Posted on 04/18/2015 7:09:31 PM PDT by PoliticallyShort
Thomas Paine famously wrote in The American Crisis, How easy it is to abuse truth and language, when men, by habitual wickedness, have learned to set justice at defiance.
In condemning the King of England, Paine continued, amongst the various assumptions of character, which hypocrisy has taught, and men have practiced, there is none that raises a higher relish of disgust, than to see disappointed inveteracy twisting itself, by he most visible falsehoods, into an appearance of piety which it has no pretensions to.
Paine was articulating the stance in which Britain, most notably the King, had claimed to be fair and just to his people while at the same time the habits he practiced completely contradicted what he claimed to be.
Today, we find ourselves in very much the same situation as Paine with the exception of a King being replaced by bi-partisan politicians working within an establishment that defies the American people. The words of Paine reign true today as average Americans like myself feel that we are no longer a free country because our legislation depends on the will of establishment politicians 3,000 miles distant, whose interest is in opposition to our own.
If we were to judge the state of our country by measuring the wealth in which our elected representatives have accumulated at the expense of those they were entrusted to represent, then one would assume our country is in no way amidst a crisis.
If the wealth of a representative was to continue to grow with election after election then common sense dictates that their own constituents conditions would follow suit.
States like Kentucky and West Virginia, represented by the establishment in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell worth $22.8 million and Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller worth $100 million, should surely reflect a flourishing and prosperous Kentucky and West Virginia.
In Kentucky, where McConnell has served as Senator for the past 30 years, the median household income sits at $43,399, roughly $10,000 below the national median while 18.8 percent of Kentucky residents live in poverty.
In West Virginia, where Rockefeller has served as Senator for the past 30 years, the median household income is $41,253 with 18.5 percent of West Virginians living in poverty.
Yet, while Kentucky and West Virginia rank among Americas poorest states, McConnell and Rockefeller rank among the richest congressmen. This is merely one example and serves as a microcosm for us as a country.
We are not benefitting from establishment politicians. Quite the contrary, they are benefitting from us as we fail to recognize this parasitic relationship.
As much as the 2014 mid-term elections were a repudiation of Barack Obamas policies by voters, the signing of the $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by both the Senate and the House serves as a direct repudiation of the voters by Congress.
By funding Obamacare, amnesty and Obamas agenda, the Republican establishment certified their outright contempt for those who had just won them a landslide election. Literally every single Republican across America campaigned on the promise to stop Obamas unconstitutional executive order to bypass Congress and grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.
Then, once the landslide election occurred, the establishment betrayed their base by increasing the funds for Obamas executive order by $80 million. The total allocated funds granted to Obama for his executive amnesty now rests at $948 million.
On Saturday night we witnessed more of this betrayal and contempt by the Republican establishment in the form of a Senate vote on Obamas immigration. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) led the fight to force the senate vote as a condition of approving the massive $1.1 trillion spending bill. Cruz was able to make the vote happen by arguing that the spending bill violated the constitution because it would fund Obamas plan that rewrites our immigration laws without any input from Congress.
To gauge the crisis in which we face, not only today, but in the future was reflected in the final Senate vote that saw the Senate decide 22-74 against Cruz.
Meaning, less than half of the Senates 45 Republicans voted with Cruz.
The only Republicans voting with Cruz were Sens. Roy Blunt (Mo.), John Boozman (Ark.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rob Portman (Ohio), James Risch (Idaho), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Jon Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).
The lies perpetuated by Republicans in order to get re-elected will not be questioned nor investigated by the media that favors the establishment as much as it does Barack Obama. The criticism Cruz is already facing by the Democrat party is magnified when one looks at the response by those within his own party.
For instance Charles Krauthammer made it a bold point on Monday night to criticize Cruz in claiming his idea of conservatism was wrong. Krauthammer stated that there was no way in which the objection he raised over the weekend was going to do anything, anything at all to stop the presidents executive order. A 12-year-old with a piece of chalk and a blackboard could have drawn a graph to show it was impossible.
What Krauthammer doesnt understand is that Cruz effectively showed the grass-roots Republican base that those who were elected based upon a promise to fight Obama were instead voting in favor of fighting their own constituencies.
America is losing our ability to govern as we allow outright lies to be perpetuated against us by those who have forgotten that they cannot do without the people who elected them.
By describing the American crisis that the establishment has created, one must only look to our history as Paine described Britain she is excelled by those she affected to despise, and her own opinions retorting upon herself, become an aggravation of her disgrace Evils, like poisons, have their uses, and there are diseases which no other remedy can reach.
If youre a Republican and you voted for an establishment Republican let them know that their betrayal of your vote is duly noted.
Remind them just as Paine reminded the people of England that it had been a crime and folly to suppose herself invincible, without acknowledging or perceiving that a full third of her strength was drawn from the country she is now at war with.
My congressman doesn’t appear to be getting wealthy.
Doesn’t stop the cattle on the left from chanting “Wall Street Walberg” at him like a bunch of morons.
I seriously wonder how many americans are ACTUALLY conservative..
conservative union members is an oxymoron..
conservative democrats ain’t happening..
conservative moderates is a myth..
conservative RINOs is a delusion...
I am so right wing I’ve fell off the bird..
and consider the whole bird left wing..
Unfortunately, here in AZ, we have McCain...30 years now and the man cannot even locate AZ on a map. He epitomizes a “career politician”
I bet theres a hell of alot more than we know but then again...
Interesting commentary.
“OFF THE BIRD..”
I like it, I like it.
Nice.
The constitution also states that there shall be one representative for every 30,000 people. This has not changed but today the average congressperson represents somewhere between 600 and 700 thousand. Just like the senators they don't have to listen to us either. If we followed the constitution we would have over 10,000 representatives.
An Enemy soldier is less of a threat than is a traitor.
We didn't move. It's the entire bird which shifted under us. Positions that were normal and considered obviously rational in the 1960s are now considered wacko-bird kook territory and extreme.
It was the "War on Poverty" that empowered the left. It was the "War on Poverty" that kept electing Democrats and moving the nation towards leftist insanity.
It was the “War on Poverty” that empowered the left. It was the “War on Poverty” that kept electing Democrats and moving the nation towards leftist insanity.
Wrong.. democracy is the political disease socialism is ONLY a symptom..
democrats are for democracy.. thats why they are called democrats..
many many republicans are ALSO For democracy..
few are for “the Republic”... a constitutional republic..
WHICH IS THE PROBLEM... democracy is Mob Rule by mobsters..
Democracy is the road to socialism. -Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism.
The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx
Iran and the bomb, spending, appointments, Obamacare, amnesty The list is limited only by the perfidy of the Republican establishment which is to say that it is not limited at all.
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