by Monte Walker, editorial
Nearly two-hundred and fifty years ago, 56 gentlemen united to join in a movement for independence. They felt that there were two basic problems in the land. One was that taxes were too high and the other was that they were controlled by authoritarians. They made tremendous sacrifices by signing their death warrants to that official document. Today, those 56 men would be considered the “far-right” or “radical right” by the dissenters.
The concept of this new republic included a legal right and wrong of society. The constitution was based on law and not the judgments of men.
” Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.” – Thomas Jefferson
While it is very enjoyable to be able to drive hours away and attend a ballgame, or a concert, or a fishing trip, too many have not been willing to step forward and protect the system that allows such simple freedoms.
The concept of this new republic also included what we refer to today is the free enterprise system, although it is more of a lack of a system that makes it special. In short, the government was to stay off our backs and out of our pockets. The government was not to be involved.
We’ve seen a great change starting in the 20th century. The Bill of Rights were essentially negative documents restricting the growth of government, but today we find the government telling doctors how to doctor and teachers how to teach. Today, there is hardly any area in the country, or yet, the world that the United States Government is not involved. This also has contributed to massive spending and deficits leading to a feverish debt. Because of the large government growth, a federal reserve banking system was invoked which has become the engine of inflation.
” I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” – Thomas Jefferson. “If we can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they must become happy.”
Today, we have politicians that love inflation because it is the mechanism by which they can expand the currency to pay for the expanding federal programs which satisfy special interest groups which in turn guarantees their elections. In other words, “follow the money” – a phrase we’ve all been told by our educational mentors. Today, we have a national debt of $21.1 TRILLION. From 1789 to 1913, the U.S. government created $2.9 billion in debt. However, from 1914 through the Great Depression, there was a healthy surplus. But we’ve not had a surplus in America since “I Love Lucy” was on television in 1957 and Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the rising military-industrial complex. While Lucille Ball is not involved in the debt crisis, the latter surely is.
Contributing to the stagnation was the alphabet soup of government regulatory services such as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), and others. These regulations did a great disservice to American manufacturers which eventually led to Ross Perot’s famous NAFTA prediction of a “giant sucking sound” headed south of the border.
While President Trump is making strides in slashing regulations, one might worry about the tariff situations that resemble or at least bring fainted notion of the Smoot-Hawley Act.
The government’s responsibility was initially formed to protect life and property. However, it has increasingly become the agent of distribution of income. The transfer payment numbers are staggering from 1964 to 2017, leaping from $2 billion to $224 billion. Transfer payments are those in which take money from those who earned it and transfer it to those who did not. With this, we have become a government that penalizes the productive sector and subsidizes the non-productive sector. Our government’s major function today is being society’s redistribution center for income. But in reading the U.S. Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights, our forefathers did everything they could to ensure the leveling of income by the federal government unconstitutional. But today, it is the majority of the function of government.
The growing role of welfare and other social programs in the last 50 years has changed the perception of many as to what the role of government actually is. As stated before, the role is the protection of life and property. Not internal protection of failures.
In 1955, 55 percent of the budget was set for national defense. Ten years later, it was 40 percent. In 1975, it was down to 25 percent. Today, it is at 15 percent.
” We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare.” – Preamble of U.S. Constitution.
Today, we have reversed the Constitution verbiage to “promote for the common defence, and provide the general welfare.”
Our founding fathers also provided the third pillar of strength for our new nation which was a morality standard based on biblical concepts including the Ten Commandments. It was the glue to hold our society together. While it is difficult to legislate morality, all law is morality enacted. But humanism (not to be confused with humanitarianism) is the removal of God and adding man and man’s technology as the substitute. Therefore, eternal truths are expunged which leads to a decrease of morality standards.
In this changing crisis of our country, we must become involved. Washington is the key, but Washington is divided into three sections of government and 4,000 sections of humanism. The executive branch of government, including the alphabet soup, makes up 98 percent of the federal government. The judicial branch includes the Supreme Court and the federal court structure. This is where the process of healing will be slow and painful as the reversal of unconstitutional interpretations moves back to constitutional statutes. This will then move us away from social law as the basis which is increasingly the gravest threat to our form of government as we know it.
This is not a party issue because history shows us that neither a Republican President nor a Democrat President or a Republican Majority or a Democrat Majority is more susceptible than the other.
Not overlooking the third branch of government – the legislative branch which is divided between the house and senate and divided over nearly everything else one can imagine including ham or turkey for Thanksgiving. But while the judicial changes can take many years, the legislative changes can be somewhat quicker because of their immediate ties to “We the People.” People can make a change and make that change felt in Washington (especially at the House of Representatives level), but the small government conservatives won a huge election in 2016 and feel as if the speeding bullet of socialism fired at the United States was stopped by a bulletproof vest with an unhinged Twitter account and orange hair.
It wasn’t too very long ago that the John Birch Society was led by conservative Democrats. But now that organization is pegged as a “far-right” group. When some think of the non-political party affiliation, they think of a bygone era of sock hops and poodle skirts, but “Birchers” (far different than “Birthers”) have made a resurgence, especially in Texas, due to Americans seeking answers.
The Tea Party is similar in nature, but is more grassroots and focused more on fiscal responsibility. Both groups are fearful of over-governing and overspending. Both groups want to build an informed electorate.
All too often, we elect political transvestites (not literal). Our representatives come to our districts and speak like JFK and go back to Washington and vote like R2-D2. They come to town, give three jokes to open a speech, then quote traditional American values, get a standing ovation, and then laugh their way back to Washington.
As long as our basis of our congressman’s worth is based upon whether they attend our local Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and make us feel important, our shallow self-serving importance will allow for us to continue to vote for those who move forward with more government, more controls, and more spending.
It’s really easy every four years to put a bumper sticker on for two weeks. But to those individuals willing to take a look at the background of their congressman and their voting records, it will make much more of an impact than the presidential vote. Although, the last particular presidential outcome has made the previous sentence look a bit foolish due to the vast differences between candidates and their agendas. Over the last 50 years, presidential candidates generally had the same agendas and the same outcomes. More spending, more government. Only two outsiders dared to threaten the status quo in Washington and that was Ross Perot in 1992 and Donald Trump in 2016. Both candidates ran on virtually the same platform – rid Washington of snakes and buffoons and fix the horrendous trade deals. Perhaps we could have salvaged the last 25 years of trillions of debt and unnecessary wars in the middle east with an unconventional independent electorate in 1992. If only Perot would have made up silly nicknames for Clinton and Bush perhaps Trump would still be a TV character and not a political name. But nonetheless, here we are on our way to recovery after a 60-year drunken binge. But we’re only one bronze chip in.
If the forefathers that constructed the Constitution were to try and do that in today’s society, they would be labeled as “far-right extremist” or “right-wing nuts.” None would be on our currency and most would be chewed up by the American media. The Bill of Rights perhaps would have never made it past the Supreme Court in 2015. But in 2018, there would be a better chance.
Those that understand freedom and liberty and value the meaning can understand that today’s probability of maintaining such is greater than only a few years ago.
The Constitution is the solution.