Politics

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_improvements

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