If I Were President
“WE HAVE STRAYED FROM THE PATH OF FREEDOM”

by Ron Ewart, ©2012

Editor's Note: Re-posted with permission of The Post & Email.

(Apr. 15, 2012) — “Ladies and gentlemen of the free and sovereign states of the United States of America. I stand here before you tonight, humbled by the office of the presidency and humbled by the awesome responsibility you have placed upon me by your vote and by the limits placed upon me by the Constitution of the United States, to which I have sworn my solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend. I do not take this oath lightly because of the many brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives, their limbs, and their minds so that we as a nation of free people can remain free and prosperous, into and beyond the foreseeable future. I am honor bound to defend America’s sovereignty, her security and her freedom and I will honor that duty above all else. My actions will never be to betray that duty, in spite of the pressures put upon me by special interests or those seeking national or global power. If you cannot trust me to fulfill that duty then I do not deserve to be your president.”

“I did not seek the office of the Presidency for power’s sake. I sought only to perform the duties of the President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the armed forces to the best of my ability. Because you see, I believe with all my heart and soul that America is the last great hope of this planet and I will not preside over its demise in any shape or form. I will only preside over the perpetuation of the vision of those who crafted her.”

“We are not a perfect nation nor are we a perfect people. We are flawed as all men are flawed. We make mistakes and sometimes we make big mistakes. But we are a self-correcting nation. It may take awhile but we eventually try to correct our mistakes. Sometimes we even fail when we try to correct those mistakes, but we keep trying. Perhaps by electing me as your president, you have made the conscious decision to correct some of our past mistakes.”

“Yes, for at least 100 years, we have strayed from the path of freedom and have accepted a false ideology that is the antithesis of freedom. Whether for altruistic reasons or for evil ones, we thought we could make a better society by helping those we believed to be in need. Unfortunately, the opposite is true and we have created a culture of Americans who have become wholly dependent on government and in the process we have weakened them and we have weakened America and brought her to the brink of bankruptcy. We have now come to grips with one of our biggest mistakes. We can no longer afford this false ideology and if we continue on this path to its ultimate end, we will have committed national suicide.”

“The greatest gift for each one of us is the gift of life. The expression of our life comes from the manifestation of our desires. The honest pursuit of those desires and the freedom to pursue them is what sets us apart from all other peoples on this earth. It is that pursuit of those desires and ambitions that has made us the wealthiest and yet the most generous nation among all other nations.

Our farms and ranches feed all Americans and at least one third of the rest of the people in other countries. Our technology has not only lifted our nation out of poverty and raised our standard of living by many factors, we have shared that technology with our friends and our enemies. At great sacrifice, our powerful military has freed over a billion people from the clutches of brutal dictators. That military has also been used to help other countries in times of natural disasters.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we should be proud of our accomplishments, not shrink from them or be embarrassed by them. In spite of our faults and in spite of the fact that we are a divided nation, there is no nation on earth that has ever been and maybe never will be, quite like America. We are a force for good even though we are plagued by forces of evil amongst us. We don’t horde our wealth we willingly share it with our own people and the rest of the world. The American people are the most generous people on earth.”

“Today marks a change in the direction for America. My goal will be to restore America to her previous greatness and goodness. America does not need a fundamental transformation as the previous president was so anxious to accomplish and almost did. America needs to look for and find her roots of individual freedom and unalienable rights as a gift from our creator and reclaim them.”

“But understand this. You cannot expect your leaders to be free of corruption if the American people themselves are corrupt. If the American people are without honor, it is quite likely that those they elect to office will also be without honor. Do not expect your representatives to be more perfect than those who put them in office.”

Although I came to office on a party label, I do not necessarily always agree with party politics. I am guided by my honor and my duty to the Constitution of the United States. If it is within the limits of my power, I will set about immediately to conduct the following actions, even though those actions may cause me to be a one-term president. My love of and my deep devotion to this great country, impels me to do no less.

1. I will use whatever power I have as president to repeal Obamacare and then use my influence as president to get the Congress to come up with reasonable, economic solutions to the health care dilemma while still protecting the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and privacy.

2. I will issue only those executive orders or directives to my cabinet that would have the effect of shrinking the size of government. I would never issue an executive order or directives to my cabinet with the sole intent of circumventing the U. S. Congress, as that is unconstitutional.

3. I will set about to reduce the size of my cabinet by dissolving the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. Education will be returned to the states and local jurisdictions where it belongs. The duties of the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency will be handed over to the Department of Interior and scaled way back from their current budget, work force and scope of jurisdiction. Other cabinet bureaucracies could also be on the chopping block.

4. I will never declare war on any other country without a declaration of war from the U. S. Congress.

a. I will use whatever power I have to provide the greatest possible services and benefits to our armed forces for their sacrifice.

b. I will use whatever influence I have as president to maintain the strongest military such that no other country will be tempted to take us on.

5. I will never sign an international treaty that in my judgment is in violation of the U. S. Constitution, even if ratified by the Congress.

6. I will veto any legislation submitted to me for my signature, if in my judgment, the legislation is contrary to the U. S. Constitution.

7. I will cancel all lawsuits by the Justice Department against any state that has passed a law in their state to control illegal immigration, or requiring photo ID for all voters. In addition, I will use the full power of the presidency to, once and for all, seal our borders from invasion by illegal aliens, drugs and illegal contraband or weapons that can be used against citizens of the United States. I will direct the Justice Department, Homeland Security, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI to fully enforce all laws regarding immigration that could very possibly lead to massive self-deportation.

8. I will open up all areas of known oil, gas and coal reserves and work towards actual energy independence and I will stop all subsidies for solar, wind, ethanol, or biomass alternative energy. If these technologies cannot survive in the free market place on their own, they do not deserve subsidies from the American taxpayer.

9. I will use my influence as President of the United States to encourage the U. S. Congress to reduce government spending on entitlements, ferret out waste, fraud, abuse and corruption and put a hold on all earmarks for at least the next 4 years. My budget will reflect these worthy and necessary goals.

10. I will fill all vacancies on the U. S. Supreme Court by candidates that reflect a sincere dedication and commitment to adjudicate all laws and legislation pursuant to the full intent of the founders of the U. S. Constitution.

11. Some regulation in a free society is necessary. However, over regulation is the scourge of all business in America. Over regulation has inhibited the creation of new ideas, jobs, wealth and the American dream. It has set America back by decades from the powerhouse she once was. I will do everything in my power to work with the U. S. Congress to return America to a YES WE CAN nation, instead of NO WE CAN’T, do nothing country, by reducing regulations where we can.

12. Under no circumstances will I allow Sharia law to be inserted into the law books of the United States and I will direct the Justice Department to sue any judge, at whatever level of the courts, from so doing.

All these things and more I will do, as your president. But rest assured, I will not preside over the fall of America because we have fallen into the trap of so many previous republics or empires, like the Roman Empire. In the words of Will Durant from his “Lessons of History” where he writes how taxation turned the people of Rome into slaves and resulted in pandemic serfdom, he states:

“Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian. Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among the masses, and with the imminent danger of barbarian invasion, he issued in A.D. 301 an edictum de pretiis, which denounced monopolists for keeping goods from the market to raise prices, and set maximum prices and wages for all important articles and services. Extensive public works were undertaken to put the unemployed to work, and food was distributed gratis, or at reduced prices, to the poor. The government – which already owned most mines, quarries, and salt deposits – brought nearly all major industries and guilds under detailed control. ‘In every large town,’ we are told, ‘the state became a powerful employer, standing head and shoulders above the private industrialists, who were in any case crushed by taxation.’ When businessmen predicted ruin, Diocletian explained that the barbarians were at the gate, and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. The socialism of Diocletian was a war economy, made possible by fear of foreign attack. Other factors equal, internal liberty varies inversely with external danger.”

“The task of controlling men in economic detail proved too much for Diocletian’s expanding, expensive, and corrupt bureaucracy. To support this officialdom – the army, the courts, public works, and the dole – taxation rose to such heights that people lost the incentive to work or earn, and an erosive contest began between lawyers finding devices to evade taxes and lawyers formulating laws to prevent evasion. Thousands of Romans, to escape the tax gatherer, fled over the frontiers to seek refuge among the barbarians. Seeking to check this elusive mobility and to facilitate regulation and taxation, the government issued decrees binding the peasant to his field and the worker to his shop until all their debts and taxes had been paid. In this and other ways medieval serfdom began.”

“The similarities between what happened to Rome under the socialist policies of Diocletian and the policies of previous administrations in America, are stark in deed. On my watch, I will use whatever powers that are granted to me as president to reverse the current trends that will, if continued, send us reeling into the snake pit of past cultures and the death of a great country that has never been duplicated since the dawn of civilization.”

“To my divided nation, I ask that you put aside your differences in the hopes that you will join with me in saving America from repeating history again because of the policies created by government that have hastened our division, exploited our differences and broken our bank. As your president, I will lead this country in the direction it needs to go if it is to survive. My decision is not based on ideology. It is based solely on survival of freedom and the survival of a great nation that does not deserve to die.”

“Good night and God bless America and each and every American.”

NOTE: Of course, this is a fictitious speech made by a concerned American about the fate of his country, if America continues on this path she now treads. It is abundantly obvious that our speech will not please many Americans. But these Americans who are not pleased, are the very ones who need to get the message. The writing is on the wall. In time, we will run out of money, there will be no one to bail us out and those who prefer the current path will find that they are like the people of Greece who are now faced with massive austerity programs to SAVE their country. But in all likelihood, Greece cannot be saved and will eventually collapse, or it will become the obedient servants of the moneychangers who will call all the shots and render their government mere puppets. Their free ride is over, and so too will be the free ride of every American who believes that government has its own money tree and will always have an ample supply. The bubble of the progressive movement will have finally burst and the consequences will be cataclysmic, unless we act now. We are not facing a bump in the road, ladies and gentlemen, from which we will recover. We are facing the extinction of freedom. If you cannot see this, you are hopelessly blind.

Ron Ewart, President

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA 98027

425 837-5365 or 1 800 682-7848

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