Author: publius911

In one of my political conversations with a very liberal friend, we tried to find a common ground starting point. I thought we both could agree we want all Americans to be healthy. He thought we both would agree that everyone deserves dignity. I said that while we can agree on some measure of health, there is no similar measure for dignity. I thought if what drives the left is amorphous intangibles and the right, empirical data, are we doomed to never find common ground? That prompted me to look closely at what voters were saying in this year’s election process so far.

I have been watching the early caucuses and primaries and am especially interested in the interviews with the voters that take place both before and after the voting. Of course, if you only have one news source, you won’t get a very good picture and even if you do have a multitude of sources, you can’t count on your observations being accurate. Still here is what I found to be at the crux of this year’s Presidential election.

Many of the Democrat voters after saying who they voted for and then asked why, did not offer many policy positions as their reason. Rather it was temperament and style. If they chose Sanders, he is consistent and passionate. If Warren, she’s a fighter and determined. If Buttigieg, he seemed steady. If Biden, he can beat Trump. Very few cited Medicare for All or eliminating college debt. Several went on to say we need a “nice” President. All were universal in their zeal to replace President Trump but again, citing temperament and style, not policies or programs.

If Republicans make their appeal on data, as they seem to be doing, they may be singing to a half empty concert hall. The left plays in the emotion sandbox and the draw of this or that percentage is not enough to get them out. Perhaps the President is getting that message as he used many emotional tugs in his State of the Union Speech. Perhaps putting faces on lower unemployment among minorities and higher wages for entry level workers is the key to get those on the left to see how nice may not always get you effective.

The Senate Intelligence Committee released its findings on Russian interference in our 2026 election. One of the findings was that the Obama administration didn’t want to acknowledge that Russia was disseminating false information and otherwise influencing voters for fear that it would de-legitimize the election in voters’ minds. Democrat Senator Mark Warner is quoted in the WSJ (Report Faults Response to 2016 Russian Interference, 2/7/20), saying, “A legitimate fear raised by the Obama administration – that warning the public of the Russian attack could backfire politically – is still present in our hyper partisan environment.”

Senator Warner is correct it will backfire politically but its not from the Russians, it’s the Democrats themselves. Representative Schiff continues to spout this President is likely to cheat “again” and spews contempt for voters saying we could not be trusted to vote correctly. Their own record of stealing elections tells us we had better be on guard in November. They rigged the nomination for Hillary against Sanders and appear they are working to do something similar this cycle. Iowa is just the beginning of the kind of shenanigans the Democrats pull to gain and retain power.

If what the Senate report is reported as saying is true, Russian entities put a bunch of false information on social media sites and published stolen emails. The emails were a public service as they showed the sliminess of the Democrats. On the disinformation part, instead of partisan politics, how about both parties start telling the American people to not believe everything they read and hear. Tell the voting public that it is important to seek out valid and reputable sources for information on the candidates. Candidate websites might be a place to start. Verify their stories using actual US government websites for data and other facts. Having more eyes on the actual government statistics might bring light to the lack of user-friendly transparency for getting information from our government.

Rahm Emmanuel’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (Democrats May Be Blowing Their Chance 2/1-2), makes a case for incremental movement toward…what? I agree with him that there are some who need help. Where we disagree is that we need to help “those who have been left behind”, and that it is the role of government to do so. By definition, if someone is behind, then there is someone ahead. In this view, government will never be successful until everyone is equal, regardless of what may be intrinsic differences.

The physical differences between people are obvious and render some of us faster, taller and, yes, smarter than others. Even these physical differences have come under scrutiny as in transgenders in sports and the removal of awards like valedictorian. The social differences are more subtle. For example, there are “go-getters” and “sloths”. The Progressive model, as espoused by Mr. Emmanuel, would have us either handicap the first and/or provide boost to the latter with equanimity the goal. In fact, that is the current Democrat/Socialist agenda. Some of the policy outcomes include wealth re-distribution through confiscation (taxes and entitlements), housing (rent controls) and quotas (affirmative action).

Now, I said I agree with Mr. Emmanuel that there are some who need help. Americans are the most charitable people in the world. Rather than have a highly expensive and confiscatory entity like the government act as the provider of assistance, using taxpayer money, why not return to a time when Americans took care of Americans directly?

Is anyone tired of hearing politicians espouse how they “fought hard” to get funding for this or that social program and how it was they who delivered it? They take all the credit for spending our money! Ask your elected representatives if they would support dollar-for-dollar tax reductions for money you give to the very same organizations the government supports? If so, more of that dollar would go to those “left behind” and we would reduce the pass-through costs of government. It would also reduce the power and control politicians have over these organizations and us citizens.

I dare say, Mr. Emmanuel and his fellow Progressives would be loath to give up that power of our purse. So much for REALLY helping those left behind.

If you believe….

• the United States of America was established through racism
• the Constitution is a “living document” and originalism/textualism denies progress
• the bill of rights is subject to current day interpretation
• and that a new set of rights, (health care, guaranteed income, etc.) are needed

then you likely think this impeachment is a just cause.

If on the other hand you believe…

• the United States was established on freedoms that come from God and are manifest in human traits
• men (an all-encompassing term) are fallible and subject to err
• our Founders debated and understood exactly what they meant in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and anticipated the failings of men
• in the limitations of government as delineated in the Constitution

then you likely think this impeachment effort subverts the Constitution and is an effort to overturn/influence an election.

The underlying philosophies are much more troubling than this episode impeachment. That we have so many that think our Constitution is just a piece of paper subject to interpretation using today’s news is downright scary. It is the binding force of our country and a standard to which free people everywhere look up. Denying its worth through debasement of one of its most dramatic planks, impeachment, should raise serious questions about how so many came to think this way.

Since its founding, the basic tenet of our country, freedom, has been steadily eroded. Think of every law as another duck bite to our individual freedom. While the Bill of Rights is an affirmation of those things we hold dearly, nearly all law is written denying something. In order to drive, you must have a driver’s license. If you earn income, you must pay taxes. Heck, if you do just about anything, you must pay taxes/fees/registration! The rise of the Tea Party was due to the government demanding you purchase a one-size-fits-all product or pay a penalty. While this is the most direct assault on our freedom, it is not the last one.

Democrats and their most progressive members all call for new “rights”. That is, everyone MUST, (fill in the blank). The most prominent item is health care, but housing, nutrition, transportation and others are queued up and waiting in the wings to round out the road to serfdom. In order to fulfill their march to Socialism, it will require enforcement. Your ability to choose will be taken away as mandatory this-or-that will be imposed.

Of course, there are many examples of where your freedom to choose has already been curtailed. Foie Gras anyone? Not in New York or San Francisco. Type of firearm you care to own? Not so quick if it is an AR15. Purchase a vehicle that gets less than x miles to the gallon. Find one!

To be sure, the populace has accepted, even if reluctantly, the bulk of these restrictions of our freedom. Safety issues are the ones nearly everyone accepts.  Still, have you sat at a red light at 3 in the morning with not another vehicle in sight? The only way Democrats can realize their ambitions is to impose their will. It is why it is so important for everyone, especially those being coddled through social programs that only serve to enslave them, to understand the end game; total control of your life. As Alexander Tyler wrote, the road back to bondage is preceded by an apathetic population that is dependent on others for their survival. How many of us are there already?

Democrat Representative Peter DeFazio was quoted in the Wall Street Journal (“Amtrak Faces Scrutiny Despite Gains”, 1/2/20) saying, “I think part of the problem we’re dealing with is the original mandate from Congress which said that this is supposed to be run as a for-profit corporation.” He argues that Amtrak’s CEO’s focus on profit is more appropriate to the private sector than to a government-owned company. This is at the heart of why government run entities will always crowd out the private sector.

With no concern for the bottom line, government run entities can operate at a loss with the power to generate revenue through force (taxes) or printing more dollars. The private sector cannot compete when the rules of engagement are controlled by those who want to replace you.

We have strong laws against monopolization yet the very people who advocate for enforcement of those laws seek to create government run monopolies. I’m not sure how the Warren’s and Sander’s of the world reconcile having a single payer health care system with their wish to break up “big business”.

Certainly, there are places where the profit incentive is irrelevant. The nation’s security is the most obvious. There is no real alternative for our defense in the private sector in part because of laws but also, the magnitude of the effort. Still, underlying that effort are private companies that operate in a way that they can sustain themselves. That requires making more money than you spend. That additional amount drives future investments that keep the company viable. The government doesn’t need to worry about sustainability in this sense. There is always another way to generate the cash they need.

Regarding Amtrak, getting to profitability would likely mean ending routes that don’t pay for themselves and charging more for the ones that are used. Instead, politicians on those less used routes will call for subsidies and those on the “NY to DC corridor” will fight to keep prices low. After all, they control the printing press!

I am no fan of Facebook (FB). After their last privacy disaster, I ended my account which I used infrequently. I still don’t like being anywhere on FB, but I’ve given up trying to stop my wife and others from posting photos or mentioning me in their missives. However, I have seen something in FB that has redeeming value. It’s called the “Buy Nothing Project”.

I’ve long held that the more the government got into “helping” people, the more they separated us from each other. By breaking the bond of neighbor helping neighbor through interceding programs, they contributed to the isolation and callousness of some to the needs of our fellow citizens. Many feel it’s up to the state to take care of everybody rather than themselves. Nothing galls me more than to hear a politician take credit for some social program paid for by we taxpayers. Add to this the inefficiency of government, and you have ample opportunity to find a better way. Enter this positive use of social media.

The “Buy Nothing Project” allows FB folks the opportunity to list things or services they need or wish to give away and is limited to people sharing within their town. The outpouring we have witnessed has given me hope that we can re-connect with our neighbors and not look to government for the answers to our ills. For example, a family suffered a fire and once posted, they were overwhelmed with clothing, furniture, kitchen items and even money to help them get back on their feet. Another family was having a party and needed some chairs and tables to use for the event. Neighbors in town not only offered those but also pop up tents and assorted serving items. We saw requests for stuff we were happy to let go. We got to meet people who live just a few blocks away who then sent us photos of the items in use in their homes.

I once asked our esteemed Senator Chris Murphy if he would advocate for a dollar-for-dollar tax reduction for donations to tax exempt organizations already funded by government. I argued that would connect people directly with the organizations and the folks being helped.  Secondarily, it could help reduce the size and cost of government.  He did not think there would be enough donated to supplant the taxes collected and disbursed. Said another way, without a gun to people’s heads, they won’t cough up the money.

I say we give direct donation a try. We somehow muddled through for hundreds of years before the income tax and the “New Deal”. With our children being indoctrinated in school with every kind of “cause” now, (and even being allowed to skip school to “protest”), we may see an opening to reconnect with our neighbors.

In some cases, failing to do something can be a serious thing. Think surgeon who doesn’t suture up an incision. In the case of impeachment, having not done something is a very thin premise on which to overturn an election. Still, the Democrats continue to pursue their scorched earth strategy. Here is how their brand of impeachment goes.

President Trump did not collude with the Russians to tip the 2016 election. That from the Mueller investigation. The Mueller that didn’t get fired by the President. The 17 instances of possible obstruction in that report, lie in the President’s refusal to cooperate with an investigation that was flawed from the start. In fact, the very thing he was tagged with, colluding with a foreign government, is what Democrats did by purchasing a dossier from a foreign source containing lies. I didn’t hear about obstruction when Eric Holder did not respond to Congressional subpoenas in the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal. That’s Washington for you. Hypocrisy reigns supreme.

Moving on to the next article having failed the collusion one, the President released the arms that were previously held up by Obama. In doing so, he received nothing. They dropped quid pro quo for bribery. Then tried extortion but landed on “abuse of power”. How nebulous! The main plank of President Zelensky’s campaign was anti-corruption. Our President wanted to make sure he was going to follow through on that campaign promise and as a steward of our taxes, he wanted to make sure the money would not go down a drain. In President Trump’s campaign, he made it clear that foreign aid will be scrutinized and once again, he is true to his word.

Now having failed at what he didn’t do (collude, obstruct or withhold), Democrats have thrown in the kitchen sink. He MAY try to do the things he didn’t do yet! He MAY collude on the next election, or obstruct, or withhold or otherwise cause the sun not to rise. This is a hail Mary of gargantuan proportions. Never in a country of laws has having not done something risen to demand the most dramatic action our Constitution allows. History will rain shame on these Democrats for inflicting a wound that may never close.

A portend of what’s to come can be seen in France today. There, public workers are causing mayhem over a proposed overhaul of the pension system. There are no details and the effort so far was to look at the system of 42 different pensions that, among other financial shortcomings, call for retirement at age 62. The system eats up 14% of the country’s GDP already and growing.

The National Federation of Federal Employees and the American Federation of Government employees together represent over 800,000 workers of the approximately 2,250,000 total federal employees*. If they and the other representing unions feel threatened, despite murky language that denies strikes, these employees know only too well that they can cripple the country just like in France. Given the gargantuan costs of the federal bureaucracy, the time for making reasonable adjustments to compensation and working conditions is now. Unfortunately, we have the very people negotiating those terms pandering to the workers for their votes.  The majority of the “deep state” has as its clarion call not, “Get Trump” but rather, “Get mine”.

When you see the number of associates, secretaries, undersecretaries, assistants, advisors, et al, many with large staffs, changing work conditions will be a rallying call for these behemoth labor groups. Eliminating positions in the federal government is akin to firing the Pope and changing job descriptions just adds another compensation step or pay grade. The number of government employees has grown but more insidious is how work has been farmed out to state government and non-governmental organizations. The employee count masks the dollar growth of the bureaucracy. Any threat to moving work back to federal employees will likely be met with demands and/or obstinance.

Now is the time to have serious discussions on how to rein in the astronomical growth of the federal government before we end up with a France like situation. One where we are being held hostage and the only thing between us and the employees are those aligned with them.

*https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/reports-publications/personnel-costs/fy2005.pdf

There have several feeble attempts to move the bureaucracy out of Washington DC and closer to the people the behemoth serves. The most logical is the Department of Agriculture. With over 100,000 employees in 29 different agencies ranging from Agricultural Marketing to Rural Housing Services and 4500 locations, the center of our farming regulations is 1000 miles away from the breadbasket of the country. Why isn’t it located in the middle of the country where it can see, feel, touch the myriad of things it oversees? Indeed, Senators Hawley and Blackburn have introduced a bill to move this and other agencies out of DC and closer to the people they are supposed to serve.

With the advent of communication and transportation technologies, the need to be centrally located for the oft raised issue of “interagency coordination”, is greatly reduced if not eliminated. DC has never seen a recession, housing bubble or other economic calamities the rest of the country has suffered. Why? Because it is immune with perpetual growth of the bureaucracy that keeps people moving in for high paying jobs keeping housing prices increasing. Sheltered from reality, these DC residents become entrenched and fight for the privilege of remaining there through allegiance to the public employees’ union and the politicians that pander to them.

President Trump raised the issue of moving the FBI to Detroit when they were looking to find new space. That effort went nowhere, and I suspect that this one won’t either.