The political elite and the common man are at war over the power to govern. Will we end up as citizens or subjects?
When the British voted to leave the European Union (EU), I highlighted comments from British citizens in “Brexit the Movie”:
- It’s the workingman versus people who think we have a better plan and a better mind than you, and if you don’t like it, what are you going to do? We are going to take our power back!
- It bears the mindset among the cultural elite that their role on the planet is to direct the lives of the rest.
- The idea is you are part of the elite, which decides how the little people live their lives.
- These people up here, the intellectuals, are looking down on the rest and saying, “You are not bright enough to decide the future of your country”.
There is no more pretending, the battle is on. The media sides with the political establishment from both parties. The politicos are fighting for their survival – and congress has a 74% DISAPPROVAL RATING.
Governing against the will of the majority
The political elite justifies governing against the will of the majority, believing they know what’s best for the (not very bright) little people.
For the last several elections politicos have been told the majority of Americans OPPOSE Obamacare – open borders – bank bailouts – special perks for congress, while FAVORING congressional term limits.
When the TARP bill passed, senator Nelson (FL-D) said 90% of the people who contacted his office opposed bank bailouts. He voted for the bailout and arrogantly sent an email explaining why the bailout was good for us little people.
Remember the “Contract With America?” In 1994, Republican candidates signed on to the agreement and gained control of the House of Representatives. Here are two key promises:
- Require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress.
- A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Emphasis mine)
When it comes to ignoring the voters, this cartoon says it well:
Congress continues to enjoy special perks while governing against the will of the majority.
Patriot Party co-founder Jenny Beth Martin lamented: “For the last four election cycles, Republican candidates have promised to repeal Barack Obama’s signature legislation and as a result, have increasingly been granted more power in Washington by the American people. …We now know that…six senators are Obamacare repeal frauds.”
One special perk – healthcare for congress and their staff are heavily subsidized by the taxpayers.
Prior to the election, The National Review reported:
“A Gallup poll…found that a full 75 percent of Americans believe that corruption in government is widespread.
So it’s no surprise that a populist revolt (Emphasis mine) is in full swing. Bernie Sanders, a socialist who rails against government ties with Wall Street, is leading front-runner Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. Three Republicans who have never held office – Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson – are way ahead of veteran GOP governors and senators in the race for the GOP nomination.
The gulf between incumbent officeholders and the American people is never bigger than on the issue of term limits. A Gallup survey from January 2013 found that 75 percent of Americans – including huge majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents – support term limits on Congress.”
The Term Limits Challenge
Instituting term limits requires a Constitutional Amendment. It was put to a vote. Wikipedia tells us:
“An amendment to the Constitution that would have imposed 12-year term limits on members of the US Congress (i.e. six terms for Representatives, two terms for Senators). H.J.Res. 73 rejected by the U.S. House 227-204 (a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority…), March 29, 1995; RC #277.”
Not everyone agrees with “replacing career politicians with citizen legislators.”
Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes, both “Senior Fellows in Governance Studies” at the Brookings Institution reinforce the elitist claims in their report, “More Professionalism, less populism: How voting makes us stupid, and what to do about it.” Here are some tidbits:
- Voters are very ignorant, and always have been
- Voters are irrationally biased as well as rationally ignorant
- Even if voters were deeply informed and meticulously rational, elections still would not reliably tell us what the public thinks or wants.
The “Senior Fellows” contend that the founding fathers constrained the idea of a democracy and built a hybrid called a republic, putting in safeguards. For our country’s first 125 years state legislators elected senators. The founding fathers instituted an electoral college as a “failsafe function”.
Their study concluded:
“Trump emerged victorious…despite…being substantively and temperamentally less fit for the White House than any nominee in American history. …The Electoral College never seriously considered performing its original failsafe function, and it would have fomented a constitutional crisis had it tried. Effectively, all of the anti-populist buffers erected by the Founders against persons “not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications” and against “persons for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity” have been disabled or demolished.”
I’m not debating President Trump’s qualifications (nor Obama’s for that matter).
| The issue is who is allowed to grant others the power to govern. |
The Declaration of Independence says, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….”
The “Senior Fellows” contend the system is designed so the “consent of the elite” overrides the will of the people, and lament the fact it did not happen.
The Declaration of Independence continues: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….”
| The political establishment and the common man are battling over power and control. Nobody said it would be easy. Whoever wins will put systems in place to protect their power from challenge in the future! |
The illusion of a free election
The “Senior Fellows” (elitist) perspective view of “unqualified citizen legislators”:
“(Voter participation)…is effective only when supplemented by intermediation, the work done by institutions (such as political parties) and substantive professionals (such as career politicians and experts) (Emphasis mine) to…buffer popular sentiment.
Well-informed and rational voters could not approach the level of knowledge and sophistication needed to make the kinds of decisions that routinely confront the government today. Professional and specialist decision-making is essential…
Even if voters were much better informed and more rational,…their knowledge and sophistication would come nowhere near the level needed to make most of the public-policy judgments that confront the government on a daily basis.…Like it or not, most of what government does simply must be decided by specialists and professionals.”
| The elite believe rulers should be career politicians. “Citizen legislators” are not smart enough to govern. The little people should serve by supporting never-ending wars and pay their ever-increasing taxes. |
What makes career politicians more qualified to govern than ordinary citizens? Absolutely nothing! I believe, “Politicians Should Not Be Allowed To Run For Public Office”.
Ludwig von Mises disagrees with the “senior fellows”:
“Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities.
He who is unfit to serve his fellow citizens wants to rule them.”
Their track record of the career political class stinks! We have been at war for two decades with no end in sight.
US debt has doubled in less than a decade. Total government unfunded liabilities are almost $900,000 per taxpayer.
A government lead by “citizen legislators” couldn’t do any worse.
The politicos attitude of, “What’s good for thee is not good for me” angers many Americans.
| How about a government of “citizen legislators” with a track record of using “good old-fashioned common sense”? |
Ordinary citizens are fighting back
Both political parties, with their media accomplices, are doing all they can to insure our citizen president does not succeed. Citizens are battling back.
The Austin American Statesman reports:
“…Texas…(voted)…for (a)…Convention of States, making Texas the 11th of the 34 states needed to call a constitutional convention to rein in the power of the federal government.”
Be careful what you wish for! The movement for a “Convention of States” is growing. If it happens, they better limit their discussion to issues like term limits, budget restraint and perks for elected officials – issues which the vast majority of Americans support.
The politicos/media will fight tooth and nail. States will likely attempt to secede from the union (like CalExit).
| The political division, contempt and downright hatred make it unlikely the public would go to war to save the union. If red states want to secede, blue states will say, “good riddance” and vice versa. |
Hunker Down!
I recently wrote about the Federal Reserve (part of the elite power structure) pushing us toward another major recession:
“When things collapse, President Trump will become a combination of Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter – blamed for the catastrophe. Democrats will be cheering, “Pin the tale on the Elephant!” Republicans will be scattering like dandelion seeds in a tornado.”
Desperate politicians will do anything to survive, including putting the economy of our nation at risk. Investors sense something is wrong and are worried about protecting their assets.
That’s next week’s discussion. Stay tuned!
And Finally…
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” – Thomas Jefferson
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Until next time…
Dennis
www.MillerOnTheMoney.com
The censorship contagion has spread to Canuckistan……….
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-rebel-interviews-1.4251070
Lord Acton’s less famous but nonertheless outstanding statement: “It is not that a particular class is unfit to rule. It is that NO class is fit to rule.”
The minute you accept the premise that ANYONE, for ANY REASON, has the RIGHT to rule over you or someone else, YOU go from being a sovereign to a subject. It matters not whether that “ruler” is chosen by “divine right,” brute force, or some magical process called an election. Government is an UNNECESSARY EVIL in our lives and our society. NOBODY should EVER have the right to tell you what you can do for a living, who you must associate with, what you can do with your property, what you can put into your body, what type of medical care you can solicit or from whom, whether you have the right to defend yourself and your property from harm, etc. This all being predicated on the premise that you also cannot harm the person or property of another with your actions. It most certainly does not take a force/violence-based governmental structure to provide the needed societal associations that will provide ALL of the things society requires (defense, security, infrastructure, etc.). Indeed, ONLY a system of private, voluntary, competitive market-based solutions can provide the kind of sustainable mechanisms that will truly work long term. History is already on the anarcho-capitalist side on this one. 200,000,000 dead by the hands of government in the 20th century alone, and the rapid decline of EVERY institution/structure/economy that is controlled and manipulated by governments on earth is only more supportive evidence.
Self-governance is not under attack. It is currently a dead and rotting corpse. Looking for a political solution to a political problem will never work. This change must happen between everyone’s ears and in their heart.
Right on MrLiberty! I concur wholeheartedly. I read a quote recently that went something like, “government is like kudzu, you bring it in trying to use it to solve a problem, but then it becomes an even bigger problem and once it’s established you can’t get rid of it.”
We should pick office holders like we pick juries or by simple lottery. HL Mencken wrote an interesting article on this subject. Ruling the country is too serious a business to be left to the politicians.