No one could ever make the case that these people were living in a free country. This fact was recognized long ago by Communist revolutionary Karl Marx: "The oppressed are allowed every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent them and repress them."
Unfortunately, most Americans are too busy going about their lives, managing their careers and families, to keep track of the many ways our political class goes about sacrificing our liberties for their own careers. Our politicians are willing to take whatever shortcuts are needed to get into elected office and to stay in office even if it goes against the principles of freedom established by the Constitution and Bill Of Rights.
Consider the variety of ways where the political class has turned up the dial on oppression and repression over just the past few years:
Congressional District Gerrymandering - Every ten years, based on Census population estimates, the House Of Representatives rearranges itself into new Congressional districts. Unfortunately, we allow the political class to rearrange and redraw those districts according to their needs and advantage, not to the advantage of the voters and citizens.
After the 2000 Census, I distinctly remember reading an article in the Newark Star Ledger that described the New Jersey process for drawing new Congressional districts (to my disappointment, I could not locate that article). The conclusion of the article was that the New Jersey Republican Party and New Jersey Democratic Party had jointly agreed on how to draw the districts that would almost guarantee that just under half of the new New Jersey Congressional districts would always have a Republican Congressperson and just over half of the new New Jersey districts would always have a Democratic Congressperson.
Nowhere in the article did it discuss whether either party cared about how to ensure that every citizen in New Jersey would be fairly represented, probably because they didn't care. As a result of their work, Democrats in Republican-designated districts would probably never have a Democrat representing them in Congress. Republicans living in Democratic-designated districts would probably never have a Republican representing them in Congress.
Thus, even though these New Jersey citizens could vote in their newly formed Congressional elections, many of them had no real choice since the New Jersey political class had already rigged each Congressional district boundaries. Doubt my conclusions? Check out the last set of New Jersey Congressional districts. Their boundaries follow no logical or pre-existing geographic or other existing boundaries political boundaries (county or city lines). As Marx knew, even though you vote, it does not make you free.
Organizational Campaign Financing - Even though the politicians need your vote to get into office, they are really not indebted to you. You give them only one vote, corporations, unions, PACs, etc. give each politician millions of dollars in campaign donations to further the aims of their particular organization, not the needs and freedom of individual Americans.
Who do you think President Obama cares more about? The one vote you may have given him in 2008 or Microsoft who gave his campaign $833,617 or Goldman Sachs which gave him $994,795? Given that the politicians in Congress give out about 10,000 earmarks a year worth billions of dollars to these same organizations, what do you think they care about more - their ability to pay for their re-election or your vote? Once the politicians do not care about you, they also do not care about your liberties.
Presidential Primary Schedule - Historically, Iowa and New Hampshire are allowed to have the first say on who might be the Presidential candidates for the two major parties. Many candidates, both unworthy and worthy, have seen their chances of becoming President be enhanced or destroyed by their performance in Iowa and New Hampshire.
However, with no disrespect to the good people of Iowa or New Hampshire, they constitute a very small percentage of the voters in this country and are certainly not representative of America. Given these problems, why then do we have this current system if it does not provide everyone in America with an equal voice in deciding who will be the Presidential candidates?
It allows the political bosses in each party to control the primary election process. By spreading out primaries and caucuses out over months, they can control access to money, voters, and primary elections. If the those in control of the primary process really cared about equality and freedom of choice, we would move to a single Super primary voting day where everyone, in every state voted in a state Presidential caucus or primary election at the same time and each of their votes carried the same weight.
In the past paragraph I usually used the word "control" three times. Control always results in less freedom in whatever context it is used.
Disdain For American Citizens, Part 1, Obama Care - Many citizens did not agree with the legislation that eventually became Obama Care. They felt it was the wrong approach, would increase the national debt, would not solve the health care problems in this country, and would give the government and political class much more control over our lives at the expense of our freedom. The most glaring example is the requirement that every America must purchase a government mandated product, health care insurance, whether or not they wanted it or could afford it.
However, one of the most despicable aspect of Obama Care from a freedom perspective was the venomous words and attitudes that our so called elected leaders came after ordinary Americans citizens for simply having a difference of opinion than those politicians. Consider the following accusations that Democratic Party politicians made against ordinary Americans:
- Speaker Of the House - those Americans opposed to Obama Care or un-American.
- Congressman Charles Rangel - those Americans opposed to Obama Care are just like the racists that opposed the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
- Congresswoman Shelia Jordan Lee - those Americans opposed to Obama Care are no better than Ku Klux Klan members.
- Congressman Alan Grayson - those Americans opposed to Obama Care are knuckle dragging Neanderthals and racists.
Disdain For American Citizens, Part 2, Political Opponents - As the Obama administration has stumbled along the past few years, not solving any major or minor issue facing the American people, the President has seen his popularity plummet. Every facet of the economy has continued to crater, the national debt has skyrocketed, endangering the financial stability of the country and future generations to come, and America's standing in the world continues to slide.
This dissatisfaction has resulted in the rise of the Tea Party politics. The Tea Party movement has supported successful candidates for Congress and has helped forward the need for more prudent government spending and performance. They have operated within all confines of the laws and political processes. regardless of what you think of their political agenda. As Americans they have the right to petition their government for changes, they have the right to support certain political candidates that support their non-violent agenda, they have the right to be involved in the politics of the nation that affect their lives.
However, their success has resulted in some unbelievable resentment of their actions from the political class. Certain members of the political establishment, the establishment that has been the cause of the country's myriad of problems, vehemently and disgustingly despise the work and freedom of speech of these fellow Americans:
- President Obama, in a speech supporting Democrats running for office last fall, declared that "our enemies need to be defeated." Unfortunately, his "enemies" were nothing more than American citizens with a difference opinion from the President. A President is supposed to represent all Americans, not divide the country into friends and "enemies," regardless of their opinions.
- This week, California Congresswoman Maxine Walters, speaking at a job opportunity even, stated: "As far as I am concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell." Rather than engage in adult, mature discussion and negotiation, Ms. Walters would rather than just sling the slurs of hate, wanting to see fellow Americans, who are simply expressing their freedom of opinion, to just go to hell. Also, since the Tea Party helped elect 78 people to the House Of Representatives, Ms. Walters not only wants a large segment of ordinary Americans to go to hell, but also 18% of her peers in the House Of Representatives to go to hell also. Despicable behavior and attitude. No wonder Congress gets nothing done with this type of venom and trash mouth being tossed around.
- Not to be outdone by the Congresswoman, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, speaking on a recent MSNBC morning news show, stated that the mainstream media has the "responsibility" to not give equal time to Tea Party actions and views/viewpoints. As a lover of freedom, this type of behavior is just beyond belief. When did having a difference of opinion become a reason to suppress ideas? When the government and the political class that operate it actively look to kill off ideas in a democracy, it will not only kill ideas it will also kill the democracy.
- And worst of all, in the midst of the debt ceiling negotiations, Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania declared that Tea Party people were "terrorists." Speak about contempt for Americans having an opinion and point of view. How despicable is associating mass murders of civilians and terror mongers with Americans' freedom of speech? [Side note: although he has denied it, independent sources have stated that Vice President Joe Biden made the same terrorist accusation as Doyle.]
Patriot Act - first enacted during the Bush administration as a knee jerk reaction to the 9-11 attacks, this ominous law was renewed by the Obama administration. It involves secret courts with secret judges issuing secret warrants to snoop into just about any aspect of an American's life. Wire taps, both stationary and roving, library activity tracking, etc., the government and the political class that operates it can pry into just about any aspect of your life without you ever knowing it. When privacy can be violated so easily, you are not living in a free country anymore.
Financial Freedom - yesterday we introduced the concept that you cannot have political freedom without also having financial freedom. If you spend more than half of your working life supporting the apparatus of government, sending your hard earned wealth all government levels to support their onerous taxation levels and regulations, you are not free.
The less wealth you retain, the less wealth you have for just about any facet of your life. You have less freedom to send your kids to better schools, you have less freedom to support your favorite charities, you have less freedom on where you live, what your drive, where you work, and less freedom to live your life the way you want to since your economic freedom, keeping what you own, has been severely restricted by our political class.
The saddest part is that in exchange of losing our freedom via onerous taxes is that we get very little in return from government and the political class. They still provide failing public schools, crumbling infrastructure, wasteful spending, inefficient operations, etc. The worst of all possible worlds: high cost via high taxation and low quality on government's services.
Let's review: we lose freedom every time the political class controls and alters our political processes to ensure their political careers rather than allowing voters to have freedom of choice, we are liable to lose our privacy without cause via the Patriot Act, we lose our personal wealth supporting an overbearing government taxation and regulatory structure that provide no solutions, and we are insulted with disdain and condescension for daring to challenge the existing direction of the country and those politicians that run it.
If politicians do not respect your opinions, they certainly are not going to respect your freedoms and liberties. They will look for every possible way to oppress and suppress that freedom and your opinions in order to protect their careers. Harry Truman, one of the last politicians who put America and its citizens first, before personal needs and careers, recognized the danger of the altitudes illustrated above by President Obama, Senator Kerry, Congresswoman Walters and others:
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of the opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." Telling Americans to go to hell and calling them terrorists is a long way down that path of "increasingly repressive measures."
Today's political class would make George Orwell's Big Brother proud. In order to stay out of an Orwellian world, numerous steps from "Love My Country, Loath My Government" need to be implemented to reverse this rush towards oppression and repression. From fixing our political processes to getting outrageous government spending under control to reviewing and possibly repealing the Patriot Act, these steps need to start as soon as possible. Otherwise, the decline towards Big Brother's world will be unstoppable.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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