True Grits and Mr. Charlie

Tuesday is a day we discover if or maybe to what extent common sense is still part of the social fabric..I'm not bright enough to find any of it in the political campaigns or most of the political candidates. Well if it 'ain't' there what happened to it? Where did it go? Did someone take it? And the answer is - Da,,,What do you mean common sense…..?

Growing up we would hear this word used often… Common sense seemed to be something everyone knew and believed… and when you learned what 'the' common sense was you simply did it…. Simple example: Carrying debt was a bad thing and saving was good common sense… Now debt is a good thing and saving is a bad thing. Hundreds of other examples could be given but the point is that something very bad has happened. Like some unique kind of virus has spread through the political and social groups that has destroyed out ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, and truths from lies…

Common sense seems to be rooted in values, beliefs, and principles…. the very things that bind people together into a societies - a culture. When government, liberal media, and other subgroups start tampering with these core values the first loss is 'common sense.' With that loss we los the ability to measure things that are going on around us and are impacting us everyday. Even the simplest of things, such as, "debt is good- saving is bad.'

So Tuesday is a common sense test for Mississippi voters but the test results will not be fully recognized until November.

So as we stare at the ballot know that what is being voted on is not this person or that person but the hidden question do we want government directing our lives...

I keep this article in my archives and every now and then when I am feeling lost in all of the political nonsense I reread the article….This is one of those days….

Mr. Reese has been a writer for the Orlando Sentinel for almost a half century and this was his last article before retiring. Some writers are able to say things simply that cuts through all of the confusion, outright lies, political slogans, reality spins, and all the other accepted behaviors from elected politicians. I say "accepted" because that is in fact what we have done as voters and citizens.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Thanks, Charlie

Under our watch this national has lost its way….
Under our watch the moral fabric has been torn…
Under our watch the dream has been lost…
Under our watch the 'shining city' is in shambles...

Since we find ourselves in a time of reckoning as a nation we need be sure we see, understand, and accept our part in this national atrocity.

So long as the voters continue to point fingers at our elected employees the longer it will take to find our way back and restore the country to some semblance of a place we have known.

The reason the 2010 elections did not strike fear in the hearts of every politician is because they have seen this before. What they have never seen before is for the voters keeping up the task of replacing them election after election.

The 2012 elections offers us a unique opportunity… If we can replace another sixty or seventy politicians in the House along with enough new Senators to give us control of the Senate then and only then can we take a deep breath and feel we are taking our government back. That is our mission.

If this mission is accomplished, we can live with a "Romney" as president or even a second term with Obama. Congress has the real power.

Would there were a silver bullet…. BUT two successful election is a row will strike fear in the hearts of ever professional politician at the federal and state level. That is the goal. If they don't fear us, they will not serve us. We know this because of what these elected employees have 'writ' on our nation's wall for the last few generations.

Congress is the power in Washington but we are the power in the nation. When we forgot this they forgot this.

Time is running.

How may of us know who is running for the senate in what states? What senators are in trouble in their states? What do we know about the people running against these sitting senators? Why is it even important that we know? We can't vote for them but what we can do is offer financial support and that is usually needed when running against an incumbent politician. When a few million people send a few dollars to candidates in other states it makes all the difference in the campaign and often the outcome.

It's a cool sunny spring morning here… The ducks are on the pond doing what they do and the gray crane is hunting his breakfast. It's after nine in Washington and Washington is beginning to do what it does…At Piney Hawk, in north Mississippi, things look 'as usual' … however, instincts are telling a different story. A story of loss, of danger, and of betrayal.

Here in Mississippi the new governor and the newly elected members of the house and senate are doing just what they promised they would do in their campaigns. Also, they are including the Tea Party folks in the process. What more could a poor boy want?

The simple answer to that question is: Washington.

Whatever happens in the election in November will happen to all of us and to each one of us. We are Americans and our destiny will be shared.

Ron

docnick37@gmail.com

Http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com