Blogs by cribbooky

I hate to say this, but I predict that conservatives are going to lose this fight.

When I read the opinions of fellow conservatives, I am always amazed at the amount of anger in the posts. It is not that the anger itself amazes me. I have it too. I am amazed that we get it, and yet so many American zombies do not, even the ones that should. How can we be so mad about the way things are and where we are headed, while so many others stay on their couches in apathetic television trances. Do they not realize that their liberties and earnings are being stolen at an accelerating pace? Do they believe that once their freedoms are lost, that our leaders will simply give them back? That is one major contributor to the equation: American apathy.

The next part of the equation is lack of voting power. American apathy hurts us at the polls. To get out and vote may require missing an episode of Oprah, but it's not the apathy that hurts us most. It is the organized and motivated opposition. For every vote you place, there will be a counter voter. How is it that the opposition is so motivated? Quite simply, it is their livelihood. Where most of us have to work full time to cover our bills, they let us do that for them. They live in government dependent communities and understand the game. They do not have to do anything, but show up at the polls on voting day, and they get the rest of their days off. The ones that have some energy have plenty of time to channel that energy to promoting their cause to ensure a maximum turn out to protect those interests. Many are even paid to do this, courtesy of your tax money.

The reason this system is possible is that when the 16th Amendment was ratified, it did not address a very important concern. The 16th Amendment levied taxes on American earnings, but it did not restrict voting on fiscal laws and policies to the burdened taxpayers. This omission has permitted representatives to effectively buy votes from non-taxpayer voters using government programs. These programs are real motivators, not single payments that will be spent and forgotten in a couple of weeks. They consist of lifetime benefits that include shelter, food, health care, legal assistance, counseling, and more. These combined benefits are expensive, and they encourage government dependence, which grants real power to the man. As their voting numbers grow, they can demand more cushy government programs, employ more government workers for those programs, and the lifestyle gets more comfortable and more socially acceptable as its population swells and drives us toward full socialism.

With a strong and organized voting population supporting the liberal agenda, the conservative leaders position themselves as our heroes because now there is an other side. They explain that they are protecting us from being robbed by the left. The catch is that they must negotiate to acheive those interests. In order to get program X for us, they must agree to program Y for them, and the taxpayers get stuck paying for both programs. To keep the system alive and well, term limits are stuck on the table. There just aren't quite enough votes to pass that inspite of the will of the people. Things like TARP, basically a HUGE theft, are possible with this two party system. The other side makes this possible, and the other side exists because it can be purchased.

As if this having 600 pound gorilla on our back was not enough, we have to contend with yet another major problem. American people should be controlling the country, not special interests. Separation of church and state was needed to protect religious freedom from the government, and to prevent religious dictators (think sharia law) from controlling our country. Likewise, we need separation of commerce and state to keep the government from manipulating commerce (bail outs, stimulous packages, subsidies, stroking the unions, etc.), and to prevent corporations from steering our government through lobbies, contributions and future job opportunities. The collusion of government and commerce has added additional massive burdens to the taxpayer, while simultaneously robbing them of their effective voting power.

I stand by my opening statement. For the reasons I just discussed, the fight is lost unless we address the root causes of our problems with more than whining, protesting and limited voting power. We may win a bill or two, unseat a representative for a while, but these will be nothing more than bandaids for symptoms from the root causes. The US Stakeholders Movement could make this happen if the taxpayers will get onboard. Oops, gotta run... Oprah is starting!

Be nice.