Calling Out Congress

My columns have been rather tough on Speaker Boehner and the GOP House. Several readers have forcefully reminded me that the Democrats hold the Senate and the Socialists are entrenched in the White House. They seem to suggest that I should ease up a bit because Boehner et. al do not have the absolute power necessary for implementing significant change in government practices, policies and procedures. That observation is true……….but the GOP controls the budgeting process, and can initiate legislation that the Senate may reject or the President may veto. Said legislative initiatives would create clear lines of demarcation and force the Progressives/Statists/ Lefties to defend the indefensible….their insistence that the United States drift into Third-World status because of their massive spending, borrowing and taxing schemes. If the GOP House is unwilling to force the issue again and again, the people (voters) will rightly conclude that deal-making and business-as-usual politics remain the standard practice even with a divided House and a frustrated populace.

As Libertarians, Tea Party members and conservatives who desire smaller constitutional government, lower taxes and more personal freedom, we have no impact on the statists in government. They loathe us while they fear us, and they are not about to accept our proscriptions for sound governing. The conservative members of the House GOP caucus are another matter. They are aware of the potential support or fury of our liberty coalition. It is, therefore, absolutely mandatory for us to hold them accountable…..in all ways, all the time. Already we have witnessed some slippage during the debt ceiling fiasco. Some of the newer hot shot members as well as some of the incumbents decided to follow the path of deal-making expediency rather than stand for principle. We can send a daily barrage of emails and phone to Senator Schumer’s office, and they will have no positive effect for good government. If we follow the same tactical program for a newly elected “Tea Party conservative,” he or she will be more likely to hold the line against the overwhelming tsunami of big government. If we hesitate to “call out” the newer and conservative members, then we may be chagrined to discover that they have become enmeshed in the “business as usual” trap.

Every general knows that he cannot command the opposing troops. His influence and power are limited to his own command. He must maneuver his own troops to attack or counter the weaknesses and movements of the enemy. The battle for our nation is warfare of the highest order. At stake are liberty, prosperity and our future. So far the contest has been relatively non-violent, but a government that has demonstrated that it is willing to use coercion and force may resort to extraordinary measures to preserve its power and control. This observation may sound somewhat grim, but it should alert us to the necessity for maintaining pressure on those in government who claim to be our allies for the restoration of our republic. If we back off and permit them to falter, the consequences could degrade into a scenario far worse than our persistent badgering of our affiliated elected officials. In a medical analogy….we’ll be treating the scratch to prevent the infection.

One more analogy to illustrate the importance of maintaining the heat on right-thinking politicians: when an opposing baseball player commits a mental error, our team exploits it. When a member of our team has a “brain fart, “we get on his case to insure that he has the correct mental attitude to help us succeed. Holding the opposition accountable is a pipe dream. Our influence is best used to support and sanction our alleged compatriots in office. Firing off a bevy of emails and phone calls to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi may generate some perverse level of satisfaction, but they will have no substantive effect. Communication with those who share our principles and our goals will inform them that we are here, we are engaged and we are watching. Efforts and watchfulness are best spent where they can be most effective and rewarding. In addition, it is much easier to move a pound than it is a ton, so it follows that it will be much easier to influence someone whose position begins close to ours than a politician whose stance is light-years removed.

The sum total of my rough treatment of Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy, McConnell and their flock of GOP cohorts is that the statists are unsalvageable in my view, but the residing Republican members are either with us or may be convinced to join our movement. Unfortunately some RINO’s may be beyond recovery, but that’s what primaries are for. If too many of the GOP leadership and significant numbers of members resist the return to Constitutional government and principles, then a third-party alternative will become more likely. As a forty-two year member, activist and office-holder as a Republican, I made the third-party move to libertarianism to avoid the rush. Besides, the Arlen Specter’s, Lincoln Chaffee’s, Olympia Snow’s, John McCain’s, Lindsey’s Graham’s, and a collection of RINO’s, weasels and chickens convinced me that I no longer wished to be a part of such a compromising menagerie of weakness.

Comment:    cearlwriting@hotmail.com        or         www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Press One

Do you ever get frustrated when you are negotiating one of those automated phone systems and the first command is “Press 1 for English?” Our nation has been truly blessed by the people who love liberty who have come to our shores seeking a better life. They have come here from every corner of the globe and represent many cultures, customs, faiths, languages and dialects. They all share a thirst for freedom and the desire to work diligently to achieve prosperity. We welcome them because their passion for America and their various backgrounds add texture and nuance to our nation.

When the eager immigrants enter the United States they typically gravitate to locales where they can find clusters of people from their former countries or regions. These enclaves occasionally develop into subsets or colorful neighborhoods within some major cities. The old world cultures, foods and pageantry are continued but with a distinctly American hue. Outside the neighborhood however, most of the newcomers assimilate … become part of their new land. Each generation becomes more homogenized as many of the old traditions and routines are left behind. This has been the saga of people who have come to our land until recently. The entitlement mentality of the leftist statists has corrupted a rich, rich history of immigrants becoming fully American while retaining much of what they left behind. The statists encourage the Balkanization of our nation by promoting that new arrivals be granted total equality in service in their old languages. If you recall, the world united to challenge God by building the Tower of Babel. He divided them into many groups by scrambling their languages and making it impossible for them to understand one another. So, if we desire to fracture our nation more severely than it is today, the promotion of native languages in everyday discourse will do it. Our country will become a cacophony of words, insults and demands, and we will not comprehend what one another really means.

Unity of purpose, unity under the law and unity of language will cement us together. If certain segments of our population obstinately cling to the old ways and the old language, assimilation will not happen, suspicion and distrust will flourish. There is a measure of respect that those who seek to maintain their roots have earned, but if they refuse to integrate into the language and mainstream of their new nation, they have forfeited the privileges that are available for the remainder of the population. The resident established citizenry should not be forced by government to yield to the tyranny of a new minority. Either join us or leave us. Enjoy your history in your home, but conform to the traditional marketplace when on the streets. Spanish is the chosen language of the politically correct diversity crowd. They claim to want to open the doors of opportunity for Spanish speaking immigrants and/or citizens, but are driving wedges among many of our people and communities. It’s a bogus benefit because it continues to isolate those who do not learn English and assimilate. What about the multitude of Cubans, who came to our shores, retained many aspects of their culture, learned English and thrived? Why shouldn’t the newer entrants be encouraged to follow a similar path?

Liberals, progressives and statists are dividers…not unifiers. They define the nation’s landscape in “either/or” terms: rich or poor, black or white, producer or looter, Spanish or English. With them it’s always a struggle against some mythical oppressor as they expand the power of the true oppressor…the government. The statists seek to divide the country into isolated islands of discontent, and they and their monstrous government will deliver the prescriptions for the disaffected. The insistence (now written into law) that Spanish be an equal player as a language for national discourse is an example of their divisive tactics. Hungarian, Chinese, French, Norwegian, German and Vietnamese have all been overlooked as semi-official co-languages. This oversight should suggest to reasonable people that the choice of Spanish versus all the other choices available is a political one…not an earnest attempt to enhance communication. Unity for a nation during stressful times is necessary. Unanimity is rare, but if unity prevails, the people have a better chance to overcome the difficulty. Unity is made more difficult to achieve when the law and the political class engage in divisive behavior. “Press 1” if you want to stop this folly of statist control, or “Press 2” to fold the tent and begin anew.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com       or      www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Double Down

Let me begin this column with a disclaimer: a member of my family has been actively involved in the pharmaceutical industry for more than a quarter century. Given my personal background, I want to address the senseless murders that occurred in Tucson. Jared Loughner is mentally ill, a nut, a loon, crazy, and overwhelmed by bats in his diminished belfry. While the progressive lefties rush to their various podiums and microphones to blame the rhetoric of Tea Partiers, talk radio and anyone else that they choose to demonize, the fault is Loughner’s and the failed social policies of the twisted left.

In harsher times people who were diagnosed as potentially dangerous to the community or themselves were institutionalized in order to remove them from the general population. Along comes do-gooder social policy that emphasizes “mainstreaming” people with mental disabilities by means of behavior modification medicines. At some level I agree with that policy because as long as progressive statists control the social discourse, I know that I may be assigned to a re-education camp by some well-meaning federal czar because of the metaphorical incendiary language that I use from time to time. The flaw in the feel good argument for medication rather than incarceration is the assumption that the deranged individual will be diagnosed correctly and will diligently take his medications. Clearly it seems that it is more humane to require a pill or two per day as opposed to a lifetime of semi-vegetation in a cell block.

The fact that Loughner was allowed to roam freely even though many people were aware of his twisted anti-social proclivities is indeed an indictment of liberal social policies. Progressive statists engage in continual legislation that purports to protect society from every imaginable harm yet their misdirected priorities incrementally increase our exposure to danger. They allow the Jared Loughners to move about unfettered. They subject us to a multitude of devastating side effects by their reliance on drugs as a means of control. Progressive statists appear to have a compulsive need to overlook the foibles of those who have demonstrated an unwillingness to conform to social norms, and at the same time, they continue to squeeze and limit the freedoms and opportunities for the rest of us. It’s as if they believe the circus should be solely populated by the freaks and clowns.

Progressive statists will renew their efforts to limit our ownership of firearms. They will seek to restrict our speech, and they will move to increase regulation on broadcasting and the internet. Meanwhile the crazy loons will continue to float freely as our liberties are assaulted again. As an individualist, a Libertarian, I am suspicious of any effort to broadly define what proper behavior is for the body politic. On the other hand, Natural Law and God’s Law establish parameters of civil interaction that do not require additional tweaking by an overzealous state apparatus. As an individual who cherishes my personal freedom, I resent and abhor any attempt by the state to legislate or regulate in response to the civil outliers. The anomaly, the aberrant and the deranged should not represent the standard for constructing our social and legal contract. The event in Tucson was a horrifying one, but it cannot be used as an impetus for further erosion of our liberties.   

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