Come On Sense

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

These days it seems that the federal government is primarily in the business of distributing the taxpayers’ credit to the supporter of the political party in power. With the redistribution of wealth – always upwards, of course – as their principal objective, members of the administration systematically loot the federal treasury. Their friends do very well and the taxpayers are left with the bill. Their political adversaries dream of the days when they are in control and can do the same for their friends. This has been the case for a long time. What is new is the incredible passivity of the citizenry in the face of this ‘looting. In fact, they don’t really seem to mind it at all – probably because they realize that their future was mortgaged long ago – along with their children’s. Now the politicians are working their way through the future of their grandchildren. And grandchildren are such a long way into the future.
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By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

Back when I was writing my doctoral thesis the idea that the world was moving from a modernist to a post-modernist paradigm was mostly limited to philosophers. The post-modernist thinkers – mostly from counties like Italy and France – and the hyper-modernist theorists in the United States were arguing that the way the world was working was undergoing significant change – that a new way of interacting was emerging that had very substantial implications for how business would be done and how cultures would either survive or decline. With the advance of globalization this idea has gradually moved from the philosophy departments to the boardroom. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

The 2008 election cycle may present us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the tendency towards negativity in American political campaigns. As it looks now, we may be presented with a real choice. One campaign looks poised to argue that their man is better because his opponent is corrupt, unpatriotic, inexperienced and a liar. The other seems to believe that Americans deserve better and is dedicated to advancing the political dialogue rather than the political spectacle. We should take advantage of the opportunity to choose substance and respectful dialogue over character assassination and mud-slinging. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

I have recently been reading the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist papers. The contract between the ideas which run through those papers and the current state of American society and its status in the world is hard to avoid. America and Americans seem to be suffering from an advance and insidious form of schizophrenia – a kind of split personality – which threatens the very foundations of our republic. Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” It seems that Dr. Franklin’s great test is upon us and we need to stop and ask ourselves what kind of a people we have become and what that means for the future of the American Republic. For the most part, the picture is not pretty. What kind of a people have Americans become? Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

There is a difference between freedom and liberty which seems to be lost on the current generations of Americans. For many the words seem to be synonymous. But nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that, from the perspective of the draft animal – the oxen, for instance – the words may seem to have the same meaning. But Americans should not be oxen. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

Towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century it is easy to lose track of the motivations which lead Europeans to make the difficult and dangerous journey across the Atlantic and to a new world full of dangers and unknowns. We might want to think that they saw the promise of a new life – a country to build – and unlimited opportunities. But that was, for the most part, not the case. These people were leaving the unacceptable for the chance that what they would find might be better. In other words, they had decided that getting away from what they were leaving behind was worth the risks. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II

Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

We are living through a time which has brought tragedy to both political parties. In this piece I want to focus on the one which has all but consumed the Republican Party. After a brief discussion of the basics of what I see as the essential underpinnings of the Party, I will outline the source of this crisis, discuss the ways out of it and give you my opinion about why it is critical that the Party be reclaimed and reinvigorated. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

As someone who came of age during the activism of the 60s, I have watched with amazement the rather successful attempts at domestication of the American electorate over the last four decades. Citizens have either withdrawn from engagement in the management and control of their government or found themselves with insufficient bandwidth to do so. Either way, the results are the same – a government which has become a force in and of itself – a citizenry which is often more subject to its government than the other way around – and an America which wanders further and further from the vision of the founding fathers.

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By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

We live in dangerous times – dangerous not because of the prevailing wisdom about terrorists and nuclear weapons. The reasons are far more fundamental and far more pervasive than those provincial threats. The very foundations of American society are at risk. The livability of the planet which we call home is at stake. The future of mankind hangs in the balance.

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By Dr. Earl R. Smith II
Chief@ComeOnSense.com
www.ComeOnSense.com

At the very center of the American Republic rests an idea which was thought radical at the time the Founders wove it into the design for our government. They determined that the laws of the land were to be made only with the consent of the citizens and were to apply to all citizens equally. Prior to that time most countries had legal systems which provided special dispensations for the aristocracy and the monarchy. But the founders were determined to create a form of government under which even the president was subject to the laws of the land. They labored to create what James Harrington described as “the empire of laws and not of men”. Read the rest of this entry »