In December of 1914 in the first bitter winter of a long bitter war the solders of the German Empire and the soldiers of the British Empire defied the orders of their officers. They abandoned their hastily dug entrenchments that would soon grow into an elaborate maze of trenches stretching from Switzerland to the English Channel to meet each other in no man’s land. They sang hymns and exchanged gifts in a spontaneous outpouring of the feelings of peace, fellowship, and forgiveness which were then the staples of a Christ centered Christmas season.
If you drench yourself in the torrent of Christmas movies that bombard us from Thanksgiving till December 25th you see that the spirit of Christmas in emotional America isn’t about Christ: God clothed in the flesh of a child who came into a lost world to die as a payment for sin and to rise again to bring new life. It is instead about the sentimental ideal of love and the boy gets the girl or is it the girl gets the boy? Who knows sometimes they throw in a curve that really builds the suspense. There are movies about Santa Clause, his sons, his daughters, his elves, and wingless angels all of whom help people learn the true meaning of Christmas, which is never about Christ and always about family and friends and being nice people.
In commercial America, Christmas is about Black Friday and discounts so deep they remind me of the street vendor in Mexico who follows you shouting “I’ll give you 110% off if you buy two!” The Chia Pets come out along with snuggies, pet rocks, and every other doodad imaginable to buy for people who already have too much.
The mountains of presents which obscenely bury Christmas trees in so many American homes are ripped apart by sugar-high children. Children who get into a frenzy of getting so intense they never have time to appreciate what they get. All they want is to get something else. The beautiful wrapping paper, the miles of ribbon, and the forests of bows are stuffed unceremoniously into big green garbage bags on their way to landfills.
So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.
In the still sweet morning of December 26 people start preparing for the next blast of holiday cheer, Happy New Year!!!
What will 2016 bring?
Whether we plunge over another fiscal cliff, the government shuts down, or another executive order reminds us we are living in a dysfunctional democracy ruled by decree it will bring us a New America. An America cast in the image of our Community-Organizer-in-Chief. This representative of the Saul Alinsky wing of the Progressive movement, this made man from the Chicago political Outfit won a second term and as it ends seems determined to rub our face in the defeat of all we hold dear. Whether it was through the voter fraud no one seems willing to mention or through the actual votes of those who bought into the Uncle Sugar myth and vote for Santa Clause, the man from Hawaii who says he’s from Chicago and who won’t tell us much of anything else, is determined to create the Age of Obama, or America in his own image.
In the New America today more people qualify for disability than get jobs, more people get food stamps than start businesses, and more people forget that America was founded to provide individual liberty, personal freedom and economic opportunity and embrace America as a cradle-to-grave welfare state. People forget that when you limit failure you also limit success. They don’t understand that when you create a safety net so complete it becomes a hammock many people figure why work when you can play.
Incentive is stifled by entitlements, and innovation is strangled by regulation.
In our New America in 2016:
* Taxes will go up and up as spending goes up even faster.
* Regulations will pour out of the bureaucracy to fill in all the blanks in thousand page laws no one ever reads.
* Our President will continue to bow before despots.
* Our foreign policy will continue to support radical Islam while pretending to battle it in the Mideast.
* No one will ever be held accountable for the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, or any of the other scandals which erupt from the pustule of corruption that is Inside the Beltway.
* The burgeoning energy industry that had the potential to lift America out of its economic tailspin has been throttled as the coal industry, the fracking boom, and oil shale are all regulated to death.
* We will pour billions down the green energy rat holes building industries that cannot produce enough energy to exist without government support.
* Obamacare will continue to destroy the insurance industry and eventually a single payer system will consign the rest of us to standing in lines in converted gymnasiums for impersonal care while our leaders take limousines and private jets to the Mayo Clinic all on our dime.
* Industry will continue to flow out as foreign made goods flow in and the mother of all imbalanced trade agreements is advertised as free.
* We will be monitored by drones, wire taps, and computers as Big Brother extends his grasp till freedom becomes just another name for nothing left to lose.
* The borders will remain open and tens of thousands of refugees and perhaps thousands of Islamist radicals are brought here at our expense and over our objections.
This may be the New America that awaits us in 2016. Our families, friends, and neighbors have voted for it, and we all get to live in it: oh happy days are here again. The second coming of FDR has put food stamps in every pot and a Smart Car in every garage.
In our New America Christ has been purged from Christmas and sappy sentimentality has replaced the joy of being born again in a relationship with God our loving Father. So as you prepare to celebrate Christmas and the New Year be sure and thank any of the millions of Obamazombies and low information voters who get their opinions from the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media and who actually believe the economy is recovering and glory in America being knocked off its high horse for the New America we are all unwrapping under the Xmas Tree this year.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2015 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
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