Posted on 06/26/2015 12:53:56 PM PDT by Jacquerie
How often at your workplace have you held your tongue out of fear of saying something that could get you fired? Are you willing to put your principles ahead of your income or pension or do you regularly “suck it up,” and save your muttering until you get home?
Everyone looks out for their interests. Read that again. You and I and everyone else naturally try to do that which best serves ourselves and families. It is called human nature and it has served mankind well since the Creation.
Our politicians are no different. They can’t be different, for as fellow human beings they are as imperfect as the rest of mankind.
Rare are the men/women who willingly risk all for free government principles. One exception is Michele Bachmann. I suspect she and her husband are still up to their eyeballs in debt because she wouldn’t cave to Speaker Boehner. Michele and Mr. Bachmann are the rare and notable exceptions.
Freeper posts overflow with diatribes against rinos, meaning those who campaign on conservative principles and soon go to the dark side and either do nothing to stop the accelerating tyranny or actually promote it.
First, we must understand that most of the chosen 435 of the House of Reps had to claw, grasp, climb their way up from humble beginnings. Does that sound familiar? Didn’t you have to do the same to achieve your level of success? They had to eat many a cr@p sandwich as they endured endless boring time on local school boards and county commissions and dealt with petty complaints from unreasonable constituents.
They are now in the House of Reps and they “made it.” In this heady environment most congressmen think they should be senators and most senators believe they should be president.
What happens to these otherwise good and upstanding people? Like anyone else, they respond in varying degrees to their (corrupt) surroundings. Go along to get along with party leadership and lots of extra power, money . . . are nearly guaranteed. They know their every public move and word is recorded and can be posted to the internet at any time. MSNBC, Politico, Salon, etc, are poised to exploit any unguarded moments. In this environment it makes perfect sense to shut up and avoid all controversy in and out of congress.
Despite the rhetoric at FreeRepublic, freepers themselves would respond in the same manner, and conduct themselves so as to continue their ascent in so-called public service. It is human nature. What you and I do in our workplaces is little different from the behavior of our politicians. It cannot be any other way!
We can admonish pubbies to stand up for the constitution all day and night. We can beat up rinos and blame them for the accelerating tyranny. It feels good. I occasionally take part in the sport myself. However, if we are to peacefully restore our previously FreeRepublic, we must come to grips as our Framers did with the fact that men respond to passion and self-interest far more often than reason. No matter where, in or out of government, personal aggrandizement trumps the greater good almost every time.
Since passions rule, how can they be turned toward the greater good? How can they be directed toward one of the declared purposes of our government, the general welfare?
Deny human nature if you wish.
And THAT is why this country suffered the worst week since Obama was given the thrown by so-called conservative Freepers who refused to vote. Ugh, it disgusts me. Go ahead, do it again. Make my grandson's life (and your family's lives) a living hell.
throne
I’ll agree that men of courage and vision are rare but for a country of 330 million we only have to produce 435 of them. These aren’t clerks in a Grocery store. If we don’t expect more we won’t get more.
A “citizen” legislature was not supposed to mean a career. It was supposed to be one or two terms the out.
Had we elected people who stood on principle, the Supreme Court would surely not have the makeup it has today, rendering the rest of your argument moot.
I am in full agreement that we have a Supreme Court who, as I said earlier today, yesterday thought it could write law and today thinks it can play God.
“How often at your workplace have you held your tongue “
Never. Why? I am known as Brutally Honest.
“You can’t get fired from an elected office. “
Exactly. The fact is WE don’t hold them accountable as much as liberals do. They know Republicans will vote for them no matter what so they only have to pander to the (I) and (D) for their votes.
In short, the Framers left the qualifications of electors to the House entirely up to the states. Its right there in Article I. They did this for two reasons.
First, the several states had widely varying standards for voting and arriving at a standard for all states was fairly impossible.
Second, James Madison reminded the delegates that the senate of the states would quell, stop, stomp on all wild proposals from the expected semi-mob in a House of Representatives.
See? Our pre-1913 constitution did not rely on virtue. Sure, a virtuous people will send better people to the House, but when they don't, the senate of the states is there to stop idiocy.
Since 1913 the idiocy of popular whims has been extended to the senate. Can you tell the difference in rhetoric between the typical rat rep and senator? I can't.
Separation of powers and not reliance on virtue is the historic and essential characteristic of our constitution.
Madison spoke of a government of non-angels in post #47.
The other faction, the Republicans, are united in avoiding accountability and blame, and are afraid of their delegated powers in the Constitution.
-PJ
If I follow correctly, Jacquerie is simply pointing out that everybody compromises. Elected officials absolutely must compromise, build coalitions, etc.
How do we make their self-interest our self-interest? They get money, perks, etc.
We are so far past the Constitution it’s not funny. The people are in thrall via the government school system and the media. They don’t know the truth.
Hoping it wasn’t so, doesn’t change political reality. How do you walk this all back?
But Madison also never expected the people to repeatedly send the unvirtuous back to Congress over and over again, as I point out in post 43.
-PJ
Sorry, but govt doesn’t do ‘the RIGHT thing’. It should NEVER be the arbiter of morality, it fails EVERY time.
What *I* want is a representative who follows the Constitution; the rest *I* can do (for good or ill).
I want Laws that punish that which harm and infringe another and/or their Rights. Else, get off my back, out of my wallet and out of my way.
This is not compromise. This is outright lying to get elected, and then pivoting once safely in office. Use McConnell's Kentucky pledges to repeal Obamacare as evidence; Roberts' calling balls and strikes; Flake campaigning as a Conservative.
This is asking your neighbors to be their representative, and then supporting the interests of illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners over the interests of your neighbors.
-PJ
Keep reading.
-PJ
When the 17th Amendment was passed in 1913, every previously state appointed senator who ran for popular election in 1914 was reelected.
Even into the 1930s, Scotus blocked FDR's New Deal for a while. By the time of his death, FDR had appointed eight of the nine sitting justices and progressivism was well underway.
Now why did 1930s senators consent to FDR's radical judicial nominations? They were scared to oppose an incredibly popular president and lose their next elections.
In the interest of keeping their jobs, the senate of the 1930s allowed a President and Scotus to fundamentally transform America.
It is happening again, with the difference that there is little liberty to relinquish.
If virtue was all that was required, there was no need for a constitution.
If you want to care only about you and your family (which will soon be obsolete), then work in the private sector.
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