The Fabric of Our Lives

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Pres. Abraham Lincoln, quoting Jesus Christ.

When my mother was teaching me to do needlepoint and crochet, I had a tendency to make the stitches too tight. The result was a stiff piece of cloth you could’ve used for a sack grain; nothing would get in between those stitches.

She suggested moderation: make the stitches too tight and the fabric wouldn’t be able to breathe; it would become some stiff that it would actually tear at the first pull. What’s more, in terms of clothing, the wearer would become too hot and stifled since no heat could escape and no air could circulate. Too tense and too dense.

Neither should the stitching be too loose. All the heat would escape, making the clothing useless to the wearer. Eventually, too, it would completely unravel and fall apart. She said I needed to be more relaxed. Too loose is no use.

The same could be said of our society. Our federated republic, at least as it was originally intended, is about as perfect a form of government as anyone is likely to see in history. America was woven together so as not to be too tight, as the monarchies of Europe, stifling the freedom of its people and creating such a growing intensity of heat that the people eventually had to throw it off.

Neither was it so loose as to be useless as a form of government. Our federated republic offered enough security, liberty, and safety as to keep our people comfortable, yet still united in a common purpose. The checks and balances of our government was meant to serve as a barrier against any one purpose or group from gaining too much power. Too loose a form of government, and you would have anarchy and lawlessness. Every garment always comes with a pattern to sew, crochet or knit it together.

America’s pattern is the U.S. Constitution. Throw it aside, disregard it, destroy it and America would come apart at the seams. Those who complain that it’s too confining are those would dance naked through the streets and see Americans turned into vulnerable, hungry, ignorant and naked dependents.

I’m sorry to see that even Fox News is celebrating the Egyptian “victory.” They claim it’s a moment for a joy, but I feel dismayed, just as I did on September 11th. For the time being, the socialists, communists and Islamists have joined forces to tear the fabric of their societies apart and supposedly reconstruct the fabric. What Fox doesn’t realize – and perhaps these united forces don’t realize, either – is that they have different patterns for “reconstructing” it.

I suspect neither side has any intention at all of re-weaving the fabric of Egypt; her walls are down for good. That will make it easier to join her to the other Muslim states into one whole, seamless Islamic cloth. Egypt will not have an independent government, nor will Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, nor even distant Indonesia. They will be brought under one flag.

The communists have the same idea for the Westernized countries. No symbol of that breakdown is more important to them than the breaking down of the United States. They mean to dissolve the borders between the states, extract the states’ separate powers, and make Congress, particularly the House of Representatives.

That’s why the Tea Parties are so crucial. That’s why I didn’t take offense that Morristown didn’t want to read about foreign affairs (or what they think are conspiracy theories). They, and all the Tea Parties, need to keep on doing exactly what they’re doing on the local and state level. That’s why my advice was not to go national. That isn’t to say they shouldn’t network and share best practices with one another; only that the unification on a national level should be very limited, as the federal government was meant to be.

Whether Morristown wants to hear it or not, we are in a dire situation. The Tea Parties are our best defense against what’s coming. They absolutely need to keep going and not despair. Even now, communist organizations are planning to stage Egypt-style demonstrations. This is why I told the Tea Parties not to give up on the Tea Party. We must not yield our town squares to their domination.

They have a right to use them, just as we do; they don’t have the right to usurp them and claim them for their own. Unlike the Egyptians, after they’ve had their say, they have to go home again. Already, party affiliations in many towns make it difficult to secure a permit to assemble, at least for Conservatives. There’s a saying: “Use it or lose it”. If we abrogate our right now to assemble in public, we will lose it forever.

I take issue with the Media’s notion – and that includes Fox News – that democracy was victorious yesterday. It was no such things. No one elected anyone, no one campaigned, no one was vetted. Not only the presidential palace was threatened but their parliament as well. Their president resigned under threat of violence. Mubarak did himself no favors repressing elections and stealing money. There was nothing peaceful at all about these protesters, camping out in Tahrir Square with signs that read “Global Intifada.” This is what comes of Fox News having a Muslim owner, an ostensibly friendly one.

We laughed about poor Christina Aguilera getting caught up in the moment, flubbing the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl. But it seems Fox News has gotten caught up in the moment in Cairo (the other stations are blatantly cheerleading, but that’s to be expected) and have flubbed their newscasts. They are doing a great disserve to their American conservative viewers. This is no moment to be celebrating, not in the free world.

This is the Tea Parties’ moment to hold together the fabric of America. They’ve been doing a good job and have enjoyed some victories. Because we didn’t win the Senate, Obama and the Socialists still holds the reins on foreign policy. MSNBC is supposedly featuring a program on Feb. 21st called “President of the World.” He interfered directly with Egypt’s internal affairs and himself summoned the rioters back to the square just as they were beginning to disperse to assure Mubarak’s speedy resignation. With his troops caught between having to fire on their own people or allowing the mobs to destroy the parliament, of all places, Mubarak resigned. In doing so, Obama completely circumvented Egypt’s constitution and its line of succession. Some democratic victory. They’re planning the same thing here. The only thing that stands between them and autocracy is – us.

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He was a president who was soundly criticized for usurping too much power during the Civil War and acting on fiat, against the advice and consent of the Senate. He felt he had to take the chance, force the South to remain in the Union, and most importantly, free the slaves.

“Our popular government has often been called an experiment,” Pres. Lincoln said in a message to Congress on July 4, 1861. “Two points in it our people have already settled – the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains – its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.

“It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war.”

We can do this. We Americans can stand united against corruption, evil, and tyranny.