Going to try to cram a lot in this morning. This new job has me sitting here at my desk most of my waking hours and now that it's actually something approaching "work" I can't make myself focus on anything too serious once I clock out.
For starters, I'm sure there may be some new eyes on this and I want to say a little about my views. I'm something of a fledgling libertarian. I'd been a life-long Republican who didn't always agree with my party and who found that the views of the Democrats were not always without merit. I didn't have a name for it until this past year when I discovered there were others who felt the same way: both major parties are abusing the Constitution and have been for decades. Some of you will say that times have changed since the 18th Century and the Constitution has to evolve. It has; they're called Amendments and each one that hasn't been repealed is still in force and just as meaningful as the text of the Constitution itself. The entire document (amendments and all) is designed to make sure power stays were it belongs: with the people. Liberal justices for nearly a century have made broad interpretations of the "commerce clause" of the Constitution to marginalize the 10th Amendment and bring more and more power to the federal governments. I like choice and I like local solutions for local problems, not a one-size-fits-all mentality that exists in Washington D.C. I also really dig fiscal responsibility.
That said, I find the current health care reform bills to be repugnant and a burden on average Americans for years to come. Someone claimed decades of data proving the efficiency of Medicare the other day as a reason to support this reform. What efficiency? The program has blown away all estimates of its costs for years, with the burden falling more and more on the taxpayer. Social Security, Medicare and the like is Congress's way of bribing the people with their own money.
"The America Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." -- Alexis de Tocqueville
Democrats came to full power, taking the majority in the Congress and winning the White House, crying, "change." I haven't seen it yet. W ran up some serious bills and expanded the government ... big no-no's in my book ... but O has done it even more so, spending more in nine months than Bill Clinton did in eight years (figure from an AP article and also Politico). Other articles point out that there is no data to support that this spending actually led to any fledgling improvements this past quarter or whether said improvement was the result of natural market forces. Having lost some important elections this month, though, they are sounding the horn of fiscal responsibility, but not taking action. In the age of the sound-bite that's all that needs to be done, unless we the people take up the cry of bullshit. And I cry bullshit, Washington.
Political expedience has taken the place of duty in our nation's Capital. Jefferson once made a comment that when being a legislator becomes a profession instead of a calling, we would be in trouble. It's been that way a while now, folks. Republicans, seeing the consensus of the people is on the swing are suddenly all about, in words, anyway, making the change happen that Democrats promised a year ago. I'll point out here, lest we forget, that for seven years they used fear tactics to erode our personal freedoms and rack up some hefty bills. Reason magazine correctly called W's policies failed socialism and we're seeing the same trend towards that end continuing today. Why? The names will change, a little bit, but the people in DC are there to achieve their own power goals and not to make life better for you and me.
I doubt I'll change any minds with my words. Too many people I know are deeply entrenched in their beliefs. People who say they are moderates but scream against anything that goes against their core ideologies, whether those ideologies place them in the current Cult of Personality or they are a cause-du jour-following backwoods right-wing pigeon from outer space. Having said that, I write for myself, to express what's on my mind about what's happening in the world around me and to help me bring some order to the place that is my psyche.
Thanks for reading. And I hope you'll agree, no matter your views, that all politicians lie, but not all politicians lie well.
