Soap Box

I have been a patriot all my life.

I was five years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed and World War II lasted through my formative early years and respect, gratitude and admiration for the military and confidence in the president and the government were as deeply ingrained in me as my ABC�s.

As our military fought bloody battle after bloody battle on two war fronts thousands of miles apart, there were dark days when the casualty lists were high and battles were lost but
Americans bought more war bonds and said their prayers knowing full well that, no matter what, our military would prevail and that no swastika or rising sun would ever fly above our beloved United States of America.

Through the war, President Roosevelt was the quintessential father figure, a calm voice amidst the chaos, inspiring, reassuring, confident and authoritative, figurehead of American resolve and unbendable will to win.

America was united in a common cause and everybody's goal was to collectively pull the wagon across the finish line, whatever sacrifices and whatever super effort it took.

Everybody did their part, even kids gathered scrap metal, tin cans and old newspapers, which were used in some way in the war effort. Housewives gave up home making and took jobs on the assembly lines building the tanks, planes and guns needed to win the war.

There was a prevalent "we're all in this thing together" feeling that was reflected in everything from the content of the radio shows, the billboards along the roadside and certainly in the attitudes of the people.

Such was the climate of the times of my earliest memories, a sure enough United States, a nation that stood together, a nation that had collectively paid a heavy price for it's liberty and a people whose allegiance was rock solid.

And granted, America still had some serious issues to be resolved but at least we could attack them together.

What happened?

In my opinion, there are many contributing factors:

• The civil rights struggle that has basically been leaderless since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, and unfortunately has partially fallen into the hands of those whose purposes are served by the continuation of friction.

• The exponential growth of major media and their ability to influence opinion on a mass scale.

• The apostasy of America's Christian religious sector, their acceptance that morality is a situational issue and the adherence to doctrine that flies in the face of the Holy Bible that the religion is founded on.

• The unholy alliance of money and politics, the election of men and women who are so beholden to mega rich individual donors and super PACs, that by the time they reach office, they are little more than a glorified employee of special interests or a rubber stamp for the party they are affiliated with.

• The power blocks that exist within the legislative branches and the bureaucracies of our government, the power brokers who control the election funds of their parties, the shadowy billionaires and tycoons who pull the strings from afar, all conspire to keep the candidates who will toe their line in office.

• This has never been more apparent than during the election cycle of this year and the revolt of the Pharisees in the Republican Party. The old guards fear their stranglehold on the party is about to be snatched from their grubby, uncalloused hands. They have spent untold millions of dollars trying to shove one of their controllable candidates down the throats of American voters and it just isn't working and in spite of the two people's choice candidates doing their best to destroy each other and a main stream media bent on doing the same thing, Cruz and Trump, two of the establishment's worst nightmares continue to head the ticket.

Now, there's talk about a brokered or �open� convention, which really means that the entrenched elite intend to take the nomination away from the people's choice and give it to the establishment's choice.

In my opinion, this will finish what all the promise breaking, cowardly, back biting of a party already in tatters, has left to be done away with and rip what's left of the Republican Party to shreds.

My patriotism and loyalty belong to America and I do not claim allegiance to either party, but I will say this.

If the Republican powers that be snatch the nomination out of the hands of the people and give it to one of it's sycophants they can forget me and if a valid, meaningful third party comes along that represents my interests, they are very likely to get my vote.

It's time to clean house in Washington, both sides of the aisle.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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