On Preserving Democracy - By Dr. Joseph P. Crawford, ASCF Chairman

By Dr. Joseph P. Crawford - ASCF Chairman

October 18, 2022

We currently live in an age of Intolerance, engendered by those whose personal and intellectual insecurity will not consider alternative evaluations of reality and culture. Any medical student will recognize the pathologic condition of projection, which accuses others of offenses or prejudices which the accuser blatantly or secretly is guilty of. it is a common ego defense maneuver which allows those so afflicted to blithely dismiss alternative views as prejudice or racist. The bigots accuse those with whom they disagree, of bigotry.

Whether it is the Nazis burning books in 1933 or Islamic fanatics destroying religious shrines in the Middle East, anarchists choose to erase the history with which they disagree or cannot understand. Ironically, they fail to understand that this history is the evolution to the present and to not understand how we arrived at the present is to not have a compass to safely guide our future path. They chose to destroy the past so no one can conceive of an alternative to their infallibility. They believe that democratic capitalism, as developed in the United States, was based on racism and slavery, while ignoring that it was the declaration of the rights of free men as enumerated in the Constitution which led to a great Civil War fought to free all Americans and grant them the rights and privileges of citizens. Few of today’s progressives and anarchists remember that this war for emancipation was fought at an unimaginable cost where one-seventh of the adult male population of the United States was killed or maimed so that all men, regardless of race, religion, creed, or social status could be free. Never before nor since has such a costly conflict been fought in order that all citizens could live, work and worship as they chose. The ignorant and those who would take advantage of the ignorant, would sandblast history to erase the march of progress that has provided unequaled opportunity and prosperity.

So now we are engaged in great social conflicts which will test our values and the foundations of our Constitution. Patriotic American Citizens believe in the literal meaning of the Constitution which was conceived, constructed, and implemented by brave men and women who took RISK to guarantee human rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. Anarchists, fascists, and many socialists are intolerant of the beliefs and interpretations of others. They deface the businesses and homes of those who will not march in goose-step solidarity with their cataclysmic beliefs. They seek to remove the different opinions of others from print and social media. They disrupt, riot, and destroy meetings, organizations or discussions which threaten their malignant self-righteousness. They are not in the least interested in making “a more perfect union” but in replacing it. When Socialism inevitably fails, the perpetrators of the canard never accept responsibility for the failure of their social revolution, it is always that the fault of the “people” who were unable, unwilling or were not ready to grasp this perfect concept. From New Harmony to Nazi Germany, from the Soviet Union to Venezuela or North Korea, the unifying thread is that Socialism and states that idolize charismatic figures never stand the test of time and never can exist on their merits. Those who have a Pavlovian belief in this failed mantra however are always ready for the next revolution. “Communism Vpered.”

In response to this attack on democratic capitalism, those who believe in freedom, opportunity, prosperity and improving our country, must be proactive. To those who seek to denigrate Democracy, we are not self-righteous; but are validating a system of government which is history’s best example of self-determination, progress, and compassion. Because of these rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, we must speak up, no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient. Those who seek to replace independence with state-sponsored mandates and conformity, will continually contrive to destroy capitalism because this action validates their own personal beliefs, agendas, and activities.

The American Security Council Foundation seeks to engage Americans promoting moral leadership that will defend democratic values. We believe that patriots must contribute to the effort to captivate students with factual American history; with all the garlands, honors, warts, and scars required to move a free society forward. Our program, American History Live, is an initiative to start that process at an early age, while having an interactive discussion of the momentous debates and conflicts that brought us to the present.

We feel obligated to support individuals and organizations that champion capitalism and individual freedoms and whose personal lives exemplify the character qualities of respect, responsibility, willingness to take necessary risk and to earn freedom’s reward. Our American past is replete with such men and women. It is our collective responsibility to find such individuals today.

Finally, we must nurture and finance the concept that history is not merely the recording of the past, but a continuum in the evolution of Civilization. As such, current generations of Patriots need to grasp the torch from their predecessors to advance the cause of liberty and defeat those who seek to destroy it. To paraphrase Franklin, dead fish and perpetual politicians both eventually stink. We ask your help in sponsoring new blood in the service of democracy and freedom.