The Cult of the Presidency-How We Got a Superstar President

What you are proposing is a massive education effort to erase more than 50 years of indoctrination. Since the New Deal our politicians have diligently worked to stamp out personal pride in independence. And now our children are being brainwashed to expect the government to support them. On top of it all, most of the people receiving entitlements of some kind (at last count, about 57% of the population) think of the government as a nanny with its own income. They don't realize that it is money grabbed forcibly from workers and those that do usually don't care. They've been indoctrinated into the culture of entitlements and don't care where it comes from as long as they get what they think they deserve. So if we're going to reduce government to sane proportions, we have a big job ahead of us. I'm educated my children and everyone else would do the same we might see some change in a decade or so. But we absolutely must make people realize what government is--the people, not a nanny--and the heights we could reach if it were smaller and less intrusive.

It seems to me that, by and large, people need some sort of divinity in their lives, a purpose to serve. For many folks, that gets warped into viewing political figures as deities. This isn't some wild and crazy theory that little ol' matersfish has and that nobody else is thinking or something that no one else is aware of. This is something that's painfully obvious when looking at world history. Emperors and kings and queens and dictators have been held in power throughout human history simply because too many people elevated them to that position. Ironfisted rule cannot keep you in power amongst your own people if your own people don't want you in. So that's definitely not an excuse. And even leaders overseeing political systems that have killed millions upon millions are still held in high esteem if the deaths can somehow by spun into righteous for "equality" or "justice." It's sick. Some of the most headstrong, outspoken, vibrant and passionate people I've ever met in my life have been, ironically enough, proponents of big, all-controlling government. That's a clash if ever there was one. It doesn't make much sense. But then to look at it, well, it kinda does. Their ideas and hopes and dreams and values aren't necessarily "their" ideas and hopes and dreams and values. They're secondhand desires, in a lot of cases, picked up through, for lack of a more appropriate term at 12:16am, idol worship. Sitting here typing, I just suddenly started laughing to remember the other week when a (surprisingly!) 10-star-rated, seemingly respected poster on myLot literally called me extreme and foolish for simply stating that people should rule over themselves and that government should not be in charge of lives. The idea that someone needs to be in control, that some power needs to be higher, is an idea we're simply not ready to evolve out of yet. When I hear and read the more "liberal" way of seeing the world, I always cringe when they claim "their" ways are fairer and more evolved than others. The way I see it, they're actually going in reverse. Wanting government to be in charge of people's lives and to be in charge of what's "fair" and what's "right" is the deevolution of humanity. Why do grown, intelligent, driven people want or need someone else to be in charge? America is the ideal that, at least on its face, broke away from the idea that some ruling body needs to control lives. I'm just confused to see so many people continuing to want government to do things for them. Education is certainly paramount in convincing people that big government never ends well for anyone. But for many people in America, they have no choice but to attend or send their childen to schools big government already controls. And we all know what goes on in those schools: you're taught big government is the key to all world happiness and that mmm mmm mmm Obama songs are right catchy tunes.

Thankfully, home schoolers have been learning the correct history for years, not the re-written history our public school kids get. Just yesterday, I posted an article here: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979305199 The title says it all, I think: American Students Fail Basic Civics Test That Immigrants Could Pass The article provides a link to a test that was given to college students. It's amazing what they don't know about the US, our government and our history. Only 19% knew why we fought the Civil War. Only 21% knew where the phrase "government of the people, by the people and for the people" originated. 19% answered properly about the Puritans. Only 19% knew where the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" appeared. And, not surprisingly, only 16% understood what the term "free markets" actually means.