Never, ever have I seen such a mess as we currently have in our country. We have people who believe they have a “Right” not to be offended. We have passed laws regulating “Hate Speech” but we have no definition of what constitutes such speech. We have enhanced sentencing for “Hate Crimes” but again, what constitutes a hate crimes isn’t specifically spelled out in the law. We have people who want others censored for their political opinions because they do not agree with those opinions. We have a candidate for President who has been on office for almost four years promising “First Day Actions” but won’t explain why those first day actions aren’t tomorrow’s actions since she is only a heartbeat away from the office today. One of those first day items is price controls. Now price controls are basically a tenet of socialism or a country at war where habeas corpus might have been suspended, (see Lincoln’s action during the not so Civil War.) They are not the actions of a market-based economy. Additionally, the price controls threatened are on the price of groceries not the price of energy which is the driving mechanism for all other prices. This is neither common sense nor enlightened government. It is, in fact, the lack of both; No common sense and no understanding of market forces.
A month ago the media all agreed that keeping the current president in office was an imperative because the Vice President was incapable of being President, but now that she is the candidate it’s almost as if she’s the second coming of Jesus although her actions in the past four years have allowed more than one Jesus across the border. During that same month the assassination attempt on the opposing candidate has been forgotten by the media and in all honesty it seems by the Justice Department as well. The politicization of the Federal Bureaucracy seems complete. I can detect no even handedness on the part of bureaucrats with almost all of them coming down on the side of the Big Government political party.
I’ve written many times about the death of common sense and almost as many times about how the thirst for power has become the driving force of all things political and media based. Media believes in big government although they don’t seem to realize that the first victim of totalitarianism is the press, not that they aren’t already simply acting as a front for the party in power, as long as it’s the big government party. Big government means more bureaucrats. There is small hope though in that the Supreme Court has ruled that agencies of the Executive Branch may not unilaterally impose criminal penalties for violation of rules and regulations not specifically approved by Congress in legislation. If we can get the non law enforcement agencies out of law enforcement we’ll be much better off. Are you aware the Bureau of Land Management has fully equipped SWAT teams? With whom does the BLM think they’re going to have a war?
We have to somehow, break the power of the political and bureaucratic classes that have grown up in the two and a half centuries since the founders formed the Republic with the idea that citizens in charge of the government was the correct way to go. Those citizens would come and serve and then go back and be citizens. But we evolved into a system where professional politicians and bureaucrats run the government ably assisted by media flacks who sell themselves as experts on everything from foreign policy to raising children. As I’ve said many times I’ve always thought an expert was simply someone from more than fifty miles away who carries a briefcase.
Controlling campaign finances and enacting a stronger version of the Hatch Act for Federal government employees would be a start. Not allowing political appointees to government agencies to transition to permanent employees would be another. With the turn of each administration many of the political appointees embed themselves within the bureaucracy by becoming a permanent employee of the agency. Since these political appointees are generally at decision making levels of employment they continue to decide action based on the politics they brought to the job as a political appointment. This is anathema to a new administration that represents different political goals.
We talk about bringing the nation together but even if we were attacked by a foreign power today there would be a large contingent opposed to taking the necessary military actions. While we thought we would find strength in diversity that was a pipe dream. It was based on the diverse buying into the history of the American dream of individual freedom from tyranny. But the diverse have no history with the country. They haven’t any buy in. They aren’t, as the saying goes, stakeholders in the company. Appeals based on the founders’ concepts of liberty and freedom fall on deaf ears. No, I fear there is no future for the healers, for the diverse have not learned from history and do not seek to join but to dictate culture. And the professionals seek to enlarge the foundation of their power not acting in the interests of the country but as apparatchiks who seek not to govern, but to rule.
Sigh,