At least two essential ingredients have been crucial to the success of the “Progressive” Movement ever since it first surfaced in the late 1800s. First, history must be rewritten in order to change common attitudes and beliefs, and second, those who oppose the “progressive” agenda must be maligned by a series of lies and misconceptions that are intended to ruin reputations.
Progressives succeeded in adding in the first essential ingredient. As the movement progressed into the 1900s and gained momentum, some powerful people lent it their support. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the earliest progressives elected to the White House, but he was perhaps the least dangerous of the bunch.
The real danger came with Woodrow Wilson, and later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Not only had both stated that the Constitution was the main roadblock to attaining progressive goals but they embarked on a systematic program of circumventing the Constitution in order to implement progressivism. History was thus rewritten, particularly in the textbooks that would be used by schools and institutions of higher learning.
These texts extolled the virtues of Wilson and Roosevelt and propagated the falsehood that only these progressive presidents were capable of implementing a program for America that would save it from its heartless, cruel, and money-hungry capitalists, some of whom were elected to public office. Even today the modern day descendants of the progressives act as if the country had done nothing good until the New Deal of Roosevelt, the groundwork of which had been laid by Wilson, forgetting that most of the innovations that made America great had already been implemented, including the momentous discovery that a severe economic depression could be stopped cold and reversed in less than two years by doing nothing more than cutting government spending to the bone and cutting taxes drastically across the board. Calvin Coolidge demonstrated this in 1920 – 21.
But most school textbooks said absolutely nothing about what Coolidge had done. Instead, the focus was on Roosevelt, whom the writers claimed saved America from the Great Depression of 1931 -1940. Ten years to stop a depression? What possible good could that be when it could have been done in less than 2 years? And when the Great Depression finally ended most economists admit that it was World War II that pulled the nation out of severe financial straits and not anything Roosevelt had done. The nation was forced to awaken its vast war machine in the run-up to our entering the war a couple of years later. This meant every sector of industry had to operate 24/7 to produce everything the troops would need. This alone pulled the nation out of the depression in short order.
Thus, most of what has been written about Wilson and Roosevelt is one big progressive lie. Americans have been brainwashed by the movement’s supporters in textbook publishing companies and the public school teachers who would then convey this false information to pupils.
Today the modern equivalents of the “progressives,” no matter what name they call themselves, have continued the process of rewriting history and maligning the good reputations of those who know the real truth and will tell it far and wide in order to debunk the progressive lies. One of the worst offenders has been the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The organization routinely smears Tea Party activists, conservative Christians, those who belong to the patriot movement, and pro-liberty activists. One of their latest smear campaigns revolves around the Gadsden Flag, which had its beginnings among the patriots in the Revolutionary War. The SPLC will seize upon a tiny minority of kooks who commit crimes while displaying the Gadsden Flag, and deduce that the flag is a symbol of anti-government subversives. The group has even maligned people like Mike Vanderboegh, claiming that he is anti-government.
The problem is that most of those whom SPLC smears are honorable men and women of integrity who are patriotic citizens. They display the Gadsden Flag in the same spirit as that of our Framers who declared independence from Great Britain. And they are not anti-government. The liberty and patriot movement believes in the government as canonized by the U.S. Constitution with three co-equal branches of government. When the country and its politicians honor and seek to preserve that government, things work well. But when they veer off course they descend into the worst tyranny one can imagine.
Americans are witnessing that tyranny right now. A president acts like a dictator who needs no approval from Congress to do whatever he wants, legal or not. He has also defied direct court orders. Only dictators and tyrants act this way. But he is not the only one. The vast bureaucracy that some call “the fourth branch of government” which was never voted upon or approved by the people, also operates with immunity when engaging in illegal activity. Who, specifically, has been forced to answer for their crimes when caught red-handed? Lois Lerner? Eric Holder? Hillary Clinton? The head of the ATF? The head of the IRS? The NSA that routinely spies on all Americans without a warrant? How about the FISA Court of the NSA, a secretive court that many say is the underground equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court? Who in this government has ever been held accountable for their crimes and their blatant violation of Constitutional principles? None. None whatsoever.
And yet those of us who scream bloody murder about this tyranny are trashed, maligned, smeared, and called anti-American subversives. No, that we are not. We are pro-government patriots who want this government to act like it was intended, all of which is spelled out clearly in the Constitution. The thing we are against is tyranny that ignores the Constitution and does an end-run around it so as to avoid adherence to the law. This is what the patriots are 100 percent against. We are against government run by criminals. We are against tyrants who have made their way into key offices of government and seek to subvert the Constitution. We are against a secret underground government that has no accountability to the people. We are against politicians who routinely ignore Constitutional law by doing whatever they please, such as allowing millions of illegal aliens in the country by executive order.
This is not the law. This is not Constitutional government. This is tyranny. We are determined to stop it all costs. We want Constitutional government that adheres to the rule of law, the broad principles of which are laid down by the U.S. Constitution.
So, my fellow patriots, ignore subversive groups that propagate lies such as the SPLC. Fly that Gadsden flag high and proud. Let this government know that we are onto them and warn them, “Don’t tread on me.” Remember, as Jefferson and Madison pointed out, government that engages in an illegal plan of operating outside the Constitution is no longer a legitimate government. And the people are under no obligation whatsoever to obey an illegitimate government.