Keep Doing What You’re Doing

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” --Thomas Jefferson

“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”--Thomas Jefferson

What is the significant difference between lifetime career Democrats and Republicans in Congress? I became eligible to vote in 1967. (You had to be 21 years old in those days.) Since then, these charlatans in Congress have made promises after promises to get elected, and then done nothing but create greater problems for everyday Americans trying to make a living. They generate more rules, regulations, and laws (which means reduced liberty) as they dig deeper into taxpayers’ pockets. They get rich while Americans pay the bills. Is that what the Founding Fathers fought and died for? I don’t think so.

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”--Ronald Reagan

President Reagan was the first politician to say out loud that the real problem is government. Both President Reagan and President Trump (in his first term) were hindered in their ability to do the best they could for America by the conventional thinking of the career political ruling class that served as their advisors. President Trump used his four years between terms to rethink government and put together the strongest, most unconventional Executive Branch team in my lifetime. This team has done more to make America great than any administration since World War II. This team quit doing what everyone else had been doing and is getting the best results in American history. This team broke the “keep doing what we’ve always done” mold.

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”--Walt Kelly, Pogo

President Trump has graphically demonstrated the good that comes with breaking the “we’ve always done it this way” mold. If we Americans can “man up” and recognize that as voters we are our own worst enemy, we too can break that debilitating mold that has given us a ruling class that only wants more power to control us. To paraphrase a movie whose name I don’t remember: “We don’t need no stinking ruling class!”

So, how do we break the “we’ve always done it this way” mold? This is the mold that has given us a 40-trillion-dollar national debt, millions of pages of laws, regulations, and rules (most of which limit liberty), and the best (richest) Congress money can buy—though it is rarely the voters’ money doing the buying. All we have to do is quit doing what we have been doing. In my opinion, what we have been doing wrong is nearly always re-electing incumbents. Now, how has that worked out for us?

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”--Benjamin Franklin

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”--George Washington

The virtue of our Founding Fathers is missing in today’s modern Congress and in our society in general. Our society will correct itself when people start returning to church and re-embracing the historic standards of Judeo-Christian values—love thy neighbor and the Ten Commandments. However, we (the patriotic voters of America) can break the corrupt “highest bidder” cycle of our elected officials starting at the next election.

It won’t take an Amendment to the Constitution. It won’t take creating a Convention of the States. All it takes to totally scuttle our corrupt, elite, professional ruling class is for all of us to rarely, if ever, vote for an incumbent. It is that simple. However, that means every citizen must take personal responsibility to make absolutely certain that when they vote they are an INFORMED voter.

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”--Thomas Sowell

Name recognition is a lousy reason to vote for anyone. Celebrities tell you what you want to hear. To help you, elected officials must tell you the truth and what you need to hear.

Each political party must primary every candidate for every election. We must quit automatically re-electing incumbents. As citizens, it is our responsibility and obligation to evaluate our elected officials. If they do good, keep them. Otherwise send them packing and send in a new player. More often than not, the new player is the best option. We must end the elite lifetime political career path, which is a clear path to corruption.

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Experience has taught us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession, and when the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” —(Attributed to George Washington)

So, will we keep doing what we’re doing and wait for whoever is going to be our master, or are we going to break the cycle of corruption?