2012: The Most Important Election Since 1860

As we welcome in the New Year, Americans need to know that the 2012 Presidential election is the most important election since 1860. All Americans need to pay close attention to the issues. We need to put away some of the distractions and at least try to understand what this election is about.

The question is clear. What should be the nature of our government? Should it be a bureaucratic monolith attempting to micro manage every facet of our lives from what we eat to what we drive to how we light our houses to how much money we are allowed to make? Or should it be a government that derives its power from the people, and abides by Constitutional principles limiting its authority? Are we a nation of equal results? Are we a nation of equal opportunity? Are we nation based on “fairness”? Are we a nation based on competition? These are the issues that will define this nation for the next 100 years.

The 1860 election was a scary time. Then, as now, the country was bitterly divided. The issue was slavery, or more specifically, the expansion of slavery into new territories and states. Everybody was angry. Nobody was talking, and compromises turned into even more bitter divisions. The single largest asset class in the United States was slaves…human beings. It was a horrible set of circumstances.

The Democratic Party, the party of Jefferson, had divided in two separate political parties: pro-slavery/pro-secession Democrats in the South; pro-slavery/anti-secession Democrats in the north. And then there was the Constitutional Whig Party and the upstart almost brand spanking new Republican Party. Four political parties bringing this nation to the brink of the abyss!

The results of that election are glossed over in the high school history books. The Republican Party and Lincoln weren’t even listed on the ballots in the deep south. Lincoln won the election with only 39% of the popular vote. He was able to garner sufficient electoral votes by winning big in the hard core northern states. He came in 4th in what is now known as the border states where folks were able to vote for him.

The result of the chaos leading up to the election, and the chaos resulting from the election, was a war in which 500,000 Americans were killed…more than all the other wars fought in American history. Gettysburg alone had 43,000 casualties in three days, almost equal to the number of casualties in the Vietnam War. It was a war that was stumbled into. It never should have happened, and our civil society collapsed.

Once again Americans are on edge. Most of us don’t understand the nature of our discontent. But there are parallels between now and then in the sense that our civil society could be in jeopardy. The President of the United States is leading a class war, claiming that those who are already paying 80% of the federal tax bill aren’t paying enough…their “fair share.” He neglects to tell you that almost 50% of working Americans pay NO income tax. If that is the case, then he is lying to the American public, which bodes the question why?

Americans shouldn’t be surprised. He said he wanted to fundamentally change America. My question is from what to what. He doesn’t tell you that, because you won’t like what he has to say. He and his cronies believe America is a flawed nation with a suspect Constitution that stands in the way of Barack Obama’s vision of “fairness.” For now, he has to pay lip service to what the Constitution stands for. But give him another four years…and you will see him attempt to destroy it altogether.

That’s why his actions aren’t in synch with his words, and he seems tone deaf to the very real problems that are facing the nation. He is following a “higher” vision of world order and income redistribution which is at its best socialism, and at its worst communism. Unemployment, suffering, hunger, homelessness, skyrocketing food and utility bills are just the price one has to pay to achieve the utopian dream of “fundamental fairness.” Those who have studied Russian history understand the dynamic that changed the worker’s revolution into the worker’s worst nightmare. Pop some popcorn and watch Dr. Zhivago. Is this what you want for America?

Whenever one tinkers with the pillars of a society, the danger is always you never know where the roof is going to fall. Things have a habit of getting out of control. This is the debate. America needs to pay attention.