Fixing This Limited Government
Deborah Venable
07/13/09
If
the folks who insist on analyzing political decisions of office holders and
would-be office holders were up on civics literacy and had a good grasp of
America’s history, they would recognize the error of sounding off negatively
about the recent Palin resignation. But, alas, most of the beneficiaries of this
country’s greatest fruits, the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, do not know or care what limited government actually means.
Our
founders did not set about to establish anything akin to the top-down tyranny
we now have in America. They did not
plan that power and money would ever rule this great land, but that is what we
have now. Generations of Americans have
dropped the ball, and it is long past time to attempt a real fix. Here is what it would it take:
- Abolish the IRS, (and thus
the 16th amendment).
Any tax on earnings runs counter to morality and prosperity. It also runs counter to the very
economic system of capitalism.
Anyone who cannot see that is part of the problem.
- Abolish the Federal Reserve
and place the responsibility of regulating our monetary system back in the
hands of our elected representatives.
The Federal Reserve is a private organization of extremely
powerful, wealthy, and immoral elitists.
They arbitrarily decide the value of America’s monetary
system. The founders specifically
warned against such organizations.
- Abolish the 17th
amendment to the Constitution.
Senators, the great equalizing tool of the states, should be vetted
and elected via state legislatures, not the general public. The House of Representatives is
supposed to serve the people and the Senate is supposed to serve the
states. If you can’t understand
why this is so very important, then you need to do a lot of homework on
history and civics.
The
catch 22 of the above three steps is that with the current crop of
representatives and any who may follow under the present system of electing and
paying them would be hard pressed to achieve them. The reason for this is the top-down tyranny we have let our
government become. Just for a moment,
though, let’s assume that we could actually accomplish the three things listed
above. What would our truly
representative republic look like?
Politics
would cease to be a career to aspire to.
Political office would be more on par with the service of jury duty than
that of a king and his various courts.
No one could live on the financial compensations of any job in elected
or appointed office, so these would, by necessity, be part-time, temporary
occupations. Representatives wishing to
seek offices of representation in their various local, state, and federal
governments would do so because they wanted to serve and truly represent
the people. Their campaigns would be
funded strictly by people who believed in their message and their vision for
future hope and change and not by a seemingly
bottomless pit of special interest and large party organizational funding. No one could campaign while holding
office. Period.
Government
revenue would originate from the bottom up and never from the top down. All individual taxing and fee collection
would be done at a local level, with money then making its way up to the state
level. The various states would then
fund the federal government to the point needed to carry out its very limited
functions as enumerated in the Constitution.
As it is now, states are constantly in fear of losing federal funding if
they do not toe the federal line. That
is precisely the problem. I reiterate,
no money would ever come from the top down, so the federal government would
never have the ability to hold any state hostage to the will of the others. The end of pork and the corruption it causes
would have a very positive effect. The
effects on schools and churches without the influence of federal dollars, (or
that coveted federal tax-free status) would go a long way toward putting these
institutions back in the hands of the people immediately effected by them.
We
would see communities coming together to build the American Dream again. We would see capitalism working under the
constraints of the free market instead of the artificially applied demands of
corrupt government. We would see states
competing against each other instead of against the federal coffers and
individual achievement. We would see
Christian charity flood the communities in most need and prosper in the hearts
and souls of rich and poor alike without the artificial demands of wealth
sharing legislation and government boondoggle.
We would see apathy turn to determination as successes outnumbered
failures.
Just
take a look at the petty issues we now place at the top of our priorities. Healthcare funded and regulated by an entity
greater than ourselves? Liability for
natural disasters and quality of life regulated by a monstrous collective that
has no proven common sense? Impossible
social equality demanded by the most pompous among us while they operate with a
royal status that was never meant to be?
Are these the things that that will really secure our rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
As
individuals we no longer have a credible voice. Our speech has been mangled, our vision blurred, and our sensory
perceptions rendered just out of touch with important individual concerns.
As
a writer, I am acutely aware of word count.
Legislators, on the other hand, pervert all rules of written
communication as they craft untranslatable, behemoth legislation that even they
cannot hope to understand or explain fully.
Perhaps we the people should start there. Let’s insist on a reasonable word count for any proposed
legislation on anything that would affect us.
If you have to start somewhere, this is as good a place as any, isn’t
it?
The
problem of fixing this limited government is not complex, but getting it done
will take determination and sacrifice.
We must change the direction of the money stream, for as long as it
flows down, we are at the mercy of what lies at the bottom. When it once again flows up, we will be in
control of what goes on at the top.
When we once again demand that our government be truly representative,
then it will be fixed.