This year, the Wizard of Oz turns 70 years young. I am convinced however that if today, Dorothy were to encounter men with no brains, no hearts, and no balls, she wouldn’t be in Oz…She would be in Congress!
After having months, and then weeks, and then days to accomplished their task of in some small way, bringing sanity to the Country’s fiscal house, they took the game into overtime, and then punted for a very short lived and rather ugly win. As evidenced in the 500 plus point sell off in equities, followed by the smack in the teeth that was the Standard and Poor’s downgrade, nobody with half a brain was buying their last minute fix.
What’s truly amazing in all of this, is that were you to take a poll of every member of Congress, with few exceptions, you would find virtually all of them preaching to you about how much they want this fiscal nightmare to be resolved. In echoing a fellow blogger Charlie Reese from Florida I agree; Politicians are the only people in the World who can create a problem…and then campaign against it!
If both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, why do we have deficits? If all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, why do we have inflation and high taxes? The Republicans Blame the Democrats, the Democrats blame big business, big business blame s the cost of entitlements and regulation, and everyone blames the administration for the programs and social welfare that are choking the working class. It’s a good thing we have over the years relaxed our public indecency laws or some folks would be in a lot of trouble right now for publicly and royally screwing 300 million people!
For anyone who has graduated from even a mid-sized high school, attended a Broadway play, danced at a large family wedding, or traveled to the beach on a holiday weekend, 535 people all in one place is not necessarily a sight to take your breath away, yet it is exactly 535 living breathing people that hold the fate of over 300 million in their hands every day.
Those people are; one hundred Senators, 435 Congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court Justices. 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 that. You and I don't write the tax code, and we sure don't set fiscal policy. Every one of the responsibilities I have just outlined is held tightly in the hands of the 535 Americans I have listed above.
In August of the year 480 B.C. (approx) the Battle of Thermopylae pitted nearly 300,000 Persians against a mere 300 Spartan warriors. Nearly 20,000 Persians died before they were able to subdue the small Greek force. Believe me when I tell you that those three hundred couldn’t hold a candle to the grit and determination our current political class has when it comes to holding on to their power and fiefdoms.
Ultimately, it is we the people who have the power every now and then to shake the cage and pull the rug out from some of the more egregiously incompetent of the lot. We did it in 2010 when 60 incumbents got the boot from the House, 10 new fiscal Conservatives, including one Democrat, took their seats in Governorships, and the Senate nearly tipped to the Republican Party.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted, if only 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. And if there is an underclass in this Country that decade after decade still struggles to break free of the bonds of government handouts and social support, it’s because those same 545 privileged people of power want them right where they are.
I share a friendship with a very successful Wall Street financial advisor who also happens to be a congregational Christian Minister. As a practicing Jew and a Lay Leader in my own community, she was instrumental in bringing me back to “The Book” during a difficult time a few years ago. Despite that, she and I are about as politically compatible as pastrami would be on white bread, with butter and a tomato! I share this because I believe that even she would agree that a working pole with some line and bait beats a fish in the hand any day.
If those 545 self absorbed Ambassadors of failure would truly care about those they were elected to serve, the issues facing us today would be solved quickly, and with less pain than all of us choose to realize, but bear this in mind;
It is The Constitution, the supreme law of the land, which gives the responsibility to the American people for choosing those that lead and represent them in this, our republican (small “r”) form of government. If those 545 people are to be held responsible for the power we have entrusted them with, they must be reminded and held accountable by the people, who are their bosses, every chance we get.
If you are an active participant in our political process, good for you. If you are not, or worse, don’t even take the time to vote (nearly 50% of registered voters sit home every November), than in plain English, shut up! Sitting home and leaning to the right side of the couch while you watch FOX News does not entitle you to complain, and reading the New York Times while sipping your tea with your left hand does not make you a sensible Liberal. Like it or not, Veteran’s for the better part of the last 235 years have fought and died for the right you have to complain today, and I might add in deference to that great generation, to complain in English as opposed to Japanese, German, or Russian!
Write to your local representatives, attend a Town Council meeting, join a political social club, or better yet, actually participate in an election. We are where we are because we all fell asleep. WAKE UP AMERICA!
Martin Mabe
Awesome and absolutely correct! Can we talk soon?
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