Letter to the Editor:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted the other day as saying, with a glint in his eye, that the age of liberalism had begun in America. I don’t often agree with Harry, but this time I think he is right.

Unlike past losses, Republicans will not be able to simply re-craft the debate, double-down on their efforts and retake the government through an orderly election. It will take an extraordinary fiscal crisis and a great many people seriously hurting before Republicans can even think about tipping the balance of power back in their direction.

The 60-year-plus campaign of the liberals to convert our national ideal from “freedom” to “entitlement” was successful in large part because Republicans had become as addicted to power as their colleagues across the aisle. And, as such, instead of offering enlightened alternatives, they became part of the problem.

Last Nov. 6 was the tipping point, and actions to be taken over the next several years by this administration will cement a reality that can only lead to an Orwellian-like state where government is all and the individual is reduced to a subservient existence.

By the time the Roman Empire fell, slaves outnumbered free citizens, and society had become so corrupt and self-indulgent that nothing remained but rotting gates and crumbling walls. The German tribes hovering outside had but to push them over and walk through to conquer the Roman Empire.

America, on the other hand, is a continent unto itself. (Mexico hasn’t the strength to invade and Canada shares our values and depends on our trade.) We may be down, but we are not out, and as long as even a spark of freedom remains in the hearts of Americans, there is hope that we can pick ourselves up, wipe off the dust and begin to slowly but surely rebuild our democracy.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, and when the crisis erupted with England in 1776, men of extraordinary vision and courage emerged to lead and inspire the birth of the most brilliant experiment in representative democracy the world had ever known.

I believe that can and will happen again. But in the meantime, we must be pa­tient and as prepared as possible for very painful days ahead. The most constructive use of this time would be to re-inspire ourselves and educate our children in the values and priorities that im­passioned the founders more than 200 years ago.

Bud Kuppenheimer

Phelps