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Posted on 08/16/2007 5:41:01 AM PDT by PlainOleAmerican
We have become a nation of single issue voters and none of us seem too focused on the single issue of protecting and preserving America. If this is how we are going to continue electing leadership for our once great nation, we are indeed doomed…
First off, we don’t have an “American” electorate anymore. Nobody seems at all concerned about America when they vote. Half don’t bother to vote at all, so they sure can’t be confused with anyone who cares about the future of their country. The other half has a dirty little laundry list of special interest litmus tests that drives their self-centered voting habits. Nobody is voting for America anymore… and that’s a real problem my friends.
What are we looking for in a national leader? Well, that depends upon who you ask.
We have a growing list of litmus tests for modern candidates
It’s no longer enough to be a good upstanding American with good leadership skills, strong family values, a sense of decency and honor, a firm moral foundation from which to govern with the support and authority of the people. It’s no longer enough to have only America’s best interest at heart. A candidate must be more now, or in reality, much less. They must be the best dancing chicken.
(Excerpt) Read more at capitolhillcoffeehouse.com ...
This article nails it when it comes to defining what's wrong with America. Personally, I think the MSM should do the American people justice in forcing politicians to state explicitly where the money will come from when they make a specific promise. It must either take money away from existing programs or be tied to new taxes. No more wiggle room, politico: If you make a promise, I want to know exactly how you're going to pay for it. To me, it's the MSM's duty to extract that kind of information. Specifically, Hillary just said she can: 1) lower health care costs, 2) increase the quality, and 3) make it available to everyone and the I-believe-in-a-free-lunch voters lap it up. Why hasn't the MSM asked her how she would do this? That's the second problem with America: The MSM doesn't ask hard questions of their favorites.
The sponsors of any Congressional bill should be required to state clearly where in the Constitution the action is authorized. I think we’d see a lot of “interstate commerce” junk.
You're exactly right. There's an old book by E. Cary Brown titled An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution which points out just how far afield politicians have strayed from their constitutional duties. And most of their spending is directed at reelection rather than what is really needed. I just wonder what would happen to spending if we had term limits (four years, period) for all elected officials.
The Interstate Commerce clause is exactly what FDR used to mutilate the Constitution.
“That’s the second problem with America: The MSM doesn’t ask hard questions of their favorites.”
Why blame FDR? Back in the 1800s, Big Business used it to take away the rights of the state to control their activities. Easier to buy one legislature than dozens.
LOL!!
You are correct, but with the help of his Supreme Court, which in effect construed "interstate commerce" to include a farmer's wheat production for his own personal use (Wickard v. Filburn, 1942). That unbelievably expansive definition of "interstate commerce" removed all constitutional restrictions on the federal government's capability to interfere with any economic activity, even one of the most personal and local nature.
The New Deal was clearly a period of homongous growth of the federal government into areas which it had never been before and areas into which the Constitution did not permit it to go.
However, it wasn't the first such presidential administration (think Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson) nor was it the last.
Please see my post #11.
I submit that it began with the end of the civil war. One sign of this was the surprisingly quick restoration of the prestige of the Supreme Court. Anational oligarchy once agrarian and mercantile was quickly transformed into a financial and industrial one, and they needed the court to sanction the transformation of the law to reflect this reality. FDR only implemented TR’s New Nationalism, which made the Executive a major player in this game.
LOVE IT!
LOVE this one too!
That’s because not enough Americans ask hard questions of the MSM’s advertisers, thus continuing to both subsidize and abhor the result.
We've become a sound bite society. The news media is only giving us what we demand. They have to keep the news coming fast to hold our attention. Thirty seconds is long enough for any one item. Fluff we can handle, but real information? Real information is boring. We must be entertained!
Who has time to learn about a candidates entire platform? We don't even have time to fix breakfast - we demand more fat food joints so we can munch breakfast as we drive to work. No one can be expected to actually get out of bed five minutes early. A "healthy" lunch is from the vending machine and microwave. More fat food on the way home. Who has time to cook?
OK, so much for my rant on contemporary society.
Question: How did we end up this way? Can it all be blamed on advertising? We are told dozens of times a day by TV ads and news that we are busy, busy, busy. We’ve been told this so much many believe it. Are we really that busy - or just lazy? Too lazy to cook. Too lazy to set down to a family meal. Too lazy to learn.
Well, I think most of us here demand a lot more than we've been getting from the (mainstream) news media, and that's why we're on the 'Net as an alternative.
Normally, I start these things out by saying “My Fellow Americans.” Not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don’t know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and
that you’re really not fellow Americans any longer. I’ll cut right to the chase here: I quit.
Now before anyone gets all in a lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution or something, let me assure you: there’s been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office.
The reason I’m quitting is simple. I’m fed up with you people. I’m fed up because you have no understanding of what’s really going on in the world. Or of what’s going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out.
Let’s start local. You’ve been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that’s despite record numbers of homeowners including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we’re mentioning minorities, I’ll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton Administration. I’ve mentioned all those things before, but it doesn’t seem to have sunk in.
Despite the shock to our economy of 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there’s
increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security. We face real threats in the world. Don’t give me this “blood for oil” thing. If I was trading blood for oil I would’ve already seized Iraq’s oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. And don’t give me this ‘Bush Lied People Died’ crap either. If I was the
liar you morons take me for, I could’ve easily had chemical weapons planted in Iraq so they could be discovered.’ Instead, I owned up to the fact that the intelligence was faulty. Let me remind you that the rest of the world
thought Saddam had the goods, same as me. Let me also remind you that regime change in Iraq was official US policy before I came into office. Some guy named ‘Clinton’ established that policy. Bet you didn’t know that, did you?
You idiots need to understand that we face a unique enemy. Back during the cold war, there were two major competing political and economic models squaring off. We won that war, but we did so because fundamentally, the Communists wanted to survive, just as we do. We were simply able to outspend and out-tech them. That’s not the case this time.
The soldiers of our new enemy don’t care if they survive. In fact, they want to die. That’d be fine, as long as they weren’t also committed to taking as many of you with them as they can. But they are. They want to kill you. And the bastards are all over the globe. You should be grateful that they haven’t gotten any more of us here in the United States since September 11. But you’re not. That’s because you’ve got no idea how hard a small number of intelligence, military, law enforcement and homeland security people have
worked to make sure of that.
When this whole mess started, I warned you that this would be a long and difficult fight. I’m disappointed how many of you people think a long and difficult fight amounts to a single season of ‘Survivor’. Instead, you’ve grown impatient. You’re incapable of seeing things through the long lens of history, the way our enemies do. You think that wars should last a few months, a few years, tops. Making matters worse, you actively support those
who help the enemy. Every time you buy the New York Times, every time you send a donation to a cut-and-run Democrat’s political campaign, well, damn it, you might just as well FedEx a grenade launcher to a Jihadist. It amounts to the same thing.
In this day and age, it’s easy enough to find the truth. It’s all over the Internet. It just isn’t on the pages of the New York Times or on NBC News. But even if it were, I doubt you’d be any smarter. Most of you would rather
watch American Idol.
I could say more about your expectations that the government will always be there to bail you out, even if you’re too stupid to leave a city that’s below sea level and has a hurricane approaching. I could say more about your insane belief that government, not your own wallet, is where the money comes from. But I’ve come to the conclusion that were I to do so, it would sail right over your heads.
So I quit. I’m going back to Crawford. I’ve got an energy-efficient house down there (Al Gore could only dream) and the capability to be fully self-sufficient. No one ever heard of Crawford before I got elected, and as soon as I’m done here pretty much no one will ever hear of it again. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to die of old age before the last pillars of America fall.
Oh, and by the way, Cheney’s quitting too.
That means Pelosi is your new President. You asked for it. Watch what she does carefully, because I still have a glimmer of hope that there’re just enough of you remaining who are smart enough to turn this thing around in 2008.
So that’s it.
God bless what’s left of America.
Some of you know what I mean.
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Now I feel the urge to move to Wisconsin and commit suicide... |
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