turned violent, the man who produced that video was tracked down and arrested, creating a media distraction.

"All this kept the video story front and center, with the actions, and inactions of the Obama administration kept in the background.

"The White House had to know that it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out.  But time was what mattered, with an election close at hand.  The longer they could stretch out the period of distraction and uncertainly -- `cooling out' the voters -- the better [it would be].  Once the confidence man in the White House was reelected, it would be politically irrelevant what facts came out…."

Sowell's ideas make perfect sense.  Of course more voters would support Mitt Romney if they knew Barack Obama intentionally left Americans behind to be killed by terrorists!  We all have a difficult time maintaining outrage at things our government does for there have been so many!  Besides, we have responsibilities such as jobs and families demanding our attention.

Americans were already being `cooled out' when Hurricane Sandy and "the storm of the century" hit the Northeast.  With all the lives lost and the property destroyed, how many of us will be troubled by lies about what happened in Benghazi?  Will we allow ourselves to be `cooled out' or will we remember that the Obama Administration is responsible for the deaths of four Americans - Ambassador Christopher Stevens, former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, and embassy diplomat Sean Smith?  Will we remember that our ambassador requested additional security several times before the actual attack?  Will we remember that assistance was available within about an hour or so?  Will we remember that three requests for assistance were denied over a period of seven or more hours of attack?  Will we continue to demand the name of the person in the Obama Administration who told the military to "stand down" three times instead of ordering them to assist the Americans?  Will we remember that the lives of the two former SEALS could have been saved if assistance had come because they were still living and fighting until about an hour before the attack ended?  Will we remember that generals and admirals were removed from command because they did not want to "stand down"?

Please do not allow yourselves to be "cooled out".  Please remember that your representatives and leaders lied to you.  Please remember to make your outrage known by going to the polls to vote for Mitt Romney and remove the liars from office.  We cannot maintain our freedoms and liberties if we allow ourselves to be deceived by lies!  The truth really does matter!