Bum Tossing

It’s official! October 11, 2013 10:00AM EDT (time approximate), this was the DRUDGE headline:

THROW THE BUMS OUT!

                                                                              

That’s the message 60 percent of Americans are sending to Washington in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, saying if they had the chance to vote to defeat and replace every single member of Congress, including their own representative, they would. Just 35 percent say they would not.

One word: Stupid. 

Unlike Ignorant, Stupid can’t be fixed. Just considering current events, much less the last 100 years, to believe “throw the bums out” is the solution for what plagues Congress and the Assembled Multitude of elected officials, bureaucrats and assorted kling-ons in the Logic Free Zone takes a special kind of Stupid. It serves as a perfect example of Einstein’s Definition of Insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.”

A search of our Founding Documents reveals the Founding Dads did not have, much less support, such a notion. And yet, that’s the first “solution” in any discussion, from the water cooler to the Internet and even the MSM: “Throw the bums out!” – and we now have polls to back us up!

Back to Stupid….

During the last election cycle, over  $6 BILLION was spent on this losing strategy. Look what we got: Bums Out; Bums In. Any objective analysis of the conduct of the Ruling Elite over just the past few weeks provides an avalanche of evidence, even for the Perpetually Optimistic: the Bums are still with us. Big time. And you think Government wastes money? This is what $6B gets! When the Pentagon blows $600 for one of those toilet seats, at least it gets one; even the infamous Road to Nowhere is a road.

Spending $6B to elect people to restore any semblance of fiscal sanity and shrink government back within Constitutional boundaries is one of the greatest rip-offs in history – although “Obamacare” is showing great potential to be the next World Champion Loser. Government is bigger, more unconstutional than ever. As a strategy, it doesn't require a leap of logic to conclude “Throw the buns out” is not languishing in overwhelming success.

To visualize, just recall the brilliant series of “Peanuts” cartoons featuring Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. The football is the change Liberty-minded people crave. You are Charlie Brown. Lucy is the preponderance of citizens who always vote for another Santa Crook and his insatiable elves. The results speak for themselves.

Unless you are a political neophyte - and we all were once upon a time – it comes as no surprise that Money and Power is the “flame” that attracts the sociopathic “moths” who get elected. Granted, there is the occasional Man of Integrity who gets in (see Ron Paul), but they are few, far between and outnumbered worse than Custer ever imagined – with sadly similar results.

Bottom line: Irrespective of which political party has the majority and/or who occupies the White House, the Federal government and its awesome power grows while our Liberty, Freedom and Rights shrink. A cursory review of the last 100+ years shows the indelible pattern that has brought us this Thugocracy and to the brink of an indescribable abyss.

Unfortunately, as several of the Ruling Elite have cheerfully informed, there is no “Silver Bullet”, no Super Hero, not even the galloping SCOTUS cavalry coming to save the day and snatch us and our what’s left of our Republic off the ledge. To quote the current Senate Majority Dirtball, Harry Reid, “Not happening”. For a politician, he was remarkably succinct.

There is one thing, though…

Founding Dad and former President James Madison, writing in Federalist 46, had some salient thoughts on how to handle this very situation:

Should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States… the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union, the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassment created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, very serious impediments; and were the sentiments of several adjoining States happen to be in Union, would present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.

Well now!

Madison went on to write that if/when the Federal government passes an unconstitutional law or even one perfectly Constitutional but stupendously unpopular, there are ways, powerful ways to successfully resist. And, no, they don’t include “throwing the bums out.” My friend and pod cast partner, Judge Andrew Napolitano has mentioned numerous times that the Feds don’t have the horsepower (or manpower either) “to enforce all Federal laws on its own”; it needs the State and local police to pick up the slack. And the States have the right to refuse to get their hands dirty as accomplices to enforcement of an unconstitutional (or unpopular Constitutional) law… assuming, of course, they have the political “pair” to do so.  

What to do?

“Kicking the can down the road is almost over. We are out of road” – Monty Pelerin

Instead of tossing good money – and precious time – at “throw the bums out” which clearly doesn’t work, take that time and money and get involved locally with other Liberty-minded folks and organizations following Madison’s advice. Imagine your State passing legislation of non-compliance, “…refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union…”! Some States – TX, VA, MT, SC and others are already doing it. Yours can, too. If not, MOVE!

These are the “interesting times” the Chinese curse warned about. Best to get busy – and pronto. Liberty rarely gets an advantage over the Leviathan. With huge financial problems plaguing DC and the growing unrest across the country, it would be most uncool to squander this opportunity