Honey Pot

What’s your weak link? Which little delicacy do you find irresistible? Before I was diagnosed with diabetes, my weakness was Oreos and milk. I’d be in my chair, reading and dipping, until all the cookies were gone (yes, I know what the icing in the cookie is made from). Achilles had the spot on his heel that made him vulnerable, and Charlie Sheen apparently has a number of vulnerabilities. The purpose for this discussion of weakness or sweet spots is that they are more illustrative of a person’s behavior than their self-proclaimed strengths. The soft spots for most politicians, particularly Republicans, are that they want to be liked and they do not want to appear to be “unreasonable.” The weak link for Democrats is that they absolutely adore demographic groups and will do anything to help their favored bundles of people. Democrats fear individualists, but they do love the individual heart-wrenching anecdote.

One of the primary arts of war and sports is to discover your opponent’s weakness and exploit it. Democrats do an excellent job of making Republicans defensive about their positions and philosophy. Republicans, on the other hand, seem obsessed with not wanting Democrats to ridicule them. What they seem to not understand is that the Democrats laugh at them and chortle at their weakness. It is also rather illustrative that some people will not do the right thing because someone may make fun of them for doing so. That’s why so many people of faith fail to take a stand when their faith is being mocked. The Apostle Peter had the same issue.

Others are afraid to take a stand for what is right because they fear being “blamed” for it. Boehner and the House GOP find themselves in such a situation in the budget battle. They do not want to be “blamed” for shutting down the government in order to achieve a tiny measure of fiscal responsibility. These dim bulbs don’t understand that any cuts they propose will be labeled as “draconian” and “extreme.” Why not, then, do the right thing by suggesting real cuts that lead to a path of fiscal solvency and take the heat. The GOP will be blamed no matter what they do. Why not do the right thing …for once? At this point in our nation’s history for career politicians to assume that the “old way” of doing things will mollify us, is ill advised and wrong. Perhaps their political instincts are correct in the sense that the dependent class will be angry with them, but the producer class will be livid. If they pander to the dependents in order to avoid the heat, then if or when the national economy fails, everyone will blame them.

Courage has its own reward. The knowledge that one did the right thing in the face of hostile opposition generates its own self-satisfaction. When the goal is greater than the will to achieve it, then the soft spot or weak link must be abandoned if there is to be any hope of achieving the goal. Controlling blood glucose levels and maintaining the targeted weight requires severely restricting my Oreo intake. If Republicans sincerely care about our country and our progeny, then they will stop trying to be liked and concentrate on being right. Republicans should commit to doing the responsible thing by drastically reducing government as they attempt to pull us back from the precipice. If they do not do the responsible thing, then they will be responsible……for allowing the mess to occur on their watch.

Democrats are like Pooh Bear because their hands are always in the honey pot. They refuse to accept that honey is a finite commodity, and they might not have any in the out years. Because of their infantile behavior and actions, they cannot be trusted to take their hands out of the jar. The Republicans must act like adults if the country is to be saved. Can they act responsibly, and do they love our country enough to do what is necessary?

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Addiction Affliction

We appear to be a nation that is addicted to addiction. The magazines and tabloids at our supermarket checkouts are filled with stories about the latest celebrity to enter rehabilitation for problems associated with addiction. The panorama of addiction ranges from legal pharmaceuticals across the board through illegal substances, sex, Twinkies and spending. The difficulty with most addictive behavior is that the addiction erodes the productive ability of the junkie who needs greater resources to support the habit. It becomes a fast-paced spiral to the bottom. The cycle of destruction applies to politicians too. As they initiate more programs “for the people,” they must have larger resources to sustain them. Their insistence on micro-managing our lives undermines our productivity plus their additional programs consume larger portions of the nation’s capital which reduces our ability to generate funds for government. So, they borrow the funds to do good works for us, and saddle ours and future generations with massive debts. This attitude from our political leaders is akin to being told,” you’ll feel better when the beatings stop.”

It is obvious to me that the “spend-aholic” virus must be lurking somewhere in the Capitol building of the nation. Idealistic candidates run for office and vow to stop the profligate spending, but when their footsteps echo across the marble floors of that great building, things change. Three primary anatomical sectors of the Congress person’s body seem to be most affected by the spending virus. They are the heart, the brain and the spine. The heart is affected because the virus generates excessive bleeding whenever the legislator hears an anecdotal sob story. The resultant loss of blood causes the politician to lose all sense of proportion and demand that “something must be done” to alleviate the suffering for an indeterminate number of people.

The brain is particularly susceptible to the virus because most career politicians suffer from mental deficiencies prior to taking office so the viral effect becomes exaggerated. The little intruder attacks the cranial area and gnaws away at the resident gray matter until the brain has been reduced beyond any capacity for normal functioning. As a result, reason is lost and common sense becomes a distant memory while the politician continues to roam the halls in a semi-vegetative state.  The spine is vulnerable to the virus because of its gelatinous consistency. An important element of the job description for a career politician is that the spine must be formed from Jell-O, and the virus finds the quivering mass extremely hospitable.

We should note that the “spend-aholic virus” has two distinct versions. The more basic branch affects the desire of the host organism to excessively spend his own money. The more virulent, deadly one, however, causes the recipient host to spend other people’s money. In addition, the impact on the host’s brain causes her or him to believe that their behavior is good and noble. The insidious virus cannot be medicated or irradiated, it must be surgically eliminated. The drastic surgical procedure is a three-part operation: 1) the heart must be totally bypassed because it has no cerebral capacity; 2) a full-scale lobotomy is necessary, but it is difficult because of the microscopic size of the brain; and 3) the spine must undergo a gradual transformation. First, replace the Jell-O with Pudding Pops followed by Popsicles, then pretzel rods, and finally, a titanium-steel alloy. Obviously an overhaul so dramatic requires an extensive period of rehabilitation just like any other recovery from an addiction.

Historically career politicians have resorted to booze or pills in their efforts to rehab from the spending virus. For obvious reasons those remedies have been unsuccessful. In the spirit of public service, I have decided to erect a rehab-halfway house for overspending politicians who now recognize the destructive nature of their disease. Its name shall be “Protect Our Overspending Politicians,” POOP. Given their lifestyles and the ways that they have abused our people and our nation, it seems reasonable and just for career politicians to spend the rest of their lives immersed in POOP.

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Echo Chamber

The two major parties have alternately governed the country for more than 150 years…yes, for more than a century and a half. For more than 69 per cent of our nation’s constitutional history, the Democrats and Republicans have clutched the reins of power. Despite a gut-wrenching, devastating war between the states, a severe and debilitating depression, and numerous other monumental challenges, the two old parties have managed to preserve their places in the halls of power. Some of the time their governance has been inspired and selfless although more frequently their leadership has been partisan and damaging for the country. Sometimes the policies and leaders that they have promoted have been “so-so,” as the nation capitalized on its own industriousness to continue thriving. Their slogans have become tiresome, and their remedies do not work. Their priorities have become distorted, and their mindsets have been locked onto venal self-interest. When their lips are moving, it is as if we are standing in an echo chamber. The words are unceasingly repeated. Their ideas are predictably uninspired. Their ethics and honor are noticeably absent. The time has come to reassign their exclusive representative franchises to the people.

If you are familiar with Ayn Rand’s, Atlas Shrugged, you may have noted the current status of our country to be eerily familiar. Productivity and excellence have been pressured to yield to equality and fairness. Bureaucrats insert themselves into nearly every commercial transaction, and producers’ choices are limited by excessive government intervention. In a free society most transactions consist of contractual agreements between two parties. The present environment in the United States has inserted a third and sometimes a fourth party into the mix. The result is that what began as a simple transaction becomes unwieldy with the intervention of the federal and/or state bureaucracies. The execution of the contract becomes difficult and costly because of the constraints placed on the process by the government interventionists. The suffocating atmosphere may discourage future attempts to engage in mutually beneficial commerce wherein the overall GDP is incrementally diminished. This present sad state of affairs has come under the guidance of Republicans and Democrats. Neither old party has served us well.

So, how do we go about correcting the course of our nation after those two entrenched parties have steered it so far from where we started? First, we must ignore the meaningless words of the echo chamber. Both parties have been spouting the same lines of worthless promises for decades. Judge the parties and their candidates by their actions…their votes. If they express one attitude, but support their leadership for another view when its crunch time, we cannot afford to tolerate them anymore. We must insist that candidate address specific positions when they meet with us. Vague generalities are cop outs that allow the politician some “wiggle room.” We should pledge that if politicians are squirming, it is because we hold them accountable…not because they’re wiggling off the hook. The politicians, Democrat and Republican, do not fear us. So called “conservatives” speak of excessive spending and big government while approving bloated budgets and new programs. Compassionate “progressives” encourage big government slush funds for their political allies while they’re cheering “humanitarian” military intervention into third-world countries who might qualify as basket cases.

When an antique becomes a hundred fifty years old, its value may increase, but it remains a brittle, uncomfortable, old antique. Often, antiques have aesthetic value but very little practical value. Today’s two old parties have outlived their value for the nation. The Democrats have become a cluster of special interests to which their candidates must pander, and the Republicans’ biennial “big tent” appeal has diluted the principles and the message of the Grand Old Party. Neither party has a commitment to principle although they each have their favorite slogans and “hot buttons” that they employ to fire up their respective bases. Both parties blast their cynical messages in the electoral echo chamber, and like the echo, their statements have no substance and no enduring value. One hundred fifty years have been proven to be long enough for the two old parties to destroy the dream of the Founders. Actually, much too long. It is time for them to go. The Whigs, the Bull Moose and the Anti-Masonic parties are waiting for them in history’s dustbin.

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Crap Shoot

The liberty or patriot movement is up and running across the land. Several people who have been characterized as “Tea Party candidates” were elected to Congress in the 2010 elections. In addition, the ranks of “Tea Party-affiliated” governors, statewide office holders and state legislators were increased. With such a significant outcome and with the momentum of the Tea Party/patriot movement continuing, does this suggest that victory for those who love liberty is just around the corner? Probably not. As the Congress convened in 2011, and the new House Republican majority selected its leaders, the failure of the Peoples’ House to aggressively reduce the cost and size of government in early legislation caused some alarm bells to begin ringing in the patriot community. There was some early “leakage,” as some so-called “Tea Party” candidates voted for Continuing Resolutions, and suggested that they were willing to support an increase in the national debt ceiling if certain conditions could be met.

There is a gnawing suspicion that not all “conservative” Members of Congress—new and older members—are totally committed to fiscally responsible government. Some may suspect that many conservative officeholders are not dedicated to significantly reducing the size of the federal government. Many of the Congress persons expressed their support for smaller, Constitutional government when they were campaigning. Most of them declared that they would not tolerate the massive tax and spend, borrow and spend policies of previous generations. And yet, a mere three months into the new congressional season, many citizens feel a sense of betrayal. It is an uneasy skepticism that suggests that things have not changed very much…if at all.

We come to the problem that has vexed us, the electorate, since the founding of our republic: How do we choose whom to support for public office? Clearly, candidates of all stripes and persuasions have mastered the language so well that they can tell us what we want to hear. Even the most profligate spenders can insist that deficit spending be eliminated and the national debt be reduced. In their beady little minds they believe what they’re saying because they would eliminate the military or other programs preferred by their ideological opponents. But…government continues to grow, spending increases and the debt balloons despite the protestations and promises of most of the political class. How do we, the people, right this rudderless vessel? Perhaps if we identify the REAL issues, the REAL problems, then we will be better equipped to choose better candidates to support and promote.

The underlying issue facing our nation today is one of individual liberty or personal freedom. The huge national debt steals the freedom from future generations as they are either forced to survive with fewer resources or to exist in a country and economy that has collapsed. Their freedom has been compromised by the unrestrained spending of past generations. The annual deficit, also, is a freedom-based issue. As government continues to spend more than it collects for programs that are targeted to please a few but must be financially supported by all, the individual liberty of each and every citizen—the payers and the payees—is usurped by an overreaching and overspending government. The national budget and the budgetary process negatively impact the personal freedom of our nation’s citizens as the Congress and political leaders choose to initiate, support and fund a multitude of programs, agencies and bureaus that interfere in the lives of citizens by limiting their choices.

As noted earlier, all politicians have mastered the language of fiscal responsibility…with dismal results. What we rarely hear on the campaign trail is the politician who is a champion of liberty…of freedom. Nearly all of our most difficult issues can be forcefully and successfully addressed if viewed through the prism of personal freedom for each and every citizen. Not just lip service to the nebulous generic concept of freedom, but passion and commitment for individual liberty is the criterion by which all candidates should be judged. The love for personal freedom is not often expressed by our political operatives because they either believe it’s a quaint but outdated notion, or they are astute enough to discern that individual liberty could undermine their power to decide what is good, proper and right for the rest us.

As for me and my house, we will only support candidates for office (any office) who identify individual liberty for all as the fulcrum on which their vision of our nation is balancing. No other point of view will suffice. No matter how fiscally conscious, how debt-abhorrent or how responsible a candidate may claim to be, liberty must be the anchor, the guiding principle. Without personal freedom as the primary element of our nation, every other priority is just another description of tyranny…soft or oppressive…tyranny. Liberty must be the guiding principle.

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Jump Ball

Those of you who are frequent readers of this column may have detected that I believe civility in politics is overrated. When principles are challenged, when the stakes are high, sweet talk and comity usually lead to a destructive “compromise.” Our nation is in peril. Our leaders have failed us, and we have miserably failed to hold them accountable. Happy talk and congeniality in the halls of governance will not pull us back from the precipice. “Going along to get along” will not reverse the decay that has infested our system. These times demand harsh, blunt talk. Our current situation begs for forceful action that is based on principles not on “slowing down the inevitable slide into statism.”

Tough talk when dealing with opponents and career politicians is necessary, but when working with allies to capture the levers of power, harsh language could prove to be counterproductive. For those of us in the liberty/patriot movement to have some disagreements about policies or tactics is to be expected. To engage in name calling and character assassination with others who are as passionate as we are about restoring our nation is stupid and self-defeating. Are we willing to sacrifice an opportunity for constitutional government in order to pass another constitutional amendment that will be ignored by the political class? Will we forfeit our chance for constitutional government so that we may encase our preferences for social behavior into law? These are not the only diversions from the laser-like goal of restoring our constitutional republic. There are others, but the focus, the effort and our energy must be on defeating self-serving compromisers and underhanded, big-government statists. We cannot have any hope of restoring constitutional government to the nation as a whole (secession is always an option) until we eliminate the weak and the nannies. We cannot win until we ALL agree that constitutional government is the goal, and we’ll deal with our other differences after the battle is over.

The NCAA Sweet Sixteen is taking place this weekend at a number of venues around the country. There are a number of talented teams who will be playing, but only a quarter of them will advance to the Final Four in Huston. Each team is unique, but they do share some common traits. Each of them has roughly a dozen highly talented players with varying skills. Their experience in tournament competition is rather broad, but not all have played on a stage so prominent. The rules limit each team to five players at one time in the game although substitutions will be an important component of their games. Every game begins with a jump ball, and whichever team wins that will have to first opportunity to score.

The situation today in our country, and its meaning for patriots or liberty-lovers is somewhat similar to the NCAA scenario. The movement consists of people with varying talents, skill levels and experience. We must all work together as a team, however, and for any given task, we should have our best five on the floor. If someone falters or fouls out, our subs must be ready and prepared. Even if we find a teammate who is annoying, we must submerge our dislike and work together as a team for a common purpose. If one of our teammates allows her or his personal agenda and preferences to rise above the team goal, then we must do everything possible to bring the outlier back into the fold,…or put in a substitute. Some huge differences between the Sweet Sixteen and our task are that the survival of our nation is on the line, and losing is not an option. Also, our jump ball takes place at the end of the game rather than the beginning. When our opponents play dirty, no one will call a “foul” because our adversaries pay the referees and control the distribution of whistles. Our game is the proverbial five on eight that so many coaches and players whine about. It’s too bad, but we have spent our lifetimes ignoring the game and failing to learn the rules. It’s time to play catch-up. We can win. We must win. We will win if we play together…as a team. Ball’s up!!

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