Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Will The Real Racist/Segregationist Please Stand Up?
If you want to find out who the real racists/segregationists are in our society, please read the book by David Barton, American History In Black & White. (Wallbuilder Press, 2004) Here are just a few facts to tease your mind:
- In 1789 the U.S. government passed a law prohibiting slavery in a federal territory. In 1820, the Democratic Congress passed the Missouri Compromise that reversed that policy. (p 17)
- In 1850, the Democratic Congress pass the Fugitive Slave Law requiring anyone who found escaped slaves to return them back to slavery. (p 18)
- Indicating the tendency of the Democrats to use violence to make their point, Democrat Preston Brooks was proclaimed a hero for clubbing Senator Charles Sumner almost to death because Senator Sumner made a speech promoting civil rights and desegregation. It took Senator Sumner three and one-half years to recover. (p 21-22)
- In 1871 not one Democrat voted to pass a bill to allow the government to punish Klan violence. (p 73)
- In 1956 100 Democrats in Congress passed a manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court's decision to end segregation in schools.
Romney: Obama-lite?
It is beginning to look like Romney and Obama are just two peas in a pod. Oh, they may be on opposite ends of the pod, but they are two peas in the same pod.
That seemed to become very clear when the story came out that Romney sent his advisors to the White House to help Obama draw up and implement Obamacare.
Oh, Romney may claim that when RomneyCare was drawn up, that was on the state level. The claim is made that the states have a right to try things that the federal government cannot do.
Yet, even if that is the case, the fact that Romney and his staff supported RomneyCare would show that they believe that government subsidized health care is a good thing. That indicates that Romney believes in big government, government doing things for the private sector that the private sector supposedly is not able to do for itself. It would appear that Romney believes that big government, whether big state government or big federal government, is a healthy thing for our country. Romney is very obviously a member of the ruling class just like Obama. So the upper echelons of the Republican Party supports Romney because he would continue the policies of big government. Romney is a member of the ruling class just like the leadership of the GOP and Obama are.
What we need is someone who is from the outside, some one with no connections in the ruling class. We need a normal private citizen to run for the Presidency. Look at where the political "ruling class" has gotten us. They have led us to the brink of the cliff and those kind have no idea how to back us away from that cliff. If we want our country to go over the cliff we have our choices for who is going to lead us over the cliff, Romney or Obama. If we are going to back away from that cliff, we need to find someone else.
So, what do we want, one of the peas in the pod or someone outside the pod?
That seemed to become very clear when the story came out that Romney sent his advisors to the White House to help Obama draw up and implement Obamacare.
Oh, Romney may claim that when RomneyCare was drawn up, that was on the state level. The claim is made that the states have a right to try things that the federal government cannot do.
Yet, even if that is the case, the fact that Romney and his staff supported RomneyCare would show that they believe that government subsidized health care is a good thing. That indicates that Romney believes in big government, government doing things for the private sector that the private sector supposedly is not able to do for itself. It would appear that Romney believes that big government, whether big state government or big federal government, is a healthy thing for our country. Romney is very obviously a member of the ruling class just like Obama. So the upper echelons of the Republican Party supports Romney because he would continue the policies of big government. Romney is a member of the ruling class just like the leadership of the GOP and Obama are.
What we need is someone who is from the outside, some one with no connections in the ruling class. We need a normal private citizen to run for the Presidency. Look at where the political "ruling class" has gotten us. They have led us to the brink of the cliff and those kind have no idea how to back us away from that cliff. If we want our country to go over the cliff we have our choices for who is going to lead us over the cliff, Romney or Obama. If we are going to back away from that cliff, we need to find someone else.
So, what do we want, one of the peas in the pod or someone outside the pod?
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Obama History
"You supported Barack Obama in 2008. Why? Did you miss something?"
Last night on Hannity, that question was asked of Daniel Hannan, Member of European Parliament,who has been very critical of the policies of the U.S. government these last three years. He maintains that America is just a few years behind Europe in the financial crisis, just a few years behind Greece. Mr. Hannan is very conservative fiscally. Why did he support Barack Obama in 2008? Did he miss something?
"Part of that was I was incredibly underwhelmed by the Republican Party by the end of 2008. They had become a party of big spending, big deficits, bailouts, nationalizations. So I thought, how much worse can it get? Well, I had no idea how much worse it could get." ARE YOU LISTENING, REPUBLICANS? Mr Hannan says that one reason Obama won in 2008 was because the Republican Party was UNDERWHELMING. That is a very kind, British way of saying the Republican Party had nothing to offer different from Barack Obama. The Republican Party and the Democrat Party are birds of the same feather. Maybe there is a difference in the colors of the feathers, but they are the same species, "RULING CLASS", a class unto themselves, separate from the rest of the country. The Republicans are not really different from the Democrats, except the Republicans may not be so bold, so intense. They are just a mild form of the Democrats, Democrat-lite. In some ways, that makes them even worse than the Democrats, because they hide behind the skirts of the Democrats and then expect the voters to support them. What a crock!
Republicans, if you want the support of the grassroots movement, you better come out from behind the skirts of the Democrats. If you don't, the grassroots movement will move on without you, indeed opposed to you. Is that what you want? Stop supporting big government! Stop supporting government regulations for our lives! Stop using government to force your agenda down the throats of the American people! SHRINK GOVERNMENT!
Last night on Hannity, that question was asked of Daniel Hannan, Member of European Parliament,who has been very critical of the policies of the U.S. government these last three years. He maintains that America is just a few years behind Europe in the financial crisis, just a few years behind Greece. Mr. Hannan is very conservative fiscally. Why did he support Barack Obama in 2008? Did he miss something?
"Part of that was I was incredibly underwhelmed by the Republican Party by the end of 2008. They had become a party of big spending, big deficits, bailouts, nationalizations. So I thought, how much worse can it get? Well, I had no idea how much worse it could get." ARE YOU LISTENING, REPUBLICANS? Mr Hannan says that one reason Obama won in 2008 was because the Republican Party was UNDERWHELMING. That is a very kind, British way of saying the Republican Party had nothing to offer different from Barack Obama. The Republican Party and the Democrat Party are birds of the same feather. Maybe there is a difference in the colors of the feathers, but they are the same species, "RULING CLASS", a class unto themselves, separate from the rest of the country. The Republicans are not really different from the Democrats, except the Republicans may not be so bold, so intense. They are just a mild form of the Democrats, Democrat-lite. In some ways, that makes them even worse than the Democrats, because they hide behind the skirts of the Democrats and then expect the voters to support them. What a crock!
Republicans, if you want the support of the grassroots movement, you better come out from behind the skirts of the Democrats. If you don't, the grassroots movement will move on without you, indeed opposed to you. Is that what you want? Stop supporting big government! Stop supporting government regulations for our lives! Stop using government to force your agenda down the throats of the American people! SHRINK GOVERNMENT!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tipping Point
"We are getting very close to the tipping point, where we will not be able to save this country." "We need to work hard before we get to the tipping point when there will be no hope of avoiding disaster."
We hear statements like these two every once in a while. "We have to turn this country around before it gets to the tipping point."
Where is that tipping point? Daniel Hannan, author of "The New Road To Serfdom: A Letter Of Warning To America" and Member of the European Parliament made a very interesting statement this evening on Hannity's news show: "There are lots of ways in theory you could get out of this mess, by spending less and bringing your borrowing under control. In practice, the state in Europe has now reached a size that makes that kind of behavior politically impossible." The size of government creates a huge problem. When government gets so big it takes too much of the GDP to run, then the country runs grave danger of not being able to set aside enough funds to cover their expenses and still continue a real economy. And it does NOT help to borrow more to cover the expenses. That does not help the economy thrive. Instead, government borrowing takes away from the private economy funds needed to borrow to grow business. And so, the more government borrows, the less private business grows. And the less private business grows, the less tax income the government has and so the government has to borrow more and raise the tax rates. Raising tax rates takes more money from the private sector and so business has even less to use to grow. And so it has to borrow even more. It is a vicious circle.
And what is really sad is that the people affected the most by all this government growth and waste are the poorest of society. The job market gets tighter and so they have trouble finding jobs. The private sector cash shrinks and so they have less for charitable giving. It is not the rich that suffer from big government; in fact, the rich suffer the least from big government. It is the middle income and below that bear the brunt of this burden. What a shame! What statists try to cure with big government is made worse by big government.
Well, what do we do? Daniel Hannan on Hannity: "It is not something you can fix with tinkering around the edges, cutting one or two programs here and there. There has got to be a fundamental rethink aimed at bringing the budget back into balance within a couple of years, not within the next forty years or whatever the Republicans in Congress are talking about. We don't have that length of time to play with, I'm afraid."
We have to do some fundamental rethinking. One thing we need to rethink is the idea that government can solve our problems. Government CANNOT solve our problems; government is the problem. The only thing government can do is protect us and mediate between states whenever struggles arise. Government needs to shrink drastically so that the private sector can grow. When that happens, EVERYONE will benefit from the lower levels of society to the upper levels. Repeal most federal agencies. Start with the EPA and the Dept of Education. Do you know that the regulations of the EPA are causing more environmental damage than they are preventing? Do you know that since the federal Dept of Education was started, the U.S. has continually fallen in scholastic achievements?
Another agency, even though technically it is not a government agency, that should be shut down is the Federal Reserve. Even though it is not technically a part of the government, the government uses it to control our money supply and to redistribute wealth. One reason we find ourselves in the recession we are in, is because of the Federal Reserve and its illegitimate connection with the federal government has caused inflation and controlled the money flow to the detriment of the private sector and to the benefit of the big banks that are part of the Federal Reserve. Fire Ben Bernanke and close down the Federal Reserve!
The list could go on and on. The government has gotten so big that if it was shrunk to its proper size, none of us would recognize it. It would take decades for us to get use to living without the government interfering in our lives. And this includes our state governments also. SHRINK GOVERNMENT NOW!!!
We hear statements like these two every once in a while. "We have to turn this country around before it gets to the tipping point."
Where is that tipping point? Daniel Hannan, author of "The New Road To Serfdom: A Letter Of Warning To America" and Member of the European Parliament made a very interesting statement this evening on Hannity's news show: "There are lots of ways in theory you could get out of this mess, by spending less and bringing your borrowing under control. In practice, the state in Europe has now reached a size that makes that kind of behavior politically impossible." The size of government creates a huge problem. When government gets so big it takes too much of the GDP to run, then the country runs grave danger of not being able to set aside enough funds to cover their expenses and still continue a real economy. And it does NOT help to borrow more to cover the expenses. That does not help the economy thrive. Instead, government borrowing takes away from the private economy funds needed to borrow to grow business. And so, the more government borrows, the less private business grows. And the less private business grows, the less tax income the government has and so the government has to borrow more and raise the tax rates. Raising tax rates takes more money from the private sector and so business has even less to use to grow. And so it has to borrow even more. It is a vicious circle.
And what is really sad is that the people affected the most by all this government growth and waste are the poorest of society. The job market gets tighter and so they have trouble finding jobs. The private sector cash shrinks and so they have less for charitable giving. It is not the rich that suffer from big government; in fact, the rich suffer the least from big government. It is the middle income and below that bear the brunt of this burden. What a shame! What statists try to cure with big government is made worse by big government.
Well, what do we do? Daniel Hannan on Hannity: "It is not something you can fix with tinkering around the edges, cutting one or two programs here and there. There has got to be a fundamental rethink aimed at bringing the budget back into balance within a couple of years, not within the next forty years or whatever the Republicans in Congress are talking about. We don't have that length of time to play with, I'm afraid."
We have to do some fundamental rethinking. One thing we need to rethink is the idea that government can solve our problems. Government CANNOT solve our problems; government is the problem. The only thing government can do is protect us and mediate between states whenever struggles arise. Government needs to shrink drastically so that the private sector can grow. When that happens, EVERYONE will benefit from the lower levels of society to the upper levels. Repeal most federal agencies. Start with the EPA and the Dept of Education. Do you know that the regulations of the EPA are causing more environmental damage than they are preventing? Do you know that since the federal Dept of Education was started, the U.S. has continually fallen in scholastic achievements?
Another agency, even though technically it is not a government agency, that should be shut down is the Federal Reserve. Even though it is not technically a part of the government, the government uses it to control our money supply and to redistribute wealth. One reason we find ourselves in the recession we are in, is because of the Federal Reserve and its illegitimate connection with the federal government has caused inflation and controlled the money flow to the detriment of the private sector and to the benefit of the big banks that are part of the Federal Reserve. Fire Ben Bernanke and close down the Federal Reserve!
The list could go on and on. The government has gotten so big that if it was shrunk to its proper size, none of us would recognize it. It would take decades for us to get use to living without the government interfering in our lives. And this includes our state governments also. SHRINK GOVERNMENT NOW!!!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Obamacare
What has happened to Social Security and Meidcare/Medicaid? Why are they going bankrupt? Is it because we have not put enough money in the system? Hardly! In fact, if we as individuals had invested for ourselves the same amount of money we paid for SS tax, we all would be millionaires today. Has Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid made us millionaires? Don't laugh too loudly! "(I)t is not difficult to see what must be the consequences when democracy embarks upon a course of planning. ..Democratic assemblies cannot function as planning agencies...it would certainly in the end satisfy nobody." (The Road To Serfdom (Abridged Edition), Friedrich A Hayek; The University of Chicago Press, 1994; pp 15,16)
So we made a mistake in having our Congress, our government, plan for our retirement. Does that mean that since we have spent so many years trying to make this sad mistake work, that we should refuse to give it up? That sounds like the definition of insanity: "Keep doing the same thing expecting different results." If we keep doing the same thing, we are just going to get deeper and deeper into the quicksand. Sure, we can keep screaming and shouting about our terrible circumstances, but what good does screaming and shouting do? It certainly does not fix the problem. In fact, it just makes it worse. The screaming and shouting cause people to panic and then watch how much faster we will sink.
Let's get Paul Ryan and others like him to work out a plan to get out of Social Security and MM and let's get it done.
AND while we are at it let's get out of Obamacare NOW. We have seen what Social Security and MM have done for us. Why wait any longer with Obamacare?
So we made a mistake in having our Congress, our government, plan for our retirement. Does that mean that since we have spent so many years trying to make this sad mistake work, that we should refuse to give it up? That sounds like the definition of insanity: "Keep doing the same thing expecting different results." If we keep doing the same thing, we are just going to get deeper and deeper into the quicksand. Sure, we can keep screaming and shouting about our terrible circumstances, but what good does screaming and shouting do? It certainly does not fix the problem. In fact, it just makes it worse. The screaming and shouting cause people to panic and then watch how much faster we will sink.
Let's get Paul Ryan and others like him to work out a plan to get out of Social Security and MM and let's get it done.
AND while we are at it let's get out of Obamacare NOW. We have seen what Social Security and MM have done for us. Why wait any longer with Obamacare?
Hope
There is hope for us who want to return our country to its Constitution. The hope is that the statist form of government never works. Over time people recognize that such leaders cannot fulfill the promises they make. That is what happened in the USSR, is happening in China, happened in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It will also happen here. We are beginning to see it already. The left is getting ready to throw BO under the bus because he is not fulfilling the promises he made. The public in our country is getting ready to throw our whole government out because the politicians are simply not able to fulfill all the promises they make. These politicos make all kinds of promises in order to get elected and then fall flat on their faces after they get into office. We the people are getting tired of such foolishness, such lying. "The claim that a planned economy would produce a substantially larger output than the competitive system is being progressively abandoned by most students of the problem. Yet it is this false hope as much as anything which drives us along the road to planning." (The Road To Serfdom (Abridged Edition), Friedrich A Hayek; The University of Chicago Press, 1994; p 14)
It is this claim that a planned economy would produce more than the free market is what has driven the leftists to press for a dictatorial government, one planned from the top. Yet this is a false hope. And many people are beginning to see that. A planned economy is supposed to feed the hungry better, take better care of the poor, provide better health care for the sick, make our country more loving and kind and better, but we are finding out that such a plan is just a pipe dream. Such a government does not help poor countries more, does not protect our environment better, does not help the poor in our country better, does not do anything better than a free market. And then to top it all off, such a planned society, a government that plans everything from the top down takes away all our freedoms and liberty. So it just makes matters worse. It does not help the weak and frail and it crushes anyone who is strong. What a complete failure.
So let us return to small government---a government that only serves to protect us from enemies external and internal and serves as a mediator within our boundaries and leave the rest to the free market. I bet we will find that the poor will be taken care of better and the strong will be able to do what is necessary to provide for themselves and those around them. SHRINK GOVERNMENT!
It is this claim that a planned economy would produce more than the free market is what has driven the leftists to press for a dictatorial government, one planned from the top. Yet this is a false hope. And many people are beginning to see that. A planned economy is supposed to feed the hungry better, take better care of the poor, provide better health care for the sick, make our country more loving and kind and better, but we are finding out that such a plan is just a pipe dream. Such a government does not help poor countries more, does not protect our environment better, does not help the poor in our country better, does not do anything better than a free market. And then to top it all off, such a planned society, a government that plans everything from the top down takes away all our freedoms and liberty. So it just makes matters worse. It does not help the weak and frail and it crushes anyone who is strong. What a complete failure.
So let us return to small government---a government that only serves to protect us from enemies external and internal and serves as a mediator within our boundaries and leave the rest to the free market. I bet we will find that the poor will be taken care of better and the strong will be able to do what is necessary to provide for themselves and those around them. SHRINK GOVERNMENT!
BO TV Time
Why does BO spend so much time making speeches and appearing on TV?
A dictator "must gain the support of the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are ready to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently." (The Road To Serfdom (Abridged Edition), Friedrich A Hayek; The University of Chicago Press, 1994; p 20) Anybody ever wonder how many speeches Hitler made in his climb to power? Or how often Lenin and Stalin appeared publicly? Or Mussolini? Are we seeing a repeat or at least an attempt to repeat what Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and Mussolini did? Just shout often enough and loud enough and the docile and gullible will support it.
And it does not matter if what you say is true or not. In fact, you can contradict yourself with every speech, you can make promises that you know you cannot fulfill, that does not matter. Just talk loud enough and often enough and the docile, gullible will fall right in step.
A dictator "must gain the support of the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own but are ready to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently." (The Road To Serfdom (Abridged Edition), Friedrich A Hayek; The University of Chicago Press, 1994; p 20) Anybody ever wonder how many speeches Hitler made in his climb to power? Or how often Lenin and Stalin appeared publicly? Or Mussolini? Are we seeing a repeat or at least an attempt to repeat what Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and Mussolini did? Just shout often enough and loud enough and the docile and gullible will support it.
And it does not matter if what you say is true or not. In fact, you can contradict yourself with every speech, you can make promises that you know you cannot fulfill, that does not matter. Just talk loud enough and often enough and the docile, gullible will fall right in step.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Managing The Government
Since government is so busy chasing its own tail, how do we go about breaking that cycle? The legislators overstep their bounds by passing laws that regulate our lives in intricate, complex ways. The they realize there are unforeseen consequences to those legal regulations and so they pass more legal regulations to correct the problems with the first set. Then they realize there were unforeseen consequences for those laws and so they have to pass some more laws to correct for those consequences and then they realize...... You get the picture. How do we stop this foolishness?
We don't. This is what government is all about. That is why we have to strip government down to the bare bones because if we don't we will suffocate under the weight of all those legal regulations, all those laws. Government MUST be restrained and contained or it is going to kill us socially and even personally. That is why the Constitution was written to RESTRICT government, not to AUTHORIZE government. The founding fathers knew very well how burdensome to the private sector government can become. And so they wrote the Constitution to restrain and contain government. The Constitution was not written to restrain or even to authorize the citizens. The citizens did not need the Constitution to authorize them to have their rights. The rights we have are God-given, natural. We have them because we are born with them. The Constitution had one object in mind: restrict, restrain, contain government. The Constitution was written to prevent government from becoming so overwhelming that it would smother the private sector and the rights that we have by virtue of our birth.
Does this sound familiar? Sounds like what is happening today, doesn't it? Why is it happening? It is happening because so many of our elected officials despise the Constitution. So many of our elected officials, and even our appointed officials, consider the Constitution something to be stomped on and ridiculed. And as a result, those officials, elected and appointed, end up getting themselves all tied up in knots trying to figure out how they can correct the unforeseen consequences of the legal regulations they have created. They end up chasing their tails and get so dizzy they don't even know what is coming next.
That is why James Madison wrote: "It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 301) Power is encroaching; power just grows without encouragement. And so it must be restrained, contained, restricted.
But "(w)ill it be sufficient to mark with precision the boundaries of these departments in the Constitution of the government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power?...experience assures us, that the efficacy of the provision has been greatly over-rated." (ibid, p 301) James Madison realized that just having a piece of paper that lays out the restrictions on government is not sufficient. That efficacy is over-rated. As it should be. After all, a piece of paper does nothing to stop anything. It needs to have enforcement. But what enforcement?
"(T)he people are the only legitimate fountain of power....it is from them that the constitutional charter...is derived." (ibid, p 307) The enforcement comes from WE THE PEOPLE. The buck stops here, not at WDC, the state houses, the county courthouses, or the city halls. The buck stops with WE THE PEOPLE.
That is why it is such a shame that any official would state in any way that elections should be postponed or canceled. That is pure revolution. That is treason, even if stated in a joking manner. To state this even in a joking manner is like shouting "FIRE" in a crowded theater. To even entertain such a thought is pure revolt against the legitimate fountain of power.
And so we the people must start taking our responsibility seriously. We have the task of managing the employees of this country, the elected and appointed officials. One reason we have gotten into such a burdensome place is because we the people have not carried out our responsibility. And so our government has chased its tail until the hole has gotten so deep it will take years, decades and many elections to remove ourselves. We have only ourselves to blame for all the work we now have before us.
But what do we do? We can't get rid of government. Government is a necessity. The founding fathers called it a "necessary evil." So what do we do?
We MANAGE the government. That means that we do NOT destroy our government. God forbid! For even though, as Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is a terrible form of government, but I have found nothing better." We have the best form of government. So we do NOT want to destroy our government. We MANAGE it. We supervise, govern, direct our government. We keep it within its limits. That is what the Constitution gives us guidance in doing. We manage our government by making sure it remains within the limits that the Constitution has laid out so that our government does kill our freedoms and society and country.
And so, government being government, will continue to chase its own tail, but as long as it does this within certain limits it causes much less damage/evil than if we just let it run rampant over the Constitution, the country and us.
The problem for us now is to get it back to its limits. We have let this slip so long that we have a task that will last for years, decades, and many elections. But then, what would we expect? The buck stops here. This task is REALLY a daily task, a life-long task, for everyone, IF we want to remain free. As Benjamin Franklin answered the woman who asked him what kind of government the convention had given the citizens: "A republic, ma'am, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT." IF YOU CAN KEEP IT. Keeping a republic is a constant task. What we need to do is pass this concept onto those that come after us in this life. We, they, MUST work daily to keep the republic. That is the responsibility of we the people.
We don't. This is what government is all about. That is why we have to strip government down to the bare bones because if we don't we will suffocate under the weight of all those legal regulations, all those laws. Government MUST be restrained and contained or it is going to kill us socially and even personally. That is why the Constitution was written to RESTRICT government, not to AUTHORIZE government. The founding fathers knew very well how burdensome to the private sector government can become. And so they wrote the Constitution to restrain and contain government. The Constitution was not written to restrain or even to authorize the citizens. The citizens did not need the Constitution to authorize them to have their rights. The rights we have are God-given, natural. We have them because we are born with them. The Constitution had one object in mind: restrict, restrain, contain government. The Constitution was written to prevent government from becoming so overwhelming that it would smother the private sector and the rights that we have by virtue of our birth.
Does this sound familiar? Sounds like what is happening today, doesn't it? Why is it happening? It is happening because so many of our elected officials despise the Constitution. So many of our elected officials, and even our appointed officials, consider the Constitution something to be stomped on and ridiculed. And as a result, those officials, elected and appointed, end up getting themselves all tied up in knots trying to figure out how they can correct the unforeseen consequences of the legal regulations they have created. They end up chasing their tails and get so dizzy they don't even know what is coming next.
That is why James Madison wrote: "It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." (The Federalist Papers; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay; Bantam Dell, 2003; p 301) Power is encroaching; power just grows without encouragement. And so it must be restrained, contained, restricted.
But "(w)ill it be sufficient to mark with precision the boundaries of these departments in the Constitution of the government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power?...experience assures us, that the efficacy of the provision has been greatly over-rated." (ibid, p 301) James Madison realized that just having a piece of paper that lays out the restrictions on government is not sufficient. That efficacy is over-rated. As it should be. After all, a piece of paper does nothing to stop anything. It needs to have enforcement. But what enforcement?
"(T)he people are the only legitimate fountain of power....it is from them that the constitutional charter...is derived." (ibid, p 307) The enforcement comes from WE THE PEOPLE. The buck stops here, not at WDC, the state houses, the county courthouses, or the city halls. The buck stops with WE THE PEOPLE.
That is why it is such a shame that any official would state in any way that elections should be postponed or canceled. That is pure revolution. That is treason, even if stated in a joking manner. To state this even in a joking manner is like shouting "FIRE" in a crowded theater. To even entertain such a thought is pure revolt against the legitimate fountain of power.
And so we the people must start taking our responsibility seriously. We have the task of managing the employees of this country, the elected and appointed officials. One reason we have gotten into such a burdensome place is because we the people have not carried out our responsibility. And so our government has chased its tail until the hole has gotten so deep it will take years, decades and many elections to remove ourselves. We have only ourselves to blame for all the work we now have before us.
But what do we do? We can't get rid of government. Government is a necessity. The founding fathers called it a "necessary evil." So what do we do?
We MANAGE the government. That means that we do NOT destroy our government. God forbid! For even though, as Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is a terrible form of government, but I have found nothing better." We have the best form of government. So we do NOT want to destroy our government. We MANAGE it. We supervise, govern, direct our government. We keep it within its limits. That is what the Constitution gives us guidance in doing. We manage our government by making sure it remains within the limits that the Constitution has laid out so that our government does kill our freedoms and society and country.
And so, government being government, will continue to chase its own tail, but as long as it does this within certain limits it causes much less damage/evil than if we just let it run rampant over the Constitution, the country and us.
The problem for us now is to get it back to its limits. We have let this slip so long that we have a task that will last for years, decades, and many elections. But then, what would we expect? The buck stops here. This task is REALLY a daily task, a life-long task, for everyone, IF we want to remain free. As Benjamin Franklin answered the woman who asked him what kind of government the convention had given the citizens: "A republic, ma'am, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT." IF YOU CAN KEEP IT. Keeping a republic is a constant task. What we need to do is pass this concept onto those that come after us in this life. We, they, MUST work daily to keep the republic. That is the responsibility of we the people.
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