LIBERTY LOST - Cause & Effect

We believe the federal government has grown too big, too expensive, too intrusive, too nosy, too abusive and.. . .well, just about everything it was not supposed to be.

What are we talking about when we say that? It's not Congress. Nor is it the Presidents, but between the two, they have created and fostered an Imperial Bureaucracy, a virtually independent, ever growing government that is answerable to no one, staffed by unelected bureaucrats who write rules and regulations that have the force of law and lord it over us as if they were our Imperial Masters.

How big is the bureaucracy? Not counting Congress, the White House, the State Department, the CIA or the Military in uniform, there is 1 fulltime civilian federal employee for every 123 Americans. Surprised? Is that too big?.

Congress has been on a Legislative binge for more than 60 years. To enforce those laws, at the direction of Congress, the bureaucrats write regulations. At the end of 2006, there were 144,040 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations. In that almost undecipherable mass there has to be one, two or a dozen that can jump up and bite any one of us at any moment. When it happens, they have the full force of government behind them while all we can do is go broke paying attorneys.

For instance: The BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) is systematically, one by one, revoking gun dealers' licenses on paperwork technicalities. Someone overlooked and therefore did not fill in one space in a form. BOOM! "Your license has been revoked." The small ones who could not afford thousands of dollars in Attorney's fees, simply went out of business. Twenty years ago, there were 250,000 licensed gun dealers in this nation. Today, there are only 108,000. That works out to be 19 a day that have just disappeared. And, of course, the number of gun dealers "not complying with regulations" is used by BATF to justify and expand it's budget.

How much are these regulations costing us? According to a recent study released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2004, the nation's business community, mostly small businesses, spent $1.1 trillion complying with Federal Regulations. Who pays that? We do. It's a cost of doing business and is a part of the price of everything we purchase. How much is $1.1 trillion? Assuming a population of 300 million, it's $3,667 for every man woman and child in the country. And you thought all those regulations didn't affect you. Right?

All Congress has to do to change all this is snatch the bureaucrats up by the knap of the neck, let them know the Rules Committee has arrived and rewrite the enabling legislation in specific terms, precisely narrowing and defining the scope of their authority and how they will conduct themselves. But it's too busy playing a vicious, high stakes game of political "Gotcha" while enacting even more legislation that directs the bureaucrats to write even more regulations. And virtually every new regulation take a bite out of someone's liberty.

The list of abuses and abusive attitude could go on to near infinity, but the real question is, "How did it get this way?" The Founding Fathers put together a government meticulously designed to prevent what we have. What happened?

What happened was the standard ingredients of politics, greed and corruption. Late in the 19th Century, the Power Brokers and Robber Barons saw the federal government as a cow that could be milked for power, prestige and cash, but the Senators, who took their marching orders from their respective Legislatures kept blocking them. After a number of years of manipulation, apparent bribery and really dirty politics, we got the 17th Amendment which took the power of appointment away from the State Legislatures and moved it over to general election.

The result was predictable and inevitable. When the Senators were dependent on the Legislatures for reelection, the individual legislators and the Legislature as a whole, had enormous clout. When your reelection depends on only 80, 90, 100 people, you pay very close attention to what they want. When it was shifted over to the entire population of the State, the electing units were so large no one at home had any clout. This is exactly what the manipulators wanted, because the Senator's attention and loyalties switched to those who could help assure reelection, the Power Brokers. And that's where they still are today.

We were supposed to have a Senate made up of Statesmen who would be immune to public opinion and popular causes, vigilant guardians of our individual rights and liberty. Instead, we have a Senate composed of 100 free agents, free to follow their own agenda, which they do with impunity and immunity; answerable only to their political party, special interests, the mainstream media and their campaign contributors; responding with legislation to every popular cause that comes along, often inventing one just to get face time on TV; perfectly willing to eradicate everyone's rights simply because a few might or have abused them and have turned the United States Senate into an arena for an ongoing, seemingly never ending political food fight. It's disgusting and we deserve better.

The answer, the solution, is to repeal the 17th amendment so we have at-home control over what they do or do not do and we can get that done if we put our mind and resources to the effort. Put the appointment of Senators back where it belongs, with the Legislatures and that's exactly what we're going to do..

"Whaat," you wail, "you want to take away my right to vote for Senators." If putting it back where it belongs, with the State Legislatures, means taking it away from you, Yes, we do. We're taking away ours too, so you haven't been singled out. But be realistic. That vote is only symbolic. It is meaningless, simply because the only time a person has power in the ballot box is when he can exercise some control over the actions of his "servants" and the only way to have control is to be able to talk to them directly, not just to their staff. Can you call your Senator and get him on the Phone? The Party Bosses can. Milton Megabucks can. The media can. The lobbyists can. But you can't. Face it. We're just a mass of nameless faces in the crowd they have to shmooze every six years just enough to persuade us to keep them in office.

So, the choice is yours. You can hang on to your symbolic vote, or you can take positive steps to help change it. Millions of men have put themselves in harm's way to preserve our freedom with their blood staining the world's battlefields. We have not served them well by allowing this to happen. It's time to make amends and giving up your symbolic vote is a small price to pay compared to what they sacrificed.

We have a solid, three step plan to get it done. It's been hailed as "Brilliant," "Outstanding" with an 80% to 90% probability of success by some pretty savvy people who have been trying for years to get Congress to exercise some self restraint, trying to make them understand that they have been granted responsibility rather than power.

Constitutional historians rate the 17th Amendment as the biggest mistake we have ever made. Our success will be hailed by future historians as the greatest advance of liberty in the 21st Century.

Individual liberty and smaller government are our objectives, but it goes beyond that. We have wounded men and women languishing in miserable conditions in VA Hospitals and there are 1,252,188 members of Disabled American Veterans who are not receiving adequate care, partly because of the bloated, inefficient, dollar consuming bureaucracy but primarily because Congress has proven itself to be the world's most profligate spendthrift to the point where there's no money "left over" to take care of them properly. When we can cut the bureaucracy down to size and get some control over the Senate we will be able to provide some better care for these wounded warriors. We owe it to them and they have earned it.

If you want to be a part of it, contact us at the Email address below or at http://hometown.aol.com/repealthe17th/ROAR.html

ROAR (Restoring Our American Republic, Inc) 2975 Elizabeth Lane Snellville, GA 30078 Voice: 770-978-1913 FAX: 770-978-1064 RepealThe17th@aol.com http://hometown.aol.com/repealthe17th/ROAR.html

Giving power and money to Congress is like giving liquor and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O’Rourke

Compromise is: getting rid of your principles a little bit at a time.
- Patrick Lear

My first thought is that I’ve never heard of anyone with power willing to support something that might restrain that power.

Which is why this would have to start in the House of Representatives, or through the States calling for an Article V convention on the matter.

-PJ

I don’t trust the dem machine here with choosing senators. I am not saying the 17th amendment shouldn’t be revoked, but I do see my senators occasionally now. I can’t imagine all the backroom deals that might go on here as they negotiate who to send to DC.

Hopefully, repealing the 17th amendment would reconnect local politics to national politics. If you don't like the Senators that your state legislature keeps sending to Congress, begin changing your local state representation. It may take time, but that's how it's supposed to be done.

-PJ

Cause and effect.

In my opinion, the biggest effect of repealing the 17th amendment was the overwhelming domination of the two national party commitees.

With elected Senators, we have 33 of the most expensive elections that occur every two years. The national parties (DNC and RNC) are responsible for raising campaign funds mostly for these elections, and then for the one Presidential election every four years. What's left over may go to key House races every two years, but there are too many House races to make it economical to fundraise nationally for that many small constituencies.

So, it's the campaign fundraising for the 33 Senate elections every two years that drives the national bloc party politics. Eliminate the Senate elections, and you eliminate the need to raise all that campaign cash. Eliminate the need for tremendous fundraising every two years, and you eliminate the need for nationally-managed party campaigning, which means the influence of the DNC and RNC over the influence of the State legislatures.

-PJ

You got that right. And as a result, the elected senators are more committed to advancing the interests of their political parties than the interests of the sovereign states they’re supposed to represent.

State sovereignty? How quaint. /sarc

Which is why this would have to start in the House of Representatives, or through the States calling for an Article V convention on the matter.

Nope, none of the above. The last thing we want is a convention. But it does start with the State Legislatures. Send me an email to RepealThe17th@aol.com and I’ll send you the plan.

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