THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 1                                           Issue 5                                         05/21/01

A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY DEDICATED

TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM AND THE NEXT GENERATION.

READER DIALOG ENCOURAGED.

Produced occasionally when I'm good and ready, but probably at least 10 times a year.

 J.E. Sohmer P O Box 129, Jefferson, CO 80456                  

Where the air is thin and the hunting and fishing are good

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SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES:  "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."                                        (It's not about hunting ducks)

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06/04/89 Tiananmen Square crackdown courtesy of certain friends of O J Billy Boy and the Democrat Politburo.

The debate continues to unwind as to what has actually happened to the economy over the last 24 months, or so, and what to do about it.  Socialist solutions advanced by Statist Liberals are a non-starter.  Watch California and New York City, for example, twist in the wind (no pun intended) on power shortages in the months ahead.

Within the Conservative community there is general agreement about the tax issue and the current need for substantial cuts. There is also general agreement, as always, about the drag of over-regulation, and in particular the current negative impact of the OJ Billy Boy Department of Justice (I will posit that Janet Reno was clueless about everything) in the area of antitrust, e.g. Microsoft, "big" tobacco, ad nausium.  The debate seems to center around the "old" economy vs. the "new" economy, or whether there is even a legitimate distinction.  Personally, I don't think there is.  While there is clearly an economic revolution going on with productivity gains fired by IT (Information Technology), I would suggest that all this would be accomplished within the context of the classic rules of supply and demand, including business cycles.   Certain supply-side free-market Libertarians are currently suggesting that business cycles need not exist.  How this would be accomplished without attempted government intervention, which would fail, is a mystery to me.  Business cycles are a natural and necessary corrective process in a truly free market, which, sad to say, is really not possible with a central government the size of ours and a central bank that arbitrarily tinkers your (their) money.  Let me be clear about the fact that I embrace the central supply-side premise regarding the Laffer curve (reduced tax rates produce more actual tax revenue) and the need for dynamic as opposed to static tax analysis. However, with all sincere respect to Mr. Kudlow, I do believe that we have just witnessed the bursting of a financial market bubble, which was caused, at least in part, by cultural confusion over the distinction between investing vs. casino gambling.  Financial market fundamentals matter, and always will. While I am the first to agree that a healthy system and economy does not need an Allen Greenspan out causing all kinds of mischief, I believe the fundamental immediate problem we are having has to do with the cost of energy.  I know it isn't sexy, but the country, and this economy, runs on fossil fuels and less nuclear power than it should.  This will remain a fact of life until the market, not the politicians, dictate otherwise.  All the excitement about IT does not deliver the freight, power the factories or turn on the lights.  IT has, and will, make these processes more efficient, but I would point out the recent market downturn over the last 18 months really mirrors the explosion in the cost of energy.  I will predict right now that true economic recovery will be the function of new, and more efficient, refineries, less dependence on foreign oil, more domestic drilling and digging for coal, and more new and efficient power plants.  None of this can be accomplished if the government tinkers with prices.  It will be accomplished by investors pursuing profits, not bureaucrats pursuing careers.  After new productive capacity has been put in place the prices will retreat.  This will not be done in a year nor accomplished by the newest release of Windows this fall.  The government needs to get the hell out of the way, and in the long haul we need to totally eliminate the income tax and the ability of Washington D.C. to manipulate us.

Missing FBI McVeigh files: The issue is not about Timothy McVeigh, per say, but the process.  The issue is what did the government know and when did it know it.  Is it possible that the government knew before the event that it might happen, or worse, and failed to act out of incompetence?  I don't know. Is it possible that post event the government, realizing that it had been in a position to stop the bomb attack, consciously chose to cover up the fact because it feared political fallout?  I don't know. Is it possible that because of a priority to protect itself politically, the FBI failed to properly follow through with the investigation of others who were also involved?  I don't know.   What assurance is there that the recently "discovered" files constitute everything that exists?   None.  The bottom line question is did the FBI fail to protect innocent American citizens when it may have had the knowledge to do so, subsequently covering up the failure so as to over their butts and consequently failing to conduct a full and thorough investigation. 

Or was there, indeed, a more sinister agenda?  I don't know.  What, my friends, was really going on here?   What is the relationship between this "discovery” and Louis Freeh's announcing his resignation?  Perhaps there is nothing of significance in the newly revealed files; perhaps there is more than anyone now expects.  I don't know, but, as an American, I want to know the answers to all these questions and I am not optimistic that we ever will know.  In recent years there have been too many botched jobs by Federal police agencies, not infrequently victimizing innocent citizens.  It is a climate ripe for conspiracy theories that is not healthy for the Republic.  The only repair is a lot of sunlight, but the distrust of the government has become so widespread that I suspect the task is hopeless.  Forty five years ago the government could say "trust us" to the general public and it was a generally easy sell.   Today that notion is a joke.  It is the inevitable result of a huge Statist government in a mode of continuous runaway growth.

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Communists, Fascists and Statists, are all currently alive & healthy:

While Bush 43 is now the President for at least four years, in the subterranean world of culture, economics and politics there are massive contending forces at work over which our new man will have limited or no control.  Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I would suggest that however one chooses to manipulate the terminology the underlying dynamics of "left" vs. "right" and "democracy" vs. "totalitarianism" are still valid and very serious threats threaten the American way of life.  As a republican democracy, we always have choices to make, or they will be made for us. By "us", I mean you and me as individuals, not somebody up front on a white horse.  It is the essence of freedom that as individuals we have the personal ability to make choices, affirmatively or by default, and that it is necessary to accept responsibility for those choices both in this life and the next.

Accordingly, it is my purpose here is to raise questions about a political threat to the American nation of a nascent fascism.   This threat is credible only because we, as a nation and a culture, find ourselves amidst a huge moral, ethical and intellectual vacuum bred by a century of liberal indulgence that has even infected many who call themselves conservative, and who should know better.   The threat is Statism, at an international level, in the form of fascist corporate socialism, with all the ugliness witnessed elsewhere in recent decades.

The second related issue has to do with what I see as the political blind spot most present day conservatives seem to have with respect to the matter of  “free trade”.   While the theoretical concept is worthy on a strictly economic basis, there has been insufficient discussion among conservatives about negative consequences regarding the impact of “free trade” policies on other conservative values.   Specifically I am concerned about the erosion of national sovereignty, the encouragement of supra-national government, the destruction of the American culture and the defacto assumption of governmental functions by multinational corporations.   So focused have present day (neo-con) conservatives become on promoting “free trade” that I believe these neo-cons are playing directly into the hands of the Liberal Left, who have been, with the collapse of the Soviet communist experiment, in the process of morphing themselves into international neo-fascists.

The premise of my thinking is that a great political divide lies between those who subscribe to Statism and those who subscribe to individual liberty.   The philosophical foundation of the American nation and culture was based on the premise of individual liberty and sovereignty as opposed to the Statist premise of European aristocracy.

Consider the international political spectrum not as flat, left to right, but as circular, with communists and fascists shaking hands on the backside.   Communism and fascism are but two sides of the same coin, Statism.   The only real difference between the two, in terms of actual behavior, has to do with economic organization, but both are socialist in the sense that individual freedom is trumped by the state, including economic activity.  The significant difference between communism and fascism, again in terms of actual behavior, is only in how economic activity is managed.

Communists subscribe to the notion of state ownership of the means of production, thus the dictatorship of the proletariat.   The fascist formulation is that the state should regulate, direct and orchestrate the private corporate sector, i.e., Statism by confiscation without the headaches.   Otherwise, especially on the social side, communists and fascists are generally indistinguishable, isolating individuals who do not fall into line.   This facilitates “group think”, much to the expense of any given minority.  The state is supreme.  Both reject God in the Judeo-Christian sense of the word, embrace secularism, and more often than not promote outright atheism.   Mankind, as a species, aka the proletariat, through the instrument of the state, becomes God.   (More recently “Mother Earth” has been substituting for mankind due to a lack of cooperation).  Contrary to what is alleged by some, there is no necessary link between fascism and nationalism, especially if it is authored by frustrated communists.  Such associations in the past have been matters of convenience only.   The current milieu suggests an internationalization of the fascist phenomena.

American liberalism, at least through the 20^th century, has been very comfortable with the left side of this equation and has claimed to be exercised about the right side.   In public most liberals deny their communist affinity and, failing to look in the mirror, work hard to suggest an Eurocentric association between conservatives and fascism, choosing not to recognize that American conservatives reject both Statist formulations.

American conservatives are small government people in the mold of the founding fathers, and subscribe to an interpretation of the U.S. Constitution based on original intent.   American conservatives evaluate people as individuals, reject “group think”, praise acceptance of individual responsibility and reject collectivist solutions.  American conservatives recognize the bedrock principles of private property and are instantly suspicious of government intrusions upon those principals.

Individual liberty in the United States was framed on the prerogatives of private property and individual freedom of association and contract, i.e., free market capitalism, entrepreneurial by nature.   However, it is pertinent to this discussion to recognize that while the Constitution struck down trade barriers among the states, it reserved for the Federal level the sole responsibility for foreign relations and national security.  (A major point in replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution).

Liberals have no problem with confiscating and spending other people’s money to exercise group control over those who do not subscribe to their collectivist agenda.  Liberals stand for top down control and express their thinking in terms of feeling and emotion.  If it feels good, do it!  Whatever it is, it’s a right, a civil right!

Conservatives stand for personal freedom and responsibility with sovereignty originating from the bottom up, and express their thinking in terms of critical objective analysis guided by a respect for the law under the Constitution.  (Liberal references to the Constitution are generally in reference to “what can I get away with”).

The philosophical foundation of liberalism embraces moral and intellectual relativism, more recently evolving into “post modernism” in which reality is merely a “social construct”, accompanied by a paranoia regarding “judgmentalism”.  In this mode, communication with conservatives is difficult.  Conservatives function on the premise of a single objective reality about which it is a lifetime duty to investigate, understand, analyze, isolate and act upon.  This requires a capacity and willingness to think.  Most rational people consciously touch a hot stove only once.

Conservatives maintain that in the absence of broadly accepted moral, ethical and intellectual standards civilization must collapse and that man alone cannot author those standards.

A genuine American conservative, in my view, is also a nationalist.  American conservatives believe the founding of this Republic, and the underlying principles of the Declaration, the Constitution and other Founding Documents, were a unique moment in history, perhaps Divinely inspired.  Today these principles are under very heavy assault by many, including people who call themselves conservatives but who have no problem handing off our unique heritage and sovereignty in the name of “free trade”, and international government.   The failure of Eurocentric neo-cons to grasp the significance of the necessary nationalist component is a major source of their failure to communicate with the American heartland.

      (Note: It is important to recognize the intended distinction between American conservative thought that was indigenous, arising with the Declaration, and conservative thought that was, and is, an inherited Burkian derivative that is at the root of the neo-con movement.)

Ronald Reagan did understand this point, which was fundamental to his electability by his unique constituency.  Harley-Davidson is still around to prove it.  The neo-con movement, from its earliest beginnings in the 1950’s, has always been big on “free trade”, failing to understand the necessity of up front reciprocity. So focused are they on their priority of cheap consumer goods that they fail to realize how far they have played into the hands of the left wing one world crowd.

It is from this perspective that I, as an American nationalist conservative, am concerned about the threat of outright international fascism inspired and promoted by American liberals.

The fascist threat that I see facing America today traces its modern origins in this country to the left wing Statist “New Deal” and became re-enforced with the collapse of the Soviet Union.   Logically, with the demonstrated failure of the communist economic formulation, the domestic Statist (liberal) thirst for power over the lives of others has no where to turn but to an international fascism.  (Internationally, this is also the process we are witnessing today in China.)  Furthermore, a fat, corporate, America is seen by a Statist as a bottomless pit of money (power) and influence, if Statists can just gain control, company by company. 

The communist concept of state ownership of the means of production was a proven fraud and the moral basis for attempting to sustain it was demonstrably corrupt.   With the collapse of the Soviet Union, American liberals, always apologists for any socialist experiment (except national socialist Germany) were left with the quandary of formulating a working (from their perspective) Statist mechanism.  No problem.

In an environment of (more or less capitalist) prosperity, utilizing the smoke and mirrors of moral and intellectual relativism, and a sycophant press, liberals have promoted the control of American society by further taxing and regulating the private sector and personal behavior into submission.   This “bread & circuses” class envy approach to the crowd has been hugely successful.  As a people, Americans have been sliced and diced and divided into groups (“communities”) as never before, facilitating top down manipulation.

You know, Joseph Stalin cut his own deal with Hitler (1939), and later with Roosevelt (Yalta).   It is not really such a large jump for American liberal lefties to cut a deal with Wall Street, even if subconsciously.  Corporate business leadership also likes the idea of control of their markets, and business organizations internally are not democracies.  This is not business bashing, it is simply a fact.  Larger corporate business structures tend to be more vulnerable, in certain ways, to association with political Statists than smaller entrepreneurial organizations.  Hence, as an example, we frequently see corporate defense of reverse racism and homophilia.  Frequently this is a product of exhaustion and a caving in to various forms of extortion to protect the bottom line in the immediate future (most recently, big tobacco).  The payoff is Statist control of the American nation and its subversion on the altar of international socialist control. 

Areas in which I see this process specifically manifesting itself in the United States include the following:

The war against Christianity and Orthodox Judaism, and, for that matter, any consideration of a supreme intelligence that might account for our creation, survival and ultimate fate.

The subversion of the traditional American family and the legal ability of parents to be parents.

The co-opting of an activist court system, to gain by court decisions objectives which liberals have not been able to accomplish by legislative action.   This consists of a very long list of specific items, including the trashing of human life with the Row Vs Wade decision.    This has led to the passive acceptance by the public of the cheapening and destruction of human life on a par with numbers recorded for the old Soviet Union, and far in excess of Nazi (fascist) Germany.

We also find a virtually unlimited expansion of the commerce clause so as to justify Federal interference in every facet of American life, with the resulting subversion of the 9^th and 10^th amendments, ad nausium

The war against traditional American culture and values specifically manifested in the p.c. (politically correct) movement and the implicit attacks on the 1^st amendment.

The subversion of the American legal system, not only by the courts, but also by the legal community in general, led by academics in the law schools, with the attendant destruction of the concept of personal responsibility under current concepts of tort law by class action lawyers.

The love affair most black Americans seem to have with slavery (it provides a permanent excuse and lien) coupled with the facilitating guilt-ridden paternalism of white liberals, much to the detriment of all black Americans.   Black conservatives are more concerned with being self-accomplished individuals rather than “group think” victims.   Liberal whites, feeding on the tripe of victimhood, throw gasoline on the fires of racism, black and white.

The subversion of the 1964 civil rights legislation into a mechanism of implementing reverse racism, aka affirmative action.

            The public (and neo-con) tolerance of property forfeiture laws.

The public dependency on government as a substitute for mother, and the public’s acceptance of this role, e.g., USDA ads (Federal taxpayer money) instructing people to wash their hands and cook their meat.

The intensifying level of Federal regulation of the private sector aided and abetted by class action lawsuits.

Public acceptance of government grabs of private property and the rights of private property owners.

The war against the 2^nd amendment.           

The arrogance and imperial attitude of a Federal police bureaucracy as manifested in Waco and Ruby Ridge, and an apparent failure of the public at large to ponder on the implications. 

The breakdown and subversion of the original concept of a representative Constitutional Republic designed to protect the minority from the majority.

The extortion of billions from the tobacco industry, and others who preceded and who will inevitably follow, for the purpose of inflating the public coffers in lieu of further direct taxation, extending Federal control over specific private sectors and persons through intimidation.

The indifference and hostility of large multinational corporations to any sense of loyalty to the country that made most of them possible.  Their first and only responsibility, as chartered, are profits with the consequent result that any obstacle to this purpose gets bulldozed.  Loral and Hughes Aircraft come to mind, as do Boeing and the Business Roundtable.   Sounds like Krupp, Siemens et cetera, of another day, except on an international level.   The fact is that left unchecked, corporate loyalty to stockholders and/or top management trumps all else, which is not necessarily consistent with the best interests of the country or our culture beyond the shoreline.

            The existence of a Federal income tax

The conversion of American education into a system of indoctrination and political training consistent with the needs of the Statist agenda.   The self-serving NEA types have engaged in the intellectual and spiritual destruction of at least two generations of many young Americans.

The conversion of the “mainstream” press into a propaganda bureau for the Statist agenda of the Democrat Politburo.

In recent years, under O J Billy Boy, the deliberate subversion of the American military and the ability of the country to defend itself.

A general failure to understand that the purpose of the military is to credibly organize and accomplish the destruction of the enemy and not engage in social engineering.

            Military assaults overseas on people with whom we have no quarrel.

This partial list of items form the template of an American internationalist fascism planted and ready to sprout, sown by liberal-left Statists determined to retain and further consolidate their power, which has always been their real purpose.   All this appears quite benign to the casual American observer busy pondering his or her 401k portfolio.

In a period of significant material abundance, made possible by 1980’s tax cuts, a Republican (more or less) Congress since 1994, the hard work of ordinary Americans and a phony peace with the old Soviet states, many now believe perpetual peace and prosperity are at hand, random school shootings aside.

As this is written, we are in the early stages of a Republican administration that has re-established Republican control of the Executive.  Congress, in reality, is very much a political "toss up".   These facts will buy a brief amount of time for a considered discussion of the issues I am attempting to raise here.   However, deferral of this discussion in the belief that all will be well with a Republican administration will only serve to mask over these issues.   One thing the Republican victory cannot do in the next four years is solve any of the more fundamental issues.   These issues in scope and direction dwarf much that is being currently discussed.  Bush 43 is generally doing well given the political climate within which he is working, but he can only work around the edges.  The ability of conservatives to hold our current position is, I believe, highly problematic.  While the Democrat Politburo is currently confused and running around in circles, the cultural, economic and political damage inflicted throughout the 20th Century remains.

With hard headed, unapologetic and objective analysis, those of us who understand, and still care, need to find a way to restore our Constitutional Republic, and this will not be easy.   Sooner or later a majority of Americans have to be “brought on board” through the democratic process.   Perhaps it will take one or more major political, military or economic catastrophes to wake up the American people, not the sort of thing any rational person wants to see happen.   In such a context the current ruling liberal elite may overplay their hand and ignite a serious confrontation.   In such an event it is the American people in the end who will have to pay a high price, and possibly suffer, to redeem our heritage.   Then all bets are off on the process by which these issues will be resolved.   There are those of us who will not go quietly into the night.    The American people have passed through the entire 20^th century without experiencing the sting of real domestic conflict.   It’s possible that a long century lies before us.  Step one is straight talk. 

It is my intention that this effort to analyze and describe these matters will be developed in greater detail).   My ultimate purpose is to develop genuine solutions, not “band-aid” fixes.  I believe the answers for the future lie in a re-examination of our heritage based on a scholarly analysis of genuine history.   Once upon a time we had it almost right.

Constructive comments are welcome and invited.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATION:

1.) THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY: MODERN COSMOLOGY. GOD AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

                                FRANK J. TIPLER

                                DOUBLEDAY                                      528 PGS                                $24.95

2.)THE ABOLITION OF BRITAIN: FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL TO PRINCESS DIANA

                                PETER HITCHENS

                                ENCOUNTER                                       332 PGS                                $22.95

3.) AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE: ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE

                                STEPHAN AND ABIGAIL THERNSTROM

                                SIMON & SCHUSTER                      704 PGS                                $32.50

God Bless America

 JIM

                        JIM SOHMER

                AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

                JEFFERSON, CO 80456

                                                                                    IN GOD WE TRUST