WhatFinger


Cutthroat Republican interference with this presidential election might cause a lot of Americans to finally acknowledge that a congress composed of well-fed career politicians is not beneficial to the public

America Needs Congressional Term-Limits And A President From Outside-the-Beltway



In the 1960s, when flower children replaced American traditions with a "feel-good" counter-culture, their rallying cry was: "Don't trust anyone over 30." Now in their declining years, these elderly flower children must surely experience deja vu when they witness the antics of today's post-pubertal do-gooders. Like the flower children, today's young people are driven to correct what they perceive as society's flaws. This is their "Rite of Passage", the sociological term for ritualistic behaviors engaged in as young persons mature into adulthood. The 2016 motto should be "Don't Trust Anyone Under 50." These are Americans who were born after 1965. When this group reached their late teens, the age when youth usually start paying attention to socio/political issues, they found themselves in an America where political correctness, multiculturalism, diversity, social justice, sensitivity training, and other so-called "progressive" positions were already firmly entrenched. In the past, a disagreement with a political position was considered a "difference of opinion." Today it is called "hate speech."
The accusation "hater" is applied so liberally, that many Americans have become too fainthearted to publicly express any opinion. As the Leftist establishment largely controls mainstream media, it now defines what constitutes "hate speech", and designates who is a "hater." To those of us who try to think logically, these accusations of hate speech border on the bizarre. The phrase "all lives matter" has been forbidden because it detracts from the campaign to eradicate privileges from White folks, privileges that the Left maintains is holding back other groups. In California, citizens had to fork over in excess of 17 billion dollars to indoctrinate the state's White students that their "White privileges" are undeserved, illegitimate, and victimize minorities. Protesting our "cruel society" is a common rite of passage for these young people. But, to do so, you must find cruelties to protest. As a result of the repeated demonstrations during the last few decades, it's almost impossible to find anything that hasn't already been protested and forbidden. The scarcity of societal evils was alleviated by the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. The Leftist media has caricatured Donald Trump as the embodiment of all of society's sinister iniquities. Trump is portrayed as the quintessential "hater", the man who will "return us to the Dark Ages." He is the "evil" young people needed to inspire them to take to the streets. Now, they can enthusiastically join the paid protesters who demonstrate against Mr. Trump, disrupt his speeches, and harass his supporters. The Under 50 group now makes up the bulk of the U.S. population, and today's demonstrators are primarily composed of members of this age group, albeit some demonstrators are older than 50, and others are actually being paid to protest. These Under 50 types have convinced themselves that they are genuinely acting to protect society, but they are only pacifying their own egos, going through a rite of passage. Likewise, the Republican hierarchy wants the public to believe that its attempt to prevent Trump's nomination is an altruistic endeavor. Although they vehemently deny it, their true concern is protecting their comfortable little political niches; maintaining their own wealth and prestige. This is why they prefer Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Trump might not "go along, to get along."

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To better understand why Republicans don't want an "outsider" in the White House, we need an honest assessment of congress members. Their average salary of $174,000 is three times the average American's salary of $52,000 - and many citizens are paid much less than that - if they are employed at all. Congress has set its own pay scales for years, and surreptitiously increased its own salaries while providing inadequate or zero cost of living adjustments for Social Security recipients, many who are elderly with health problems. Congress voted to put the public under the costly and flawed Obamacare, while exempting themselves because they have much better health coverage. Congress members who have served only five years are entitled to a governmental pension, whereas a citizens must have at least twenty years or more of service to qualify. Today's congress is a far cry from the congress envisioned by our founding fathers. Of course, the nation was quite different in 1789. While the largely agricultural society also included industry, the nation didn't have today's immense corporate conglomerates and special interest groups to influence congress. Cash even flows to congress from foreign corporations and foreign governments. The constitution drafted by the founders did not decree term limits, because being a member of congress was considered a matter of public service. Serving in congress was not financially rewarding for members, so making a career out of holding public office wasn't widespread. But today, "personal gain" often overrides the concept of "public service." In the beginning, congress members did not have offices or staffs. But over the decades, they began to acquire assistants and, as we would expect, their staffs grew larger and larger. Now tax payers provide members of congress with a suite of private offices and immense staffs - Representatives have staffs of 18 or more members while members of a Senator's staff is unlimited. (An individual member of congress has more employees than many companies throughout the country.)The salaries of these staff members far exceeds salaries of average citizens. (Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has a staff of 45 with annual salaries of $2.7 million.) And it is not unusual for a staff to include a spouse, which means more take home pay for the member. Other relatives are typically found on a congress person's staff.

One of the duties of these staffs is to convince the folks back home that the person they elected is doing a good job, even though it appears otherwise. The cost of postage as well as the expense of elaborate automated system for email notifications to constituents is paid for by taxpayers. Congress members get better death benefits than the public and their travel expenses and other perks are funded by tax dollars. A newly elected congress person's initial contributions come from constituents, but as they become established they begin to receive funding from large corporations and special interest groups. These "donors" become increasingly more important than the folks back home and when congress members leave office, they often become lobbyists and negotiate governmental assistance for these organizations. Today's congress members are essentially elected for life. There is little likelihood of being voted out of office as the folks back home nearly always sheepishly reelect the incumbent. But the cutthroat Republican interference with this presidential election might cause a lot of Americans to finally acknowledge that a congress composed of well-fed career politicians is not beneficial to the public. The public might finally conclude that the solution to our nation's problems demands not only a president who cannot be controlled by the establishment but also term-limits for members of congress.


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Gail Jarvis -- Bio and Archives

Gail Jarvis is a Coastal Georgia based freelance writer. Following a career as a CPA/business consultant, Mr. Jarvis now critiques the establishment’s selective and misleading reporting of current events and history. Gail can be reached at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)


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