Super Bowl Weeping

I didn’t intend to cry during the Super Bowl (And it wasn’t just because that pretentious She-Cry Manling won Super Bowl XLII before Phillip Rivers could). But I cried.
I cried when I saw the reading of the Declaration of Independence coupled with quotes from the early fathers of our country.
What struck me during that reading were the same emotions that overwhelm me when the National Anthem is played (not in the Whitney Houston crack-whore 'I am such a Diva' way, just in the traditional way like it was performed tonight). It is the question that always haunts, that one question, that damn question… “Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”
Does it?
Does that same banner that covered the patriots who fought AGAINST government largesse still wave?
Does it?
Does that same banner over the warriors who threw off tyranny (which was just amateur tyranny compared to today’s government incursions into every aspect of our lives) still wave?
Can anyone look at what those men and women sacrificed to become free and tell me that we have the same spine or spirit today to throw off the false shackles of a government running against the will and consent of the governed? Do we still fly the same banner? Does that banner still wave over a country of brave and free people?
Sadly, the answer is no.
Just look at our presidential candidates. All of them except Ron Paul want to steal more money from us in order to restrain our freedoms and choices through bureaucratic morass. Each of them hold that the government as an acceptable option to illegally redistribute wealth and mandate behaviors favorable to their Reich.
Look at the strength of the socialist movement of this country. Witness the movement of the Republican Party to the left until they morph into the Democratic party of giveaways.
I cried listening to those words, the same way that I would weep remembering my father’s independent character and genius intellect, knowing that I will never again witness such an epiphany of bravery and resistance to subservience. I believe that America has lost its stomach for self-sufficiency, lost its passion for independence, lost its ability to turn off a reality TV show and read a book, and that it has decided to never critically analyze any idea that the mass media and pop culture passes off as truth.
America has passed on the ability to throw off a government of tyranny. So, I wept, as I would weep over the body of a friend’s corpse, when I caught a glimpse of the psyche of brave men willing to gamble their lives and their fortunes away for a better future. Now we gladly put our grandchildren in debt for a “Stimulus Package” that is only a Band-Aid on a shredded artery of self indulgence.
Around half of the nation will vote for a candidate that promises to run us into unbridled debt to China in exchange for an expanded welfare state now. Want free healthcare? I have two! Want free tuition? Mine comes with a massage!
So I weep. I am so proud of that time in American History when we thought and acted as men.
So I weep, when I realize that we will never be that nation again.