Pushing the "Reset" button
“We can mandate whatever we want to in America. We
can mandate that Coca-Cola®
come out of the cold water tap.” So said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
in an interview on NPR's Weekend Edition on Sunday morning, September
20, 2009. This is but one example of the sort of hubris which has
seized the Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C. It is also
indicative of a dangerous trend in American politics; one which has
been going on for some time, unfortunately. If Senator Wyden's
comment is to be taken at face value, and I know of no reason why it
shouldn't be, he seems to feel that the Constitution and the rule of
law no longer to him and his fellow legislators. This applies to legislators of both parties, though with the Democrats in control of both the legislative and the executive branches of the government they seem to have a particularly virulent case of the condition right now.
This is a natural result of the rigging of American
national politics so that legislators are practically guaranteed a
seat for life unless they caught with their hand too deeply into the
cookie jar. The turnover in seats in both the House and Senate is
pathetically small in any given election cycle. Given the precision
with which Congressional districts can be drawn legislators know
that, except in roughly 10% of the districts across the nation, they
will hold their seat for as long as they want it. Even those which
are so-called “swing” districts tend to stay with one party or
the other for several years between swings. This is certainly not
the outcome that our Founding Fathers were expecting when they put
together the Constitution over two hundred years ago. It is one of
the results of the various election “reform” laws passed in the
last twenty years or so; rather than opening up the field to
newcomers the effect has been to rig elections so that incumbents
have nearly insurmountable advantages in an election. The tendency
has become more noticeable since the passage of the McCain/Feingold
election reforms that limited the speech of outside organizations by
denying them the ability to make direct reference to any candidate in
an election. This has effectively acted to muzzle opposition that is
not directly a part of either major party.
The Democratic wing of the “Big Government” party
which rules this country feels that it can ignore the growing Tea
Party movement simply because that movement is almost entirely
outside of the areas from which the they draw their support. The Tea
Party movement is strongest in the West and Midwest, areas dominated,
except around big cities like Chicago, by the Republicans. Unless
the dissatisfaction with the way things are currently done in
Washington grows to encompass areas that the Democratic party
controls nothing will change. The Democrats will continue to
belittle the Tea Party movement as the squawkings of a few
disaffected, and probably racist, middle-class white men: hardly a
group to which they feel the need to pay attention. The result will
be that our arguments will not be heard above the rantings of those
who dismiss us as members of a radical fringe movement that will go
away if simply ignored.
And that is one of the problems with the current Tea
Party movement, though I agree with their goal of rolling back
Federal power and forcing our elected officials to abide by the
Constitution as it is written, there is nothing in it to attract
those who get everything they want from the State. Unless the
recipients of Federal largess come to understand that they are simply
being used by the rich and powerful men in Washington this nation
will continue down the path to socialism and, eventually,
totalitarianism. To that end those of us who want to return this
nation to one which is ruled by law rather than executive fiat must
find some message which appeals to those who are the beneficiaries of
the Federal government's wealth redistribution schemes. Judging by
the response thus far, simply pointing out the evils of the current
system will not be enough. We must develop some sort of blueprint
for getting us from where we are – trodden under the heel of an
increasingly arrogant government – to where we want to be –
living in a land in which each individual is truly free to seek his
or her own destiny without the interference of government
bureaucrats.
What that blueprint looks like exactly, I don't know.
However, coming up with a way of getting this nation back on the
right track, without causing damaging upheavals in the economy or
simply tossing those who currently receive welfare and other types of
support from the State on the garbage heap – which will only lead
to damaging social disorder – is not going to be easy. Yet, I
think that the time has come for those of us who want to live the
life of freedom which the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us to
develop such a plan. As a friend of mine said, “We've got to come
up with a Giant Fricking Reset Button”, and convince people that we
need to collectively push that button and get rid of those in
Washington who think that they “can mandate whatever [they]
want...”. This will not be an easy task, yet we must undertake it
if we want to be taken seriously and force real change on our
government.