What's Going To Change?
As many struggle to defend the last vestiges of the freedom entrusted to us by the founding generation, we are looking forward to the possibilities November’s election may bring. A scant eight months away, Republicans in particular are salivating over the prospect of replacing the Democratic majority in congress with their own. Some in the TEA Party movement have fostered alliances with their local or state Republican party in the belief that if they can “turn” the Republican party from “moderate” to “conservative” and that once they are in power they will lower taxes and rein in government. What in the long history of the Republican party gives them the confidence this will happen, I am at a loss to understand.
Consider what has happened in the Federal Government since the time of Franklin Roosevelt. There has been a definite pattern established that continues to this very day. The Democrat party grabs the reins of power. Since the time of Woodrow Wilson, this party has been home to progressives, socialists, communists and their sympathizers. In short, they believe in a government that knows no bounds, a government that intrudes into every area of the lives of the governed, a totalitarian government. Instead of a revolution, which the American people would never tolerate, they have taken their time, educating, brainwashing and deceiving the people to accomplish their agenda.
Big government, socialism, whatever you call it, is anathema to prosperity. The more successful the Democrats/statists were in implementing their agenda, the more the economy suffered. The Great Depression, the Johnson/Nixon recession, the Carter years, and our current recession are all cases in point. Each one, Carter excepted, followed a major government expansion. Americans don’t like anything that interferes with their pursuit of prosperity. “It’s the economy stupid” is always the case. Once the socialists in the Democrat party damage the economic engine enough to cause pain to the majority of the people, the people vote for the other guy figuring they will fix it. That’s when the Republicans get their turn.
The formula for prosperity is rather simple. Keep taxes low, don’t make any sudden policy moves and the American people will adapt to their new circumstances and prosper once again. The twenties followed Woodrow Wilson, the fifties followed FDR, the eighties and nineties followed Johnson/Nixon/Carter. Even John Kennedy cut taxes and created a burst of economic activity before Johnson destroyed it. Once these policies are enacted, prosperity returns, the American people are happy, and money flowes into the treasury. The government, however, never shrinks. Liberty relinquished under the socialists never returns. For all their talk of liberty and “small government”, the Republicans never actually make any serous attempts to dismantle any of the socialist structures the Democrats build. The pattern is so obvious it is almost as if it was planned. The Democrats grow the government until it reaches the point where it makes the people unhappy and results in economic destruction, then the Republicans take power, restore prosperity, and make the people comfortable in their new bonds until the next government expansion. I speak in generalities, of course. As I stated previously, Democrat Kennedy cut taxes and Republican George W. Bush expanded government exponentially, but in general, the pattern holds.
Allow me an analogy. The American people are like a herd of wild mustangs, free to roam the prairie. The Constitution put a fence around them, encompassing hundreds of square miles, mainly to keep predators out. Most in the herd never even saw the fence. Each Democrat/statist administration uproots the fence and encloses a smaller area. This construction annoys the herd and they resent the intrusion. Then the construction stops and the mustangs settle down, accepting their new limitations. A decade or so goes by and then the statists move the fence again. This time the area is too small to provide sufficiently for the whole herd. The statists start providing food and pacify many of the horses. They become accustomed to the new situation even though many are now dependent. Today the fence has become a corral and the current crop of politicians are trying to make it a stall. The important thing is the fence never expands, it always contracts, no matter who is in charge of it.
The majority of the Democrats are trying to eliminate liberty for the people and reduce them to serfdom. The majority of Republicans are simply enablers, although they too are increasingly infected with the statist ideology. It is almost a good cop-bad cop act. No matter what, however, the accused is going to jail. The fact is that we are, and have been for some time, ruled by an oligarchy. Real power in our nation is held by the career bureaucrats and the leaders of the two major parties. All of them are interested in one thing, the expansion and retention of government power. If health care or cap and trade become law, do you really think they will ever be repealed? Changed, perhaps, just as welfare was “reformed” for a while, but never eliminated. Reagan was right. The closest thing to eternal life is a government program. An individual congressman or even a president from either of these parties is not going to change anything, none of them are going to break down the fence. Time is rapidly running out and we don’t have the time to try to reform either major party from the ground up. It has not worked for the last forty years anyway. Once upon a time the Republican party was the new kid on the block and in less than a decade they captured the presidency. If we really want change this November, we need to “throw the bums out”, all of the bums from both parties and replace them with independent individuals who are not interested in perpetuating power and privilege but are willing to break down the fence and restore freedom to the people. If all the angry Americans in the TEA parties and other anti-big government movements really want change, they need to move beyond calling for lower taxes and simple opposition to the current expansion and seek out people to support who will actually dismantle the wall that is strangling our liberty. The Republicans have never demonstrated the courage to actually back up their rhetoric. It is time to look elsewhere.
Consider what has happened in the Federal Government since the time of Franklin Roosevelt. There has been a definite pattern established that continues to this very day. The Democrat party grabs the reins of power. Since the time of Woodrow Wilson, this party has been home to progressives, socialists, communists and their sympathizers. In short, they believe in a government that knows no bounds, a government that intrudes into every area of the lives of the governed, a totalitarian government. Instead of a revolution, which the American people would never tolerate, they have taken their time, educating, brainwashing and deceiving the people to accomplish their agenda.
Big government, socialism, whatever you call it, is anathema to prosperity. The more successful the Democrats/statists were in implementing their agenda, the more the economy suffered. The Great Depression, the Johnson/Nixon recession, the Carter years, and our current recession are all cases in point. Each one, Carter excepted, followed a major government expansion. Americans don’t like anything that interferes with their pursuit of prosperity. “It’s the economy stupid” is always the case. Once the socialists in the Democrat party damage the economic engine enough to cause pain to the majority of the people, the people vote for the other guy figuring they will fix it. That’s when the Republicans get their turn.
The formula for prosperity is rather simple. Keep taxes low, don’t make any sudden policy moves and the American people will adapt to their new circumstances and prosper once again. The twenties followed Woodrow Wilson, the fifties followed FDR, the eighties and nineties followed Johnson/Nixon/Carter. Even John Kennedy cut taxes and created a burst of economic activity before Johnson destroyed it. Once these policies are enacted, prosperity returns, the American people are happy, and money flowes into the treasury. The government, however, never shrinks. Liberty relinquished under the socialists never returns. For all their talk of liberty and “small government”, the Republicans never actually make any serous attempts to dismantle any of the socialist structures the Democrats build. The pattern is so obvious it is almost as if it was planned. The Democrats grow the government until it reaches the point where it makes the people unhappy and results in economic destruction, then the Republicans take power, restore prosperity, and make the people comfortable in their new bonds until the next government expansion. I speak in generalities, of course. As I stated previously, Democrat Kennedy cut taxes and Republican George W. Bush expanded government exponentially, but in general, the pattern holds.
Allow me an analogy. The American people are like a herd of wild mustangs, free to roam the prairie. The Constitution put a fence around them, encompassing hundreds of square miles, mainly to keep predators out. Most in the herd never even saw the fence. Each Democrat/statist administration uproots the fence and encloses a smaller area. This construction annoys the herd and they resent the intrusion. Then the construction stops and the mustangs settle down, accepting their new limitations. A decade or so goes by and then the statists move the fence again. This time the area is too small to provide sufficiently for the whole herd. The statists start providing food and pacify many of the horses. They become accustomed to the new situation even though many are now dependent. Today the fence has become a corral and the current crop of politicians are trying to make it a stall. The important thing is the fence never expands, it always contracts, no matter who is in charge of it.
The majority of the Democrats are trying to eliminate liberty for the people and reduce them to serfdom. The majority of Republicans are simply enablers, although they too are increasingly infected with the statist ideology. It is almost a good cop-bad cop act. No matter what, however, the accused is going to jail. The fact is that we are, and have been for some time, ruled by an oligarchy. Real power in our nation is held by the career bureaucrats and the leaders of the two major parties. All of them are interested in one thing, the expansion and retention of government power. If health care or cap and trade become law, do you really think they will ever be repealed? Changed, perhaps, just as welfare was “reformed” for a while, but never eliminated. Reagan was right. The closest thing to eternal life is a government program. An individual congressman or even a president from either of these parties is not going to change anything, none of them are going to break down the fence. Time is rapidly running out and we don’t have the time to try to reform either major party from the ground up. It has not worked for the last forty years anyway. Once upon a time the Republican party was the new kid on the block and in less than a decade they captured the presidency. If we really want change this November, we need to “throw the bums out”, all of the bums from both parties and replace them with independent individuals who are not interested in perpetuating power and privilege but are willing to break down the fence and restore freedom to the people. If all the angry Americans in the TEA parties and other anti-big government movements really want change, they need to move beyond calling for lower taxes and simple opposition to the current expansion and seek out people to support who will actually dismantle the wall that is strangling our liberty. The Republicans have never demonstrated the courage to actually back up their rhetoric. It is time to look elsewhere.
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