“Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

I just turned off the television after watching the House of Representatives vote 219-212 to approve the federal takeover of health insurance in the United States. The bill passed by three votes, done in by the betrayal of Representative Bart Stupak and his supposedly pro-life allies.

My first response after watching the vote was to share the bad news with my wife and walk outside our home and cry.

Is the America that I have known and loved gone forever?

As I sobbed in the rain and darkness outside my home, I uttered a prayer of repentance and faith to the God of the Universe who certainly motivated and shared in my weeping. He doesn’t abandon nations to judgement lightly–but he is also just to those who turn away from his principles and ways. I’m afraid that very dark days could lie ahead.

I’ll never forget the time and date of America’s demise: 10:45 pm (EDT) on March 21, 2010. This is a day of infamy and dread. Today, the misguided leaders of the Democratic Party of the United States may have signed the death knell of American freedom.

After 234 years, the “American experiment in liberty” is truly in jeopardy and the end of our historical exceptionalism may be at stake. It didn’t happen because of invading armies, terrorism, or global events. Our elected officials–thumbing their noses at the will of the majority of the American people–fired the shots that killed the country.  It’s a tragic “murder” of a nation by its own leaders–and those of us that elected them to office.

The health care vote and legislative gyrations were the most devious and corrupt political process I have ever seen on American soil.

Minority leader John Boehner was the lone highlight of the evening. He thundered to a filled-to-capacity House Chamber that “there will be no turning back” from this health care power grab and that “This is the last straw in going against the will of the American people.” Rising to the pitch of a television evangelist, he shouted to his fellow Congressmen “Shame on us! Shame on us.” At one point he demanded that the acting speaker require the House members to “stand up, look the American in the eye, and cast their vote.” The speaker refused his question. When he concluded, the Republican side of the aisle gave him the longest standing ovation I have ever seen in a policy debate.

Then Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to the podium. In one statement after another she misled the American people: “This is an American proposal that will create great opportunities and investments in health care and education.” She had the audacity to intone that through this shameless process and monstrous government entitlement that “the entrepreneurial spirit will be unleashed in America.” She also re-iterated the new Democratic based, not God-given concept that “health care is a right, not a privilege.” I almost choked when she ended with this untruth: “We are restoring the American dream.” And she revealed her Progressive philosophical allegiance with these words, “This is progress for the American people.”

No–they are destroying it. The America dream and the biblical concept of progress is faith in God, self-governing morality, and freedom–which is the fruit of the first two. We are also a very generous and compassionate nation–but that is the primary role of families, churches and voluntary institutions.

After tonight’s infamous vote, we are no longer America–a free nation of self-governing citizens. Because of 219 Democratic Congressmen, we have crossed the Rubicon into a society that will be   controlled by an all powerful State. 1984’s Big Brother Society has arrived. Prior to this vote, the Federal Government controlled about 35% of the American economy. The health care bill is cataclysmic, because it will add another sixteen percent control of the American economy to the Feds–tipping us over the brink of 50%. A nation that is majority controlled by its government is no longer free. We have taken the road of the failed societies and economies of Europe, and our fall will probably hasten a global meltdown of liberty and prosperity.

Why? Because though America was once a light of freedom to the world (think Statue of Liberty)–that light is now going out. The American dream of faith in God, morality, limited government, personal responsibility, and individual freedom is dying.

Now you know why the Tea Party movement exploded last year and why scores of thousands of people showed up in the Washington, D.C. this weekend to tell their legislators to reject the health care bill.  This was not just another piece of social legislation. The people knew this was the tipping point. If we lost this battle, the nation that we love could be in great danger.

Of course, in the same way that most individual human deaths are not sudden or related to one particular circumstance, so the death of our nation didn’t come through one ominous vote. America has been dying for some time. I have been fearful for the future of our nation since 1975 when I first studied why nations rise and fall and why God abandons them to judgment. I wrote my first book 1n 1976 to cry out for an American renewal. We saw one in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. In fact, in the past thirty-five years there have been several seasons of renewal and times of decline.

This cycle of revival and declension was common in the history of Israel over hundreds of years. In some generations, the nation would turn to God and live out his principles and commandments and great blessing and renewal would come (such as under kings David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hekekiah and Josiah). In other generations, the nation would turn from its faith & freedom and experience severe decline and even partial destruction (as under kings like Rehoboam, Athaliah, and Mannaseh).

But there came a time when the nation of Israel reached the tipping point–and was facing terminal consequences for its sins. The end for Israel came in 586 BC when the nation crumbled and was destroyed by the Babylonians.

For the first time in my life, I wonder if we have reached that moment in America.

As I was pondering this reality today, I thought of the recent death of Michael Jackson who died on June 25, 2009. Yes, his death took place on one day–but there were many choices in his life that hastened or led to the final cessation of life.  Certainly his moral choices led to drug problems and broken relationships that started the “dying process.” Near the end of his life, he was taking so many different medications and living such a bizarre lifestyle that many saw the end coming. The final tipping point  came when his personal doctor gave him the drug Prophenol on top of all the others drugs and years of abuse.  It put him to sleep and he never woke up.

America has been on the same path of destruction for many decades. Some of the “bad drugs and choices” along the way include:

• FDR’s great society that got us hooked on government as the provider of our needs and overall welfare.
• The youth rebellion of the sixties–symbolized by Woodstock held August 15-18, 1969–which saw immorality main streamed, and faith and authority questioned and rejected.
• Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs which gave us the nearly bankrupt Medicare and then Medicaid programs–warming the American public to “rights” of health care and demanding “entitlements.” Our forefathers never knew the meaning of the word. 
• Richard Nixon’s taking us off the gold standard in 1972 began the free-fall of the dollar and the massive inflation and deficit spending that has accompanied the past forty years.
• The Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973 began the systematic slaughter of innocent children in this nation that now numbers 45 million and counting. Congressman Steve King of Iowa recently commented that the false philosophy behind abortion, that a “woman has a right to her own body” is totally being trampled by the healthcare bill which forces every American, against their will, to provide health care for “their body.” So much for freedom of choice.
• The destruction of the family in the eighties and nineties, and now the homosexual push to destroy traditional marriage in the 21st century.
• The 911 attack that revealed our vulnerability to our enemies and should have given us pause to examine whether we still merited the protection and blessings of God.
• Each one of us being responsible for our sins and failure to love and protect liberty.

Yes, the America dream has been slowly dying for decades, and you and I are a part of it.  But I fear that on March 21, 2010, a lethal cocktail of the government takeover of one-sixth of our economy has put us to sleep and may never allow us to wake up.

Many of you may think I’m being extreme. I desperately hope that you are right.

But I soberly believe that on March 21, 2010 America entered very dangerous and uncharted territory. We can’t live in denial about the seriousness of our national state. The first step of courage is brutal honesty.

But that’s not the end of the story–it’s the beginning of the next chapter. We don’t know if this is a time of civilizational collapse, the beginning of a fresh wave of renewal, the beginning of the Last Days on earth, or a number of other scenarios. Only God knows the future.

In my next column I will discuss the hope of an American revival and resurrection from the dead–and what that resurrection may require of us.

The freedoms that America has enjoyed for over 230 years are under ominous attack this weekend. An ideologue president and brazen House of Representatives leadership are hell-bent to usurp the United States Constitution in an unprecedented power grab that could have disastrous consequences for decades to come. I strongly encourage you to fast and pray this weekend for your beloved nation and let your voice be heard in the heavenlies. Continue to call and e-mail your Congressmen and women and tell them to have the courage to defeat this assault on liberty. If you live within driving distance of Washington, D.C.,  please attend the noon rally at the Capitol steps on Saturday. Our future is at stake.

The following article by columnist Jeffrey Kuhner tells the plain truth about today’s events. May it encourage you to act and pray. RB

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner – March 19, 2010

The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate’s health care bill in the House.

Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan – called the “Slaughter Solution” – is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House “deem” that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of “sidecar” amendments to fix the things it does not like.

This would enable House Democrats to avoid going on the record voting for provisions in the Senate bill – the “Cornhusker Kickback,” the “Louisiana Purchase,” the tax on high-cost so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans – that are reviled by the public or labor-union bosses. If the reconciliation fixes pass, the House can send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature without ever having had a formal up-or-down vote on the underlying legislation.

Many Democrats could claim they opposed the Senate bill while allowing it to pass. This would be an unprecedented violation of our democratic norms and procedures, established since the inception of the republic. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution stipulates that for any bill to become a law, it must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is, not be “deemed” to have passed, but actually be voted on with the support of the required majority. The bill must contain the exact same language in both chambers – and in the version signed by the president – to be a legitimate law. This is why the House and Senate have a conference committee to iron out differences of competing versions. This is Civics 101.

The Slaughter Solution is a dagger aimed at the heart of our system of checks and balances. It would enable the Democrats to establish an ominous precedent: The lawmaking process can be rigged to ensure the passage of any legislation without democratic accountability or even a congressional majority. It is the road to a soft tyranny. James Madison must be turning in his grave.

Mr. Obama is imposing a leftist revolution. Since coming to office, he has behaved without any constitutional restraints. The power of the federal government has exploded. He has de facto nationalized key sectors of American life – the big banks, financial institutions, the automakers, large tracts of energy-rich land from Montana to New Mexico. His cap-and-trade proposal, along with a newly empowered Environmental Protection Agency, seeks to impose massive new taxes and regulations upon industry. It is a form of green socialism: Much of the economy would fall under a command-and-control bureaucratic corporatist state. Mr. Obama even wants the government to take over student loans.

Yet his primary goal has always been to gobble up the health care system. The most troubling aspect of the Obamacare debate, however, is not the measure’s sweeping and radical aims – the transformation of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, crippling tax increases, higher premiums, state-sanctioned rationing, longer waiting lines, the erosion of the quality of medical care and the creation of a huge, permanent administrative bureaucracy. Rather, the most alarming aspect is the lengths to which the Democrats are willing to go to achieve their progressive, anti-capitalist agenda.

Obamacare is opposed by nearly two-thirds of the public, more than 60 percent of independents and almost all Republicans and conservatives. It has badly fractured the country, dangerously polarizing it along ideological and racial lines. Even a majority of Democrats in the House are deeply reluctant to support it.

Numerous states – from Idaho to Virginia to Texas – have said they will sue the federal government should Obamacare become law. They will declare themselves exempt from its provisions, tying up the legislation in the courts for years to come.

Mr. Obama is willing to devour his presidency, his party’s congressional majority and – most disturbing – our democratic institutional safeguards to enact it. He is a reckless ideologue who is willing to sacrifice the country’s stability in pursuit of a socialist utopia.

The Slaughter Solution is a poisoned chalice. By drinking from it, the Democrats would not only commit political suicide. They would guarantee that any bill signed by Mr. Obama is illegitimate, illegal and blatantly unconstitutional. It would be worse than a strategic blunder; it would be a crime – a moral crime against the American people and a direct abrogation of the Constitution and our very democracy.

It would open Mr. Obama, as well as key congressional leaders such as Mrs. Pelosi, to impeachment. The Slaughter Solution would replace the rule of law with arbitrary one-party rule. It violates the entire basis of our constitutional government – meeting the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” If it’s enacted, Republicans should campaign for the November elections not only on repealing Obamacare, but on removing Mr. Obama and his gang of leftist thugs from office.

It is time Americans drew a line in the sand. Mr. Obama crosses it at his peril.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington think tank.

Webster’s Seventh Collegiate Dictionary

Definitions

1. Patriot: One who loves his country and zealously supports its authority and interests.
 
2. Tyrant: An absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution in the harsh use of authority or power.

Many of us are making phone calls, sending e-mails, staying constant  in prayer—and sitting on pins and needles this week– as we watch the liberal progressives now in charge of our government try to force national health care upon the American people.
 
At least Barack Obama’s obsession with controlling one-sixth of the American economy—which would push the Federal Government near the ominous threshold of 50% control of the US economy—has exposed what many of us feared: that he is a rigid ideologue who has no regard for centrist or bi-partisan politics, but rather is about radical change of our national moorings.

The current president and his allies want the United States to head down the road of European social democracy—what Jonah Goldberg rightly calls the path to smiley-faced fascism.  And they’re willing to bend the US Constitution and use any means possible to get there including:

• Bribing Senators and Congressmen and women on a level never before seen in our Republic. No—this is not politics as usual as the mainstream media would have us believe. It’s “arm-twisting on steroids” that has no equal on a major piece of US legislation.
• Neglecting the American economy, mired in deep recession, while they push, push, push for over a year to pass their Holy Grail of health care takeover.  Yes, they threw nearly a trillion dollars of stimulus money at combating the recession, but don’t think they’re naive enough to believe that would create jobs and bring down the unemployment rate. They know that only tax and spending cuts would accomplish that—but that is not the goal.
• Circumventing the normal check and balances of government to achieve their ends. A fascinating study came out today showing how the Obama Administration has systematically been side-stepping many of the restraints on power that the US Constitution wisely places on human government to achieve their ends.  It’s a frightening abuse of power, and one acknowledged openly by Senator Chuck Schumer in a recent secretly-taped Democratic strategy meeting.
• Refusing to consider the wishes of the American public whom they represent. No matter which poll you look at, there is ample evidence that some 80% of Americans are satisfied with their current health care plans,   70% are against government controlled care, over 60% disapprove of the Senate bill now under consideration in the House of Representatives, and clear majorities want  the government to scrap the current bill and take incremental steps to improve health care in the United  States.
• Using the “nuclear option”—a Senate practice called “reconciliation” with a 50% threshold to pass a major piece of legislation that should require the 60% threshold of a deliberate Senate body.  This choice to bend hundreds of years of legislative protocol was the final ominous sign that foul play is at work here—not normal vote-getting and taking.
  This is a very serious moment in American history.  We are not fighting an agonizing Civil War, nor engaging in World Wars that greatly try the human spirit.

We are facing a government-led cultural war on our faith and freedom-based ideals and way of life that could have immense ramifications for our children and grandchildren.  In the midst of this danger, I am praying for even one patriot—ONE courageous Democratic Congressman or woman who will have the nerve to say NO to the culture of corruption and rise up and defeat this bill.

I’m praying for a modern-day Paul Revere to arise—and warn us again that the Redcoats are coming.

The Redcoats of old—the British Empire in the 18th century—stood for tyranny in the American colonies. That tyranny took the form of over taxation, taxation without representation, use of force to accomplish their objectives, and political intimidation. Not all the American colonists initially saw King George as a tyrant—but those most in tune with biblical concepts of liberty gradually began to understand that their freedoms and prosperity were worth defending.

It was Paul Revere, among many, who stood up on April 18, 1775 to warn the American colonies what lay over the horizon.   Revere had the vision to see that tyranny was coming—in his case, in the form invading armies that would squelch the infant American dream of freedom under God. Revere got on his horse, sounded the alarm, and woke of the sleeping nation to its impending crisis.

Another legendary American hero—Benedict Arnold—did the opposite. He betrayed his nation during their time of need, and attempted to sell out her soul.
 
Let’s state clearly that those voting for a federal takeover of health care should be viewed as the Benedict Arnolds of our day. They may believe they have a noble cause and that they must do their duty whatever the cost–as Arnold did.  But their approach is nothing but economic and cultural tyranny. We must pray they will be defeated.

We need one patriot—at least one Paul Revere-like Democratic Congressman or woman—to vote for liberty and defeat the progressive strategy. That person could be more important to the process of good government in American that the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts or the courageous action of Paul Revere in 1775.

Here’s some current information for your prayers and e-mails.

Where your Congressmen/women stand

 Pierre Bynum who authors the Family Research Council’s regular prayer letter, gives the following information in today’s e-mail alert:

“Democrats need 216 House votes (GOP members will all vote no) to gain a 216-215 majority — only 37 Democrats can defect and the bill still pass. On Sunday, trackers at The Hill newspaper reported that 35 Democrats say they will, or will likely vote no; 73 remained publicly undecided. House Majority Whip James Clyburn also admitted that he does not yet have the necessary votes. USA Today says the bill’s fate “rests with a handful of House Democrats,” in their view: Representatives Jason Altmire (Pa.), Michael Arcuri (N.Y.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.), and Bart Stupak (Mich.).”
 
I’m praying this week for one patriot among tyrants. Will you join me?