If a picture is worth a thousand words, the Aug. 6 Advocate cartoon depicting a confused equine at a political highway junction was a dandy. Should it continue the middle road of moderation, veer left toward more liberalness or veer to a more conservative right? The cartoon could as easily have portrayed a pachyderm confronting the same choices. To be sure, the character arrived at the junction perplexed and flustered. Perhaps, as never before in our history, the polarization of political viewpoints is causing America to lose its way; confused as to which road is the better choice.

Veering to the left side of the road are those typically convinced Americas problems are the result of its past. Advocates of this view think the nation has not evolved far enough from its founding principles of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets. They press for a living Constitution, believing our founding document was never intended by its writers to be static, but rather be interpreted in the light of constantly evolving experiences of the American people. This view was recognized as dangerous by Thomas Jefferson in 1781 when he wrote, Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. A living, fluid constitution would result in establishing a class of ideological rulers who could, and no doubt would, determine the rights of all the people. This would literally shred the Constitution as a document promoting freedom of choice and force citizens to conform to unchanging rules of code and conduct in fostering their general and personal welfare. Admittedly, the U. S. Constitution is not perfect and requires periodic fine tuning, but most believe doing anything more than that constitutes a clear danger of dismembering the very foundation of our constitutional republic. Unlike the founders, a far-left ideology strongly desires the government to be ever larger, yielding more malevolent authority and power. They see as good, the government taking more of corporate and individual income and redistributing it to whom they feel are deserving. Rather than safeguarding equal opportunity for all, this liberalism advocates the imposition and enforcement of equal outcomes to everyone, regardless of merit.

Veering towards the roads right side, we find others equally concerned about which path the nation is taking. But, their tendency is to view our most important problems being borne more recently, having their genesis within the last couple of generations. Through their eyes, the pillars of American history, including the U. S. Constitution; separation of powers; rule of law; freedom of assembly, religion, and speech; free market economy; and Americas role as a world peace-keeper, is crumbling. This group shudders when Americas public school, college, and universities are infiltrated by socialist administrators and educators teaching their children and grandchildren to be ashamed of those things that brought forth Americas greatness. They weep as they witness ex-presidents, governors, state legislators, members of the U. S. Congress and candidates for the highest office in the nation view the fruits of Americas accomplishments with contempt and disdain.

Regardless of validity, conservatists often accuse the liberalists as being a satanic false belief countermanding what the Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Believing like the founders that government must be fiercely constrained, the more conservative view todays trends toward secularism, humanism, political correctness, destruction of the traditional family, decline in faith, corruption within government, and out-of-control illegal immigration as major threats to the safety and well-being of the constitutional republic.

Perhaps their greatest apprehension is seeing the animosity directed toward themselves and anyone else who believes that there are moral and ethical absolutes; who promotes individual self-sufficiency; who advocates for family and parental rights; who dares to invoke the name of Jesus Christ in truth; or who is naive enough to believe that all of humankind is created equal with certain unalienable rights, granted them by their Creator.

The forefathers of this nation were willing to die to establish the rule of law, and many over the course of our history have given their lives sustaining our constitutional law. It must be remembered that the U. S. Constitution is the foundation of our Republic and the Ten Commandments are, in many ways, the foundation of the Constitution. The writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution firmly believed that if Gods Commandments were not kept, the Republic would collapse. Their words and beliefs were never ever intended to be taken lightly.

A former president said, If we ever forget that were one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. The right to choose and the road we choose to follow is ours. We must choose wisely.

Bobby D. Whitefield, of Victoria, is a former director of special programs for the Texas Water Commission in Austin. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of biology at the University of Corpus Christi and head of the science department at Tuloso-Midway ISD in Corpus Christi.

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Guest column: The road we choose to follow is ours; choose wisely - Victoria Advocate