Clear enough!

Fascism is to the Right of Communism but both are to the Left of Liberalism upon which the USA was founded.  The Left has co-opted the word liberal but it is anything but.  The Bill of Rights is the defense of Liberalism and prohibits the government from implementing the supremacy of the State over the individual.  The Left is authoritarian claiming to be liberal — nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing.  The Left wages war against the Free perpetually.

This really should be in the Preamble of the Constitution.

The day when a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from the government, declares that it will look after its own welfare and interests, then on that day the power elites will wage all out war!  When in history have a people been permitted to accede from their rulers?  The history of humankind is that of liberation from slavery in all its forms.  It is the nature of this world.  We are at war now — don't you know?!

This has been the challenge for a republican form of government.  Once freed from the obligations of the Crown, soon classes of people demand favor from government like they used to get from the Crown.  Toynbee's points are valid and always used to justify government intervention.  But give an inch and they take a mile.  Sooner or later career politicians and their bureaus figure out that solving problems puts them out of work — peace is unemployment.  So more rules and regulations are put into place to keep lawyers and judges flush — they are the most highly paid than all other occupations (banking law is the most lucrative).  The State endeavors to expand its power and army of employees and dependents.  With time, all republican principles are traded for arbitrary power with nothing but promises for a better future while Rome burns.  

Toynbee's argument needs further discussion before implementing 'new deals' — the causes are real but mainly misunderstood.

The facade is cracking.  Duping Americans is getting harder, and the authoritarians are pulling out the stops to transform the American republic into a totalitarian State.  The cracks started in the Bush years, and have now devolved into a straight-up coup of the inalienable rights of the People.  The Trump card has exposed the rigged game and the roaches are scattering in the light.  We must keep this up! 

Or also, what of the practice of encouraging Somalis to apply for refugee status and put them all in one voting district eventually giving them a Somali mayor, congressman, attorney general, and essentially representing Somali interests?  Not to mention that there is an intention to colonize America with Islam (it is their creed) which is not just a religion but a central government — you can't have one without the other.  When is it considered an invasion?

How would the nation deal with say California opening its borders to Mexicans to settle en masse, enroll immediately in government assistance programs, and essentially establish a Mexican colony with allegiance to Mexican flags and Mexican culture?  Then vote themselves the money from their neighbors coffers?  The rights of man are for all people everywhere — but that does not grant the right to lay claim to others' labors, properties and ballot boxes.

The melting pot — all come out American.  ;-)

Sort of like natural born citizens attending school for 14 years to learn how to live in American society.  But the term is getting shorter and the education has turned into a racket, such that the American constitutional republic is being colonized by  authoritarian statists to which all are beholden to submit and must provide tribute for their own security.  Today, hoards of poor immigrants demand entry and subsistence from day one with no declaration to adopt the ways of an American sovereign, indeed to bring in their form of servitude instead.

Oh, to give this quote a thousand stars!

The American republican ideal has already been diluted, not with monarchists, but with statists that wish to live off the State.  Socialism is no different than monarchy in terms of the common man — he is beholden to the whims and passions of others.  The principle of America is to be free from the dictates of men and respected as the 'noblemen' we are, pillars of fellowship.  We have yet to see how it could be ...

That's a common story for most immigrants to the USA that I know.  I always thought that signing an oath to support and defend the Constitution should be a requirement to being an elector for any US office.  Why not, upon graduation from public school, sign the Declaration of Independence and make that declaration YOUR declaration?  Legal immigrants are so proud to become Americans — native-born Americans do not go through such a process and do not share the same understanding.

Conservatives step up!  The Leftists have no honor and seek power only.  This turning of the other cheek does not work in preserving of the republic.  Reformation is on the horizon again...

I search for Truth rather than God, because I don't know what God looks like.  But how does one evaluate 'truth'?  I take it further, in order to know the truth I must at the very least be truthful in my thoughts and speech — and call myself out when I tell myself something that is not true.  I find that 'truth process' to be liberating — what appears once the veil has fallen?  Clearing out all the lies I have been adhering to or propping up is empowering, like the lights have been turned on.  The truth is a revelation, and there is no getting the answer from someone else, ultimately that journey is your own. ;-)

Yet this constant press for 'diversity' appears to be in fact the imposition of 'uniformity' with huge swaths of dialogue categorized as 'hate speech' and therefore prohibited — the 'rainbow' is getting painted over, certain colors are not welcome.  It's not a rainbow anymore, it is a shackle plated with fool's gold.

Because the truth shall set you free.

Hear, hear!

I like "Not merely to swell the catalogue of people. No, sir, it is to increase the wealth and strength of the community; and those who acquire the rights of citizenship without adding to the strength or wealth of the community are not the people we are in want of …"  And that's the way it was for a century.  People did not emigrate to the US for the social safety net — there was none!  They came for freedom, for the opportunity to settle on land that they could own outright — no where in Europe was that the case except for the titled aristocracy.

Today, the attempt is to swell the catalogue of socialist-leaning voters, with no obligation to American law or a culture of independence.  We've come a long way, baby...

Currently in order to immigrate to the US, the immigrant must study American history and ultimately swear allegiance to support and defend the US Constitution.  To become a Canadian citizen, the immigrant swears allegiance to the Queen — same for every British commonwealth.  America is a nation founded upon 'principle,' not governed by a 'principal.'  Those fleeing tyranny should be happy to renounce the ways of their oppressive culture and adopt a culture of freedom and self-reliance, not demand the same culture of oppression from which they escaped.  America is the beacon of Independence not dependence.

And as a result, today's Americans know little about "real republicanism" and the uniqueness of the American system of governance based upon the inalienable rights of humankind that no government can take away.

Grecian horse indeed!  To become an American is to renounce the ways of tyranny from which most have escaped.  Socialism doesn't work any where else, we don't have to let it in here.

Mike, those eye-witness accounts of healing and 'liberation' are my favorites to hear!  Let the Truth be told.  As a child, I attended church every Sunday (sometimes Fridays, too).  One grand father was a Church of Christ minister, another step-grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher, I attended Catholic school (much to the consternation of my Southern Baptist grandmother).  My mother remarried a Jew, and I have been to Temple for all the rites of passage of my fellow Jewish family.  My other grand mother was a Christian Scientist, where healing the sick and raising the dead is a matter of practice — it's on the cover of Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy.  There are too many stories to tell of miraculous healing as a result of prayer to deny.  I credit my own health and empowerment with the same 'source.'  

For me, Christ is in the spirit of the allegory.  How does one pass on profound wisdom across nations, languages, and time?  While I accept the Christ story as an allegory, I do treat it as an expression of profound truth.  As a reformer, Jesus serves as a liberator from the obligations to priests and dogma, and breathes new life (spirit) into the sacred way.  It is the 'Way' that liberates.

I believe God takes on whatever form you will accept.  There are literally thousands of religions and belief systems, but there is commonality between them all — turn away from evil and do good, because as you sow, so shall you reap.

These are the 'values' that America was founded upon and — dare I say — dependent upon for a free People.  The Americans threw off the yoke of authoritarianism of church and state and embraced an enlightened Reason for chartering the structure of a democratic-republican government which above all protected the lives, liberty, and property of the People who chartered it. 

Note, that the precepts of "honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter" are still guiding principles without regard to specific dogma.  This is what America was founded upon — and We the People are the foundation, not our government.  Are these the values in practice today?  Where they are, life is better than where they are not ...

Socialism and Capitalism are not opposites!  Sheesh. 

America is not based on capitalism, it is based on LIBERTY and protecting it.  The government was tasked with regulating COMMERCE, not capitalism and have no authority to implement 'socialist' doctrines that make the people subservient to the dictates of the government.  America was founded the other way around, the government is subservient to the people AND their inalienable rights.  Socialism makes the government the authority to whom all most obey — not just commerce, but all human activity. 

Instead of letting the People provide for themselves, the socialists claim the authority to regulate that provision and distribute according to their own intent.  Socialism is a power grab, and it is insatiable.  The American democratic-republic was chartered to protect the People from such machinations.