Major Crises Confronting the Voting Populace
Today
Introduction
Various people are incessantly approaching us about
political issues, mostly trying to attract votes, win an election, enter or
stay in office. Frequently, these
individuals have no clue why they should be running, are ignorant of policy
issues, and know nothing about what sort of platform they should be
building. This paper spells out in
outline the major issues facing the voting populace today, as I see them. All of these have reached epidemic
proportions, the perfect storm; they are all at crisis level. Most of them have been festering in our
society for over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century, during the
era of the American Civil War: as such they are deeply ingrained in our society
and have become normative of expected behavior.
This is to say these festering wounds form the ethos of
our society. Nevertheless, that ethos
was built, largely because of the Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution over
which it was fought; if it was built it can be razed, rebuilt, or whatever else
is necessary to repair it. If this ethos
was built, and it was, it supplanted a previous ethos, it is an unlawful
contender and usurper of the lawful government of America. If we hope to go anywhere, we need to
rediscover who we are, what we stand for, and thus restore our lawful and
rightful ethos, which is the government of the people. Do the people have a God given right to be
governed? Thus, how shall they be
governed? This is our ethos, our rule
for proper public conduct.
Ethos is only one facet of this problem: the other facets
being our logos, the words which we chose to logically address this problem, so
we need to be careful here, we cannot afford to stumble any longer; and our
pathos, the experience and pain which we have long endured as the result of
error and malice, and for which we will continue to experience pain as we seek
to correct past wrongs.
- The Bible, Church, State Crisis
- The Constitutional Law Crisis
- The Energy Crisis
- The Banking and Monetary Crisis
- The Healthcare Crisis
- The Education Crisis
- The Euthanasia Crisis
- The Sexuality Crisis
- The Security Crisis
- The Federal Land Crisis
The Bible, Church, State Crisis
This is obviously a Bill of Rights issue, and it is
widely misinterpreted and misunderstood.
Briefly put, our Constitution and Nation were built on
the Bible. There is deeply ingrained in
every fiber of our founding law, the idea that our freedom depended upon the
higher authority of Divine guidance and God’s Law. Granted, there were a wide variety of
opinions on this matter coming from Christians of every stripe, Deists, and
others. We clearly do not have a
Christian Nation by this definition, but we certainly have a Bible Nation. The idea that the Bible be disallowed from
our conversation and law, or that the Ten Commandments may not be posted, or
that the Bible not be taught in our schools, is a logical absurdity, a
contradiction, an oxymoron. In
particular, the posting of the Ten Commandments is fundamental to our rule of
law and any notion that it should be given equal space with satanic or sharia
law is equally contradictory, even ludicrous.
The Constitution of the United States does not mandate logical argument
from and including the Bible; but it most certainly protects it and provides
for it. Where is this written? It is not specifically stated any place of
which I’m aware, but the incessant use and wording of our founding fathers
makes it abundantly clear that this was their intent. So much so, that this is beyond dispute by
anyone appraised of the facts.
Our Constitution and Nation were not built on any particular
church. Hence, there is no
constitutional preference for any one church.
Taxes may not be levied to support the establishment of a church. This equally prohibits the establishment of
an American civil religious cult, paid for at the taxpayer’s expense. Yet, here we are with an American Religion, I
don’t know what else to call it, paid for at the taxpayer’s expense; a religion
which has nominated the chief executive officer as its high priest; and which
regularly hands down laws that bind individual churches and businesses. This is the very thing our Federal
Constitution was designed to prohibit.
At the same time, this very same provision protects the right of any of
these independent churches to argue their viewpoint of law from the Bible.
Finally, Our Constitution and Nation were built on this
idea of law. It should be clear that our
States were not built on this idea of law.
As a matter of fact, most of the original thirteen colonies were
established on specific Christian Charters: some Calvinist, some Roman
Catholic, and one Quaker. Even without
Charter Baptists, Lutherans, and many others were all guaranteed a voice. That being said, our Constitution draws a
clear line of distinction between Federal and State law: thus, while the
Federal government is prohibited from any establishment of religion, State
governments are not prohibited from so creating an established church: not by
Federal law. Consequently, it is the
duty of the several States to declare such disestablishment polices in their
particular state constitutions, if that is what the people of the individual
state wish. At law, the people of the
several States are free to change such policies as they wish, with the voting
process provided. The Federal government
has no right of intrusion into this arena of law. Federal law concerning the disestablishment
of religion has no authority within the several States: it simply provides that
no Federal taxes will be collected for establishment; it equally allows that
state taxes may be collected for such establishment if the people so desire.
This issue is now a crisis specifically because our
Federal leaders by design, and our State leaders by default have created a de
facto establishment of Federal religion, which must be overthrown, else we will
have no freedom whatsoever. At the same
time there is nothing in these Constitutional provisions that prohibits
teaching the Bible or having prayer services in our schools: it simply isn’t
there, it is a State issue. By the same
token, there is nothing here to warrant the intrusion of other systems of law,
outside of the Bible, to allow such systems equal voice under the law. Again, an individual state may provide for
another basis of law, if that is the will of the people, but the Federal
government may not make such a provision without the amendment of its
Constitution.
The Constitutional Law Crisis
The Constitution of the United States has long been in
crisis. This is true because nobody
wants to obey it. If we are to talk
about and have a rule of law, we must obey the Constitution of the United
States or lawfully amend it. That being
said, nobody wants to do this. Everybody
from the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court to the lowest level of public
servant; from the richest of the ultra-rich to the poorest of the poor; from
the most intelligent to the foolish; from the most highly educated to the least
learned of all; everybody in practice wants and does circumvent the
Constitution of the United States, the second highest law of the land, on a
daily basis. We have already established
the fact, from the Framer’s use of the Bible, that the Bible is in fact the
highest law of the land. As long as we
are willing to live by circumvention of constitutional law, we have no rule of
law at all: we are living with a self-deception.
The subversion of the Constitution began with the
Industrial Revolution, perhaps as early as 1760, somewhat from wood and other
such biofuels, but largely from the increasing development and use of coal to
power rotary steam engines (1781). However,
the Industrial Revolution got its next real boost around 1858 (Ontario), 1896
(California), 1897 (Oklahoma), 1923 (Texas),[1] with the increasing use of
oil to fuel internal combustion engines (1850).[2] This use really took off after 1900 when
United States oil production began to increase at around 7% a year. Factories replaced farms; convenience
increasingly replaced practicality, and personal freedoms.
Financially, the subversion of the Constitution began
with Chase (d. 1873)[3],
and the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank (1913),[4] limitation (1944) and
abandonment (1976) of the gold standard with its replacement by pure fiat money.[5] Chase was soon eclipsed by power brokers such
as J. P. Morgan,[6]
and the like; who with a handful of powerful and wealthy families rapidly took
control of the nation.
Politically, the subversion of the Constitution began as
early as Lincoln (d. 1865),[7] whose cabinet contained
several power brokers. The religious
attitude of the day fostered this development.
Social Darwinism infected the churches. Wealthy and powerful Christians thought it
their duty to suppress and lead. This
fueled and supported the most cruel, unjust, and violent domination of minority
groups: black, Hispanic, Indian, oriental, poor white, women, and others too
weak to defend themselves against the powerful machinations of the
oligarchy. On the other hand, the system
did not approach full power until the executive office was first used to write,
rather than to enforce law (ca 1920).[8] This was soon followed by the use of Federal
taxes to dictate State law (ca 1935).[9] With the levers in place to circumvent the
police powers of the Constitution it was all downhill from then on.[10]
The prostitution of the Supreme Court. In a gradual transition, the Supreme Court
has expanded its “right” of Judicial Review, to reinterpret, according to its
own political whim, the plain meaning of the law, thus changing its clear
original intent.[11] Most especially egregious is the ruling that
money is the equivalent of a vote, thus removing the legal franchise of the
voter and handing it to the ultra-wealthy.[12] In order to create an illusion of integrity
the Supreme Court occasionally hands down a constitutionally correct vote to
maintain its appearances. Otherwise it’s
business as usual, defrauding the public in the court room.
We can argue for the proper exercise of the police powers
until we are blue in the face. There
will still be future executives who try to circumvent posse comitatus. The loss by default of the several States is
largely their own fault. State
governments chose to turn a deaf ear to the cries of the populace for relief
from oppression in dozens of areas. The
result was a movement to let Sam do “it”; now that Sam is doing “it”, no one is
pleased with the outcome and/or its attendant loss of freedom.
The only way to escape this crisis is by the strict
interpretation of the Constitution.[13] We have got to find a way to put federally
mandated police powers programs back in the hands of the several States.
The Energy Crisis
Currently, we have no real Federal energy policy, nor
have we had one since Carter (ca 1975).[14] Perhaps we don’t need a Federal energy
policy. Perhaps we really need State
energy policies. That being said, it is
impossible to conduct international affairs, and interstate commerce without
massive expenditures of energy. The
problem is that the accurate disclosure of resources and the scientific theory
associated with such disclosure is in question.
At the present time the United States Geological Survey (USGS) appears
to be the only reliable report of proved reserves and undiscovered resources
(unproved, the distinction rests on whether drilling and/or production has
taken place). At least in public news
and business advertising the USGS reports are called into question on a daily
basis. This debate over the facts, by
both sides of the argument, causes them to be in doubt. We need a means to force accurate and full
disclosure of all the energy facts.
Without these facts, we have no basis for planning, whatsoever. As the USGS reports now stand we are at risk
of running out of natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil (gasoline) in a
relatively short time period (roughly a few decades). Coal, by way of contrast, might last a few
centuries. Then we turn out the lights,
and shut down all the vehicles. This is
fundamental to the job shortage issue, and a primary reason that any rebound in
jobs will be largely artificial. I think
jobs will rebound, once we discover that we must return to an agrarian economy:
then there will be a demand for field hands.
We might hope to once again become a nation of small family farms. If this is not a crisis, I do not know what
it takes to constitute a crisis.
The Banking and Monetary Crisis
We already showed under Constitution issues that real
money doesn’t exist. What we have is
fiat money: paper and electrons. We have
not investigated the endless string of Federal bailouts that cater to the
ultra-rich. These will continue as long
as the ultra-rich continue to own and control our government, from the Supreme
Court to the lowest level of bureaucracy.
Neither of these, however, is the primary crisis that concerns me here:
although they are certainly related.
The crisis to which I refer, is the crisis of Debt
Slavery. Our nation has been locked in
debt at every level since Chase (d. 1873).
Little is done without leverage.
Most of this debt is corrupt, oppressive, predatory, and highly
usurious. If we bothered to read our
Bibles we would know that this is very wrong.
Energy is real money, the greatest threat to national security. Debt is the second greatest threat to
national security and to every other social issue facing our nation today. We have become a society focused on what we
get, rather than what we give. We
ourselves are increasingly defined by money, rather than by our contribution to
mankind. Our debt enslaves us, so that
we are no longer free (except in vacuous name).
Our lives are consumed in the service of interest rates. This is an unjust crisis from which our
Federal and States governments should be protecting us at law. On the contrary, our Federal and States
governments are promoting this social evil.
The Healthcare Crisis
This is obvious since it’s in the news every day. This is not a Federal issue, it is a State
police powers issue. Yet, it does no
good to tear down the Federal system without a reasonable State system to
replace it. Had the States got off their
legislative tail feathers, and gone to work on this issue, the contemporary
problem probably would not exist. It
will probably take a conference of the fifty governors to take this out of the
hands of the Federal government. There
are dozens of reasons why centralized control does not and cannot work. We will now learn this painful lesson one
more time as pathos teaches us wisdom.
At a fundamental level, medicine is primarily a
relationship between a doctor and a patient: beyond protecting that
relationship from fraud, it doesn’t require much regulation. We have failed in this matter of protecting
the patient from fraud, because we have turned the medical practice into a
profit center, rather than being the professional social service it started out
to be. Medicine is now mostly about
selling pharmaceuticals and services, not about rendering real community
service: for medicine is also defined by money.
At the governance level, medicine is a State issue. At the practical level, medicine is a local,
personal, private issue: a privileged discussion between two people.
The Education Crisis
There are a few things to say about education beyond
repeating verbatim the Healthcare Crisis.
At a fundamental level, education is primarily a relationship between a
teacher and a pupil in which the teacher seeks to engage the students: beyond
protecting that relationship from fraud, it doesn’t require much regulation
either.
Administrators are not teachers, nor can they be, and for
the most part administrators know nothing about teaching. Yet, we continue to hand down regulation
after regulation: No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, teacher training
mandates; all of which ignore the fact that teaching is at its core a
customized, not a standardized discipline.
Also trampled in the dust is the fact that a horse can be lead to water,
but not forced to drink. The person who
does not wish to be educated, will never become educated, so there is no real
point in punishing teachers, or schools over that which is impossible to accomplish
by logos. The education resistant person
may learn from pathos, but no amount of standardized testing will ever get the
job done. All that these Federal “fixes”
accomplish is forcing the teacher to teach the test, or otherwise rig the
results.
College is not a need or a right for all. Neither is high school. Some pupils do not wish to become students,
and have no desire to finish. This is a
free country (it used to be). Let the
pupil follow his/her desire and drop out.
Let that be a matter between the parent and the child. We used to offer skilled trades, shop, and
home economics as viable alternatives to an academic path. Let the pupil follow his/her bent: help them
on the way. Many that chose trades, or
business as a high school option, finished high school and decided they needed
more education in College. These are
choices, not matters of coercion. At the
governance level, education is a State issue.
At the practical level, education is a local, personal, private issue: a
privileged discussion between two people and parents. Education is in loco parentis, not in loco polis.
The Euthanasia Crisis
The Death Culture is trampling over all kinds of
religious sensibilities, without regard for the Constitution. You are free to want what you want, but I
should be under no compulsion to approve of it or provide it for you. This amounts to an overthrow of an ethos that
stood for over 1850 years. Because you
hold a different opinion, you have no right to overthrow that ethos.
Perhaps some consideration should be given to the centuries
of ancestors who will not be pleased with your changes. Perhaps some consideration should be given to
the fact that this is the same path that Nazi Germany went down in WWII, and
which we so roundly and righteously condemned.
This path may prevail, but I can guarantee that history will also rise
up and condemn it.
What is driving this death march to its absurd
conclusion? The fact that our personhood
is defined by money more that by contribution; more by lifestyle than by love. A life of contribution and love demands
sacrifice, and we are unwilling to sacrifice because sacrifice interferes with
the things our greedy heart’s desire.
The Sexuality Crisis
More of the same as with the Death Crisis. A person who has no respect for life will
have little respect for his/her God designed and given sexuality. No amount of pseudo-science can overthrow
what is fundamentally a moral issue. As
with Euthanasia, this is a basic violation of Church and State, without any
regard for the right of Bible over State.
The National Security Crisis
Have you got it figured out? Without energy and money we cannot protect
our borders, let alone pose ourselves as the saviors of the world (capitalism uber
alles).[15]
We are running out of energy. We are deeply, irrecoverably enslaved by debt
to the point where we can no longer even afford to pay the interest, let alone
the principal. Within decades our
military could be turned into a defenseless parking lot.
Without a commitment to freedom we will not will to
remain free; our borders will continually invaded by countless invaders, not
just teenagers from the south.
Without real problem solvers going after the problem, we
are not apt to find a practical solution.
Politicians are not problem solvers; neither are bureaucrats.
Hmmm…. We must
salute and ought to send support to the governor of Texas, who is handling his
end of the problem the way it should be handled. State action at State borders. Since the Texas State borders are national
borders, we owe Texas both moral and financial support.
The Federal Land Crisis
At least one State is dominated by the 90% Federal
control of land. Most of this is land
that should be entirely under the purview of State police powers. Doubtless the Federal government needs land
for the exercise of its lawful responsibilities. The Federal government should be forced to
justify its need for such land, and failing that, return it to State, local, or
private control.
Summary
Certainly, there are other issues that could and should
be added to this discussion. Suffice it
to say that no person who is ignorant of these issues, has no related policy
plans, and no proposals for remedy of these and other pressing problems has any
business running for Federal or State office.
This business of electing people because they have a sweet smile, or are
members of my club, or have distinguished themselves in some other field of service
has got to stop. Good governance is the
only thing at stake here, and arriving at good governance is the only issue a
candidate for elected public office need defend. Instead we continue to elect candidates whose
only qualifications are cosmetic, sartorial, or tonsorial; whose only defense
is, “I’m nice.”
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_petroleum_industry_in_the_United_States
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_internal_combustion_engine
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_P._Chase
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Federal_Reserve_System
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
[8]
for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
[9] for
example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_constitutional_law)
[11] for
example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_review_in_the_United_States
[12]
for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_constructionism
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
[15] There
is a vast gulf fixed between free enterprise and capitalism. We are on record as promoting capitalism, not
free enterprise. We are slaves in a
feudal baronage, the vassals of robber barons, who control our voting,
education, and lives.
