Remembering the Republic – Patrick Richardson

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

*This is Sarah, and sorry guys, I have the stomach flu.  As usual I spent the day in denial and trying to write.  It didn’t work, and though I’m feeling better, I couldn’t write a blog.  So Pat sent me this (thank you.)  I had a post scriptum to his post, though “fortunately we remember.  Never in history has been such a literate populace, as illiterate as we are, nor one who remembered.  We must remind the people in power that this is a government of the people, for the people.  And I think we will.*

Remembering the Republic – Patrick Richardson

According to Aristotle, there are basically three forms of government which at least have the potential to be good forms of government — Monarchy, Aristocracy and Republic.

In Aristotle’s view, each of those three forms worked well so long as the people in charge remembered they had a duty to those whom they rule. That the reason they had the power they have is in order to administer their nation for the best interests of the people of the nation and the future thereof.

Aristotle also felt there were three evil forms of government — into which all of the three good forms would inevitably slide.

Monarchies tend to become Tyrannies where the Monarch rules only for himself, Aristocracies tend to become Oligarchies in which the Aristocrats work only to benefit themselves and the people of their class, and — a Democracy in which we have the tyranny of the masses.

What!?! You say, Democracy is an evil form of government? Don’t we have a Democracy in the United States? Well, no actually, we’re not supposed to. We’re supposed to have a Republic. There’s a reason for that. The founders were all classically educated men. They’d read Plato and Plutarch and, aye, Aristotle. They were aware that direct democracy simply does not work. The people “vote themselves largess from the public coffers,” and eventually everything collapses.

They created a representative republic precisely so that there would be a check on the passions of the masses, just as they created the the three branches of government to be a check on each other.

In essence they took all three “good” forms of government and folded them into the United States of America. The president is, in essence, an elected monarch. Such have not been unknown in history, the pre-Norman English (Saxon really) monarchy was one example. Congress and the Supreme Court amount to an elective and appointed aristocracy. Because they are elected for fixed terms, the U.S. is putatively, a republic.

We’re also watching all three “evil” forms of government emerge within our own country today. In California, for instance, the public initiative system allows the direct passage of laws without reference to the elected legislature — and there have been some truly silly laws passed because of it. The current holder of the White House is using executive orders, and his own influence to jam through legislation and regulation without regard to constitutionality or legality — how is this not Tyranny? Congress, both houses, and the courts have become nothing but self-perpetuating oligarchies in which we find it is not unusual at all to have members of the same family serving in seats that are almost handed down. Witness the Carnahan “dynasty” in Missouri. That’s on the Democrat side. The Blunt family on the Republican side has sent many members to Congress and the governor’s mansion as well. Congress makes laws which in general seem to benefit only those of the political class.

So in America today we see not only the three “good” forms of government at work, but also all three “evil” forms.

What it comes down to, is that those who rule, have forgotten their duty. They now work only for themselves and not in the best interests of those whom they rule.

The solution? I’m not sure. If history is any indication the whole mess will come down in blood, there will be a dictatorship, and a series of revolutions until something resembling a nation comes out on top once again. I hope this isn’t the route we follow. If we can get back to Constitutional principles we might have a chance. The problem is, for those in power, it’s not in their best interest to do so.

97 thoughts on “Remembering the Republic – Patrick Richardson”

    1. Don’t forget, you should vote early and often. Because the other side surely will.

  2. I’d like to see things revert to the way they were meant to be. Unfortunately, speaking as both a historian and a divorced man, what’s broken isn’t easily fixed. The Magna Carta and the Constitution were both written after long, costly wars. So was the Emancipation Proclamation. I’d really like to have a nice long, happy life and see a good system of government passed down to my daughters as we all ride off into the sunset smiling.

    This, unfortunately, is the real world. I’m starting to see Tom Kratman’s A State of Disobedience as the best case scenario. The Left has taken power they won’t surrender voluntarily. The people are complacent. Record numbers are on welfare and they talk about it like it’s a GOOD thing. Obama officials have been interviewed and talked about hot awesome it is that Medicaid has expanded because “nobody likes freeloaders.” Newflash: People on Medicaid ARE freeloaders. Businesses are taxed to the point where it’s cheaper to open a factory and ship your product thousands of miles than it would be to build it here and sell it to your employees. Both sides accuse the other of being paid for by billionaires… and both sides are right. The NSA can find out whatever it wants to about whoever it wants to and we’re just supposed to trust that they’re doing things the right way. The political opponents of the president are threatened and intimidated by the IRS and we’re all supposed to believe that the emails that could prove it were “accidentally deleted.”

    I’m not buying it. The corruption is too strong. The system is too entrenched and the courts don’t follow the law. Seriously. The Constitution guarantees the right of Free Speech. There is NOTHING in the Constitution guaranteeing Gay Marriage. Yet, the courts rule that people who are religiously opposed to gay marriage have to violate their own religion and participate in marriages because of the “rights” of gays. Sorry, that’s not how it works in a free society. But it IS how it works in OUR society.

    I don’t want to see the whole thing end in blood and fire. I really don’t, especially knowing that I’m too old and overweight to fight effectively. When the fight does start, I’ll probably be one of the first ones dead. If that’s what it takes it’s worth it, but it’s definitely not my goal in life. Yes, I’ll be voting come November, but I don’t expect it to help. God help us all.

    1. There are those — I’ve seen them in the last week — that think anger against freeloaders is irrational. Indeed, I’ve seen it compared to a boat with ten people and seven oars, and boy did that person get huffy when someone else pointed out that unlike the supply of oars, the supply of jobs is not fixed, and even if it were, they would have to take their turn.

      1. For the most part it’s not even the freeloaders themselves that I can’t stand. It’s their enablers that I hate. They’re the ones addicting people to free stuff and telling them it’s for their own good. People who are dependent on government are the least likely to rebel.

        1. Not only addicting them, but making it terribly difficult to get off the dependency without taking a massive hit to their livelihood. They essentially have to jump from total dependency on government to a $60k job or else take a drastic hit to their standard of living.

        3. Not to mention skimming the cream for themselves.
          Just look at the marching army of Federal employees it takes to administer all those handouts, and what a piss poor job they do at it, but still manage to award themselves whopping bonuses on top of their Civil Service wages and benefits.

    2. “Both sides accuse the other of being paid for by billionaires… and both sides are right.”

      Whenever I hear the Pawns Of Soros complain about the Kochs, I am reminded of a line from the movie M*A*S*H:

      Colonel Blake: [General Hammond is yelling in their direction] Radar!
      Radar: Sir?
      Colonel Blake: What’s the general trying to say?
      Radar: He’s just been informed as to the identity of our, uh, Spearchucker. His ringer spotted our ringer.
      Colonel Blake: [shouts to the general] How do ya like them apples, Charlie?

      Emphasis added. Unfortunately, the particular scene does not appear to be available on youtube.

  3. The solution is to remember that we are not a math problem, and don’t come with solutions. We muddle along as best we an.

    1. And since we are not math problems, the muddling along actually can achieve surprising results, positive as well as negative (the positive being harder to project and predict than the negative, at least for us mere mortals.)

    2. No, we’re chemistry problems.

      If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.

                  1. Naw, more an old fanfic term. (Hah, it’s still used!)

                    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:List_of_fan_fiction_terms

                    Lemon and Lime

                    Explicit sex stories in general, especially in anime fan fiction, are known as lemon, lemony-goodness, and lemonade, a term which comes from a Japanese slang term meaning “sexy” that itself derives from an early pornographic cartoon series called Cream Lemon.

                    The term lime denotes a story that has sexual themes but is not necessarily explicit. “Lemon” stories without much plot other than sex are also referred to as smutfics or as PWPs (“Porn Without Plot” or “Plot? What Plot?”). Similarly, many authors will call their stories “citrusy”, or a mix of both limey and lemony.

                    A good example of a limey depiction is found in the Shiren chapter (Chapter 40) of Otoyomegatari, where one woman describes how much she enjoys eating a watermelon. Kaoru Mori’s beautifully rendered illustrations highlight how much of a gastronomically sensual experience it is for the character talking, and the character in question has been presented consistently as a big eater who loves eating in a rather humorous way.

                    I should warn, since the chapter -as well as a few before it- takes place in a Persian women’s bath, there is LOTS of topless nudity, but it’s presented as normal with lots of different body types.

  4. “America is at that awkward stage; it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.” -Claire Wolfe

    I’m not sure she’s actually right on either count, but I see what she’s saying. It’s bad, and it doesn’t look to be getting any better, but are we really bad enough to go to war over it?

    1. By modern standards, we’re not bad enough off yet, but I’ve seen a strong case made that we’ve long ago passed the point where the Founding Fathers were when the Revolution was started.

      1. But unlike them, we citizens (nominally) can elect representatives of our choice to serve as the government.

      3. Heck, we’re sliding back to where the barons were at the time of Magna Carta. The .gov hasn’t started demanding a fee to allow heiresses to marry, but that may just be because no one’s figured out how to word the forms.

  5. I once had a discussion with a friend about the ‘Mormon’ take on all this. I told him it’s reassuring and scary at the same time. Basically, the Book of Mormon repeatedly says that the Americas are a chosen land of liberty, and that there will be no kings here, but when a people is ‘ripe in iniquity,’ they will be ‘swept off,’ and this usually seems to happen via the natural consequences of people’s behavior, with some exceptions. If three or four major cities were ‘swept off,’ this country would shift to a very conservative country again, and when you look at places like New York, where 50% of pregnancies now end in abortion, etc., and you think of how quickly something like ISIS+rowboat+nuke+San Francisco bay could happen, or Ebola+ghetto-crowded hedonist voters could happen, you start being very glad you live away from the coasts and outside the large population centers.
    But I guess it’s like everyone else, you just keep your head down and move away from anywhere with bread and circuses, grow a garden, learn to can food and fix your stuff yourself… live quietly, sharpen your tomahawk, and try not to be in the way when the other shoe drops.

    1. And don’t forget that LDS are the original “preppers.”
      Members are recommended to keep a year’s supply of basic foodstuffs and other essential goods close to hand just in case.
      In fact, they are held up as the gold standard for how it’s done in the greater prepper and survivalist community.

          2. Who is to say there weren’t dragons out west, doing some influencing of their own, back when?

      2. I thought it was 7 years… so in the end-times Mormons would still be able to eat during the time when those w/o the mark would be banned from commerce.

        1. “Year’s Supply” is the designated term. Or at bare minimum, if you don’t have the space, then two weeks. Or 72 hour kit.

          And the LDS Church has never identified a specific disaster that the supply is meant to help with.

  6. I hear people banging the drum for surrender to the inevitable [whatever] or to let it burn. But we are talking about everyone being fed into the fire, not just certain people that you don’t like or you feel have special rights you haven’t been able to get.

    [one of the reasons] Rome collapsed because the bread and circuses destroyed the economy. Taxes were pushed high to support the expenses of buying votes, to a point that you couldn’t earn enough to survive, you couldn’t sell your grain and other products at a decent price because the price was undercut by the free stuff, and what you got was worth less because of inflation caused by minting more money using base metals and the price controls put into place to try to stem the inflation.
    When that happened, if you were lucky you could go back to the country, determine to live at a subsistence level to avoid taxation, only eat what you make, and turn your back on the rapacious government of the Empire. And so the powerful united empire turned into a thousand little principates, disunited and easy pickings for the invaders.
    This is not a scenario I am interested in repeating. We know what needs to be changed, the hard part is convincing people that it is worth doing.

    1. To me, the most shocking thing is how public trust has been swept away. Rightly or wrongly, for most of the last century and for much of the century before, Americans generally trusted their public institutions. Oh, sure – there were any number of crooked politicians, and crooked city machines, and interesting shenanigans going on here and there – but in the main, Americans trusted our leaders (political and intellectual) to do right – to not screw us over for their own benefit and continuance in power. We trusted the IRS to be non-partisan, we trusted the CDC to focus on public health issues, and our law enforcement bodies to enforce the law impartially. But now – who among us does not entertain the liveliest suspicions in regard to these and other governmental bodies. We see the evidence of our government being weaponized against us, for the benefit of those holding the levers of power.
      It’s taken only a few years to shred that trust, and I don’t think it will ever be established again.

      1. There really is no reason left to trust our government. When a government provides their police forces with MRAPs and M16s and tells the populace they can’t be trusted with weapons it’s not for the good of the people regardless of what they tell you. Let’s not forget that the first industrialized society to have full gun control was Nazi Germany. The IRS scandal, the growth of the NSA into a potential SS/NKVD/KGB and the outright threating on reporters that tell stories the administration doesn’t like are just the icing on the cake.

        1. I saw just a week ago that DOD transferred five M16s to our local state university security organization. Why in bloody hell does a college security force need full auto capability?

            1. Or auction them off to the people.
              Frankly every arms law is a violation. The right to be armed is the right to be free.

        2. I’d rather they be spread out around the country where it is more likely they’ll fall into the right hands than to be only owned by the Fed Gov.

          1. Spread around among the populace is one thing. An overarmed police force is something that can be nationalized and used against us.

            3. The problem isn’t an over-armed police force, it’s an under-armed citizenry. I’d love to see a federal law stating that no member of the militia in good standing could be prohibited from owning any weapon held by any law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over him. If the LAND feels that they need .50 cal sniper rifles, then any law-abiding resident of LA can have one, and Sacramento can pound sand.

              1. Whilst I’m in favor of that law, and Heller contains the line “United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174 , does not limit the right to keep and bear arms to militia purposes, but rather limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by the militia, i.e., those in common use for lawful purposes.” which basically agrees with your position, I would suggest that until one reaches the line between “arms” and “ordinance”, it doesn’t matter *what* the police have, whether it’s M16s with a SMILE setting, or MRAPs.

                The truth is, outside of California and Massachusetts the only difference between what ordinary citizens can own and what the Police can own is the giggle setting.

                I have a PTR-91, which the HK Fanbois know as teh “G3”. It does not have the “separate your shoulder” setting. It doesn’t need one. Heck, I can cause grievous wounds with the ejecting brass.

                Parts of my AK were on a military receiver and had a “waste money” setting. Now it’s in my safe and only 1 bullet per trigger pull.

                The only instances I can think of when the *police* need full auto are (1) the SWAT team using pistol caliber carbines (MP5 etc.) for entry work, and that can mostly be eliminated by giving them ARs in 223 or 300 blackout with TAP ammo or (b) Problems with armored up gangs. Again the solution is real rifle rounds, not more bullets.

                The problem you’re trying to solve is that Police largely no longer see themselves as part of the community, and the community mostly agrees.

                30 or 40 police armed with long sticks, riot shields, helmets and good training and discipline can beat the holy hell out of 10 or 20 times their number of protestors.

                But a couple deer hunters with 30-06s can break their formation and kill most of them before, and there’s *nothing* the police can do about it.

                You want your police force responsive to the community, stop making them a tool for revenue, make the Chief of Police an *elected* position NOT answerable to the Mayor/City manager and *require* that the police live in the city they serve.

                Either that, or the problem you’re trying to solve is cheaper class III firearms. In that case, Hells Yeah.

        3. It gets better. I’ve read that some of the local municipalities have realized that they don’t really want all of stuff that they received from the DoD… and now they can’t get rid of it. They can’t throw it out or sell it because technically it all still belongs to the DoD (the DoD is merely loaning it to local law enforcement). And apparently the DoD isn’t taking any of it back.

            1. What is wrong with this country that our police officials don’t know how to stage a warehouse fire? Or heck, ship them somewhere and let them get lost in transit.

              1. Warehouse Fire, Tragic Boating Accident, Unforseeble Sinkhole, Horrible Paperwork Error Leading to the Feeding of the MRAP with All That Other Unwanted Stuff Into The Local Wrecking Yard Crusher-Shredder … Obviously, local municipalities lack of creativity just reflects the decline in the quality of bureaucratic position applicants.

                1. No supply sergeants in the business anymore. Or people willing to tut over terrible accidents while signing the papers, like a Department Chairman did when n+1 dying computers fell off a moving cart at Flat State U, triggering the insurance replacement clause (which was set at n).

      2. I think a lot of it was people put up with so much garbage if their positions were still getting better. The old Corruption went on until folks noticed they were not getting better off and something got done.
        Now, people are noticing they are not getting better, or even staying the same, they feel they are getting worse off and know they cannot trust the gov’t to do right by them. The big problem is now when they try to do something about it they get out voted either by the ignorant and/or more of that corruption via fraud.
        The people paying for “the bread and circuses” are having no say in their fates.
        This cannot go on forever, so it will not, but how it stops is the issue.
        There are several ways but most are very unpleasant, the rest just about as bad. The only “good” solutions are the least likely as the require those holding power to willingly give it up.

        1. Tamanny Hall and Old Man Daley in Chicago got the garbage picked up and kept things running well enough that most people were willing to put up with the graft. This generation is so busy lining its pockets and kissing up to the EU and UN that they can’t (don’t want to) see that you’ve got to deliver something besides empty promises. They are so busy pandering to the mob that they can’t/won’t see the p.o.ed populace mustering quietly in the shadows.

          1. Worse – any attempt to actually make things work is sued into oblivion either by unions or bureaucracy. Or both.

    2. You’re right. When TSHTF it will be all of us together. I don’t expect to survive it. That’s fine. Sometimes sacrifices must be made and I understand that there is a price to be paid. The bottom line is that without something drastic happening what you’re describing is pretty much a best case scenario.

  7. The constitution allows for a constitutional convention to be called by 2/3 (34) of the states. The states, not the Feds determine who will be the representatives to the convention. If only a term-limit amendment was made, it would be well worth the effort, although the opportunity to meddle (like declaring members of Congress can not enrich themselves by insider trading, or declaring Democrats as traitors to the nation) would be great.

    1. How about something simple like “Congress cannot pass a law from which Congress is exempted.” Of course they would just find a way to wiggle out of that.

    2. Personally, I like a system like H. Beam Piper wrote of in “Lone Star Planet”, “A Planet for Texans” (same book, different titles). Effectivly proper defense of the Constitution was an affirmative defense for anything that one did to a politician. I see this as the only way to keep a political class from redefining any constitution out of existance.

    3. Term limits are tricky. If you don’t do them right you’ll end up with a rotating series of faces fronting for a constant cabal (more likely, two – probably with some kind of power sharing accord) of staff actually making the decisions. See the Permanent Underscretaries in “Yes, Minister” or Weber’s Solarian League.

      Frankly, I’d rather see a flat tax, ending Congress’ delegation of power to the Executive, a simple balanced budget (you can’t spend more next year than you took in last year), and the franchise limited to actual tax-payers (if corporations are going to be taxed like people, they should be able to vote like people).

      1. I was considering that rather than revoking the 17th Amendment (a mixed blessing: it would have denied a senate seat to Jesse Helms, which would likely have meant no Reagan presidency, but kept the senator from Chappaquiddick) we might have the states purchase residences in DC for their representatives and pay for their staffs. Make each delegation the equivalent of an embassy, as it were.

        Making the senators and representatives live together in a dorm ought encourage their cooperation. Having staff being employees of the state rather than of the elected ones should also prove beneficial.

        Oh yes — also impose the Reynolds’ Revolving Door Tax surcharge, so that the first five years after leaving state employment any lobbying earnings get taxed at a higher (state) rate, ensuring the people of the state who paid for their training and in their connections enjoy a return on their investment.

        1. I’m not too sure the staff idea is a good one. I just see Sacramento (say) saddling the few Republicans California sends to DC with ineffective or disloyal staff, further disenfranchising conservatives.

          1. Let the staff selection be done by state parties? That might help each party to develop a bench. It could even prove useful for encouraging retirement of the elected ones to staff positions.

      2. Term limits are tricky. If you don’t do them right you’ll end up with a rotating series of faces fronting for a constant cabal (more likely, two – probably with some kind of power sharing accord) of staff actually making the decisions. See the Permanent Underscretaries in “Yes, Minister” or Weber’s Solarian League.

        We pretty much already have the latter. And yes, Term Limits would make it worse, not better.

        I think another *huge* part of the problem is the centralizing of all the power and agencies in D.C. The people in government there are surrounded by other people who are in government there, and really don’t run into too many people who *aren’t* really fans of government. The whole damn area has lost touch with the rest of the country.

        If I were dictator for a decade, I’d blow up D.C. in a slow, deliberate manner. I’d mandate that the Senate and the House meet “virtually” (i.e. telecommuting) 11 months a year, except for a 2 week face to face meeting in January, to be held in hotels in small towns in the northern tier states (one state per year) and the other 2 week face to face in August, somewhere in the Gulf Coast region.

        INS would get moved to Fort Huachuca if I’m feeling nice. Or El Paso.

        The DoD would get split up for security reasons over most of Nebraska and Kansas.

        The Department of Education would get scattered to the 50 state capitals.

        The National Endowment for the Arts would be moved to Minot, North Dakota.

        You get the idea…

  8. The one serious blind spot I think our founding fathers had was that they had no thought to the concept of career politician. To them public service was a duty that a successful man took on as a way to pay back for his success, and that for at most a couple of terms before returning to private life.
    These days a person gets their law degree, may briefly practice, but then generally enters politics and never leaves. Should they ever be forced out they simply join the shadow government of lobbyists and NGO board members.

    1. They had the concept of the career politician. They thought they had created a system which would prevent that. What I don’t think they had considered was Snake Oil Salesmen as Politicians.

    2. Public service in the founder’s day was also a financial holocaust, it meant dedication to your country.

  9. That has to be the most succinct yet accurate explanation of our current plight I have seen. Rome isn’t the only other example (their original system also included all 3 methods with a large number of checks and balances). Unfortunately none of the societies I can think of with a similar scale were successful in evolving over time, rather than devolving. To those considering a Constitutional amendment, I would suggest they seriously consider who is likely to control the results.

    This does not seem to be one of those problems where a thorough analysis of the cause leads to a practical solution. While “This, too, shall pass” is likely to be the long-term realistic answer, it’s not a reassuring one for us or our immediate progeny.

  10. Montesquieu divided it into Republic, Monarchy and despotisms. He wasn’t down on monarchies so much but obviously his favorite was republic, which he further divided into aristocratic republics and democratic republics with the difference being how broadly citizenship was granted.

    The founders quoted Montesquieu more than any other accept for the Bible.

  11. The term that the founders used was the “Tyranny of the Majority”, i.e. when the majority realized that it could oppress the minority.

  12. The definition of Human Rights needs revision if this is now included —

    “Younger people are choosing to live in cities. They realize that connections to each other are making us better. That WiFi is a human right. That proximity is important to entrepreneurship, access to capital and talent and diversity. There is an opportunity there for us as a nation to embrace that new perspective.”
    Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on CNN 10/07/14
    http://spectator.org/blog/60609/governor-martin-omalley-wifi-human-right

    Emphasis added.

    In Detroit they’ve tried to claim that free potable water is a Human Right (but one for which privileged people must pay. When everything is a Human Right, then nothing is a Human Right.

  13. As a correspondent from behind the lines here the golden state, I take slight issue with the CA Initiative characterization. If there’s one thing the local Evil-party aristos here hate above even the very-minority remnant Stupid-party, it’s the initiative process. It’s the only thing that stands in the way of flexing their overwhelming majority in state government to impose their will on CA. The only reason CA has the Prop. 13 property tax limits, term limits on state officeholders, and isn’t still adding MTBE to gasoline is because of grassroot initiatives, and they had to fight tooth and nail and in the end cheat to avoid other initiatives that passed (like the one a few years ago restricting public education for undocumented aliens) actually coming into force.

    Sure there’s garbage we have to vote on – mostly via “legislative initiatives” where the assembly and senate, instead of passing bills that become law, instead pass bills that then go through the initiative process, mostly so they can say “I didn’t do that, the voters did!” when it all comes crashing apart. The moronic high speed rail initiative (that passed) was one of those. But anything that is so hated by the powerful can’t be all bad.

    1. And don’t forget the ballot initiative against Affirmative Action. It passed with flying colors, although as usual the Powers That Be found ways to “cheat” the new law.

    2. The moment I realized that the entire Left is populated by complete idiots (it was only a strong suspicion previously) was when they unanimously cheered SCOTUS’ Prop. 8 decision, even though it completely gutted the citizen’s initiative. Now, if the ruling band dislikes a law they can find a “private” citizen who can claim harm, judge-shop until they find someone who will strike the offending passage down, and then have the governmental members refuse to appeal or defend. Scratch one law.

    3. Initiatives are a double edged sword. Really though my biggest problem with initiatives (other than the obvious fact that we have a tremendous number of really stupid voters, and election fraud, neither of which is a problem unique to initiatives) is that if we are going to use the initiative process to make laws rather than have the government departments supposedly in charge of those aspects draft the laws; why do we need the government departments? For example, if we are going to pass laws on wildlife management via the initiative process (a bad idea IMHO) why the heck are we bothering to pay a huge Fish and Game Department?

  14. An excellent writeup. It brings to mind a little idea I had while pondering the Uniform Code of Military Justice, wherin our military service members sign away a portion of their rights as Citizens for a time. The same should apply to Congressmen and civil servants. Have them forgo their right to privacy, even wear locator anklets if necessary. Their bank accounts and assets need to be an open book. Violations will send the offender to military prison. Pay and benefits, including medical, can also be provided through the standard military system. Additionally, standard rule-of-law will always apply. No special exemptions.
    Now, if our “betters” could only refrain from sawing off that branch they are supported by known as the “rule-of-law.” It evokes that old Wile E. Coyote moment, only with dire consequences for all of us.

    1. Make sure it applies to Congressional staffs as well. Keep ’em in dormitories – their families can stay in their districts, they can see them during recesses – and record everything they say or do. If this drives the best and brightest out of government, good. Our best and brightest shouldn’t be in Congress, they should be making the next iPhone.

  15. Just noticed. I guess when I changed names WP decided to no longer seending me e-mail notifacations of new posts.

    Problem fixed.

    Missed a perfectly good oppertunity to rant about the evils of the State though.

    😉

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