AMERICA: TOO BUSY to CARE ABOUT POLITICS

In many of my conversations with people I am too often struck by the sever lack of interest in politics. They truly believe that what lawmakers do, on their behalf, has no impact on them, and or there is nothing that they can do to effect what lawmakers do. It's schizophrenia if there were ever a case. If we elect people to act on our behalf, then close our eyes to their actions, it is a self fulfilling prophecy to a disastrous outcome for our liberties and freedoms. The lack of understanding or care of the workings of government and the relationship to the people is something that is probably making our Founders wish that they could reach from their graves to ring each of our necks for such utter disrespect for the covenant of self-government that they placed in our hands.

Though the final blame does rest at the feet of each of us as Americans, due to generations being exposed to the indoctrination system of the U.S government that passes for education in this nation, too many of us seem to be incapable to decipher, analyze, or comprehend what government is and what is our proper relation to it. The government education system has replaced academics excellence with athlete worship, the drive and competition to be the very best in your class, has been replaced with guilt for being too much better then the next person due to your hard work and success, direct engagement in activities and life, has been replaced with spectatorism and a life without self-responsibility, and the tried and true belief that your Creator will provide for those who work hard and honest, has been incrementally replaced with the notion that benevolent men in office will provide all that we need simply because we need it. We have become a nation of too many people who discard everything in the newspaper except the sports, leisure, and sales sections. Too many off us have pressed the autopilot button when it comes to the affairs of our republic as we drop to our knees praying that everything works out well from our political servants without our engagement. Far too many of us can no more tell the name of their representatives in the Congress or their State Legislature if they stood to earn a trillion dollars. But, that same person can rattle off sports stats from a time before he was born. The values that we today place on such trivial pursuits are three hundred and sixty degrees cockeyed in a time when our nation disparately needs a politically engaged and educated populace. It not about just voting for the sake of voting, or voting for a party, that is what has been going on for the past 16 plus years, to hit the apex of absurdity last year with the election of the man with no past to be called president of the United States, it is about being aware and educated of political issues in order to make the best choices pursuant to our life and our loved ones.

I often ask myself how can a nation of people that John Adams once spoke of, "A native American who cannot read or write is as rare an appearance...as a comet or an earthquake.", can today be so adverse to the mental exercise that comes from discussion of politics and world events that can be a direct benefit to them so? I have attempted to engage people in political discussions only to be treated as though I have the plague. I have even been called a "nut" for being too caring of what goes on politically and about the government. I have often been asked, "How can you be so interested in politics?" I answer with a question of my own, "How can you not be?" I can almost see their point with so much more important matters to discuss and focus on, such as whether Tiger Woods will win 10 consecutive PGA championships, who's going to win the American Idol, what is the next video game that is going to show the most naked women or most blood and violence, or any other form of escapism. I can almost see how these issues may seriously affect my standard of living and quality of life and liberty.

I'm not saying that there is not a time and moment for leisure, a time to unplug from the world, but we have reached a point that with a 60 hr work week, having to balance the checkbook, having quality time for the family, and all of the inconveniences of life, that carving out some time for discussing and educating ourselves about matters having to do with those people who we elect and have direct determination on the amount of taxes we pay, how much money we will have to retire on, how much money we bring home and have to spend, as well as the standard and quality of life that we are going to have, how much freedom and liberty we will have, is on page five on our four page To-Do List. The issue of politics has been placed on too many of our plates like vegetables; we admit the importance of it, but rather not have to deal with it.

Thomas Jefferson said of the relationship of government and the people, "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories." These days are the most critical to be aware of what our elected policymakers are doing and how their decisions effects us. First we need to understand that the government is us. The people are supposed to be the rulers of and dictators of the government. Without the acquiescence of the people, whether by action [the vote] or silent consent, the government has no mandate to act. The government can not create wealth; only redistribute our wealth and property via taxation. But, it can create debt, for us - the taxpayers. Our government has one main reason for being, as subscribe by the Constitution, tosecure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. As the federal government stands on the verge of shackling our nation and our posterity's ankles to $54 Trillion plus debt, marinate on that. Wasn't the Tea Party sparked the issue of taxes?

The Establishment Media is totally compromised when it comes to honestly informing us on the moves and effects of the political creatures. They will only tell us what they want us to know to further their agenda by way of news manipulation, deception, and having us looking for ghosts or the boogie man. Remember the media blasting reports of how this economic meltdown being caused simply by bad lending by banks and over zealous borrowers? The economic crisis that the republic is currently experiencing did not come about because of over zealous homebuyers who had no means to afford to stay in the home once bought, but the policies the lawmakers enacted that made it possible for people to buy homes that they could not afford by first allowing the Fed [Federal Reserve Bank] to lower interest rates to near zero and then requiring financial institutions to make loans to people who showed no honest way of paying for it. I have yet to see in the Constitution the right to have a house. Some of us just are not qualified to be house owners. Those are who apartments are for. Secondly, the unprecedented colonization of America by foreigners, particularly from Mexico, that is crushing our wages and living standards is due to lawmakers enabling it by not enforcing current immigration laws and enacting more laws specifically benefiting illegal immigrants, such as granting them social benefits, employment access, and access to the government educational and medical system. All at the devastating expense of the U.S taxpayer and America's infrastructure and culture. Third, the historic wave of unemployment and vanishing high paying jobs in manufacturing and technology is not due to the lack of demand in these fields by Americans, we are the biggest consumers on the planet and the most industrious, but lawmakers endorsing and encouraging the exodus of business's to other nations, particularly Communist China and India. And with those jobs goes not only the high wages that could be circulating throughout our economy, but the research and development know how, and secondary businesses and jobs created from those industries and jobs, such as all that goes into the constructing of and up keep of those facilities. These issues coupled with the unsustainable flood of currency printed into domestic circulation, by the privately owned foreign corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the trillions and trillions of debt that will have to be repaid through higher taxes on every U.S taxpayer, therefore reducing our standard of life even more. All of the actions by the elected political leaders have brought about this economic crisis as a self-fulfilling occurrence, as much as a drop in the pond makes a ripple.

Thomas Jefferson once said that if the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. The question is what are the consequences of a people who are not well informed about their government? Today like no other since our nation's inception do we need to rush towards knowledge of political matters rather then from it. President Ronald said that, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.... We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.We need to become vigilant and educated over those who we have so entrusted with protecting our freedoms and liberties." We are Americans in possession of the covenant of liberty and freedom that no other nation has and it is in grave peril if action is not taken soon. Americans need to become more demanding for substance over style of our elected servants, become more critical about details rather then accepting sound bites or shallow responses, demand men of the highest character and morals to lead us not just those who are visually appealing and tells us what we want to hear in a nice voice, we must demand that our elected servants, and ourselves, be educated on the Constitution and its principles, we must regain the unwilting love for America, as Americans, if we are to impose those expectations and values on those who we elect to lead us. Ultimately is it each of our responsibility who genuinely cherishes the freedoms and liberties of this nation that we not use principle, for ourselves as well as our elected servants, as a floating scale that changes depending on the occasion, but an absolute standard, and not to handle today selfishly for ourselves, but grab hold to steer it so as it is better then we received it to hand to our posterity. At the end of the day, we have the nation and policymakers that we deserve.