Posted on 07/04/2002 6:16:32 AM PDT by B. A. Conservative
It is beyond challenge that most, if not all, of the problems America faces today originate in Washington. It is fallacious reasoning to suggest that the problem lies with the people of the United States. Our government is a republic. Our republic is predicated on the theory that those elected to public office have intellectual competence, educational skills or experience that exceeds that of the electorate and that those elected public leaders will do what is right for the country even in opposition to commonly perceived public opinion. During most of the past century, the political class has demonstrably failed to lead, but have instead become political prostitutes selling laws and benefits in exchange for votes transforming our Constitutional republic into a tyrannical mob-rule democracy destined for bankruptcy. Non-producing parasites now use the Democratic Party to prey on their neighbors, the still producing members of our country.
Under our Constitution, the power of the United States resides in We the people. For too long, we have allowed that power to be delegated or sold by the prostitutes in both political parties, primarily those in Washington. Clearly, ours has become a top>down government. As one voice among We the people, I think it is time to withhold the delegation of that power by only delegating it to selected politicians and then only with strings attached. FreeRepublic is a much larger segment of We the people, with a much larger voice. We at FreeRepublic are the roots of the grassroots. Newcomers and some that have been frequenting this site for years may deny that Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives because of the discussions that took place on this web site. They are wrong. Our voice is loud and it is heard in the Halls of Congress and in the Whitehouse. The stain that will be remembered in history is not the stain on Monica's dress; it is the stain of Impeachment. And that stain came from the computer ink that spilled from the hearts of Freepers determined to see justice done. We at FreeRepublic are the roots of the grassroots. The buck starts here.
There has been a great deal of discussion on FreeRepublic lately about what role we should play in this fall's election and that we should cut Bush and the Republicans some slack. Variations of this theme have been discussed on other threads: "THAT which you believe"---"An open letter to Republicans" by redrock. I particularly like the comments by DoughtyOne and "Move the RINOs and we move the party. I really think it's that simple," by NickDanger.
Ronald Reagan won two landslide elections by telling Americans he was going to cut the government in Washington down to size. The Contract with America gave the Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time in roughly thirty years. Prior to the Contract with America Republicans only had control of even one house in Congress one other time in 70 years. The lesson that Republicans seem to have difficulty in learning is that the people are conservative and when presented a conservative agenda they will vote for it. And conversely, when pandering is all that is offered, the public prefers the real prostitutes every time. I have a solution to this problem. I call it the
I am not giving my vote to anybody in November. I have decided to auction my vote in this fall's Congressional elections. Politicians are going to have to bid for my vote. I have decided not to exclude any particular politicians or parties from the bidding. And I have decided to attach some rules to the bidding itself:
Minimum Bid:
This is only the Minimum. There are a number of suggested options that politicians could add now or that we will add in future contracts for future elections.
Suggested Options:
Most of these problems would eventually be solved by Term Limits. I think the Term Limits Amendment should be saved as part of the ultimate threat packaged as a part of a package to be presented under Article V to a Constitutional Convention. It takes time to put together sufficient public arousal and support to apply the kind of pressure that we may need to bring to bear on people who are used to exerting power rather than being subjected to it.
Is there a single Freeper who believes that we can change the Democratic Party into a conservative party?
Clearly we must defeat the Democratic Party if there is to be any chance to change America for the better. And just as clearly, there is only one other political party that can defeat the Democratic Party within a meaningful time period. Many of us would not live long enough to see a third party, absent a charismatic leader with the political strength and conservative appeal of Ronald Reagan, that could supplant the Republican Party.
With the few notable exceptions mentioned above, the past Republican leaderships have not been up to the task of defeating Democrats. The current Republicans in office, the Republican leadership in Congress and the President seem more committed to staying in office than in making a difference. Staying in power by enacting the Democrats agenda is only better because Republicans are better Commanders-in-Chief.
What the Republicans and some Freepers have not realized is that we are in far graver danger of losing America and our freedoms to the Socialists than to any danger posed by the terrorists. The United States is not going to be brought down by foreign enemies. But we must defeat the socialists and the Democratic Party. This is only going to happen if conservatives take control of the Republican Party.
Re-electing leaders who refuse to adopt a conservative platform or have failed to enact the conservative agenda is not the solution to changing the course of America. We can and we must demand more from the Republican leadership at the national level.
The military knows how to deal with discipline problems and to instill unity of purpose in the troops. No attempt is made to identify an individual perpetrator or violator of performance standards. Instead the commander punishes the entire unit for the offense or failure, leaving members of the unit to deal with the offender.
If it becomes necessary to enforce our threat not to vote, that means not voting in local or state races as well. Ours is a bottom-up grass roots effort. Local and state candidates who face the loss of office without our support will multiply our power with the national leaders. I fully recognize the loss of power Republicans face if conservatives are forced to make good on their threat to stay home. An idle threat has no power.
What if I am wrong? Let's look at each scenario in which I am wrong.
What if the Republicans ignore us, and continue courting and counting on the middle to keep them in power? Then conservatives must make good on their pledge and stay home in the 2002 election. If Republicans lose power, they will be able to hear us the next time they run for office. And if Bush is half the man that he is portrayed to be, or that he would have us believe that he is, he can deal very effectively with a Democratic Congress for two years. Significant Republican losses resulting from our conservative boycott in 2002 will resonate loudly in every Republican race in 2004, including the Presidential primary/election. And if we engineer a Republican victory in either 2002 or 2004 as a result of the Contract with Congress, we will have accomplished a tremendous feat. We will have proven that the power of We the people is not an empty promise and we will be well on the path of restoring our Constitutional Republic.
I believe Congressional Republicans and maybe the President are listening to the media. The constant media propaganda barrage is designed to mislead the people into supporting the Democrats. The 24-hour a day non-stop barrage is affecting the Republican leadership as well. They are being misled into believing that Americans are not really conservative anymore. At the least, the Republicans are being brain washed into believing we want a touch of socialism to go along with our independence. It is up to FreeRepublic to show the Republicans and everyone else that the media does not speak for the people. We do! And the people are conservative.
What if it's too late and we learn that either a majority or a substantial plurality of the American people are really socialistic rather than conservative? Then the people are not "United" and don't share a belief in the principles of freedom that made the United States great. If that is true, the sooner we get on with secession and the reinstitution of a new Constitutional republic that guarantees freedom the better.
The status quo or a continuing descent into socialism is unacceptable. Are there any patriots left? "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
I am right about this. I have forgotten the origin of this parable and the precise details, but it has great wisdom in regard to the current political environment.
There are a significant number in any society who routinely have the power to put others to death. There is normally only one who can spare those already sentenced to death by others. The ability to withhold death from someone sentenced to die is real power.
By itself, or even in multitudes, our vote is of limited power. The source of the power that we need to change the course of history and the course of our government lies in the power to withhold our vote, not in casting it for Republicans advocating the status quo.
If this were the financial world dear reader, this would be followed by a comment regarding do your own due diligence determination. And this would be followed by a disclaimer, "Warning past history or prior performance is no guarantee of future returns." And this is the price of throwing away the United States Constitution. Preserving the sanctity of the Constitution was as close to a guarantee of freedom as you are ever going to encounter. Have americans (small "a" intended) thrown away the promise of We the People for the empty promises of politicians? What is the value of the politician's promises for Social Security and the Social Security Trust Fund, public education, eradication of poverty, and the eradication of drug use? Can anyone actually name and back up with facts, a single government program that actually works as intended and that we can all share in the pride of accomplishment as opposed to feeble attempts to justify?
Three quick questions:
Was the government smaller when Reagan left? Kinda think not!
B U M P
An interesting treatise BA..and all worthwhile objectives. But with the minimums you have set you're not going to be doing a whole lot of voting. At least you won't be voting for anyone who will make a difference, i.e. has a chance to win.
A more pragmatic approach might be to realize that your ideals are to strive for but not absolute. Sometimes it's good to take a page from the enemy's book.
The evils of socialism did not happen overnight..they were inflicted incrementally. Incrementalism is the only strategy that seems to work in the long run.
Good luck in your voting process...let us know who you actually wind up voting for and if in fact they were elected :)
I'd appreciate scraping federal gun control laws along with scrapping the income tax.
Did you mention a provision that would require citing specific Constitutional authority for any new legislative attack act on for the American people?
redrock
redrock
I'm printing off that contract, and sending it to EVERY one of my Republican representatives from the village, county, state and federal level.
I wonder what their reply will be?
redrock
redrock
OK, I'll ask.
When did it seem to work?
I seem to have forgotten.
When I read the title I thought this had been authored by a member of Congress.
Just like continuing resolutions for spending are done now, congress would merely rubberstamp previous laws at the beginning of each session... Something like the "Congressional Omnibus Reauthorization Procedural Security Exercise...CORPSE"
I have thought about this as the most serious flaw in the Constitution...law creep.
What is needed is a graduated reauthorization procedure. This is where each law requires an increasing majority over time to reauthorize it. New ideas require a mere majority 51%. After for years, 2/3. After 8 years 3/4. 12 years 4/5.
If a law/program is good, it should have no trouble garnering unanimous consent over time. Meanwhile, Congress will be forced to spend most of its time lobbying and voting on maintaining current laws rather then passing and spending on new business.
Just a thought.
2. Is your loss of freedom reversible?
No...but we have long way to go....
3. Is it worth the effort to you personally to attempt the recovery of the freedom you have lost?
Absolutely! all day, every day.
4. Is there any other mechanism besides the one I have proposed that offers a "real" chance to recover your (our) lost freedom?
I have yet to find one
5. Is the alternative equal to or better than the one I am proposing?
It it the people of the United States who put these people in Washington. Surely they are to blame.
Meanwhile, outside the Capitol, the candidates are giving their last electoral speach.
Kang (looking like Bob Dole): The politics of failure have failed. We need to make them work again. Tomorrow, when you are sealed in the voting cubicle, vote for me, Senator Ka... Bob Dole.
[applause]
Kodos (looking like Bill Clinton): I am looking forward to an orderly election tomorrow, which will eliminate the need for a violent blood bath.
[applause]
From the sky comes a scream, as Homer is crashing right into the Capitol. A few footsteps later, he comes running down the stairs.
Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They're nothing but hideous space reptiles.
[unmasks them]
[audience gasps in terror]
Kodos: It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.
[murmurs]
Man1: He's right, this is a two-party system.
Man2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate!
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away.
[Kang and Kodos laugh out loud].
-- "Treehouse of Horror VII"
Other Perot voters out there - Don't let anyone tell you you threw away your vote- the 20% of the popular vote scared people in Washington more than you can possibly imagine. He also talked about whittling the govt down to size, and most of the above agenda...
I'm hoping that one of our friends can supply s with a link to all the addresses of all the ass-bites in DC so we can send this.
Another good idea.
Fabian Conservatism? It's possible. Do we have the time before fabian socialism has progresed to the point of no return? Do we, that is Conservatives, have the patience?
It would be very difficult in face of the fact that the majority of female voters are willing to trade all other civil liberties for abortion. The socialists advance their rise to power by appealing to our societies weaknesses. Historically, socialist are only defeated after they have acheived victory. I hate to admit it, on this 4th. of July, but I have grave concern for the country.
I am concerned, however, about a tax system that exempts so many voters from the pain. That was the method used to start the federal income tax (it only applied to the "rich"). A "Fair Tax" comes close, but with current FET's and State/local taxes thrown in, it would be very tempting (and lucrative) to barter or just plain cheat. This is already happening with cigarettes.
Incrementalism back to less government power never has and never will work. Government will never "incrementaly" cut their own budgets, power. The only thing that will ever convince government to shoot its own foot, to tear up its own credit cards, is a major grass roots movement by "the people" (such as BA suggests, personally I am in favor of a grass roots tax revolt) or a catastrophic event (economic meltdown or societal breakdown).
"Incrementalism" only works to move towards more government, never less, to the left, not to the right.
LOL!
Yep, that is what we were all told.
I keep thinking of Rush saying if we didn't vote for Bush we would get Gore.
I decided to throw my vote away on Harry Browne.
So now we get President Bush.
I reckon I will just keep throwing my vote away.
If I refuse to vote THEY won't know I didn't vote. I want them to know "they" didn't get my vote.
Exactly! You have captured the idea, but seem to have missed its implications. This is not a complex scheme.
Republicans and Democrats both know that conservatives are not ever going to vote for a Democrat. Yes, there is an occasional misguided or deluded soul who believes in fairy tales, ie there are conservative Democrats; and there may be a rare misguided and meaningless protest vote cast by a conservative for a Democrat. But bottom line, Democrats are never going to get votes from conservatives and everybody knows it.
What are the obvious implications of this? First, Democrats are never going to make any meaningful efforts to solicit conservative votes; it is a waste of their time and money. And two, Republicans consider conservative votes their birthrights. That means Republicans are free to cater to the natural base of the Democratic Party in order to get more votes. As long as they gain a greater number of Democratic Party voters than they lose conservative votes in disgust or protest, Republicans believe they will be more likely to win re-election. That is why Republicans who have been in office for any significant period of time move to the left.
Republicans know that to get elected, they have to cater to the conservative base. But once elected they move left, because they believe that is what they must do to remain in office. Conservatives are not lock step or block voters. When a politician fails to support a conservative's favorite issue, the politician may not get a vote from the conservative in the next election. A much higher percentage of Democratic voters use straight party tickets than Republican voters.
The constant attrition of Republicans in Congress since the 1994 Republican Revolution is the direct result of Congressional Republicans moving left instead of continuing to advance the conservative revolution. It is not an accident that governments always can be expected to do the wrong thing. It is because politicians as opposed to statesman don't care a thing about doing the right thing. The only concern of politicians after they are elected is remaining in office. Since politicians don't really have time to hobnob with individual members of their constituency, they tend to listen to the media and the media's reporting of the polls.
Here is the key: politicians want to be re-elected. They don't care about doing what is right. Therefore the politicians focus on a perception of public opinion since the politicians don't have the time or the inclination to take the pulse of the people for themselves. This is how the media accumulated their enormous propaganda machine advantage and why Republicans have been the minority party since the thirties.
As a result, if conservatives want to recapture the attention of left leaning Republican candidates, you have to be willing to let the incumbents lose. The survivors and next year's crop of candidates will hear our message.
I can't remember the the HR# but Ron has a bill before congress that will do just that.
Incrementalism is a vote to end the United States before 2016.
The field in front of the Capitol has now become a working ground where humans are whipped by aliens and used to carry materials.
The Simpsons family is working too, with Homer and the kids carrying wood, and Marge pushing a wheelbarrow of cinderblocks -- with Maggie on top.
Marge: I don't understand why we have to build a ray gun to aim at a planet I never even heard of.
Homer: Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!
-- "Treehouse of Horror VII"
That is exactly what I would like to see every Freeper do as the first step. The second step is to give a copy to your family, friends, and anyone else that will listen. Pass them out as handouts at any meeting, church group, political assembly or public gathering of any kind.
The 1994 Republican Revolution did not result in the saving of our country. It got derailed. Now is the time to put the Reagan Renaissance and the Republican Revolution back on track.
I can't remember the the HR# but Ron has a bill before congress that will do just that.
Someone should have the balls to turn Social Security into Welfare For the Elderly. Anyone who thinks that the gov't owes them all their SS taxes back plus interest at retirement age should realize that the Supreme Court ruled just the opposite in Flemming vs. Nestor in 1960.
People also need to put their money where their mouths are and stop sending their kids to public school, whether or not we have vouchers or an education tax credit.
There can be no moderate position on income, capital gains, property, and estate taxes; they must be completely abolished. Realize that this will be difficult as long as Republican Free-Trade-Uber-Alles types continue to demonize any increase in tariffs or other indirect taxes. Is there anything else we could tax instead? Pot? Raise VISA fees?
I would also suggest that we need to have mandatory military service for 3 years at age 18. Those who don't want to go into the military could serve their time as public servants (White House interns, congressional staff, etc.). There is a serious disconnect between the people and their gov't that causes a near total political ignorance in this country.
To: B. A. Conservative
I agree with you 100% and heck I have been doing this already.
There has been no one worth voting for in the past so I withold my vote from anyone.
The only two people i have voted for are our Beloved W and Perot.
(yes, Perot - protest vote as the best of 3)
If it were not for Perot, the balanaced budget would never have been discussed,
and eventually obtained.
Other Perot voters out there -
Don't let anyone tell you you threw away your vote-
the 20% of the popular vote scared people in Washington more than you can possibly imagine.
He also talked about whittling the govt down to size, and most of the above agenda...
# 28 by Mr. K
If those who voted for Ross Perot had simply stayed home,
the Republicans wouldn't have known that the votes they lost were conservative ones.
Statistics showing that voters were unhappy with liberal policies are meaningless;
no one trusts statistics anymore.
The votes for the conservative Ross Perot were solid, provable evidence
of the direction the people wanted to go.
The votes that the Republicans lost to Ross Perot
are directy responsible for the Contract with America,
and the Contract with America is the reason
that the Republicans won their majority in both houses of Congress.
If we don't vote at all, as has been suggested,
Republican's and other socialists will assume
that we won't work to change the direction of our policies.
The only way to send a message to the Republicans
is the way it was done in 1992.
Voting for a third party candidate works.
The window of time in which there is a real meaningful solution to solving the problems of the unfunded liabilities of the entitlement programs is very short, a decade at the most. Incrementalism has been losing for fifty years, is destined to fail even if we had another century to give it another chance. Unfortunately, there are not many other alternatives. We have the ballot box, a Constitutional Convention, or the bullet box. For me, the choice is easy.
To: Homer Simpson*************************
Yep, that is what we were all told.
I keep thinking of Rush saying if we didn't vote for Bush we would get Gore.
I decided to throw my vote away on Harry Browne.
So now we get President Bush.
I reckon I will just keep throwing my vote away.
If I refuse to vote THEY won't know I didn't vote.
I want them to know "they" didn't get my vote.
# 38 by carenot
It would have been better for our country if Gore had won.
Everyone would have known that the Republicans lost
because they had abandoned the values that won them control of Congress in 1994.
There would have been a groundswell of support
for a rededication to the Contract with America,
and the year 2004 would see a real conservative
in the White House.
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