Posted on 01/21/2007 4:36:07 AM PST by Semper
It is becoming painfully obvious and disturbing that our government is not functioning as it was intended. It is taking too much of our money and not doing nearly what it should be doing to keep us safe and free. It is time for another revolution to put us back on track – not a conventionally waged revolution – no one should be killed, at least not in a literal sense. Nothing should be destroyed except wrong ideas and wrongful practices. It should be a political revolution – with a new political party and a new kind of candidate.
We could officially declare the establishment of the FREE REPUBLIC Party – the first internet conceived and based political party. We could start at the top , the presidency. Let the two antiquated parties fight over congress – for now. We can have an internet primary and an internet compaign complete with debates, that is what we do after all. Our candidate would become well known when the media figures out the entertainment value in something like this. And, at the least, Jim would be recognized for the valuable contribution he has made to this country by the establishment of Free Republic.
There is much more to this idea but I am not going to get into those details at this time. I want to see what fellow freepers think about this idea. I am writing this on a plane coming back from a tour in a remote area of Afghanistan. I have been somewhat out of touch for several months so I will need more input before more specific details of this idea are offered. And, I might be a little out of the loop until established back in the states. I will be debriefing in the Washington DC area for the first part of the week and then traveling back home to California; but whatever, I hope this idea holds some value to Freepers.
And of course I would like to be a candidate for the Freeper primary for the Presidency of this great country. I know what a long shot this is but I would love the battle involved – I am a warrior after all. And please do not jump to conclusions regarding my positions on the relevant issues – war, abortion, taxes, imigration, etc. - I am still open to influence on these matters. But I know from first hand experience that we are not winning the war on terror. We need a Commander-in-Chief who knows more about war than the current president and those who appear to be possible candidates for his job. I will be happy to confront this and all other issues in freeper style if that turns out to be what is desired. For an election the ideas are not as important as the qualifications - for doing the job well, ideas are what counts. We need to consider both.
Semper
This is called reasoning from a false hypothesis.
ML/NJ
My other hypothesis is that you are a lobbyist in fear of your job.
Huh? lobbying is at the essence of our Republic, without it, we have an oligarchy. You as a citizen have the very basic right to petition government, ie lobby. Likewise, you have the inalienable right to organize with like minded individuals (see 1st Amendment) and petition government en masse to better make your voices heard. I can't believe we have serious calls on FR to make this practice enshrined in the constitution illegal.
I suspect that neither one of them have the slightest clue as to what they are genuinely suggesting.
Yep--the time HAS come--1984 HAS also come....AND GONE--so what?????
It's been done. Paul Weyrich created N.E.T. in the early-mid 90's, which later became America's Voice and finally Amvoice. N.E.T. stood for National Empowerment Television. It rocked, but it made no money. Which of course is the problem. How many people want a political channel of any stripe? The answer of course is very few. There is simply not enough money in the venture.
Well, keep offending. The knuckleheads, and all kinds of emotionally driven ideas, have sprouted like mushrooms since the election.
Well said.
How about no wars except for the right reason, which is not anything seen recently.
Two simple laws would change the entire system in Washington, but I doubt that we could ever get them passed.
1. Only individuals can contribute to a political candidate.
2. No one can contribute to a political candidate for whom they cannot vote.
This would force our representatives to truly represent their constituants or get replaced at the next election.
Just as wrong as the first.
I just cannot imagine why anyone here would want to ban hiring someone to influence legislation. When that happens only the unemployed will be able to exert some influence, or would you ban that too? And then you could ban all those supposed experts who testify before the committees. Our great political leaders could just brainstorm everything on their own. And you think things are bad now!
ML/NJ
No, I do not tolerate all views, and this nation should not tolerate all views. There are views and causes espoused by both major parties that would have the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves. There are political parties whose very platforms run afoul of the basic, founding principles of our nation (Commies, Greens). There are movements, such as the homosexual push for special marriage and adoption rights, that are positively poisonous to the fundemental values and principles we were founded upon. This kind of diversity is not what we need, and we shouldn't tolerate it at all.
Apparently though, to your mind, as long as any of these groups can secure the most money and votes to win the primary elections, they're fine and dandy. That very thinking, sir, is what's causing our society and nation to collapse from within.
What I propose is the American Spirit in its most basic form. When a government, or a group of people, become so tyrannical as to trample our own God-given rights, it is our duty as Americans to stand up and tell those tyrants we won't take it anymore. Bloodlessly would be best, of course, but that's why the Founding Fathers protected our RKBA with the 2d Amendment.
Our two dominant party system is broken. It was once easy to differentiate between the Rats and the Pubbies, now they're Coke and Pepsi. Nowadays, who is calling for the dismantling of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Americorps, Job Corps, the Departments of Energy, Education, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, the Interior and a whole slew of otherwise un-Constitutional functions of government? No one! Hell's bells, the two dominant parties are tripping all over themselves to see who can grow government faster than the other! Meanwhile, who's throwing Border Patrol agents and Marines in jail for doing their jobs? The damn Pubbies, for cryin' out loud!
(Whew...take a breath)
I could go on, but I'll spare everyone. No, your view that I don't understand the system is dead wrong. My view is that the "system" you espouse is the very reason we're in this mess in the first place. I hate to say it, but we will be lucky if all we have coming is eight more years of a Commie Klintoon in the WH. If we don't stop tolerating so much PC and immorality/amorality, if don't stop preaching diversity and start preaching commonality (as in the common values we were founded upon), well, I hope you speak Spanish and Chinese, 'cause that your future. Mine is the motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die."
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Why now? What is so pressing? Who do you revolt against first?
If we have a Congress that whose activities are restricted to those issues only addressed in the Constitution, it would greatly reduce the need for lobbyists to influence legislation. Just think of all the lobbyists trying to influence agricultural and energy policies to name just two. Since these are not constitutional areas all lobbyists... POOF....GONE
An aspect of the system that is problematic is that an inordinate amount of the information our representatives get comes from the career bureaucrats that inhabit the beltway. They are lobbyists in their own right, seeking expansions of government intrusion and authority they they will inherit by proxy, in thier own interests. In many ways, they have more access to and opportunity to influence your representatives than you do.
I live in Maryland and helplessly watched a very good Governor be destroyed by the press and replaced by the village idiot
And I live in PA where I watched first the local media in Santorum's home area shred him with every Demonrat talking point DAILY in the local papers and on TV, beginning 4 yrs. before his election (Lord only knows what was going on in the rest of the state,) which was then joined by the national, state media, posters on FR, etc., over 2 yrs. before the election until he was unrecognizable by his own family. He was then replaced by an empty suit village idiot with a less than room temperature IQ and a recognizable name. In fact, many of the idiots who voted for him believed they were voting for his dead father since he remained hidden during the entire campaign.
You're apparently so upset that you cannot even type correctly, but you continue to reason from false hypotheses.
Don't get me wrong. I'd like to go back to the Constitution of Madison and Jefferson, but it's just not going to happen.
And, BTW, it's not just Congress.
ML/NJ
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