Posted on 06/29/2009 4:54:58 AM PDT by Walter Scott Hudson
I no longer subscribe to either of the following perceptions of our government:
1. The popular impression that we are a democracy where the will of the majority determines public policy.
2. The originally intended conception of American government as a constitutional republic consisting of representatives of the people whose votes reflect the will of their constituents, balanced with an intelligent, complete, and benevolent pursuit of the general welfare.
We have neither of those. What we have, as evidenced by the passage of the 1500 page Cap and Trade bill which included "a 300 page amendment that was introduced in the wee hours of Friday morning just before the five hour debate took place," is nothing less than socialist oligarchy. At the risk of projecting an amount of condescension, allow me to define that term. Socialism is when the state owns and administrates a society's means of production. Oligarchy is a form of government defined by the domination of a small elite distinguished by some common bond. In this case, the bond is religious belief in and intellectual advocacy for socialism, coupled with the power to manifest it.
The idea that our government values democracy, at least at the federal level, is laughable. How can it possibly be argued that the will of the people plays any role whatsoever in the formation and execution of law, when the very legislators creating it have no idea what it is, because it is brought to vote so quickly they cannot possibly have read it, and therefore cannot possibly have considered the perceived or actual will of their constituent's regarding how they should vote on it? Make that argument for me, please! Tell me what part of passing bills no one has attentively read, properly considered, and thoughtfully debated is democratic! Tell me how the legislators supporting it, overwhelming Democratic, are truly democratic champions of "the poorest of the poor" when they pass a Tax on Existence they admit will hit the poor harder than anyone?!
How does this happen? How does it keep happening time and time again? Where is the outrage? Anecdotal evidence suggests, just as with the bank bailout legislation before it, this Cap and Trade bill was overwhelmingly opposed by constituencies across the nation. Multiple media sources reported "melted" phone lines at Capital Hill, as citizens pushed and shoved their digital avatars through inadequate bandwidth, to bang on the doors shutting them out of the corridors of power, and demand the Congress not tax them any further. Please, they said, don't raise the cost of gas for us to get to our jobs everyday. Please, they said, don't raise the cost of heating our homes in the dead of winter. Please, they said, don't cost our employers anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars that they will only be able to recoup by outsourcing our jobs to China or Mexico. Please, Members. Please! Listen to us! We are your constituents! We put you in office to represent us, to provide for the general welfare, to act in reverence to the Constitution of the United States of America and the principles of governance upon which it is based! We are you! You are us! Why won't you listen?! Why don't you hear?!
They do hear, folks. They do. They don't listen, because they don't have to, because listening to constituents is a defining characteristic of representative government, and that is not what we have. We have no democracy. We have no republic. We have no constitution. There is only the Nietzschian will of an elite class of oligarchs, led by a personality cultist who openly despises the foundations of the nation he purportedly serves.
Where is the revolution?! It lies muted beneath the death of a likely child molester who could sing and dance. Where is the revolution?! It has been upstaged by the adulterous affair of a state governor. Where is the revolution?! It cannot compete for the fascination of a tabloid nation with the divorce of Jon & Kate. There is no revolution. At this rate, there won't be. Not enough of us realize what is happening to our country and our world. Of those who do, not enough will stand against it.
Forget phone calls. Forget letters. They do nothing. They have become steam values to release political pressure without effect. Folks, we need to take back our government now. Average citizens need to become the media, and replace our career-minded overseers in government, because the professionals are not doing their job. As consumers of media, we must stop ravenously snatching up the sensational bones we are thrown. Michael Jackson is dead; his problems are over. Wake up to yours! The enemy isn't at the gates; he's in your house! And he's kicking you out! Can't you see that through the pomp and circumstance of tabloid journalism? Can't you hear it over the worship hymns of Thriller and Billy Jean? Can't you feel it as it reaches out for your throat to choke the life from you and your children?! Wake up!! Your liberty is gone! The frog is cooked! You are subjects, not citizens. And you have no one to blame but yourselves.
It is my firm belief that people, on the whole, get the government they deserve. That was why, in my view, it was folly to go into Iraq with the notion that we would build that nation into a democracy. The only nation built from people outside it is the province of empire. And hey, that's fine if that's how you want to play it. Rome was both republic and empire. We can go that route if you want. But let's be honest about it, shall we? Let's call it what it is. Let's not fool ourselves into believing we're out spreading democracy abroad when we can't muster two beads of sweat to protect it at home!
Awareness of the state of American socialist oligarchy must erupt to a level triggering revolution now, or the increasingly shrinking window to revolt non-violently will pass. It has to start from the ground up, with private-citizen media rising up at the local level and state electoral overthrows of every single sitting incumbent legislator, along with any executive who has failed to be a leader in pursuit of liberty. Laws must be passed aggressively requiring the due consideration of legislation, perhaps with a set number of days required for debate for every page of a bill written to a defined format, something to keep this overnight passage of unread oligarchical decree from becoming the law of the land. Such law would have to be, to some reasonable extent, retroactive in recognition of the bad faith with which previously hyper-passed legislation has been foisted upon the people without their effective representation and often against their stated apparent will. Such good faith debate laws must be enacted for responsible media to be effective. After all, who needs media when the government doesn't answer to the people?
If you have never considered running for office, or attending a town hall meeting, or participating in a caucus, or starting a blog or podcast or video blog, you are the person that needs to take action now. Those who have already stepped up are clearly overwhelmed or otherwise ineffectual. You can no longer afford to sigh and plant your face in your palm and content yourself to blow off steam calling in to talk radio or engaging in pointless flame wars on a forum, assuming someone with more time or perceived skill will step up and represent your interest. They will not! You have to stand up for you! And you have to do it now! If you believe it is too late to restore the republic, then you are right.
> Then my friend, I assure you, the Revolution will come.
In my opinion, nope. Won’t happen.
We are at the “Bread and Circuses” stage of degeneracy. There is no turning back from that. Never was, never will be.
Perhaps the ONLY chance we have, THE ONLY CHANCE, is a Christian Revival the likes of which has not been seen since the 19th Century.
See 2nd Chronicles 7:14.
But the “Bread and Circuses”, the general cynicism, the triumph of Materialism, and the drunkeness of Nihilistic Hedonism over the sobriety and diligent work ethic of the Christian Faith based on the Eternal Hope it offers, makes it unlikely that such a thing will happen.
However, with God, all things are possible, so I will continue to pray for the seemingly impossible.
ahh my FRiend.
You give wayyyy too much credit to those who voted for the idiots in this country. The media will SUCCESSFULLY spin it into once again, blaming the long term effects of Bush’s policies for getting us into this mess and how we need MORE spending to get out. Then, yet another trillion dollar stimulous bill will get rammed through each year of O’s presidency as we drown.
I think a revolution will only come after we take a nuclear hit by terrorists.
Hate to be a doom and gloomer, but I’m just so frustrated and fed up. I wish/hope you are right about a revolution, but I see too many lazy idiots sitting on their couches worrying wayyy more about who won American Idol than how much our taxes are going to increase. THen, when their energy bills go up, they will look to the govt. to help instead of looking to the govt. to BLAME!
Looks like the website is stopped. :(
Test post.....FR not “refreshing” for me.
Yep. And don't let the television tell you who is good and bad.
The author is quite correct in calling our current Washington DC establishment an oligarchy. Its inhabitants do not celebrate democracy so much as fear it; specifically, that they can be voted out of the ruling class, although there is a secondary tier of consultants, lobbyists, publicists, and other shills out there to take up the shock until the next election - Al Gore, for example, has found a happy home there.
It's a separate class in a number of ways, and it perpetuates itself by the boundaries it sets - special retirement plans, medical plans, rules that relieve its members from obeying the laws they pass for others, and by the methods it employs to give the incumbent an advantage over a challenger - franking privileges, free air time, travel benefits, the list goes on. The fact that established party mechanisms control who gets the nomination for office nearly as tightly as Iranian imams does not help the issue.
But in the end the people who vote get the people they voted for (ACORN is doing what it can to remediate that, though). We have an incompetent, ignorant, rock-star poltroon in the office of the Presidency because the popular media formed a sensation around him - the author's second point, and it's entirely true. We can vote the media out of office as well with our pocketbooks, but that's a long and very imprecise process. What we're stuck with is a form of government that is steadily, ineluctably being corrupted and trivialized by a ruling class that has discovered that socialism is a shortcut to plunder and permanent rule. Throw them out while we still can peacefully.
Is anyone else having problems with FR? No matter how many times i ‘refresh’, the same things keeps coming up.
Unintended Consequences.
ping
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Are we their constituents ? If we didn't vote for them, then we are not. A politician is in office because the majority of the people in his district believe in his views. Therefore, he is representing his constituents when he votes. So what good does it do to complain that he's not representing those who didn't vote for him. We need to vote in the guys/gals that represent OUR views in order to have the agenda go our way.
That's how it works....
test
“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle! Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
— Thomas Paine, COMMON SENSE
.......
BTTT
I wonder about this.
The part that made Cap N Tax so irresistable to liberals was the ability to use third parties (manufacturers, energy companies, utilities, etc) to collect the taxes.
It won’t be readily identifiable as a tax, and these third parties will get all the blame from demagogic dems for the added costs.
Socialism is a religious belief. Socialism is the religion taught in our government K-12 schools.
So....If it is socialism that is preached every day in our government schools is it surprising that the people mistook Obama for a god and voted for him?
>>Here’s your solution: Vote out the bad people. Vote in good people.<<
Yeah. How’s that been workin’ for us so far?
“America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.” — opening lines of 101 Things To Do ‘Til The Revolution by Claire Wolfe
It is time we called Democrats what they truly are: Marxists
It is time we called Democrats what they truly are: Marxists
Why do you think that the Cap & Trade bill isn't supposed to come into effect until 2012? De-sensitization. [/cynic]
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