Millions of people are experiencing the emotions of frustration, disappointment, anger, or are ‘mad as hell.’ “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” So boomed Howard Beale, the fictional TV anchor on the dark classic satirical movie comedy Network. While it is not a perfect fit for our era, it has strong echoes that merit attention because it reminds us that our currently ‘bad’ situation is hardly new.
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the streets, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
We all know things are bad — worse than bad — they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”
Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!”
That transcript is per American Rhetoric, which then continued with: “I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”
As an observer mused, good humor is often based on truth. It isn’t that the above is funny, but it strikes chords that may make someone laugh. That noted, getting mad, while it can be briefly emotionally cathartic, has its limits.
Beale was not entirely correct, even for his era.
- There was and remains a need to engage with public officials.
- There is a need to have intelligent protests that don’t go off the rails.
The fictional TV anchor Howard Beale speech is, when examined, a piece of clever paltering fit for that era. Some still applies, some 46 years later. Thus, the wise and ancient principle of sifting the wheat from the chaff is necessary as with any merely human person or institution.
Things did not get ‘bad’ overnight. There has long been those across the left-center-right spectrum those who have sounded the alarm for the problems facing our society.
For decades people across the spectrum have warned how ‘American Democracy’ was quietly slipping certain Constitutional limits.
Several of those pundits have mused that numbers, not all, of our institutions have been quietly hijacked from within. The fictional Beale reminds us that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is hardly a new phenomenon. Rather, Carlson is the latest iteration of a face seen and voice heard by millions. Carlson says some things well, engages in hyperbole at times, and while briefly cathartic might nevertheless fail to connect all the dots necessary. Why? Precisely because connecting the dots could cost him his job and multi-million dollar paycheck with cushy benefits. Carlson is perhaps a type for a ‘real’ version of the fictional Network’s Beale character.
Before progressing toward the other headline topics herein, it is worth taking another classic speech from that same Network movie where their fictional network character “Arthur Jensen Pitches Economic Determinism’s New World Order to Howard Beale,” again per American Rhetoric.
Recall again that this movie was released in 1976. John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in the prior decade. Kennedy’s erstwhile VP, Lydon Banes Johnson (LBJ) then assumed the presidency. The national roller coaster ride of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights movement were underway.
Millions were living in wretched conditions in what was then the unquestioned wealthiest nation on earth. Crime, drugs, and alcohol were important issues. Serious riots and often massive protests were occurring. ‘Communists’ were a greater threat at that top vs the fear of ‘terrorists’ fears thrust on Americans in the early 21st century. ‘Pollution’ not ‘climate change’ was often front and center. But what remains true is that then and now several very wealthy people are manipulating the American system to get even wealthier and more powerful. As many have come to understand, money and power, or power and money, often go hand in hand.
Instead of broadcast television, radio, and literal newspapers then, we have social media, cable and broadcast TV or radio, and an array of distractions now. Sports, porn, entertainment, and the blizzard of media put the bread and circuses of ancient Rome. Rome was once a potent and feared empire, but as it slid toward oblivion ‘bread and circuses’ were deployed by the ruling class to keep the ‘rabble’ from rioting. The parallels are not perfect, but they are significant enough for us to ponder and learn from.
With that historic backdrop, the Network audience was treated to this next bit of cinematic razzle dazzle.
Jensen, who had a big business deal upset by an impromptu (again fictional) televised Jensen speech that aimed at thwarting the deal decided to ‘persuade’ Beale into making his ‘error’ ‘right.’ If you haven’t watched the movie, or haven’t seen it lately (noting its R rating and several adult themes are not a fit replacement for a family show like the Waltons), here is Jensen’s speech, per American Rhetoric.
“Network” (1976)
Arthur Jensen Pitches Economic Determinism’s New World Order to Howard Beale
Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!! Is that clear?! You think you’ve merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!
You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.
It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.
Beale: But why me?
Jensen: Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
Beale: I have seen the face of God.
Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale. ##
Insights and Lessons of Contemporary Wealth
The names of the uber-wealthy in America have obviously changed over the years. The methods of how those ultra-rich citizens of the past aimed to manipulate their society in their own favor has its parallels in our modern culture.
The lack of authentic civics and history education in many if not most educational curricula today are increasingly apparent. That is part of the pattern of institutional failure that evidently plagues the U.S.A.
This pattern has harmed affordable housing, healthcare, and a range of most industries including manufactured housing for decades. The Biden White House Fact Sheet on Competition has several useful insights on the topic, which makes it even more ironic as there is no notable effort by “the Administration’s” officials to implement truly corrective steps.
Many of the problems in our industry – and which generally plagues several others is connected to a failure to properly implement existing laws. The lack of control of the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico is a popular example. Proper antitrust enforcement, and a range of laws that could include RICO among others, harm housing affordability because they harm inherently affordable manufactured homes. There are clearly other examples in a range of professions.
What Can You Do Other Than Election Vote Regarding National Issues?
When much of Congress fails to do their job, and when much of the federal bureaucracy likewise fails, what can be done to correct such matters between or beyond elections? Surprisingly, several legal and peaceful options exist.
Peaceful options ought to be pursued before those who are increasingly frustrated and who have or may call for violence reach a point that sparks unrest. Because violence or its threat will inevitably result in repressive governmental responses.
That bit of infotainment should cause us to ponder anew how the American system is known as ‘federalism.’ Per Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute (LII) is the following definition of federalism.
“Federalism is a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government. Generally, an overarching national government is responsible for broader governance of larger territorial areas, while the smaller subdivisions, states, and cities govern the issues of local concern.
Both the national government and the smaller political subdivisions have the power to make laws and both have a certain level of autonomy from each other.”
When the federal government has gone off its rails, a plausible option is to turn to state officials. For most Americans, it is easier to access state officials and leaders then federal ones.
But there are also rights and powers that citizens have which require no ‘outreach’ to public officials at all. More on that further below. That said, a look at some state level resources is useful.
States have their own attorney general and they have their own antitrust, RICO, and public corruption tasked officials. As noted, much of what has gone wrong in the U.S. can by connected to wry ways wealthy elites and their cronies have ‘rigged the system’ in their own favor. Those who have said the system is rigged span the left and right, and have properly alleged for years by individuals like those shown.
The mocking words ‘conspiracy theorist’ – deployed a bit like the overused ‘racist’ epithet moniker – are potentially losing some of their sting. There are genuine conspiracies and imaginary ones. The reason that laws exist against collusion, or that penalties attach for playing a supportive role in a crime, is precisely because such things do happen.
Before pivoting back toward the headline, a few thoughts on institutions and pathways for reform are worth mentioning.
- The ancestors of the billionaire class learned decades ago that owning the local newspaper was useful. Later radio, then television were added.
- The ancestors of the billionaire class learned decades ago that having an organization as a vehicle for promoting their interests was useful to their respective agendas. An organization could create an arm’s length illusion of seeming independence.
- The lessons from the feudalism period in European history were not lost on the billionaire class.
Because ‘personnel is policy,’ the billionaire or ‘donor class’ have long known that certain types of people are well suited for their purposes. For instance. Joe Biden said about himself that he was willing to act like a prostitute for the wealthy. As the Free Beacon reported, “Former Vice President Joe Biden said during a 1974 discussion on campaign finance that he tried to “prostitute” himself to big donors.” This brief YouTube clip has that very statement by Biden, under the title: FLASHBACK: Biden: “I Went To The Big Guys For The Money, I Was Ready To Prostitute Myself.”
Biden has long been a liar and a scoundrel. Isn’t that why the Arthur Jensen type donor class was willing to use Biden in 2020, before or since? And Biden will continue in that role as a serial liar and a political prostitute for the wealthy, who in turn have apparently made it possible for Biden to become wealthy in stealthy yet evident ways. Biden will likely play his part until he dies, or the donors have tired of him and think that someone else will become more useful to their interests.
Put differently, there has been ‘powers behind the throne’ for millennia.
This is a good place to sum up the above before proceeding.
‘The elites,’ the wealthy, the modern corporate leaders, the billionaires and their henchmen have long played their illusory games in ‘democratic’ nations. They have done so in pre-democratic societies too.
That noted, consider the insights from billionaire Nick Hanauer wrote for Politico during the Obama-Biden Administration. “Memo: From Nick Hanauer To: My Fellow Zillionaires. You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist.” His op-ed was entitled “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats.” As is often the case, Hanauer’s article was a clever piece of paltering. A mixture of truth, half-truths, deception, and misdirection.
Hanauer’s fellow plutocrats and oligarchs certainly got the billionaire’s message. He has founded Pitchfork Economics as a way of emphasizing and magnifying his themes.
The public was supposed to walk away from reading Hanauer’s message with a different understanding. At the time Hanauer’s pitch included a call for a higher ($15 an hour) minimum wage. Again, separating the wheat from the chaff is needed. But perhaps one of the key lines from billionaire Hanauer was this: “You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising.”
And what we have witnessed in recent years are protests that included riots in cities across America. Those took place during the so-called COVID19 pandemic ‘shutdowns’ sparked by the death of arrested suspect George Floyd. The rise of a police state was demonstrated with the fencing around the U.S. Capitol Building with thousands of troops securing the perimeter so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could be ‘sworn into’ office.
Hanauer doesn’t make us search for his connection to the other billionaires in American society.
- He simply told us in “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats” that he sold out a business to Microsoft = i.e.: Bill Gate’s brand – for $6.7 billion cash.
- Hanauer said he invested in Amazon, i.e.: Jeff Bezos’ brand.
- Both of those firms, per published reports, have benefited from federal contracts and favorable legislative, regulatory, or other support. That’s how crony capitalism works. That’s part of how the rigged system works.
By the way, the Capital Research Center (CRC) which created Influence Watch says the following about Hanauer: “Nicholas “Nick” Hanauer is a progressive donor, venture capital investor, and political commentator.” It also said: He is most notable for his advocacy of radically left-wing economic policies, especially in labor and employment, and his slapdash defense of those beliefs. Economist Adam Ozimek of Moody’s Analytics characterized Hanauer as “America’s worst minimum wage pundit” for the plutocrat’s straw-man arguments, misrepresentation of even progressive economists’ positions, and general ignorance of the functioning of price systems.[4] Hanauer has also faced criticism for failing to ensure that employees of his own companies are paid the entry wage minimums he advocates, which critics note refutes his heterodox economic principles.[5]” Restated, Influence Watch illustrated that Hanauer indeed postures, palters, and engages in head fakes.
But so long as people do not pay attention to the details or fail to follow the money trail, nice sounding words throughout history have been used to mislead untold billions of souls in a kaleidoscopic array of deceptive methods.
Politicians can get ‘bought off’ by the donor class. Not all of them, but enough of them from both major parties. Which is why what follows on the other powers citizens have further below is important
Bureaucrats can get bought off by the donor class. Not all bureaucrats, but enough of them to keep them compliant with the will of the donor class. Which is why the insight from John Kenneth Galbraith is significant. Case in point, Dr. Anthony “Tony” Fauci, who has been the top paid federal official (more money annually than the U.S. president) and who has reportedly amassed a net worth of some $5 million dollars, per Celebrity and Moneywise, while in office.
“Moreover, regulatory bodies, like the people who comprise them, have a marked life cycle. In youth they are vigorous, aggressive, evangelistic, and even intolerant. Later they mellow, and in old age—after a matter of ten or fifteen years—they become, with some exceptions, either an arm of the industry they are regulating or senile.” Per GoodReads, which cited his 1954 book “The Great Crash of 1929.” Note the date, 1954. Galbraith said almost 70 years ago that regulators become “an arm of the industry they are regulating.”
It is the history of New York’s Tammany Hall apparently played out at the federal level.
Because corruption for public officials has a long history, as noted, the founding founders opted for what is known as federalism, a blending of state and federal power as part of a broad system of checks and balances.
One must keep in mind that the founders were steeped in history. The founders were often successful people themselves but were also deep thinkers. A quotation attributed to George Washington’s cautionary words on government are an apt introduction to what follows as limits and methods beyond election voting that We the People can exercise influence or power over a runaway and corrupted system. Per QuoteInvestigator which cited The Christian Science Journal, “The first President of the United States said: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” That same source noted that variations of that expression date back hundreds of years.
The Epic Lesson of Boston
For centuries, there has been a struggle in the U.S. (and in other nations too) for how the monied class could influence, manipulate, or control the political, financial, and legal affairs of the nation. One must recall that the Boston Tea Party was not merely a protest against unjust taxation. The Boston Tea Party was also a blow aimed against the British monopoly, “the British East India Company.” “The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies.” Opposition to unjust taxation (without representation) and opposition to monopoly power went hand in glove.
Note the direct connection of monopoly power and government.
The representation that we the people have today is obviously no better than the representative.
Be it a he or she, whatever the skin tone or the surface religious affiliation, a representative might be just as willing to prostitute themselves as Joe Biden was.
Democratic President Harry S. Truman’s insight on the topic is necessary for modern minds. Per Quote Catalog: “You can’t get rich in politics unless you’re a crook.”
There must be plenty of crooks, because much of Congress and other federal officials went into office with modest means but emerged wealthy. Examples from both major parties are worth noting.
- Among Democrats, a prominent example is former President Barack Hussein Obama who has a net worth today of $70 Million. Per OpenSecrets, “Barack Obama’s estimated net worth for 2008 is $3665505” ($3,665,505). That $3.67 million that Obama was worth in 2008 blossomed 19-fold since the time he was in or left the White House.
- Senator Mitch McConnell (KY-R) is one of the Republicans – along with Democrats – that were spotlighted by Peter Schweizer in “Secret Empires.” Wealthy Gorilla said of the Kentucky senator that “As of December 2022, Mitch McConnell’s net worth is estimated to be roughly $35 Million.” Given that a U.S. Senator earns $174,000 a year, that’s quite the trick. That source said: “In 2007, McConnell’s net worth was $3 million.” Wealthy Gorilla said that while in the Senate, McConnell married Elaine Chao in 1993. “Elaine’s father is a successful Chinese-American shipping magnate. He founded the Foremost Group. The company operates a fleet of 33 ships. Foremost is worth an estimated $1.2 billion before debt.” McConnell, as do other politicos, may use family members to gain wealth, which is one of the ways Joe Biden apparently became wealthy.
That pattern of soft-to-blatant corruption is near the heart of what’s gone wrong in U.S. politics in too many cases during the 20th and 21st centuries.
These are reasons why other checks beyond the ballot box are necessary.
Other Possible Legal Checks on Abuses of Federal Power – Starting with a Power You Likely Already Possess
Beyond elections, perhaps the most important check on governmental power is the jury system. In several ways the ‘vote’ of a single juror is the most important ‘vote’ any individual citizen may exercise. Why?
“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” So said Thomas Jefferson in 1788, per the AmericanBar. Because crimes are supposed to be decided by a trial by jury, the vote of a single juror can save a persecuted citizen from conviction.
The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) says that “Jury duty is for heroes.”
Quotes on the power of a juror, per Friesian, to ignore the judge’s instructions and to essentially ‘nullify’ the effects of a law in a specific case by voting ‘not guilty’ include the following.
Jury Power Quotes
- It is not only [the juror’s] right, but his duty…to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.
– John Adams, 1771
- The wording of the following is to modern minds a bit tortured, so this last phrase is the key. “the jury undertake to decide both law and fact” said Thomas Jefferson, with the fuller citation as follows. “…it is usual for the jurors to decide the fact, and to refer the law arising on it to the decision of the judges. But this division of the subject lies with their discretion only. And if the question relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.
– Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on Virginia,” 1782
- This from a former chief justice is a classic example. “It is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumed that courts are the best judges of law. But still both objects are within your power of decision…..you have a right to take it upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy.
– Chief Justice John Jay, Georgia v. Brailsford, 1794
- Jurors should acquit, even against the judge’s instruction…if exercising their judgement with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction that the charge of the court is wrong.
– Alexander Hamilton, 1804
- Petty juries, consisting usually of twelve men, attend courts to try matters of fact in civil causes, and to decide both the law and the fact in criminal prosecutions. The decision of a petty jury is called a verdict.
– Noah Webster, Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
- In the trial of all criminal cases, the Jury shall be the Judges of Law, as well as of fact, except that the Court may pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction.
– Article XXIII, Constitution of the State of Maryland
- In all criminal cases whatsoever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts.
– Article I, §19, Constitution of the State of Indiana
The examples of quotations on the power of the jury over the law, as well as the specific claimed facts in a case, are ample. Some other examples follow.
- The jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both the law and the facts.
– Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Horning v. District of Columbia, 1920
- If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the evidence…If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused is unjust, or that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic or passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision.
– 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, United States v. Moylan, 1969
- [The jury has an] unreviewable and irreversible power…to acquit in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge…The pages of history shine on instances of the jury’s exercise of its prerogative to disregard uncontradicted evidence and instructions of the judge; for example, acquittals under the fugitive slave law.
– United States v. Dougherty, 1972
Entire volumes have been dedicated to this topic of jury power. Because of the apparent weakness of much of U.S. education, such references are routinely unheard by students from K-12th grades. Even college level courses may not deal with this critical subject.
Other Ways to Limit Federal Overreach
Beyond the jury system, in no particular order of importance, are these legal options.
As noted, states have the power within their own respective borders to bring antitrust, fraud, RICO and other cases that may connect to abuses of power and/or cronyism corruption.
In the case of good laws that go unenforced, there is the legal remedy known as the Writ of Mandamus.
Per Cornell’s LII: Overview A (writ of) mandamus is an order from a court to an inferior government official ordering the government official to properly fulfill their official duties or correct an abuse of discretion. (See, e.g. Cheney v. United States Dist. Court For D.C. (03-475) 542 U.S. 367 (2004) 334 F.3d 1096.) According to the U.S. Attorney Office, “Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, which should only be used in exceptional circumstances of peculiar emergency or public importance.”
The Association for Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has been exploring for their members benefit the issue of Article V convention of states (COS and sometimes AV or A5).
Per the ConventionOfStates website: “Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives states the power to call a Convention of States to propose amendments. It takes 34 states to call the convention and 38 to ratify any amendments that are proposed.”
The full text of Article V reads:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
The Convention of States Action resolution allows the states to discuss amendment proposals that, “limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, and place term limits on federal officials.” This is truly a solution as big as the problem.
Prager U has this video on the topic.
There is a growing list of organizations that support the COS process to amend the U.S. Constitution in a manner that would curb the current abuses of federal power.
As author and AMAC member Mike Kapic has said, those who oppose the COS process due to fears of a “runaway convention” are perhaps well meaning but are mistaken. There have been hundreds of COS over the centuries in the U.S. After years of research, Kapic said he is not aware of any example of any convention ever running away.
Kapic provided MHProNews the following document from Georgetown Law that explains the Article V power of the states to call a convention, apart from action by Congress.
Beyond Kapic’s points, it should be apparent that what has ‘run away’ is much of the federal government. It would therefore be illogical to avoid a possible solution to runaway federal abuses of power for the mere fear that an Article V convention might runway is almost comical.
Some months ago, MHLivingNews spotlighted the work done by the Texas GOP. See their detailed analysis of the problems facing America and their suggested cures in the report linked below.
Simple but Important
As a personal note, our son was taught years ago to answer the question, ‘what is the constitution and why is it important?’ “The constitution,” he said at Denny’s as we chatted with some out-of-state friends, “limits and defines the power of government.” This is a reminder that it is up to parents and family to pass along such factual and practical wisdom.
The case could be made that much of the federal budget is in a real or ‘technical’ sense unconstitutional spending. Cato used this example from “Col. David Crockett served three terms in Congress from Tennessee, where he is best known for delivering a speech known as “Not Yours to Give.” In response to a proposal for an appropriation to benefit the widow of a naval officer, Rep. Crockett said … “The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.” It was entirely mistaken for the courts and Congress to twist the meaning of the Constitution ‘general welfare’ clause, for instance, to justify spending that was not specified by other parts of the Constitution, such as Article I Section 8.
This list above is hardly exhaustive. The research and report on the Texas GOP party platform is far more extensive, and it must be noted that this writer is a political independent.
The good news about all the bad news is this. The darker the storm clouds, the more people are searching for sound solutions.
A few more thoughts are worthwhile.
- A). There are organizations that have dedicated themselves to specific aspects of the problems their profession or the nation faces. In manufactured housing, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) is a get to the root issues hamstringing manufactured housing type organization. As noted, AMAC on a national and broader range of topics, is reportedly some 2.3 million members engaged on the issues facing America nationally. MHProNews periodically showcases reports from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) or the Job Creators Network (JCN), but there are hundreds of fine organizations that deal with aspects of the erosion of rights and the need to defend the rights of “We the People” in America.
- B). The Faith Community. Per left-leaning Wikipedia: “Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2021 suggest that of the entire US population (332 million) about 63% is Christian (210 million).” It is apparent that Christianity is far from united, even though Jesus Himself told the disciples 3 times in a row His prayer in John 17 that “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” That noted, there are serious Jews and moderate Muslims, among other major faiths, that could well be part of movement to rekindle the America Dream by more authentically living the principles behind constitutionally limited government. Books have and could be written on such themes. But fear of losing tax exempt status can easily be remedied. More important, the case can be made the several of the historic challenges overcome in the past in U.S. history were accomplished by practicing members of their respective faith communities. From the abolition of slavery movement, women’s suffrage (the right to vote), to Civil and Voting Rights for minorities, to the pro-life movement, the faith community played a vital role. It is naïve to think that political reform can occur without a robust engagement from a properly informed and motivated to teach and act faith community. Lessons in jury nullification, for example, could easily be mentioned during a sermon from time to time until the knowledge of a juror’s potent ‘vote’ becomes commonplace.
Proper understanding must precede action. Proper information should be followed by sustained action.
This article began with some references to the satirical movie Network. When what is right and what is wrong are well understood then the rest can flow naturally from it.
There are any number of ways that ‘what is wrong’ has been twisted by dark minds into becoming socially acceptable. As we each have our own weaknesses, it is necessary to be objective and not despairing but hopeful. Self-reform is a process. Reform of the American Republic is a process too.
God gave humanity Ten Commandments. Human law can’t supercede God’s law and will.
Jesus summed up those Ten Commandments into Two: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
People of good will founded this nation through sacrifice.
It will take sacrifice to keep America from plunging deeper into the darkness of an authoritarian police state which uses surveillance capitalism as one of its many tools. Our profession is one of several that are artificially smaller today than it was or could be. While there are issues (see links below) that are factors, certainly the improper ways that public officials have acted are contributing factors.
There is more to say, but this is plenty for today. Read through this at least one more time to better grasp the ways these facts interconnect and how this relates to what has been described as SoAP. Solving Americas Problems. ###
need to wait years for legislation that in the past has often led to little or no discernable benefit. https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/solution-big-tech-oligarchs/
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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