Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years, reporting on everything from sports to politics. From 1969-71, he worked as a campaign staffer for gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional races in several states. He was an editor, assistant to the publisher, and columnist for the Orlando Sentinel from 1971 to 2001. He now writes a syndicated column which is carried on LewRockwell.com. and the latest word is that he is totally retired and no longer writing. Reese served two years active duty in the U.S. Army as a tank gunner.
You can find the 1985 and 1995 versions at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/reese.asp and there is more background on him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Reese
This time the article really inspired me to write some commentary of my own. So, I'm putting my commentary here on my blog. It's pretty lengthy, so I'm breaking it into several postings to cover everything I want to cover. I don't have any designs of being a political commentator - I'm really not qualified. But I am qualified to comment on the human condition and how all facets of our lives are impacted by these 545 People. So this is the first installment. I'll have another installment up on Monday, another on Thursday of next week and it will probably wrap it up the following Monday.
So, if you haven’t read the 545 People article by Charley Reese, here it is. If you have read it, then skip to the end of Charley's article and read the rest of my commentary for this installment.
545 People
By Charley Reese
2008 Version
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.
They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits...
The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ.
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way. There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
#####
Why the average public school educated citizen of the U.S. who attended basic high school civics classes doesn't understand this, I don't know. Why these power mongering, immoral, unethical (and in some cases criminal) "career politicians" have buffaloed the people of this country I'll never know, either. First of all - none of the levels of government (local, state, federal) were ever intended to be "careers" for people. People who were in a position to represent and serve their fellow citizens of their districts – their neighbors, friends, relatives, the owners and employees of businesses, farmers, homemakers, children, public workers, etc. – mainly at their own expense, served for the benefit of those they agreed to serve and took an oath to serve. And it wasn't a paid job nor were they due a lifetime pension and they weren't supposed to be full-time jobs.Well, let’s be honest, they’re half-time jobs with a full-time salaries these days. When they’re not actually in Washington, DC doing their half-time with full-time pay jobs, they're home, vacationing or cavorting around the world on taxpayers money "overseeing" things they know absolutely NOTHING about and raising campaign funds for themselves and their cronies. But, they are VERY IMPORTANT - just ask them, they'll tell you. Of course, it's laughable that we have to do penance and respect them and even address them as the "Honorable" So and So - when they owe their very position to each and every voter and taxpayer in this country - of which they are each only ONE - and, often, they aren't even taxpayers.
Yep! It really is time that we, as a nation, ALL join together and set the system straight. Why do we have to elect only (or at least these days, primarily) a Republican or a Democrat – is it just because they can raise millions of dollars to blow on their negative campaigns and are supported by special interests like unions, the banking industry, the insurance industry, the defense complex, etc.?
I, for one, would love to see a group of regular, average, everyday people who are not specialists in politics, with law and political-science degrees, representing us. How about if we just elected plain old, common sense Americans who know what it takes to run a family or a business or a farm or a small medical practice or a retail store or a town or a state. People who pay ten bucks for a hair cut for a man or maybe $35 for a monthly hair trim and styling for a woman and not $400 for a Hollywood stylist who meets our private, campaign-funded, jet on the tarmac.
How about people who served their country, defended our Constitution, freedom (what’s left of it), way of life and know what war is REALLY all about. They know what it's like to face landmines, punji stakes, invisible insurgents, prisoner of war camps like the Hanoi Hilton, have seen their comrades blown up by IED's and homicide (not suicide) bombers, have found their comrades beheaded or mangled, mutilated bodies in pieces in some God awful desert or jungle. Of course, John McCain is one of those war heros who spent six or seven years in Hell as a P.O.W., but he’s grown too old and too mellow, I'm afraid. And, there certainly are others who’ve served in the military including the late John Murtha and the current John Kerry.
It would be nice to have people who understand basic economics - if you spend more money then you bring in, you are LOSING MONEY and create a deficit. If you want to eat, you do SOMETHING productive and you get fed. If you want to be an entrepreneur and if you have a product or service and a market that can support the product or service and you operate your business efficiently, cost effectively, pay and treat the employees you require fairly and reward them for their productivity – then you should succeed and realize whatever rewards are due to you for your investment in money, sweat equity and the risks you took to realize your dream. If you do a bad job or there is no market for your product or service, then you will fail and deserve to fail. Accept it, deal with it and move forward. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again. The basis for our American Dream is that we all have the freedom and right to succeed or fail. And, we also need to just flat out accept that there are NO GUARANTEES and life is not always fair - period.
Now, a few last thoughts, then I'm off my soapbox and my rant is complete for today. This blog is not about politics. It's about living a life of freedom based on how YOU define freedom. It’s about working freely and productively doing something that you enjoy as much as possible, hopefully, even love. And, whatever it is, it keeps you free, responsible and contributing productively in some small way to the overall betterment of society. I define living and working free as living your life with the least number of conditions, restrictions, limitations, encumbrances and controls imposed upon your personal freedom by outside influences and pressures like the Jones, various governments, employers, family, friends and so on. You must define this for yourself. You may find answers to what's right for you through other people, other cultures, books and even in nature. We are each born with the individual right to be free and freedom results in our ability to live a happy and fulfilling life.
In my next installment of 545 People I’ll start off with “The Gamble.” Stay tuned and be sure to contribute comments. These are my views. Obviously, there are those who agree with me and there are those who have other views. I’m an equal opportunity blogger – your views are important to me and others who read this blog. Until next time and Part II –
Enthusiastically,
Ed Helvey
1 comment:
Ed: Why does all this happen? Because people want to be liked. All 545 of them. And people who want to be liked often don't make tough decisions, and that includes all the individuals who are able to go into the ballot box . . . who feel that the other 544 people are the problem, but their person is OK. Not to mention the difficult decisions that remain unmade in most folks' personal lives because of the desire to be liked, or because of the desire to ensure personal comfort over the effects their behavior might have on other people. You have as much right to be a political commentator as the many fools on TV and radio (on both sides) who've never spent a day in public office or worked in a political campaign, but who are manipulating for their own personal gain the idiotic divisions in this country that will keep progress from ever happening. The trick is not to replace 545 people with another 545 people, who would spend untold time figuring out how to run government according to the established methods (e.g., the Constitution), but to address the millions and millions of people who feel that other millions and millions of people don't have a thought worth listening to or a solution that could stand some working with to help things along. So, once again, it comes to the human condition. People would rather feel correct about themselves in their intransigence than admit there might be any middle ground on which to build. The problem's not a political one as much as a human one. And no single day in November is going to overcome that, unfortunately.
Post a Comment