Despite the Republican a mild comeback to re-take the House of Representatives, made possible solely by Tea Party Americans, the GOP establishment seems intent on squandering that momentum. I hear [what seem to me to be] disparaging almost defeatist comments frequently by Republican Spokespersons daily about how no one can win against this strong progressive current exist, the act as is we are rudderless by pretending there is no strong helmsmen but Mitt Romney.So let us re-visit this notion about the GOP going the way of the Whig Party. I just read a stimulating article by Karen Kwiatkowsky, a Retired Army Lt. Colonel, who is running for Congress in Virginia's Sixth District entitled: "
What Does the GOP Really Want in 2012?”
I really liked the article. It is a cold bucket of water in the face of an increasingly moribund party that has decided that our National Anthem should be sung doloroso instead of as the victory celebration over enemies of America that it actually is! Having said that, I disagree that either Ron Paul or Herman Cain is the “Moses” to take us all to the promised land just as much as she says it is none of the rest. I also disagree that the GOP has decided to lose. I will say that certain comments by certain media talking heads do make it sound that way from time to time.
Candidate Kwiatkowski quite hard hitting and takes no prisoners. Nixon, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ford, Bush I, II, and even Ronald Reagan are not spared from the sword of criticism, nor should they be. I think it is a good thing to look back critically an take stock as we plan the route ahead. Looking at the record, we have lost ground to be sure.
I agree broadly with her assessment and would disagree only in detail. To wit: I would go a bit easier on Jerry Ford. Thirty-five years ago he did something Republicans apparently don't do anymore. He stepped into the breech and he VETOED Democrat Deficit Spending Bills. He issued 39 Vetoes over Democrat juggernaut Congressional Majorities in his barely 2 years of Presidency. Similarly, Ronald Reagan, from 1981-1983, had but a fleeting Senate Majority with which to counter a rabidly Liberal House with Speaker Tip O’Neill. Reagan scored the longest period of economic prosperity to counter since the depression. To my mind, Reagan’s greatest victories were intangible ones of moral courage, positive attitude, and a firm adherence to the prophecy of American Exceptionalism.
I do agree that any New Republican Party must develop a comprehensive vision and philosophy, and not a cobbled set of attractive but often disparate values. But here I may stray down another path a wee bit.
Unlike many Liberal historical scholars, I firmly believe that our Founders had a Godly Covenant in mind when they sought to establish a governing Constitution. We the People were to master a government that is the servant of the People rather than vice versa. The Founders were very literate, classically educated and often self-taught, religious men who saw plainly the Hand of God upon this nation. They sought the Blessing of God under a nation of laws, not tyrannical and arbitrary rule by Kings, Queens and Royalty of dubious legitimacy.
Proverbs 29:18 says:
"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law."
So, what is God's prophetic vision for this Exceptional Land America, "this shining city on a hill?" Are all people in an Exceptional Land an Exceptional People? I would answer, "Yes!" Can Exceptional People, fall prey to the temptation of easy living and become "Lotus-eaters?" Again, I say "Yes!" So, where are we, and what have we become as a people? Even the right-headed, right-thinking American [regardless of Party] is hard pressed to sort through the piles of positions, rules, and exceptions to rules. That is why the Founders gave us a Constitution, a compact and covenant for governing of ourselves. Yet, a Constitution is no guarantee. It is said that at the end the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was asked a group of citizens as to what sort of government the delegates had created. He reportedly replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."
How easily did the Israelites fall prey to the growing clamors for a Golden Calf? They, couldn't wait for Moses to descend from the mountain so as to receive and record God’s Law. They instead wished to reduce God to their level so that local priestly manipulations of their Golden Calf idol would yield desired results. How did that work out for them? This was a cathartic event resulting from a long, downhill slide They had forgotten God as their first love. They had ignored their God-given Exodus from slavery under Pharaoh. They had forgotten how they had sung praises to their God who had parted the waters and drowned Pharaoh’s Army:
"Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. The horse and it's rider He has hurled into the sea." Exodus 15:21
The Israelites had sacrificed the meaning consecrating their Firstborn in exchange for First-pleasure. They ignored the miracles of manna and quail, and the water from the rock. How easy it was to forget. We too have been beguiled by those who worship the idol instead of the real deal. There is no question in my mind that a large chunk of Americans would trade their inheritance, American Exceptionalism, in exchange for a materialistic Nanny State of security and restriction. But know this, changing one man, or one woman is not going to change this Nation.
There is an entire Bureaucracy out there to tame, reduce, and educate to follow only the Constitution and constitutionally valid laws. Just as all Officers in the Armed Forces must learn and obey the true, literal meaning of “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” so must Civilian Civil Servants, Judges, members of Congress and the President of the United States. Today we have people, including Barack Obama, who neither understand the construction of the Constitution, nor the meaning of the word “lawful.”
There is a Judiciary populated by very many activist judges who believe that they can create judicial precedents that overturn peoples’ legislation. This is judicial usurpation, arrogant Judicial fiat. [I believe we have at last realized Thomas Jefferson’s great fear about the Judiciary] Many Judges look for popular approval by defining new rights for we poor “plebes” and for new government powers and entitlements rather than by restricting government interference.
Then there is the bastardization of Congress. Two, once distinctively Constitutional Political Parties, have become a continuum beginning at just barely center-right and extending to the far left. Leadership is measured by consensus, compromise, and whatever the convenient definition-of-the-day can be applied to Bi-Partisanship. has This go-along, get-along mentality and a lack of term limits all but assures the continued drift into European Statism, a Marxist Democratic Republic, or worse.
We have created a progressive, evil Income Tax System, via the questionable Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. That Amendment enslaves the People to the State via a convoluted tax code. We have built up the Federal Government at the expense of, and in violation of the Rights of States under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution. Popular Election of US Senators enacted by the 17th Amendment further eroded the authority of the States and instead created one more popularly elected body at the expense of the Peoples’ and States’ voices.
We have constructed a complicated Federal Reserve system of monetary chits and a complicated shell game of interest rates, money supply, and banking reserve requirements operated outside of citizen scrutiny to provide an illusion of fiscal stability. If that wasn’t bad enough, we then entrust this system not to fiscally sane free market economics of Adam Smith and Friedrich von Hayek, but to the Statist theories and incomprehensible double-talk of John Maynard Keyes.
Keynesian Economics has become the Liberal-Progressive spending yardstick particularly because whatever action you take, you can never be wrong. Even FDR complained that he could not understand a single theory that Keynes described to him. Yet FDR overlaid this “mumbo-jumbo” economics across America for so long that it became the natural, favorite poison of both political parties. Indeed, when Ronald Reagan described his sound economic plans rooted in Adam Smith Basics, George H. W. Bush called it “voodoo economics.”
So, is a little bit of debt is always called for, or not? It all depends upon how we treat it. No less a political and monetary genius than Alexander Hamilton [Father of American Finance, Founding Father, and author of the majority of Federalist Essays] said to Robert Morris in a letter: "A National Debt, if it is not too excessive, will be to us a National Blessing."
Hamilton subscribed to Adam Smith and to aspects of the conservative English Banking model. It is easy to want to get rid of all debt, but if we did we would never look forward, but only at the present. Does every Entrepreneur have the cash for a business start-up? No. How does a bank loan money but with interest on the loan. Repaying loans with interest means that a business is likely meeting obligations and payroll and will eventually move into even greater prosperity as long as that business remains competitive in product supply and demand. Growth is the positive result for risk takers, jobs are the reward for the citizens. The free enterprise system is a dynamo. Even though most new business start-ups fail, the ones who survive become mighty engines in society that create wealth and provide for growing employment and a vibrant economy. Were it not for that original debt there could be no loan. Can any country manage its own destiny and growth with cash on hand? Not likely. Federal Bonds and Treasury Notes pay interest incurred on the Federal Debt needed for Defense of Infrastructure. Managed scrupulously, these bonds and notes provide steady and reliable sources of income for pension funds. When government spending is out of control the whole system FAILS.
Not all Debt is good, because not all Politicians are trustworthy. Look at the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mess. Very few people can pay cash for a house or a car, but, not everyone should qualify for a loan or for credit either. The Federal Government cannot and should not be all things to all people. How difficult is it to learn after the collapse of 2008 that the Treasury and the Fed are not a money tree? Yet we continue to whistle past the graveyard. Where will this nation be without a positive determination to live within our means? There answer is Greece. Italy, Portugal… take your pick. And still our President attempts to divide the public, talk class warfare, and spend us into oblivion when the handwriting is on the wall. With Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell as your opposition, how will the likes of Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, or Chris Dodd ever be held accountable?
We must stop surrendering to the Progressive New Deal utopia that sees a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage and a debt and deficit without boundaries. Yet look at the headlines: In one state, Ohio, they voted against Obamacare because they became educated as to its flaws, yet the same voter believed Union propaganda about government employee unions and approved government unions a right to collective bargaining They perhaps did not realize that they, the tax payer, are accountable for an unaccountable Union’s bargaining actions. Even FDR said that government employee unions were a bad deal because the taxpayer is left holding the bag for any tab. Governor Kasich lost to the Unions, because he did not educate the public. The Unions and Progressives meanwhile promised the world, demonized their foes, and won the vote. All the while, California, Illinois and New York among other states, face bankruptcy because they cannot meet union negotiated pension obligations to government employees.
So also the creeping crony capitalist system between public and private sectors has allowed financial debacles like Enron [remember those guys] and Solyndra to befoul our Nation’s banks and defraud the taxpayer Meanwhile everyone escapes unpunished, to include the Political Servants who had to have violated their oaths to commit such mistakes of judgment. Our punishment for them has not been pinstripes, but “re-election.” Ladies and Gentlemen, in Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation, or Spousal Abuse Therapy this kind of behavior is known as Co-Dependency.
There is a lot of work to be done for sure. And we haven’t even scratched the surface on our lack of a coherent Foreign Policy in a dangerous world. I end with this sentiment: 2012 is a Bellwether Election. If we fail to elect a Republican, whomever that person might be, we will no longer have to worry about political parties because our fate will be sealed. I know we have heard this before. This time I personally believe it to be true.
