From: Linda Herd <[email protected]> Golly, I read what I already know, but it still makes me tired. Why shouldn't it? Where do you start? I took Latin and we were reading about the government, Hannibal, and other things. I didn't like that part even then at 16. Didn't like history because of studying wars. Now I guess I'm forced to be involved due to guilt. How would I feel if I never did anything about this World today? I'll have read this again. Sleep on it. Thanks for saying "to do" something and not try and do. I have never figured out how that started. This was well written as usual. Thanks, Linda Herd On Jan 5, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Linda Herd wrote: > Eric, > > I laughed but agree with you. I'm serious. If we can spend trillions on Iraq > and whomever else pops up, we could surely try to totally eliminate lobbying. > Of all our causes, that seems to be one of the most worthy. That is how our > government works. And in this country there is a real threat from the > "Lords". The cost of living should go down, and this should bring some > responsibility back to our law makers. Do you think this is more on the > impossible side of causes (or the possible with lots of work side). I always > enjoy your emails. But do not let the compliment change your answer as I > really know it will not. Thanks, All of our causes are on the impossible side. There have been many groups of people throughout history who tried to keep their governments from going off of the cliff. There were probably people exactly like us meeting in temples, pubs, and parlors of Rome, Cesarae, Phillipi, Londinium, etc., trying to figure out how to arrest the collapse of the Roman Empire. Even the Emperor Hadrian made a real stab at turning things around. We know what happened there. It is perhaps cold comfort to know that the proud and rich suffered, in the end probably as much as the humble. Sometimes people DO succeed or succeed at least for a time. We can never real 'solve' any problem. The next generation has to have its chance to sink or swim just like we did. There were people in the late Roman Republic who acted to give that government years or decades of leased life. People like Trajan, Hadrian, Narcissus extended the life of the Empire for a while. I think it highly unlikely that we will ever see a pure vision of what the US system should look like any more than the Romans were ever able to "restore" their Republic. This pure vision of the US never really existed even in 1789 and will likely never be seen in any period of history to come. But we can improve this system, maybe keep it back from the brink for a generation or two until the next crisis (which will not be ours to deal with or worry about). Pork, corruption, nepotism, greed, empire building will always come creeping back in no matter how thoroughly we kick it out. We can only do the best we can with the time we are given and try to give the next generation a level playing field for their own drama, their own choices. Perhaps a miracle will occur and we will have a 'golden age' for a time, but I do not bank on it. But the lobbying problem really is deeply tied in with everything else. It is not a disease but just a symptom of the fact that government's power has run unchecked. This abuse of power: the passage of 'laws' which are utterly unauthorized and in many cases clearly and directly forbidden by our Constitution, CREATES the lobbying problem. Without those abuses, there would be nothing to lobby FOR. So, yes, I think, if we can do anything at all, we will be able to do serious damage to the DC chow line. But the action will have to come from the several states saying 'enough'. There is no way to use DC to reform DC. It is like asking a pig to become a duck through positive thinking. Shoot the pig; buy a duck. Once the states tie up the power of DC in endless court challenges (and/or nullification), we wait a cycle or two to get the idiots currently up there out, and then IMPOSE reform on DC as a condition of its being allowed to continue under the power WE have delegated to it. Then we use DC as a tool to IMPOSE reform on the few states whose governments may be an irretrievable mess and which will collapse into disorder when the buffet is cut off. The Constitution works both ways: the states delegate power to the Feds (and therefore the power is really theirs in the first place), but the states also agree to a compact that they will look out for each other and not abuse their own people (Article IV and 14th Amendment "Privileges and Immunities" clauses). With a lever and some place to stand, you can move mountains, but you also need somewhere to balance the lever (the fulcrum). One level of government cannot be the fulcrum to engineer its own reform. You have to play off one level or branch of government against the other. That is, in fact, what 'balance of power' means and exactly how our government was designed to function. It would be nice, however, if our government had come with a 'Haynes Manual' and a number to order a rebuild kit... We are not without hope. No, we do not have very MUCH hope, but it is the only game in town. Most of what we try to do to reform the current system are the same steps we would need to build a new one from the ashes. As a Christian, I believe that at some point things will get irretrievably bad, but I never know whether this time is that time or not. In the end, we are not given to prevent The End. But even if I knew that things were now utterly lost, I do not think I could excuse myself from TRYING. What more (or less) can we do other than live the best life that we know? Sincerely, Eric Vought "Faith does not absolve us from trying to understand our world and make moral distinctions with the eyes and brain given us. Religion is as much responsibility as direction: Duty not Distinction." -- This is a Free Speech forum. The owner of this list assumes no responsibility for the intellectual or emotional maturity of its members. If you do not like what is being said here, filter it to trash, ignore it or leave. If you leave, learn how to do this for yourself. If you do not, you will be here forever.
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-- This is a Free Speech forum. The owner of this list assumes no responsibility for the intellectual or emotional maturity of its members. If you do not like what is being said here, filter it to trash, ignore it or leave. If you leave, learn how to do this for yourself. If you do not, you will be here forever.
