STARBOARD TACK: The Free Nation Makes a Course Correction

By Martin Capages Jr.

In Starboard Tack, Martin Capages Jr., PhD takes us on a journey over time, from Aboriginal and Medieval times to the American Revolution, and to an envisioned future of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Dr Capages provides us with a glimpse of the many conflicts, challenges and opportunities of our present time, and that lie ahead. He als

• Language: English
• Publisher: American Freedom Publications LLC
• Release date: May 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646698783

Martin Capages Jr.

Martin Capages, Jr. is a retired professional engineer, technical executive and an Army veteran. His technical and management experience includes aircraft design, petroleum exploration and production, computer modeling and technology applications and structural engineering. He began writing political commentary in 2009 and completed his first book, The Moral Case for American Freedom, in July 2017. His writing is from the perspective of an engineer, Christian layman, conservative and Constitutional originalist. Martin attended Missouri State University and the Missouri University of Science and Technology where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1967. After receiving his Commission as an Army Ordnance Officer but prior to reporting for active duty, he joined Boeing Aircraft in Wichita as an Associate Engineer working on the new 737. He reported for active duty in June 1967. After completing active duty, Martin joined Exxon in Houston, Texas, with assignments throughout the U.S. and Europe to include serving as acting North Sea Development Planning Manager for Exxon in London, Production Operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Engineering Manager for the Texas Midland District, the Alaska Financial and Facilities groups, and Exxon's Western Division Computing organization. He left Exxon in 1984 to join Kerr McGee in Oklahoma as Manager of Engineering Services until 1992 when he left the petroleum industry to start his own structural engineering consulting firm, ARIS Engineering Inc., in Springfield, Missouri. He continued post-graduate studies in Civil Engineering and Management receiving an earned Doctorate in Engineering Management in 2002. He retired from full time practice in 2012.

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DEDICATION

In these words of the Founding Fathers

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

This book is dedicated to the Free Nation warriors of the future who will successfully reclaim the unalienable right of Individual Freedom and stave off the advancement of a State-controlled collective run by an elitist oligarchy called the Administrative State.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my wife, Pamela, for her continued prayerful support and love in my latest endeavor as an author,

And grateful thanks to Dr. Ronald Cherry for his friendship, encouragement and willingness to contribute the Foreword to this book. In addition, the proposed Article V, Convention of States 28th Amendment details are from Dr. Cherry’s book Restoring the American Mind. It is the prescription the Free Nation needs to stay on the Starboard Tack.

I would also like to thank Andy May for his technical input on the Climate. He is the author of Climate Catastrophe! Science or Science Fiction?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

IN THE BEGINNING

EARLY HISTORY

CHRISTIAN ROOTS

THE SCOURGE OF SLAVERY

RISE OF THE TAKE PARTY AND RACISM

PROGRESSIVISM

GLOBAL RECOGNITION AND ADVERSITY

MODERN WARFARE

A FITFUL PEACE

COLD WAR

SPACE RACE AND WAR AGAIN

THE GREAT SOCIETY

MISTEPS

STAR WARS AND BEYOND

WORLD POLICEMAN

THE GOOD OL’ BOY

JIHAD

COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM

THE STORYBOOK

POPULIST REVOLT

THE ELECTION

THE NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN

THE IMMIGRATION DILEMMA

RESISTANCE AND OBSTRUCTION

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

THE DEEP STATE STRIKES BACK

THE MID-TERM ELECTION

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

ANTI-SEMITISM

RACISM

NEVER ENDING IMPEACHMENT SCANDAL

THE CHINA SYNDROME

STAYING THE COURSE

THE RE-ELECTION

A WEATHER HELM

ARTICLE V CONVENTION OF STATES

THE 28TH AMMENDMENT

THE LAND OF THE FREE

BUT WHAT IF?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WORKS CITED AND REFERENCES

INDEX

STRENGTH OF A NATION

The secret strength of a nation is found in the faith that abides in the hearts and homes of the country. --- Reverend Billy Graham

OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

BOOTS TO BOGIES TO BRONZE: The Authorized World War II

                                                        Biography of 2LT Jack C. Pyatt

THE MORAL CASE FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM

OZARK COUNTY HEART: Boyhood Memories of a Dora Missouri

                                            Farm

A WAKEFUL WATCH: The Authorized Biography of Charles

                                      Lindbergh Armstrong

HEARTLAND REBELLION

THE SILENT SECOND: The Biography of Martin Capages-

                                      Captain USMC

EPIPHANY: Before Time Zero- Faith of an Engineer

Why the Green New Deal is a Bad Deal for America

freedom oR SOCIALISM? The Millennial Dilemma

FOREWORD

In Starboard Tack, Martin Capages Jr., PhD takes us on a journey over time, from Aboriginal and Medieval times to the American Revolution, and to an envisioned future of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Dr. Capages provides us with a glimpse of the many conflicts, challenges and opportunities of our present time, and that lie ahead. He also lays out the pitfalls awaiting current and future generations that could succumb to the temptation of an Orwellian society where everyone is equal, but some, the Socialists themselves, are more equal than others.

American Universities and public schools have stigmatized the success of our great country, demeaning our Founding Fathers, while failing to explain the dismal treachery of Marxist and Islamist societies that are failing before our very eyes, their citizens reduced to poverty, and where human life is cheap. Having removed from their curriculum the American Judeo-Christian world view, a glorious yet rational view of human nature, our schools are preparing American students for social and economic failure.

  Dr. Capages and I believe that the Divine Right of Individuals, eloquently expressed in our Declaration of Independence, is threatened by the allied political forces of Marxist Socialism and Islamofascism, and that to preserve the value, dignity and unalienable human rights of the American people an Article V Constitutional Amendment will be necessary. Given the rate of decline seen in our news media, entertainment, schools, churches and culture, the sooner the better.

Ronald R. Cherry, MD

Author of Restoring the American Mind

In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim - that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people. ~ George Mason

PREFACE

Throughout history, nation states have risen to great heights and then failed when their very foundations become corrupted by the natural tendencies of humankind. These nations are very successful when attacked from the outside. There is a patriotic zeal that offsets political differences. But when there is peace and abundance, there is the danger of class envy, a battle of the have and have-nots. There are other reasons for conflict such as racial prejudice and injustice, religious beliefs, work ethic and political philosophies, just to name a few.  The Free Nation would experience them all and survive.

The Free Nation had a code for survival. The nation was founded by a group of wise, knowledgeable men whose grasp of human nature exceeded that of modern thinkers. They recognized that Freedom was a natural human desire that had been implanted within the human heart as a gift from a Divine source. As such, it could not be revoked by any human power. But they also recognized that rightful Freedom requires moral constraints so that one’s Freedom did not destroy the Life, Freedom or Property of another. A government would be necessary to provide those constraints. And a government would be necessary to defend the Free Nation from outside, to protect the Natural God-given rights of its citizens, thus promoting the General Welfare. But that government would have to be limited so that it would not possess the corrupting influence of excessive power. The Founding Fathers would fathom a way to do just that.

This is the story of the Free Nation, its history, its current state and what the future may hold. We hope and pray that Providence is kind, blessing our Free Nation with the wisdom to maintain a proper course.

Martin Capages Jr. PhD PE

Author of The Moral Case for American Freedom

Photo by Martin Capages Jr.  © 2019 American Freedom Publications LLC

INTRODUCTION

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." ---C. S. Lewis

There once was a country where the citizens were proud of their nation and its symbols. It was a country where Common Sense prevailed in the citizens’ selection of their leaders and law makers.  In turn, the leaders and lawmakers respected all their citizens and made decisions based on common sense and the good of all the citizens, not just the constituency that selected them to govern. You see, it was a united country, where the citizens could differentiate between moral right and wrong but also looked to a group of judges appointed by their leaders and approved by their law makers to settle minor differences in the application of the laws.

Throughout history, countries had suffered revolts of the working class against the governing elite. Most followed the course of the French Revolution, where the working-class mob takes revenge on the elite to the extent that it destroys its own brain and nervous system.  Rulers and rules are eliminated. Barbarism replaces services, the Free Press is exterminated and replaced with a controlled Press. Warlords take over and a Strongman emerges. All of the turmoil is internal with factions fighting factions in civil wars.

The Free Nation’s history was different. It was a revolt against far-off rulers. Free Nation factions united as one to kick off the yoke of foreign rule. The factions had worked out their differences without much conflict or bloodshed. It was civil discourse not civil war. The rules were written down and then followed after Freedom was gained. The brain and nervous system were not destroyed, and the Press flourished. Open discourse led to a codification of the rules in a Constitution to restrict the power given by the Governed to the Government. While the majority of citizens were busy living their lives, they relied on the Press to watch the activities of the leaders, lawmakers and judges and report on these activities in a factual and unbiased way. The citizens trusted the Press and admired them for many years.  The Free Nation had united as one nation in the year 1776 and flourished as the land of the free. But overtime changes took place in the seat of government that would eventually alter the very way of life of the citizens and not in a good way.

The government had been established at the consent of the governed as a representative republic, not a democracy.  The branches of government were legislative, executive and judicial with checks and balances between branches. The checks and balances idea was new and had never been tried before in any government. The legislative branch would write the laws and would be the most powerful of the theoretically co-equal branches. It would be divided into two bodies, a House of Representatives based on each state’s population and a Senate with equal representation from each state. This would provide a second set of checks and balances within the lawmaking body that would be called the Congress.

It was the duty of the Congress to write the rules for governance in a fair, responsive and impartial manner.

The Executive branch would be charged to execute the laws as written by the Congress. The method for the election of the leader of the Executive branch, the President, was also designed to equalize the power of the States in this important process. The Founders had determined that the choice would be down to two forms of popular election:  A key writer of the Constitution commented, The option before us, he said, [is] between an appointment by Electors chosen by the people—and an immediate appointment by the people. He said he preferred popular election, but he recognized two legitimate concerns. First, people would tend toward supporting candidates from their own states, giving an advantage to larger states. Second, a few areas with higher concentrations of voters might come to dominate. He spoke positively of the idea of an electoral college, finding that there would be very little opportunity for cabal, or corruption in such a system. It was agreed that each State would appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.

Federal officials were prohibited from being electors. Electors were required to cast two ballots and were prohibited from casting both ballots for candidates from their own state. A deadlock for president would be decided by the House of Representatives, with one vote per state. Following that, in case of a deadlock for vice president, the Senate would decide. The Constitution was later amended to require electors to cast separate votes for president and vice president.

While the Executive branch would be charged to execute the laws as written by the Congress, the laws written by the Congress would be subject to review by the third branch of the government, the Judicial Branch. The judicial power of the Free Nation had been vested in a Supreme Court and also in some inferior courts that would be established by the Congress from time to time. The judges were allowed to hold their offices as long as they served with good behavior. This meant that they could theoretically serve for life. In addition to that, the salaries of the judges could not be decreased while they were in office. This was meant to prevent members of Congress from punishing any judge whenever one faction disliked one of the Court’s decisions.

Every state could have a number of lower courts that would be organized and created by the Congress. The federal courts were to decide arguments over how the constitution was interpreted, rights and responsibilities of the Free Nation in its dealings with other nations, and all laws that the Congress would pass. Moreover, disputes arising between citizens, states, and states and the federal government could be heard in federal courts. However, federal courts could only make decisions on those cases brought to them by an individual who had been affected by the law. These courts could not create their own cases, even if they felt that a law was unconstitutional.

This would work well until the Free Nation became larger in extent by annexing or purchasing lands adjoining the Free Nation and the population grew as the people flourished. As years passed the direction of the Free Nation seemed to veer away from common sense. The Free Nation became divided against itself. The citizens would try to change the leadership through the political process.

  But the political process had become corrupted by political professionalism.  Political professionals had almost unending terms in office.  When they left office, they just became professional lobbyists.  Lobbying even became a family business for many of the political professionals.

Then the Congress decided to delegate some of its responsibilities to non-elected administrative officials called bureaucrats with specific expertise that the legislators felt they personally lacked or did not have time to administer. The Executive Branch followed suite since there were many more duties to perform as more laws were passed by the Congress. One of the most important duties of the Executive branch was to provide for the common defense.  In addition to law enforcement expertise (including intelligence gathering and analysis), this would require both military and industrial expertise and, once again, non-elected bureaucrats would be placed in charge of substantial portions of the government’s activities which involved massive expenditures.

The Free Nation Founding Fathers anticipated that government would gain a self-awareness and seek its own increase. They had assumed the checks and balances would limit this expansion of the power of the State over the Individual. They were used to a slow communication process with time for common sense to rise to the top in public discourse. They did not anticipate that a professional political class would gain control of Congress by exploiting the loopholes of term limits and repetitive terms between the two bodies of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate.  They also trusted in a Free and Fair Press to serve as a watchdog on government. They could never have anticipated the revolving door between the lobbying industry, government and the Press that developed. And, unfortunately, they did not understand the Founders’ warnings concerning the dangers of the delegation of authority to bureaucracies managed by un-elected officials that would become the Administrative State.

This Administrative State would become more powerful and would begin to chip away at the individual freedoms of the citizenry without the citizens’ awareness. This lack of awareness would not be attributable to a disinterest of the people. It happened because the citizens had placed their faith in a free and unbiased Press. They would eventually be betrayed as the Press became ideologically bound to one political party and could no longer report news accounts in an unbiased and honest manner. This will be discussed in more detail later on when we review the more recent, modern condition of the Free Nation.

IN THE BEGINNING

EARLY HISTORY

It was not an easy journey to get to this point in the modern history of the Free Nation.  There were many obstacles in the way from the very beginning. The territory now occupied by the Free Nation was first occupied by aboriginal tribes, once immigrants from the continents of Europe and Asia. How these tribes migrated to the Free Nation has been studied for many years. It may have been a land bridge from the northern hemisphere or by water in rudimentary boats across the major oceans or, perhaps both. The tribes had diverse cultures with the typical minor conflicts and some outright wars between disagreeing factions. Some of the tribes became culturally more advanced than others to include the technology of war.  They even had a type of slavery.  So, there was not a lot of difference between these natives and the rest of the world.  They were just the first occupants of a lot of rich, fertile land with many natural resources. (Tenenbaum, 2011)

In the 10th Century the Vikings who ventured south of Greenland found the new land they called Vinland to be warm and inviting at first but, it would turn cold and foreboding a century later, so it was forgotten.    Its southernmost extent of the Free Nation would be found again by the Spanish in the 1400s in a quest for gold. The hunt for gold was joined by the hunt for souls to convert to Catholicism.  Then there was another land grab invasion that began on the eastern shores of the Free Nation. The new invaders would be from the European Continent.  The idea of new land to settle was not the only draw to the new-found continent of the Free Nation. The settlers were joined by those who were seeking to escape religious persecution in Europe and, in particular, an island nation called England. The desire of these pilgrims from Europe was to start a new life and worship in the manner that they pleased. They came from different countries, but most spoke English in some fashion.

So, the seeds of the Free Nation were planted by many peoples from dissimilar cultures looking for many things, but they all sought one thing in particular, Freedom.

But they wanted Freedom for themselves, not necessarily Freedom for others.  It would take a group of men and women with softer hearts and more open minds to define Freedom for All.  The men would be called the Founding Fathers.