Founding Principles Under Threat

Being a Constitutional Conservative, I am always looking for signs of a return to the principles of the Founding Fathers. While I recognize that they were a bunch of "old white guys" who were for the most part flawed personally, and holding divergent opinions on a number of fundamental principles; they were never the less able to come together at a critical time in this country's history. They were able to create a cohesive document of Founding principles, fight a successful war against the greatest empire in the world at the time, and create a form of government that had never been seen before in the history of Man. 

Perhaps this last was the most impressive, not because that form of government has survived for over two hundred years, when few Monarchies and empires of the past have surpassed that number. No, the more impressive fact is that after passing the Articles of Confederation, they were both smart and humble enough to recognize that their first attempt at constructing a form of government was doomed to eventual failure and were able to restructure those original principles into a much more cohesive and successful document to both define and limit their form of governing, the Constitution. 

 Not since the battles of Lexington and Concord have those principles been under such assault. Not since the heady days of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, or of the overbearing nature of the FDR dynasty (Presidency just isn't a strong enough term for that misguided period of American history), has that form of government been so close to failing in its support of those founding principles. 

The national government in the last year (and I include Bush II in this), has or is attempting to:

• Turn over massive government funding and influence to a combined community organizing group and union, ACORN / SEIU
• Nationalize the better part of the US auto industry
• All but nationalized mortgage, mortgage insurance, and student loan industries
• Is attempting to control take control of the banking industry
• Is attempting to set salary levels at private corporations
• Is attempting to take control of health care insurance and health care dispersal
• Is considering subsidization of the newspaper industry, something which must inevitably signal the death of the free press in this country

And when, in the spirit of those Founding Fathers, citizens take up the right to speak out against these usurpations, what is the response of that government:

• Demonize those assembling in Tea Parties as disaffected, racist, or corporate puppets

• Refuse to investigate the ACORN/SEIU organization apparently guilty of a variety of offenses and seek instead to investigate two private individuals uncovered the nefarious deeds of this group (though they likewise sought to remove funding from this group)

• Attack companies such as Humana Healthcare, whose very existence may be threatened by government pursuits, with investigation, fines, and sanctions if they do not stop disseminating the facts regarding the government's attempts.
• Saturate the airwaves with non-stop government directed speeches in justification of such abuses

While I am encouraged by the grassroots efforts attempting to assert those Founding principles and do battle with this overwhelming government encroachment, I remain concerned with the increasing efforts of that government to exceed the limits placed on it by the Constitution. I am likewise alarmed by the apparent lack of regard by that government to the limits so placed upon it. 

Our founding principles are under the largest threat that they have been since being codified in the Declaration of Independence. Whether they, and the society that we are a part of survives may be up to the actions of individual citizens in opposition to that attack. 

Foolish Pride

I found myself thinking on this subject throughout the weekend for some unaccountable reason. I shouldn't be all that surprised that my thoughts are able to turn to such, as Pride (about what I have yet to discover) is something that I am guilty of on a fairly regular basis. As for being foolish, well let's just say that this is more of a way of life for me, with examples far too heinous and numerous to mention in such a public forum as this. 

Perhaps such thoughts come from much of what is going on around me however. And while I should probably follow the old wise saying that "when you're up to neck in natural fertilizer (my term), you shouldn't open your mouth", I cannot help but shine a light on some of it. 

The Federal government insists on pursuing a path of health care reform legislation regardless of the the fact that the majority of voters favor waiting. Is it then foolish pride that finds them rushing through this process, in spite of the fact that the legislation currently under consideration would not take effect for three years? We likewise find this same government considering new taxes and regulation on energy production and usage at a time in the economy when we need to be doing as little as possible to stand in the way of that national economy improving. Is it foolish pride that such an agenda is being put forward to solve a problem that may not exist and that if passed will have little impact on the situation that it proposes to address? 

Here in Ohio we are considering additional taxes to make up for revenue shortfalls caused by a sagging economy. Governments always seem to want to consider adding to taxes even when there is a great deal that could be considered in the way cost reductions. Is it foolish pride to do so knowing that it will both chase away anyone forced to pay these new taxes and keep those who might otherwise wish to come to the state from doing so? 

Our leaders make many of the same mistakes here in Toledo for the same reasons. The city spends money that it doesn't have on things it doesn't need (As my friend Jim Harpen pointed out in his TFP column this weekend. Can you say new trash trucks?) while seemingly ignoring its immediate budget problems and setting aside the even larger future issues of revenue vs. spending. Is it then foolish pride to continue to do so, or to expect to be re-elected once having done so? 

I suspect that in each case (including my own unfortunately) the answer is yes. For we find over and over again what Benjamin Franklin once told us: "Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other." Perhaps however, we should try to learn just a bit more quickly and from a far older source. For isn't it the Bible in Proverbs 16:18 that tells us: "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall."

 

TFP Column: Why The Media IgnoresTea Parties

 
Once again, the Toledo Free Press has placed their editorial standards at risk by publishing my piece this week on the Tea Party phenomenon going on today. 

After last week's Don Burnard piece however, I felt that a different take on them might be in order. I likewise urge everyone to read some of the letters to the editor in response to that column. 

Mssrs. Pounds and Miller do their normal stellar work and Jim Harpen has an interesting response to the 18% voter turnout in the recent primary election. Aw, what the heck. Take the time to go through the whole darn edition. I know you will find it as worthwhile this week as I did.

Deserting A Sinking ACORN

For those of you who have been stranded on a desert island for the last year or so, there is an community organizing group that the president has had fairly close ties to over the years known as ACORN (the Association for Community Organization for Reform Now).  This organization has come under increasing scrutiny that I feel no real need to go into (lest it be assumed that I know enough to be called in to testify at some impending judicial case). 

In spite of a lack of serious mainstream media attention and under serious fire at this point from all sides their ship rather than having sailed, appears to be slipping loudly beneath the waves. True to form, some of those riding the waves now appear to be looking for alternate travel arrangements.

• The Census Bureau recently announced that it was no longer going to use ACORN as part of the latest ongoing census.
• The House and Senate have separately voted to remove any and all government funding to ACORN for any projects.
• The IRS has just announced that it has dropped ACORN from a program to provide tax assistance for low income households.

We have all heard the expression pertaining to "rats deserting a sinking ship", but this is the first time that I have ever heard of them deserting a similarly sinking ACORN.

An End To Nation Building

We often talk about our overseas troop deployments as "Nation Building", an attempt to bring the freedom that we enjoy to countries around the world. In Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan we have diligently applied outside influence to create what we hope will be another democracy in the world like the United States with little apparent success. 

 What utter nonsense! 

The United States (Colonies) of America came about when those colonies themselves decided to seek independence and freedom. Defining the goals that they sought in the Declaration of Independence, they went on to seek that freedom through separation from Great Britain. Fighting a war of rebellion against the British crown, they finally achieved that freedom in 1783. 

 This is not to say that these United Colonies did not receive help in their efforts. There is little doubt that independence could have been achieved without the help of the French, who were traditional enemies of the British and therefore served their own interests simultaneously. The French however, did not embark upon a nation building effort in coming to our aid. In fact it was many years after declaring our freedom before and entering into war against what was at the time the greatest army and navy in the world that any significant aid was forthcoming from these allies, and that was achieved only as a result of the extensive efforts of such colonial luminaries as Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. 

We have to ask ourselves therefore, what right do we think we have to interfere in the governance of other nations? What hubris is it to believe that we can force what for us was an internal revolution on other parts of the world by the application of external force? 

Looking at the success rate that we have achieved in the past, what makes us continue a practice that has proved a dismal failure time and time again? In saying this, I cast no aspersions on the men and women of our armed forces. I have family currently overseas, many who served in past conflicts, and have nothing but the greatest respect for their service to this country. These people serve bravely and honorably around the world, performing whatever and wherever they are asked, and sacrificing on a level that few of us can understand. 

Their goal however is winning however, something that cannot be said of the political leaders who expect them to succeed while tying both their hands and feet with so-called political necessities and rules of engagement. This insanity goes far beyond political parties, as Democrat and Republican Administrations share in the blame for these overseas excursions, and usually for equally nonsensical causes. 

We go to war to prevent Communism in Korea and Viet Nam, only to have it appear in our backyard in Cuba. We battle to prevent evil regimes in Kuwait and Panama from reeking harm only to watch it flourish in Venezuela. We attempt to build democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, while watching it begin to crumble once again in Bosnia after over 13 years of effort. 

Perhaps it's time that we learn that we can neither create nor impose a democracy on any country from the outside. While we should deny no country the help that we once ourselves required to achieve our independence, we should make it clear that we will do so only once those people have worked towards it themselves. We should learn that as it happened here in America, the movement towards freedom and democracy is one that must be made from within, and put an end to nation building. 

Jay Leno Is Back & Television Is Saved?

This week, Jay Leno premiered his new prime time show on NBC. I would like to tell that having announced this, I can now say that television is saved ... but I can't. 

I'm not saying that the new Leno show is bad, as quite frankly, I haven't watched it. Then again, I hadn't watched Leno on his previous effort "The Tonight Show" for many years. As a consequence, when he turned that venue with great fanfare over to Conan O'Brien, it went pretty much without notice in my home. When he debuted this week with interviews of Jerry Seinfeld (another person who's show I didn't watch when it was on) and Kanye West (someone who I had barely heard of), it was fairly easy to pass up watching.  

Quite frankly, most of television today falls within the bounds of something fairly easy to ignore, as I have written before. Recently in fact, it has reached astonishing new lows with such things as a series about people whose house has become filled with filth because they can't throw anything away, another that sees entertainment in showing an addict's intervention, and an increasing number of shows featuring dysfunctional members of the Kardashian family doing whatever it is that they do. 

They even ruined my crab fisherman show "The Deadliest Catch" by adding one in which swordfish and tuna are caught (unless "Charlie the Tuna" gets caught, not so much); and the networks may finally kill the "CSI" shows in the same way that they did the "Law and Order" series for me, with the addition of yet another (CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, NCIS, and now NCIS LA). 

And don't even get me started on the overabundance of talent shows with their and incipient cast of talentless judges. I mean come on people! I know that creativity pretty much died in movies and network television years ago, but the rabid level of crap currently being broadcast ought to qualify as abuse of the air waves. 

Quite frankly, I can't tell these days whether Armageddon is upon us because of all of the shows on the subject on the History Channel, or if I should simply be convinced that it is already here from looking at the new fall line up on TV. 

Thank goodness for a good bit of the talk radio being broadcast and a great deal of the literature out there. As for radio, while some of the national programming can only be taken in small doses, due to the constant self-promotion and non-stop pontificating and bloviating of the hosts; the local stuff here in Toledo continues to provide something well worth the effort of listening. 

As for the written word, it has always provided a great deal of knowledge, insight, and solace to me (especially when it's not my poor efforts). As well as my continued attempts to read both novels and original reference material, I always enjoy falling back on blogs when I have the chance. With the current state of mainstream media news, they my be the future of news in this country. 

So thanks Jay Leno for coming back to television! You may not have saved it from the dismal state that it has been reduced to, but you have proved that entertainers and audiences alike may not know when a good thing has gone bad or when to walk away from the tube. (Hey, maybe on one of your upcoming shows you could interview Bret Favre, and compare notes on knowing when to step away from the game.)

 

TFP Column: Congressional Apology

Somehow this week I once again managed to throw a column together for the Toledo Free Press, this time giving my take on the breach of decorum that occurred during the President's speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. While I cannot promise any real insight into the affair, I do hope to put a little historical perspective on the matter. 

There are a number of interesting pieces in the Opinion section this week, including some that I find myself at odd with (but I'll let you read them and guess which ones). Tom Pounds and Michael Miller once again have some well chosen words worth reading, election results are recapped and evaluated, and for those less politically minded there is a great deal going on in the Arts, Community, and Sports sections to keep anyone interested. 

 Toledo is looking to be blessed with yet another beautiful weekend, and spending a bit of it reading the Toledo Free Press will make it even better.

Women Rule?

Politico cited a study on 9/15 performed by Stanford University and the University of Chicago that reached the conclusion that women legislators are better than men. I'm not sure that I disagree with this conclusion, though I fear that my judgment is based more on instinct than on scientifically gathered data. 

While I believe that the study comes to the correct conclusion, I believe that they do it in spite of using an improper measurement however. I say this because the criteria used for their judgment, as noted in the Politico posting, is that these women legislators are better because they introduce more bills and bring more money home to their districts than their male predecessors. 

Now if I were to fall back on the chauvinism that many of my gender were guilty of in the days of my youth, I would say something like: "Why of course ladies introduce more bills! That's like talking, and we all know how women do love to talk. And as for bringing more money back to their districts, that's just spending. Now as a man who's been married twice, let me tell you that I know more than a little bit about how women can spend money, so why should we be surprised to find out that they can do it when we elect them." (Please note that I would in fact never actually say anything like this. Besides knowing this statement to be completely false, I know that if I intend to live a long and happy life, making such comments would substantially reduce my potential for reaching my goal.) 

As a Constitutional Conservative however, my objection to this measure of success is quite simple and rather strong. Quite frankly, I believe that we have far too many laws already (and far too much government along with it). Anyone, man or woman, who in any way adds to the already onerous burden of laws on the books is quite the opposite of success as I measure it. In fact, I would consider a legislator who never proposed legislation (unless it was legislation which either took other legislation off of the books or simplified any existing laws) to be far more successful than one who added to the ponderous pile of nonsense that make up the body of laws in this country. 

As for being a legislator who brought more of the federal largess back to their district being used as a measure of success, again I would strongly disagree. We all know that government spends far too much as it is today, having long since passed drunken sailors in this ability. I would rather consider a legislator a success who not only didn't bring much money back to the home district, but who likewise championed less spending in every district in the country. 

Give me such a champion of fiscal responsibility, who is above burying their face in the public trough as their measure of true success. Give me someone who is able to convince other legislators of such responsible spending, and I will show you someone who garners my admiration. 

Does this study therefore prove that women legislators are not as good as men? I don't believe so. What I believe that it proves instead is that women are far better at playing the game of US politics than the men who set up those rules in the first place. Quite frankly, it's my opinion that women are better at many of these "labors of men" and have long proved it. I would prefer however, that rather than proving their worth by playing better at such childish rules than their male counterparts; that they instead change them and used their natural advantages to improve the system. 

It was Timothy Leary, one of the counter culture gurus of my generation, who stated it very clearly: "Women who seek to be the equal of men lack ambition."

 

What Health Care Reform Doesn't Say

To say that I watched with interest the President's speech to a joint session of Congress last week would be stretching a point (OK, it would be flat out lying). In fact, the only bits of it that I managed to catch were in the process of channel surfing in order to see if it was over yet. 

You see, political speeches are for the most part well choreographed pieces of water ballet. They can be beautiful if viewed from the proper angle. They can even be exhibitions of athletic prowess when performed by professionals (as the President is). They are in the end however, performances that for the most part contain about as much intelligence and importance as a Marx Brother's movie in which Zeppo sings. 

This is no offense to the speechwriters, carefully crafting phrases to stir patriotism, fervor, and zeal among the faithful (and sometimes even among those not so faithful), after running each word and phrase through spin groups of various ages and ethnicity, and just as carefully tracking the results. This is no offense either to the actors/politicians who attempt to bring out the nuances of each written word and every pregnant pause, read them to their audience with the proper reverence, and hopefully manage to play their role in the piece with proper respect and without laughing at the insanity of it all. 

No matter how well crafted the speech however, or skilled the performance; in the end it's never what is said in these speeches that is important, but what is not. For example, in spite of the furor over the Joe Wilson "liar" remark, it was at least stated in the speech that illegals would not be provided care under the latest plan. What was of more importance however was that it was not said that no one was going to check those asking for treatment if they were a citizen (but there's no need to look behind that curtain). Likewise, what no one talked about and no pundits questioned in the later analysis was who wasn't going to be forced to participate under the plan.

• No one for example, asked if the President or the members of Congress, blessed with some of the best medical plans that money can buy, were going to be forced to give up those plans and participate ... they aren't.
• No one asked if an ever-growing number of union government employees at the federal, state, and local levels, who are the fastest growing number of workers in Washington DC (and the fastest growing percentage of union workers in many parts of the country ) were going to give up the health plans carefully negotiated by their union leaders and participate ... they aren't.
• No one even asked if workers at auto manufacturers who had just received government bailouts and have reorganized in such a way that the union workers had received substantial cash and stock to pay for retirement and health plans for current and retired workers were going to give up that money and stock and sign on to this government plan ... they aren't.

So while once more we were presented with a great deal of pomp and circumstance, while we are provided with information that is likely to change faster than the weather, and while we were presented with facts and figures that are subject to more dispute than the basis of many religious conflicts, in the end what we were given a piece of prose that would make the former writers of the episodes of "The West Wing" proud (and be almost as full of carefully crafted fiction). What we were left once again were far too many questions unasked and far too much left unsaid. 

Civic Duty Completed

Update: Concerned that I didn't have a current utility bill, I made sure that I had plenty of valid ID with me when going up to the poling place. I find it interesting (and curious) that a valid passport is not considered proper ID, but a Social Security card or Driver's License with a Social Security number was. 

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By the time that most of you read this and in spite of my diminished physical condition (yeah I know, mental too...), I expect to have been able to make it a couple of blocks down the road to my local poling place in order to perform my civic duty and vote in the Toledo primary. 

I will not bore you with the choices that I intend to make, as I am a great believer in the sanctity of the secret ballot. Besides, I normally close my eyes in the voting booth to prevent revealing such choices even to myself. (This is more commonly known as the "pin the tail on the jackasses" voting method.) 

Those of you recalling my shady upbringing in Chicago may likewise be surprised to discover that in spite of what might be considered a questionable electoral heritage, I nevertheless pledge to restrict myself to doing so only once. Likewise I vow to restrain myself from the almost overwhelming desire to vote for a Toledo resident now deceased. (I guess you just can't go home again.) 

I urge each of you here in Toledo to likewise perform such duty in a renewed spirit of hope and change. (Excuse me, that last one is making me feel rather ill.)