Dear America, Your Party has Betrayed You.

 At every level. 

If you’re a Democrat, you have probably noticed that you party is out of ideas.  Well, maybe not, but it can’t talk about new ideas until it finds a way to make the old ones work, justifying their purpose.  Perhaps you’ve noticed a half century’s worth of government growth (much of it in liberal programs) and not much to show for it, except a debt we cannot pay.  I used to be a Democrat and I have nothing against moderate liberalism, in principal.  There are plenty of things that the government can, and probably should, do to give a little boost to everybody.  However, the government is made up of greedy, power hungry politicians, so it has all inevitably gone haywire.  Thousands of “productive” (producing votes) party power brokers are happily employed by the government, at every level, to administer programs that don’t work.  I really wouldn’t mind paying more in taxes if the traditionally Democratic programs were actually improving the quality of life in America.  They aren’t.  They grew too big and they’re eating us alive while producing appalling results.

So you'd think that the answer would be to elect more conservative Republicans.  Well, it’s not, because the Republican party abandoned fiscal conservatism years ago so they could belly up to that awesome trough created by the Democrats.  Let’s face it, the liberals had all these appealing ideals – social justice, feeding the hungry, eradicating racism, ect, and traditionally, all the conservatives had was the military, stability, law and order, and pompous old rich white guys smoking cigars.  Now, wars have been known to generate plenty of wealth and power, plus quite a few blue collar jobs.  And the occasional war is, you know, necessary.  But for the most part, fiscal conservatism never bought much support, and it still doesn’t, which is why most Republicans are now liberals in disguise.  They distinguish themselves from Democrats by pooh-pooing liberal ideals and promoting “conservative” ideals.  Like law enforcement.  Can you say, “Drug War?”  That sucker kicked into high gear not too long after the Great Society did.  The use and sale of illegal drugs had been increasing alongside of “social” spending, but most of the people being hurt by drugs were poor.  Neither party ever cared about them, but votes were bought by supporting them.  (Ah, liberal guilt!)  Plus, we still had functional mental health institutions back then; addicts could partake of that liberal cornucopia.  (More feel-goodism!) But declare a war on drugs, and the “conaservatives” win!  They took a bunch of those gainfully unemployed folks off of the welfare rolls and put them in prison, which of course, required a bigger justice system.  So they built more prisons, hired more “alphabet soup agency” employees (and prosecutors, judges, prison guards, etc, ad nauseum.)  We the people are still footing the bill, the government is still growing exponentially, but now it’s happening in the name of “good old fashioned conservative values.”

Then in the 80’s the Republicans finished selling out.  They invited the Moral Majority into the fold.  Those evangelicals have very deep pockets.  As you might imagine, I don’t really have a problem with morality.  Technically I’m even a Christian.  But I have a BIG problem with church organizations funding political causes that put and keep politicians in office, because those politicians will always be beholden to their supporters.  Bye-bye Bill!  (of Rights.)  Cramming Biblical ideals down America’s throat is not conservative, even if some of those ‘ideals’ happen to match ordinary  conservative values. 

Can somebody please tell me where the fiscal conservatives are?  Are they hiding out somewhere, with the liberals who spent the first half of the last century creating the best public education system on earth?  What happened?  (I’ll tell you...)   Politicians stopped running the nation and started running their own personal futures.  “Managing” the taxpayers’ money funding that feeds this massive government, provides endless opportunities to amass wealth and power; taking advantage of those opportunities is all they do anymore.  The parties protect the politicians, the politicians protect the parties, and the wealth and power of both, grows.  We, the working and non-working alike, have been left behind.  Those of us who do work are paying for it all, and we will continue to do so for generations to come.  With less and less.

Vote them all out, at every level.  Both parties, because neither party represents us anymore.

[ I also think the power structure would be harder to maintain if we had congressional term limits.  Naturally, Congress isn’t going to propose such an amendment, so it’s up to the states.  Is it true that 2/3 of the states can propose an amendment, and ¾ of the states can pass one, without the approval of Congress?  Has there ever been a time in our history when MORE Americans were this disgusted with the federal government?  (And rightfully so.) ]