Snapshot of the Future Naples, Florida. January 29, 2019

     “Carl, are you alright?” Beverly Jacowsky looked at her husband across the table. They had been eating dinner when Carl had leaned back in the wicker chair, his face suddenly etched with pain. He looked down and began massaging his left arm. “Carl, what's wrong!”

     “I....my arm....I...I can’t breathe....” He was suddenly gasping for air. Beverly screamed as he fell off the chair, his face flushed and covered with perspiration.

     “Carl!” She yelled, running to his side. She grabbed the Emergency Response Device, or “ERD” as it was called, that was around her neck and pushed the button. She hoped it would work. Her mind raced back to a similar situation a few years ago that ended in tragedy.   The ERD system was one of the newer benefits of Universal Health Care, a monitoring system for everyone with a health problem that could turn into an emergency. Tens of millions of people took advantage of it, and not just older people. Welfare recipients, guest workers, undocumented immigrants, anyone who wanted one, even for the most spurious of reasons, was given the device. The idea was that if one was unable to call for help, a simple press of a button on a small device hung around the neck would bring help. It even sent out a GPS signal so emergency services would know just where the victim was. Within the first two years the system was overwhelmed and the projected costs had tripled. Poor mothers used it for children with colds, illegals used it for fender benders, psychiatric patients used it to warn the operators about the end of the world. When her friend Claire had used it after a fall in the shower, there was no response for twenty seven hours, the lines were so backed up. The paramedics found her dead from a blood clot that had resulted from the fall. Immediate treatment would have saved her life.

     Beverly’s phone rang and she answered it quickly. “Hello!” She didn’t realize she was still yelling.

    “What is the nature of your emergency?” asked the deadpan voice on the other end. The woman had a thick Spanish accent.

    “My husband, he just collapsed, I think he’s having a heart attack!”

    “What are his symptoms?” The voice on the other end was not just calm, thought Bev, but...bored?

    “He’s having trouble breathing, he said his left arm was numb, he’s sweating terribly. Please send someone!” she pleaded.

    “Can I have his Health Insurance Identification Number please, so I can verify your information?”

    “I don’t know! My husband needs help now!”

    “The Emergency Response Device is registered to Carl Jacowsky residing at 134 Ocean Way, Naples, Florida. Is this correct?”

    “Yes!”

    “Are you presently located at that address?”

    “Yes, please send someone!”

    “I am contacting emergency services now. The first available team will be sent to your location. Thank you for using the American Health Initiative Emergency Response Network. Have a nice day.” The phone went dead.

     Beverly couldn’t believe it. ‘Have a nice day?!’ Her husband was fighting for his life on the kitchen floor and she says ‘Have a nice day’ and hangs up?! She had heard stories from a few other people about the employees that manned the response center.   When the system had been set up a new federal workers union had been formed, the ERPU or the Emergency Response Personnel Union. But she thought they were simply isolated incidents. Surely if there was a widespread problem with the operators they would have heard about it on the news.

     Carl groaned. “Stay with me honey, help is on its way.” She patted his hand as tears ran down her cheeks. She knew the nearest fire station was only two blocks away so if the call went out quickly the paramedics should arrive in a few minutes. She continued talking soothingly to her love of forty seven years as he lay gasping for air on the floor. She sighed in relief when she heard the sirens. Within minutes she had let the paramedics in and they were assessing her husband, asking a myriad of questions and preparing to move him to the ambulance. She followed them out the door and watched as they loaded him in. As she moved to the back door of the ambulance, on of the medics stopped her.

    “I’m sorry ma'am, no one else is allowed in the emergency vehicle, government regulations. You can meet us at the emergency room, if you like,” he added as he closed the door and rushed to the driver’s side.

    Beverly was dumbfounded for a moment and then rushed back into the house for her keys as the ambulance sped away. She arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes later and rushed to the emergency room. It was packed. A cacophony of voices met her, some English, some Spanish. She rushed to the desk and pushed to the front of the line, enduring the remarks of those she displaced. The woman at the desk didn’t seem to care.

    “My husband, Carl Jacowsky, could you tell me where he is? He was brought in by ambulance a few minutes ago.”

   “Could you spell that please?” The woman sounded bored and annoyed. Beverly spelled it out as the woman typed. “I’m sorry, we have no record of an admittance under that name. You might want to check out front, we are really backed up today. Next!” Beverly was rudely pushed aside by a large Spanish woman. She hurried out the door to where a row of ambulances were parked, engines running. There must have been more than ten. She quickly walked down the line until she recognized the driver that prohibited her from riding along. She quickly went to the back door and banged on it. A muffled curse came from the inside and then the door opened up. Carl was still on the gurney, hooked up to various machines.

    “Why is my husband still here?!”

    “Ma’am, you shouldn’t be here. We are waiting for an opening, please go wait in the emergency room.”

    “I’m not leaving my husband!”

    “Ma’am, the rules are..”

    “To hell with the rules! Why is my husband still here!”

    “Brad, call security,” stated the medic, turning to his companion. Suddenly, one of the machines began beeping insistently. “Code!” yelled the medic. The next five minutes were a blur to Beverly. Needles, paddles, shouting, more electronic beeping. Then all was calm, only one machine buzzing a long even tone until the medic switched it off.

    “Time to call it. 6:18.”

    Beverly fell to here knees behind the ambulance. The red glow of the emergency room sign competed with the orange glow of the sunset. Carl was dead.

     This election is an historic one, there is no doubt about that. But aside from the issues of race and gender, it is the principles and ideals at stake that have the potential to rapidly and fundamentally change the character of this nation. For the first time in our history we may elect an avowed socialist. Although vehemently denied by Senator Obama and his supporters, there is no question that he, and the Democrat leadership, have this goal in mind. They have envied the enlightened “success” of European socialism and admired the likes of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chaves and, in the past, Joseph Stalin. Since the days of Franklin Roosevelt they have become experts in class warfare, inciting the poor against the rich, the “middle class” being loosely defined so as to garner their support as necessary. Senator Obama admitted in an unguarded moment with “Joe the Plumber” that he embraces the concept of redistribution of wealth; “To each according to his need, from each according to his ability” as Karl Marx said. He and the Democrats believe, and have for a long time, that the Federal Government is the proper avenue for the solution to every problem be it health care, education, charity, mileage standards, free speech and anything else one can think of. They have pledged to grow government, raise taxes on the successful to do it and borrow the rest. They are supporters of the fairness doctrine, gun control, infanticide, and gay marriage. If Senator Obama is elected and Harry Reid gets his senate super-majority there is no question that along with Nancy Pelosi, they will implement this agenda with a speed not seen since the New Deal and pack the Supreme Court with judges who will advance their ideals long after they are gone.

     If Senator Obama is elected, it will only be by the slimmest of majorities, just as all presidential elections have been in recent years. If he is fortunate, he will get fifty three or fifty four percent of the vote and the press will declare it a landslide and say “The American people have spoken, we want socialism!”   But for the nearly half of us who will not vote for socialism, what are we to do?   For those of us who do not want to see our wealth taken from us and given to others, who want to keep our choices in heath care, who want to have options for our children’s education and want to have venues where we can speak out against these and many other government intrusions, what are we to do? 

    This very scenario was, in fact, the greatest fear of the founders of this country; the tyranny of the majority, the rule of the mob. Unfettered democracy was seen as just a great a danger as that of the tyranny of an all powerful king. As Socrates found, a democracy can vote to have you drik your own poison. That is why the founders choose a constitutional republic with very specific and limited powers divided between three branches of government. As long as the role of government was limited by the elected leader’s respect for the Constitution and the people’s moral character to hold them accountable, there was no way America would accept the socialist, communist or fascist experiments of Europe. After George Washington who set the example for leadership by stepping down at the height of power, there was little danger of dictatorship either.

     All that changed during the tenure of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR was a president for life who exercised dictatorial powers through a myriad of government agencies he created, with the assistance of a friendly congress. The constitution was no longer the clear and unquestioned law of the land but had become a document that was malleable, in some ways was out of date, and could be reinterpreted to support just about any desire of Roosevelt and his friends. It was at that time many of the American people abandoned the principles of a constitutional republic and embraced the socialist principle that and individual’s welfare and happiness was the responsibility of the central government’s and not their own. By encouraging class warfare, distributing money from the treasury to their supporters, and taking nearly absolute control of the education system the liberal Democrat party has systematically incorporated more and more socialism into our society.   In fact, they have been so successful that even Republicans now attempt to buy support with social programs. There are few politicians from either party who speak out for the vision of the founders and even fewer who openly advocate dismantling the system. After all, who is going to get elected by promising to take away government benefits?

     So what are those who don’t want to go down this road to do? For those who believe in the founding principles of this nation-very limited government, individual freedom and responsibility-what do we do if we see little hope in a return to those principles? What is a minority, even a large one, to do when its freedom and principles are no longer protected by the constitution and an all powerful government will force it to accept the confiscation of its property and limitations on its liberty?

     Option number one. We hope that President Obama and his accomplices in the congress so overplay their hand that enough of the American people wake up and realize that this is not where the nation should be going and, as some conservatives hope, the people elect another Reagan. That may well happen but we need more than the Reagan and Gingrich revolutions for as we can see by where we are, they were mere speed bumps on the road to socialism.   If the elections of 2010 and 2012 are negative reactions to the policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, the reformers need to actually dismantle the beast, not merely try to tame it. If it is merely sedated or restrained, it need only await another Obama to awaken it in another ten or twenty years. It is my opinion, with the amount of irresponsibility in Washington, financially and otherwise, we may not have that long before our great nation collapses. If that happens the world will lose a great stabilizing influence and it may become what it was in the ninetieth century, a world of poor nations ruled by dictators (kings) competing for supremacy by force of arms. Only this time the nations will be Russia, China and the US and the weapons will be much more terrible.

    Certainly we want to avoid such a fate but our politicians in Washington seem to be running headlong into the abyss. While some see it and there is probably a majority of people who believe that Washington is a large part of the problem, how many will vote for a candidate that vows to eliminate their little piece of the government pie? Is there any real hope that we will be able to reverse the voracious appetite of government and put it on a crash diet? That brings us to option number two, actually a favorite of the left when they don’t get what they want, leaving.   Now this is fine for the left who have more socialist places like Europe to go to but where does one go when one is seeking a modern state where liberty, opportunity and the rule of law are standard? Once upon a time, one came to America, but if America is no longer that place... There are no longer unsettled frontiers in which to begin anew as there were for our forefathers. For the more wealthy among us, the options are more diverse, as they always are for the wealthy, but for the vast majority of us, conservatives and libertarians among the great middle class, leaving the country does not seem a viable option without a great degree of sacrifice.   And why should we leave? We are supposed to be living under a contract called the Constitution and if the present government is operating contrary to that document, then it is illegal and we have the right to resist. 

     Which brings us to option number three. If leaving is not a viable option and the national leadership is unresponsive at best, and destructive at worst, revolution is often the final resort for the oppressed. Such actions can run the gamut from the relatively bloodless fall of the Soviet Union to the bloodbaths of countless coups throughout history.   In America, the Soviet Union is probably the best model but without a catalyst, a crisis in which the national government demonstrates its utter incompetence and is unable to solve, the mass of people will continue to tolerate the most egregious attacks on their liberty. With such an entrenched power, the Communist party in the Soviet Union and the liberal/socialist ideals endemic to both parties in the United States, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to foment a real revolution without that crisis yet no one looks forward to the collapse of the country that will result from it.

     Finally, option number four. This is an option that has a long and checkered past within our history-secession. Getting the colonies to cooperate in the beginning, the threat of southern secession under President Jackson and its realization during President Lincoln’s time are all viable historical examples. Even today there are movements or parties in various states that support secession. To those who see no hope of changing the government from within, are attached to the land of their birth and do not want to wait for a horrible crisis to overtake us all, this may be the most reasonable option. I have no doubt that this is a more difficult option to mentally realize today, as opposed to during the civil war, for state loyalty no longer preempts that of the country as a whole. But there are many people in red states who see the tyranny of the blue states in the Northeast and West as insurmountable and, as things progress and liberty becomes bound more tightly, they may see this as the only viable option to return at least some part of the nation to the constitution and avoid the calamity that befalls the rest of the nation as a result of straying so far afield of our founding principles.

    Whether Senator Obama is elected or not, the march of this country toward socialism will continue, he will merely accelerate the pace to a sprint. What will the great minority of us, those who love liberty and believe in the founders vision, do about it? We will simply protest loudly as we are swallowed up by the relentless march of liberalism? Will we hope that the American people suddenly choose to vote against their immediate self interest and politicians will develop enough backbone to dismantle entrenched bureaucracies and limit their own power? Will some of us escape and seek out some new place where freedom still reigns? Will our coming collapse lead to a new and glorious revolution that returns us to our roots or lead to even darker days? Or will some have the courage to leave the union in an effort to maintain the founder’s original vision and avoid the worst of this great country’s misfortunes? Only time will tell.

Patrick Samuels

www.patricsamuels.com