Political Foolishness Looks and Sounds Like

That says what I'm trying to pound home to voters: Vote out those in Congress who do not do well; let no one who has been in Congress, Senate or House, for 12 years get your vote again until they have sat out at least one term.

My views about 12 year limits have been an effort to propose a rational practice for voters to follow. Now, my views are sharpening due to continued gross abuses in Congress. I think the Go-Alongers are still going along with whatever the majority leadership wants.

If the majority of voters continue to buy bailout and buyout lines, rewarding failures, we, the voters, are voting very stupidly. Our sign, if we would continue that way, would read "We Reward Stupidity and We Are Afraid to Vote It Out!" I refuse to think of us that way!

Yet, the pressure to think and act stupidly comes from very effective marketing. Can anyone make sense of the answers being given to and by those in Congress putting us deeper and deeper into debt? It sounds reasonable; it is delivered with stunning confidence; but, it explains and answers  nothing! Half of each answer is a political or sociological preamble.

We are being marketed with such sophisticated words and smooth talk that it's like a massage or a nice cup of tea inside a salon whose only exit is through an invisible tunnel into a prison. As we submit to the massage of words, the hot tea of ideas, we do not feel like questioning. We want to relax and believe that all will work out, in the end.

The stupidity lies with us if we allow the massage or swallow the smooth liquid of words. We behave stupidly, and there is no doubt about this, if we have no backbone, if we do not want to think for ourselves, if we trust any human man or woman entirely.

Five minutes of listening to C-Span today shows the opposition going on. A Representative from Alabama, whose name I forget, was speaking to Treasury Secretary Geithner, at a Finance Committee hearing.

Quite calmly, the Representative, who voted against auto bailouts and other bandaids, made a powerful argument against key Treasury proposals now before Congress. The look on Geithner's face and his hands showed the tension. I have never seen his brow so furrowed or his lips so tense, white around the edges. His hands, clasped before him, seemed literally tied in knots. He was trying to stay calm, it appeared, as he nodded. All the while, his expression showed anguish and severe discomfort with the facts and arguments of the calm, astute Representative from Alabama.

I have called for Mr. Geithner not to resign unless Representative Frank, Senator Dodd, and others do the same. It will not happen. The constituencies of Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and others from other states who continue to try to tax and to borrow our way out of debt should vote them out! Voters have power, and yet in these times appear to prefer to enjoy a massage or a cup of tea, rather than make tough decisions and drop old favoritisms!

Who would you and I rather disappoint and cause discomfort to-our senators or representatives, our governors or mayors-----or, on the other side, every citizen in this country? The citizens are already targeted by politicians in office for higher income taxes and higher sales taxes. Those taxes now hover over us, ready to fall at any minute and crush more of our liberty, business entrepreneurship, and personal savings. This battle is clouded but deadly to freedoms if we do not pay attention to debates and decisions being made right now on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

Many, myself included, have been e-mailing our senators and district representative in Congress. We do not boast about this, for we have failed to write often enough to them in the past. We do not boast about this, for it seems we are drowned in a flood of vague responses above every "Thank you for writing. Let me know how I can help you."

It is fact that every person in Congress is hard-skinned when it comes to protecting himself or herself. Even the best know that Congressional and political life are rough. Every person in Congress can handle disappointment and discomfort. And making the wrong-headed deciders leave, by voting them out, is good for the country and for every honest, hard-working, freedom-loving American

It is fact that some politicians may become outraged or belligerent, humble-acting or resigned. Whatever the reaction, some of it will be false, intended to massage us into regret. We will not buy that, unless we react stupidly.

What is stupidity? One definition is "lack of common sense." We need to apply common sense with a strict attachment to it.

We need to take the emotion out, and we can do that.  We need to dump our fears in place of common sense action. We need, fellow Americans, to speak up and to vote wisely. Just use common sense, once you really research the facts. Read both sides of every question. Listen and do something.

Do not swallow anybody's explanation about anything. The words of law are the ones you and I are bound by. How tight the binding becomes is out of our hands. It is in the hands of Congress people with their special interests, connections, and political interests. What they do with what is in their hands depends on their character. We need to vote out those getting us and future generations deeper into debt, unemployment, bad contracts, and more dependency. If you believe that the web of government control over you cannot become worse, then do nothing. You will see, and would it be too late for peaceful resolution?

The people who fought for independence from taxation by people who cared nothing for them succeeded. We need to fight now, for we are not free of taxation by people who care nothing for us. Some even care nothing for individual independence, for that limits their powers. The majority in Congress build power for themselves there, year after year. That is the nature of the beast of politics and the beast of undisciplined and self-centered human nature.

Our independence from government, our dignity as a people, and our freedom to try new things and take risks depends on us. We must retrieve that old independence and guard it, developing the wisdom, common sense, we can develop.  

If we do not take a stand against more taxation, against more government entitlement spending, and against more bailouts and buyouts, then the poor will become poorer. That is sure. Education costs will go up, in efforts to re-invent the wheel, when through the years teachers have failed to teach reading and math at the lowest levels. No new educational programs can fix that. Only better teachers, those who take teaching as a calling, not a road to financial security.

These are just a few of the weighty matters before us. Will we act like grownups with common sense and a deep desire for personal freedom beyond the freedom to abort babies and the freedom to say any lie that comes to mind?

We first must change, before anything can change. By the help of God, a repentant people will allow Him to change us, to wake us up, and to make us more interested in the common good. We will not be able to enjoy the land of freedom if it is not free. If we let it go, it is on our heads.

"A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one." "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

– Ben Franklin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 

* Anti-Stimulus Tea Parties Bug Obama, Joel Hendon