The Liberty Legation

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

One Party State

Charlie Earl

OK….please explain to me why the cherished “two-party system” is so precious when our money, property and liberty are being consumed by both parties when they are in power? One would think that two parties would mean that there were stark differences between them thus offering the voters clear-cut philosophical options. Instead… we have the “Me party” and the “Me too party.” What a crock. Whatever differences exist are merely matters of degree and nuance. They appear to share the same goals for this great nation, but differ only slightly on the vehicles for achieving them. In a homogeneous society such minor differences would not be all that remarkable, but in the caterwauling cacophony of our nation today, how can we function and prosper with a single-track statist mindset as our sole national vision?

People who adamantly support the purity of the present two-party system are somewhat like those who live in a household with an abusive alcoholic. As the episodes increase in intensity and frequency, the family attempts to accommodate the abuser, forgive the abuser and shield the abuser. As time goes on, however, the compliant victims begin to understand that there are but two sensible responses to an abuser. One must either flee from him or confront her. Any other response merely prolongs the inevitable tragic outcome. So it is with our dominant two parties….their oligarchy has fostered massive abuses on our liberty and our property. In league they have developed a monstrous government apparatus that will collapse of its own weight but only after devouring our wealth and our liberty.

Why is it that after nearly 160 years of the same two-party rule that has led to decay in our federal republic so many voters feel compelled to support the status quo? Perhaps the Soviet Union would still exist if only the Politburo had the wisdom to divide into two nearly identical factions of the Communist Party. The hungry and discontented citizens may have been mollified a few years longer by the false choices presented by their statist leaders. False choices…..ah! there’s the rub. Their rhetorical gamesmanship differs, but the two old parties offer little real choice for voters. Some of you will insist that there is a yawning difference between them because without one party to apply brakes to the other….things could be much worse. So then, I ask why does the defending party that introduces legislation this is a watered-down version of the original to prove that its “compassionate,” “fair,” or any number of bogus reasons for advancing a statist agenda? Either path steals our property and restricts our freedom, so how can one be better than the other in absolute terms? The differences are matters of degrees while the outcomes are similar.

Some think we over simplify when we claim the two old parties are similar. A Thoroughbred is sleek and fast. A Clydesdale is big and strong, but any 3 year old can identify each of them as a “horsey.” The differences are ones of scale and purpose, but they are too similar to be considered different. Knights rode Clydesdales into battle, and Thoroughbred offspring have pulled buggies in Amish country. Two different horses or parties, but in the end…..basically the same. So are our representatives of the two old parties comparable to horses, you may ask? Of course not, or rather not to be confused with the front end of the equines. One final metaphor may illustrate why our two party system is actually two slightly different wings of one party.

If you are familiar with football, you may know that the game is played on a field that is approximately 53 yards wide with out-of-bounds lines indicating the field of play. Running down the field, straddling the center are two series of short lines at one-yard intervals. Those are called “hash lines or hash markers.” When a play ends to the outside of a hash line, the ball is placed on the nearest hash marker for the next play to begin. If a team continually runs or throws to the left despite how the defense reacts, every play during a specific drive or series will begin on the left hash mark. Our national will and our national destiny are resting on the left hash mark. All that is required for changing the position of the hash marks is an alteration of the rules, and the two parties write the rules. Given the history of their compromises and collusion, we may be playing near the out-of-bounds sideline very soon….with little room for maneuvering.

Charlie Earl

Friday, December 14, 2012

Compound Interest

Charlie Earl

When does 24.2 equal ten? Well…it is 2.42 times larger, so how can the two values be equal? It is the magic of compounding. If you had spent $10 for an item in 1982, and the price of that item compounded at 3% per year until today, that same item would cost you $24.20. The item I’m referring to is actually the relative cost of smaller government as envisioned by members and leaders of the Republican Party. Democrats have consistently sought to break the fiscal bank by initiating and funding worthless programs and policies….let’s say something along the line of a 4% compounded annual increase. Republicans on the other hand….being the self-proclaimed, self-appointed party of smaller government and fiscal responsibility have compromised us into the current morass. It’s true that on a relative scale of “responsibility,” the GOP has proven to be slightly less damaging than the Democrats, but it is an issue of time not dollars. In other words….the Republican strategy has stretched out the time for our fiscal collapse, whereas the Democrat/progressive/socialist mob would have gotten us there more quickly.

Government at all levels is bigger and more costly. Our liberty and rights have been dramatically diminished thus violating the laws of God and men (the Constitution). Both parties have been complicit in this nefarious path. Both parties have been instrumental in our slide into a bankrupt police state. Both parties and their willing stooges have conspired to destroy the American dream for this generation and all future ones. Both parties shall be condemned at the Final Judgment. However…..parties are comprised of people and “parties” will not stand before the Throne of God. People will. Individual persons will. When a party is dead, it has no moment of accountability similar to that of its individual members. Who will answer? Who will pay?

Yes, I admit, that like some of you I was vapidly somnolent while waiting for my guardian elephants to pull our fiscal and freedom chestnuts out of the raging inferno. The massive blaze was large enough, however, that I saw the light. The Democrats’ driving mantra of “the ends justify the means” uses corrupt and immoral means to achieve nefarious and suicidal ends. The “big lie” is the primary tool in the Democrat box of underhanded devices. The GOP, on the other hand, engages in the “little lie” with alarming frequency. Republicans lie to themselves and each other while ignoring the reality of the Party’s march toward oppressive huge government. The party leaders enable the Democrats’ schemes and share the benefits of increased power and influence. Meanwhile….the slower-growth compound interest of deficits, debt and despotism is engulfing all of us.

Despite its lack of a national footprint, the Libertarian Party, too, shares in the sepsis of our national identity. By focusing on tangential issues such as the legalization or decriminalizing of pot, the prospect of gay marriage and other such constitutionally irrelevant issues, the LP has successfully marginalized itself outside the body politic. The aforementioned topics may be personally important to some Americans, but they are insignificant when measured against the overriding dismantling of our constitutional government and the fiscal devastation that currently faces us. The party has been around for more than thirty years, but because of a failure to promote the purity of personal liberty and the sanity of fiscal responsibility, it has become the resting place for every crackpot who has a personal bitch with the government and the other parties. Libertarians, it you wish to be one of the big ones, you must advance the big ideas and allow the people to ascertain how liberty and fiscal responsibility affect them personally. The LP problem is that its appeal has been based on too simple interest.

Compounding is the problem, and our difficulties have been compounded and made more complex because we allowed it, we encouraged it and now we are unable to prevent it. “There ought to be a law” has replaced “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as our pre-eminent national identity. We screwed up, and I fear that reclaiming our heritage may be the costliest fight in our history. When our Founders declared our independence, the government was an ocean away with other problems on its plate. Today… now…the offending government is in our house. I’m exhausted and fed up with political parties that debate the nonsensical and the marginal. I’m sick of citizens who are distracted by the shiny objects of minor disagreement when there are just two issues: individual liberty and constitutional government. Nothing else matters because if those two principles continue to be abused, we are doomed.

Charlie Earl

Friday, November 30, 2012

One Party Rule

One-Party Rule

Charlie Earl

Please allow me to apologize in advance for not having a valid attribution or link for the foundational premise of this column. I was listening to the “Quinn and Rose Show, the Warroom,” (commercial for ‘I heart radio”) on Tuesday and heard a reference about the pitiful conditions of many of our cities and some of the states. Their fiscal and financial situations are bleak with the future being no more promising. There is one constant element that ties the failing cities and states together. They are all governed by Democrats. Their political environments have been dominated by Democrats for decades. In those rare instances where Republicans have held some power, they were “moderate” or liberal Republicans … big spenders and big taxers.

Detroit is the poster child and Washington D.C. runs a close second for ruinous policies and profligate spending. The Motor City was a thriving, dynamic and wealthy metropolis as recently as 50 years ago. Detroit and its products were the envy of the globe, but Democrat politicians and their lock-step union allies have managed to destroy the dynamism and dismantle a once-grand city. Empty buildings abound and a crumbling infrastructure testifies that the former king of the industrial world is now a mere skeleton. Taxpayers have been fleeing the city in droves as its image has gone from powerful to pauper. In a frightening way… Detroit could be a metaphor for the United States. Our industrial prowess has been replaced by an entitlement state. The demands for government assistance grow faster than the private sector’s ability to fund them. While the Democrat political machines bear most of the blame for the demise of Detroit, Washington, D.C., Illinois, California and other decaying sites, they are not alone in their perfidy. They had willing accomplices.

The major cities and destitute states in our country have not always been dominated by Democrats. True, they generally held most of the cards, but Republicans from time to time shared the power. The inability of the GOP to nominate and elect true fiscal conservatives, however, has contributed to the downfall and collapse of the cities and states. The elected Republicans were often big-spending, go-along-to-get along types whose policies and practices made them superfluous. Why elect a Republican who acts like a Democrat when you can choose the genuine article? By incrementally ceding their usefulness the GOP became unnecessary in the eyes and minds of the voters. They were not a loyal opposition. They became loyal enablers.

The same has occurred with our federal government but on a lower trajectory … until now. If a party seeks to offer a viable alternate to a competing political entity, it must be different. There must be a clear line of demarcation between the two parties every time … all the time. If not, the public will be lulled into voting for the party that appears to be more committed to its basic principles. The line of reasoning is that one party is predictable and dependable while the other wavers and is irresolute. Copycat politics, policies and practices merely entrench the party whose original positions are copied. Schizophrenic positions and campaigns confuse voters, and they may choose to support the “devil they know” rather than the fickle unknown. In politics, love and faith … clarity is preferred to obfuscation and spinelessness.

One party rule has led to the demise of some once-great locales in America. Unchallenged power will eventually become corrupt. The party that rules without meaningful opposition will build a massive gravy train to cement their place in power. Eventually reality will derail it, but the train wreck might be avoided if the opposition actually offered alternatives rather than more of the same. Opposition parties must shout out with principle rather than compliantly whimper.

Charlie Earl

Monday, November 12, 2012

Thugs,Bugs and Slugs

Thugs, Bugs and Slugs

Charlie Earl

“We was robbed,” echoed through some halls and chambers where one might find the elite leaders of the GOP. Maybe. So what? Why not? When you’re complicit in expanding the reach and power of government, you inherently raise the stakes. More power, more force and more benefits are intoxicating for the type of people who gravitate to politics. When such glittering goodies are spread on the table, you can expect a mad dash toward the buffet when the dinner bell rings. You, the GOP power structure, helped to load that table with delectable morsels… each of which cost the people money or freedom…or both. So…. Don’t feign outrage when some precincts deliver more votes than their populations for Democrats who wish to control the federal ATM machine.

It is the nature of elites to use any available mechanism to protect their power. Likewise… the “outs” lust to manipulate the levers of coercion to achieve their goals. When the two join together, as in Democrats and unions, the combination is nearly impossible to overcome. The best solution for restraining them is to limit the available power so that it is not so appealing. But no, Republicans, you had to join in the “can you top this” race to the Nanny State without realizing that you were waving a juicy ribeye before the noses of your hungry adversaries. When you give an inch, you will surrender a mile. It’s an old cliché, but it appropriately describes your complicity in the growth of the federal government, and more tragically, your failure to cut it back when you had control of the Capitol and the White House. One of the great fallacies of politics and governing is that massive power is “OK” if the “right people” are in control.

Well, Lambchop, the right people are not always in control, and sometimes the aroma of power corrupts the right people when they acquire the reins of power. Lord Acton’s pithy observation about the corrosive effects of wielding power was on target. Our only defense against a misguided Nanny State is to maintain it in the embryonic state. Any growth beyond that point transforms the government into a tasty morsel of power….ready for the plucking and consuming. In your brain and your heart…. you already know this. So…why am I repeating the obvious?

If you believe that big government is contradictory and counter-productive to individual liberty, then you should never, ever settle for “almost.” A little larger government, a slightly larger budget or another insignificant program erodes your personal liberty, and over time, those elements of government will metastasize until they consume it. We have moved beyond the point of crèmes and potions. It is time for radical surgery. Half measures merely delay the inevitable… the loss of our freedom. With that sober outcome comes the disappearance of prosperity, the loss of hope and the will to achieve. If or when we support or encourage rhetorical or incomplete efforts for freedom, we undermine the real…the authentic. Reality bites and it’s beyond the time to bite back.

Charlie Earl