Turning Around

Yesterday, March 21, 2010, was a very dark day in the history of this nation, as socialism made another tremendous advance. Nevertheless, the war must continue. There are several things that can be done to turn this defeat into victory. American is, as often said, the last best hope for mankind. Moreover, our human experience tells us great nations can disappear quickly when apathetic citizens take their freedom and their status as givens. Therefore, the stakes are high. If we cannot turn around this nation's direction toward ever more government, our descendants will know a tyranny we dare not imagine.

Yet, the desire for freedom as compared to the false security government offers still stirs the human heart and always will. Movies such Brave Heart and books such as the Gulag Archipelago never cease to move us, liberty being one of the foundations of natural law and our God given lives. We must not wallow in self-pity but, rather, rise to the opportunity presented. This means fighting back in several ways. We must take the offensive to call for a broad-based real reduction in the size and reach of government at all levels. More to the point, we must advocate a replacement of government with individual responsibility. We cannot win by only calling for repeal or rollback. We must also propose a different way, one history has repeatedly told us works, that of self-governance.

This means taking several courses simultaneously. We must, first of all, take the initiative away from our opponents and put them on the defensive. The best way to do this is to go to the states and get 38 or more of them to follow the examples of Texas and Virginia, both of whom have passed laws to challenge the Federal government's authority with respect to health care mandates and assert their own under the 10th Amendment. This requires challenging our existing and would-be state officeholders to tell us where they stand. We must demand they assert our rights through the states to stop the ever encroaching Federal takeover of every aspect of human life, from light bulbs to toilets to the health care insurance we must purchase. This will force a reckoning that is long overdue.

We must also find a way to bring back citizen legislatures. There are several ways to do this but none of them have worked well to date because they haven't caught the popular imagination. They have also have been too easily obstructed by the self-perpetuating political class. The best approach may be to call for the end of all pensions for elected public employees. Politicians as a class are reviled and this kind of measure would largely avoid the pro and con arguments over term limits and the worthiness of the "my representative versus the rest of them." A prohibition of pensions for elected officials would be challenged by politicians arguing it prevented public service by less wealthy individuals, but that argument will not resonate when the facts show most are already wealthy and enjoy absurdly generous pensions. Also, there is no way for an individual politician to make the argument for his pension without sounding whiney. A campaign for this kind of measure would have popular appeal and force the politicians to the wall regardless of the final outcome. It is a classic offensive battle strategy and should be pursued.

Thirdly, we must engage in the kind of guerilla warfare our opponents have used by becoming active in every way we can with the goal of undermining the left at every turn. This means we must, as citizens, write letters to the editor, hold demonstrations and otherwise expose the sinister nature of leftist philosophies whenever we have the opportunity to do so. We cannot stand back and say nothing or merely grumble to friends. It is not enough. We must demand those elected representatives who are supposedly on our side demonstrate it. We must demand they do nothing less than fight every appointment to every new position in the health care bureaucracy, fight every appropriation of money to fund the new programs and fight every new regulation that comes from this initiative. We need, in other words, to fight this exactly the way our opponents have fought us. We cannot allow our friends to play ball with the enemy or give respect to our enemies when they give none in return. Unfortunately, far too many on our side have done that for far too long under the banner of civility. It has brought us only defeat. We are now in the trenches and hand to hand battle is required, not giving so much as an inch.

Finally, of course, we need to win in November and win so conclusively our opponents are scared to death and vote to preserve themselves for a battle another day by voting for repeal of this legislation in numbers sufficient to override a veto. This is unlikely, to be sure, but a combination of a big win, with many states challenging the authority of the Feds at the same time and a few seniors beating a few Congressman with their canes like they did many years ago could easily be enough to get the job done. Even if it doesn't work exactly as intended it will send a strong message to the Supreme Court, which is more political than it would like to admit, and yield a victory there. This is what me must seek and we must do it with every ounce of energy we can spare and every dollar we can muster.

Keep Out the Keepers

There has, in recent years, been an explosion in the number of "Riverkeepers," "Mountainkeepers" and sundry other self-appointed demagogues who have arrogated to themselves a supposed responsibility to protect the playgrounds of the rich and famous from the people who actually live in those places. This article is a perfect illustration of how they gather untoward influence. Several "keepers," none of whom have any official authority are quoted as if they exuded it and their opinions were sacrosanct, while the one party with authority, the MDE, is reduced to having to defend "putting science first." The "keepers," by contrast, suggest MDE seeks to "strike a balance between the polluter and protection," as if these were the only two choices and nothing other than environmental protection were important. To do so, of course, is to say no balancing at all is needed. While this is, of course, the view of all absolutists, it is hardly fair and surely not the basis of sound policy. Rather, it is the language of totalitarians. We need to keep the keepers out of our public policy debates.

Fishing for Power

Power hungry utopians are now focusing their attention on fishing. This article provides the latest evidence of just how far-reaching the environmental special interest agenda extends. They aim to control every aspect of our lives and exclude any considerations but their own from all decision making. Worse, their own considerations are based not on science or facts but, rather, feelings, prejudices and, especially, a complete confidence in the superiority of their own consciences, which they seek to forcefully substitute for those of everyone else through the power of government coercion. This is anything but sound planning or responsible governing. It is, instead, simply more evidence of a soft despotism into which we are rapidly descending until we grab back the reins and limit government, once again, to its essential functions.