They Are No Angels: Throw the Bums Out!
by
Tom Chartier
by Tom Chartier
DIGG THIS
When does our
government actually function at it’s best? Stop laughing! This is
a serious question. Ponder it for a moment. The answer is easy.
The government functions best when it does nothing! That’s
right, nothing, nada, zilch.
Should any
poor soul actually depend on the U.S. government for anything, well…
I got some prime beachfront property for sale in Nevada. When was
the last time that any government schemes actually worked? Worked
for the taxpayer that is. We all know these schemes work just fine
for the "elected officials." I can’t think of any that
worked for us. Hm… maybe the Tennessee
Valley Authority…
Do our schools
work? No.
Does FEMA
work? Ask the city of New Orleans.
How about
Social
Security? Will that be there for you when you retire? No way.
Does the government
protect us and keep us safe? Absolutely not! Uncle Sam couldn’t
care less
about keeping us safe. Our all-volunteer military is nothing but
cannon fodder to serve the greedy
corporations who own our "elected officials." Decades
of meddling in the Middle East are the root cause
of 9/11. And we sure as hell ain’t
safer now that President George W. Bush’s "The War on Terror"
has been grinding away nearly as long as the U.S. involvement in
WW II.
Fact is, what
we have in Washington is a whole bunch of slimy bastards. Government
officials are so totally incompetent, they can’t even sell themselves
to a dumbed-down public. That’s why they resort to private enterprise.
That’s right, they all use marketing
firms to sell their images. A good marketing firm can sell you
the notion that Mad Cow-tainted beef cures Cancer, Ebola and
the heartbreak of Psoriasis.
Once in office,
"elected officials" spend most of their time raising
money to remain in office. They pass laws that complicate our
lives and turn innocent pursuits into federal crimes. Ayn Rand summed
it up. In Atlas
Shrugged, a government official lays it out:
"Did
you really think that we want those laws to be observed?... We
want them broken... We're after power and we mean it… There's
no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government
has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when
there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares
so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men
to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding
citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But
just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced
nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers
– and then you cash in on guilt."
All the while,
our "elected officials" are egging
on a power-mad president to shred our constitutionally guaranteed
freedoms.
When those
"elected officials" actually do some work, that’s when
they are your biggest threat. The only things "elected officials"
care about are: 1) their golf game at the Burning
Bush Country Club and 2) the Military-Industrial
Complex that contributes to their campaign war chests.
You, the
voter and taxpayer are a means to an end.
Do we really
need all the laws they pass? Of course not! Do we have a say about
anything "they" do? Of course not!
Before Diebold
became the HAL
9000 of U.S. politics, we lived
in a Republic. Voters got to decide who would make the decisions.
Maybe we still do. But, the only say we have in anything
comes every couple of years when we get to vote on which buffoons
we want to misrepresent us in Congress or the White House.
Oh sure, a
few good eggs slip through the cracks and on occasion a decent law
is passed. But that’s the exception not the rule.
Most "elected
officials" are as qualified as "Swear Man," the tragic
Tourette’s Syndrome
sufferer who "lived" in an alley behind a gas station
in Los Angeles. He’d walk down the street barking and yelling obscenities
every day. There’s not much difference between Swear Man and the
esteemed Senator "Bull" Horn. Just take a whiff of some
of their soapbox flatulence… be sure to stay upwind though.
Have you ever
gotten any satisfaction from writing or telephoning your Congressman
or Senator? If you are a cute sixteen-year-old page, you may get
a response.
I rest my case.
What a hopeless
system, eh? We’re doomed! Well, maybe. But, like I said, there is
one little catch. Democratic
Dictatorship and all, we still have the opportunity every two
years to give some of the bums the good old heave ho! Yup, we can
toss them out of their swank club, The Washington DC Resort and
Spa (aka the U S Capitol Building), onto their keisters to
scurry off into mysteriously chewed holes along the running board.
Sadly a few of these rodents pop out the other side of the Revolving
Door on the boards of corporations, in defense contracting businesses,
and in firms that lobby the Resort and Spa where they served us…
oops… I mean, served themselves.
There is
a trick to choosing the howler monkeys for whom to vote: Do not
listen to their choreographed cacophony. They’ll promise you anything
from a ride on the Space Shuttle to a lifetime supply of Viagra.
But just as soon as the money talks or presidential ambition rears
its ugly behind they are guaranteed to flip-flop. Senator John
McCain is a perfect example.
Don’t look
for candidates who promise to faithfully represent your interests.
That’s a complete waste of your votes.
Here’s what
you do: Look for the candidates most likely to gunk up the works!
I know it sounds
crazy. But it’s not. The Framers of our Constitution set up the
system of checks and balances deliberately to prevent anybody from
doing too much damage… hopefully.
Here it is
in the Federalist
Papers:
"Ambition
must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must
be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may
be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary
to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself,
but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were
angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern
men, neither external nor internal controls on government would
be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered
by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first
enable the government to control the governed; and in the next
place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people
is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience
has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.
"This
policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect
of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of
human affairs, private as well as public."
[Federalist
51, James Madison]
Thanks to The
Decider-in-Chief, the Supreme
Court he rode in on and his rubber stamp "elected officials,"
that system of checks and balances and the Constitution that contains
it is "just
a goddamned piece of paper."
Master hustler
that he is, George W. Bush’s primary goal was always to eliminate
those bothersome checks and balances. He has spent much time and
a lot of your money appointing radical right wing judges
and officials and campaigning for corrupt Republican candidates
he can control. It’s worked for him… but not for you.
So… time to
put an end to tyranny and corruption. Kick the incumbents out! Replace
them with new idiots and cretins! And make damned sure not only
that they disagree with each other but also that their political
affiliation differs from that of the Texas Longhorn in the china
shop called the Oval Office!
Remember, your
"elected official" doesn’t seek
office to serve you.
On Election
Day, vote for the candidates who will tie up the system in knots.
If enough quarrelsome fools are "elected," the new members
of Congress will spend all of their time squabbling amongst themselves
and never get anything done. Perfect! That was the Founders’ plan.
Government at its finest… unable to function!
Elizabeth
Gyllensvard edited this article.
October
28, 2006
Tom
Chartier [send him mail]
played lead guitar in legendary Los Angeles punk band The Rotters
for 26 years until their final appearance in January of 2004. He
has lived in Tokyo and Los Angeles. Currently he resides somewhere
in the Caribbean.
Copyright
© 2006 LewRockwell.com
Tom
Chartier Archives
|