Politics
is a game for those who “show up”. To
make an impact on political decisions, regular voters must show up to vote,
hopefully after they have researched the candidates. They must show up whenever
their elected officials are pushing a project that has more cost than value to
campaign against it. Again, they have to
research the project and expose it.
Voters have been outmaneuvered by special interest forces whose agendas have
created an enormous amount of damage.
If you
are wondering why so many laws have caused so many problems, the reasons lie in
how the game is played. First, you will notice the contorted rules used by
legislatures and the ease with which reforms are ignored. Next you will notice how laws are created to
protect politicians and how reforms are needed and are not made. Government is
its own favorite special interest.
The
culprits are many, but Treavor Louden nailed a big part of it in his book “The
Enemies Within” and his videos. He makes the case that American Communists have
been sabotaging the US government for over 100 years and they now control the
Democrat Party. US voters had been
asleep at the wheel since 1872 and failed to insist on Constitutional
compliance and that set the stage for our destruction. I believe all of this to
be true.
Leading
up to Communist infiltration in the US, the Congress was fully capable of
corrupting itself. Starting in 1913, when members of Congress knew that the
federal government was about to become wealthy, they started to make the case
that the federal government should send tax dollars to their states.
There had
been large projects as early as 1806, when the federal government funded the
building of the Cumberland Road to connect the Potomac and Ohio rivers to
improve the movement of goods across state lines. The federal government gave
land grants to the railroads in 1862 for the Transcontinental Railroad.
Government
corruption goes both ways. The only possible reason for continuing federal
funding of highways is to prevent States from holding back funding to disrupt
traffic to disadvantage neighboring States. It is clear that States are taking
a free ride on federal interstates full of local traffic. States do compete
with each other and usually like to keep their states well maintained, so there
are pressures to make States behave, except California. State governments also
take a free ride on federal funds.
Legislatures
All
legislatures in the US control and operate by their own rules. These are the rules that control the
introduction of Bills. Members of the legislatures sponsor the Bills, but a
large number of the Bills themselves are often written by powerful special
interest groups that must be obeyed. Other Bills are brought to legislators by
individuals who want specific laws passed to help with their specific problem
or complaint. Committees composed of
legislators are created by topic and Bills are reviewed and voted on by these
committees. If a Bill passes the committee, it is brought to the floor for
debate and a vote by all the legislators.
Congress
Those who
get elected to the US Congress usually have some experience in State
Legislatures or other elective offices. They have learned that the special
interests cannot be disobeyed. But
sometimes a “business guy” goes from being a private sector company CEO to the
House or the Senate.
The US
Congress should be restricted to dealing with the “enumerated powers” in the US
Constitution (as written) granted by the States. But Congress has seen fit to violate the US
Constitution and assume control over things illegally. The Constitution
requires them to write Amendments to add to their powers and send them to the
States for ratification.
Bills in
the US Congress are written by special interests, but worse, federal agencies
have been authorized to interpret the law and Congress is silent when these
agencies over-interpret and misinterpret the law. Congress has further violated
the US Constitution by delegated its powers and ignoring the Amendment process.
The game
in the US Congress has been to make deals with each other so that Bills would
be passed that give money to their States. This encourages federal spending and
by their own rules, they don’t have to balance the budget. States can’t stop
Congress from overspending and most State politicians won’t even try, because
they are getting the federal money.
This is
nuts, because most of the projects that receive federal funding really only
benefit the States and funding should come from the cities, counties and States
to do these projects.
Courts
The
courts were created to provide a process for the peaceful resolution of
disputes. They do not ensure justice.
Courts interpret the law, but have made errors that Congress could correct, but
they don’t. The courts use “case law”
instead of correctly interpreting the Constitution, so they are writing opinions
based on the errors of other courts.
The
courts are made up of lawyers and they continue to complicate the process to
result in ever-rising legal expenses.
This corrupts the process when defendants settle lawsuits if the
settlement is less than their legal bills would be if they pursued the
suit.
This is a
self-dealing scam that profits from extortion.
The courts have been weaponized to snare and extort money from citizens.
State
Legislatures
Who gets
elected in State Legislatures is tightly controlled by “the establishment”,
made up of current legislators, to insure that special interest agendas
continue to flourish. Those who are anointed receive campaign contributions
from these special interest groups to ensure their election. Candidates who are “reformers” are targeted
and defeated or otherwise forced out or isolated by the group. If a “reformer”
submits a Bill, it usually dies in committee.
Legislators
in each State receive most of the Bills they consider from their cities,
counties and other government entities.
Most of these Bills expand the authority of county commissions, city
councils in municipalities to do whatever they want to do without voter
approval. This is further exacerbated by
the existence of “Regional Commissions”, who shepherd large “economic
development” projects for developers and usually control what cities and
counties can do. These are “planning
commissions” and also control what State DOTs can do. This is government by the government and for
the government.
Other
Elected Officials
Those who
are elected to the city council or county commission have different
constraints. They too have been vetted by the “local establishment” and
“reformers” have been derailed. If a “reformer” gets elected, he is quickly
converted to “group think”. The special interest groups that are usually active
at the city level are the big spenders. They support every low priority, but
pretty project that is introduced. City
councils are usually controlled by paid city staff. Actually running the city
is left to “the professionals”.
This is
most commonly seen in school boards, where the staff “manages” the school board
to vote for the School Superintendent’s agenda. School boards mostly deal with
budgets and are saddled with an ambitious project list to spend $billions on
school buildings to benefit construction companies. Actually running the
schools is left to “the professionals”.
What is a
“moderate Republican?
A
“moderate Republican” is a Democrat, who ran as a Republican in order to get
elected. You can identify them by what
they do and what they say. They usually
can’t resist calling for “Bipartisanship”. They are continually trying to form
coalitions with their Democrat friends to come up with “bipartisan” Bills.
Their
view is similar to the “Establishment Republicans” who are more loyal to their
legislative group and the special interest campaign contributors than they are
to the US Constitution, the GOP platform or the voters. Those whose votes
indicate that they are inclined to ignore the US Constitution can be identified
by going to Conservative Review Scorecard.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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