A Pox On All Their Houses!

I have been a conservative for the most part of my 59 years on this earth. I would like to think also that I am a person of principle and that I vote for the man rather than the party. In fact, I usually shock both my Republican and Democrat friends when I tell them I have voted for a lot of conservative Democrats over the last 38 years of voting (you had to be 21 to vote when I started voting).

However, I am about ready to start a new political movement, not one that I think has any chance of winning a dogcatcher’s job, the mayor ship of my city, a House Seat, Senate Seat or even the Presidency. Not one with a national "Committee" of fat cats such as the DNC or the RNC. Not one with certified wackos such as Lyndon La'Rouche. Nope, that is not for me. My movement will be called "The National Vote The Bastards Out Movement" Or NVBOM for short.

The central idea for the NVBOM is simple. If you live in a district with a Republican representative or Republican senator, vote for the Democrat. If you live in a district with a Democratic representative or Democratic senator, vote Republican. This will result in a Democrat Majority in the Senate and the House. Now, knowing exactly how people think, this will cause the current minority party (the Democrats) to think "America has come home to good governance.� In the following election however, vote the other way around. If you voted for a Democrat and elected him, now vote for a Republican and elect him. (editors note: being sick of PC, the author uses him and he as the universals and are inclusive of both sexes as they were intended to be.)

This will result in a complete turnover in the house (Republican to Democrat to Republican) and a 2/3 turnover in the Senate in two short election cycles. The end result? Maybe the elected representatives and senators will get the idea that they work for us, not the other way around and maybe they will start governing and not legislating for their personal re-election and to hell with the rest of the country.

"OK GM," you may think, "you've finally lost your mind." You could well be right, but think a little further. Over the last 50 years or so, the Democratic Party (rightly or wrongly - but more rightly it seems) has become known as the "Tax and Spend" party. In part, because of this and because of the moral trepidations and wishy-washiness of the Clinton Administration, to say nothing of the Contract with America the Republicans became ascendant in the House and Senate and with only an exception have "ruled" ever since.

However, the Republicans have lost their way, they have become a new Tax and Spend party with a slight difference, and that is doing the right thing (tax cuts) but also not caring how the federal government is run by spending far more than any self respecting Republican, let alone any conservative should do.

And all this while, George Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States of America has wielded his veto pen exactly ZERO times. This is not what America thought it was getting. It is not what America deserves.

This is not to say that some things have not gone right. We are engaged in a global war on islamofascist terrorists. We responded to natural Disasters in Southeast Asia, in Pakistan and in our own Gulf Coast. We are learning to quit caring what others think of us and start doing what is right in the world. Is that enough? Of course not, but they are all individually and collectively movements in the right direction.

Europe in general and France and Germany in particular have been stumbling blocks, both because of some inherent anti-Americanism, and because of short term corruption (and some long term corruption) in the UN and the "Oil for Food" programs which were really "bribes for votes and obstructionism" programs. America is waking up to the idea that you can't run a government based on polls of what other countries think, nor can you govern within based on popularity polls. (Note: Democrats are dancing in the street with Bush's low poll numbers... but guess what America? Bush is not running again. He doesn't really care about polls anyway.) Be that as it may, much of America is concerned about spending, the direction we are heading, and the attendant consequences on very real problems in this country.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for, nor would I be in favor of, a return to the Clinton way of doing things. Clinton was worried about only one or two things, his legacy, and his personal pleasures/predilections. Louis Freeh has laid it all out in his book on his years as head of the FBI. I tend to believe LF over BC anyway, LF never stood in front of a national audience and said "I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewenski." and he didn't ask the Saudi's for a donation to his library instead of pressuring them to cooperate in apprehending the culprits and prosecuting them for the Khobar Towers bombing. Nor did Freeh promise to apprehend the perpetrators of the bombing of the USS Cole but do nothing of merit or substance. At least Bush gives the impression of, and a history of doing pretty much what he said he would do (except for that tax and spend thing.)

Nor am I calling for continued programs as they are. When the Senate and House can vote for a huge chunk of change for a "Bridge to Nowhere" it's time to get serious about governance. Pork spending must be eliminated. Perhaps we need a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting "ear marked funds" and spending not related to the bill at hand. Boondoggles such as our current spending plans ought to be anathema to all America. But they aren't!

Reasons for this go back probably into antiquity. It has been said that democracy will survive only until the "public" realizes it can vote its self largesse from public coffers. Isn't that what is happening now? When ninety plus percent of the incumbents are re-elected often on the basis of what they can "bring home" to the district/state rather what they can do for the country as a whole representing the wisdom of their district/state one has to wonder if the Republic is doomed in the very near future.

That is a pessimistic point of view I know. My blogging bud Woody thinks that the idea of a NVBOP will backfire. He opines that Republicans would do so, but democrats would lie about it and vote Democratic producing a Democratic control of the House and Senate. But that is the idea, then in the very next election take it away from the Democrats and vote in Republicans. By the second go round, the various representatives may realize that they only hold office because of our forbearance. Then, we do away with the ridiculous retirement plans, the failure to utilize Social Security for Federal Workers, pork-barrel spending, and the perks that make wanting to be a full time politician all the time the job rather than doing a job for the American people.

John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural Address stated "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Yet we seem to have forgotten this. We have become a country of “What's in it for me?" not a country of "How can I help."

Maybe its not time to vote the bastards out, maybe there is a way to send a message to all of our governing bodies, where-ever they may hold office that we, as a people, are fed up with special interests, with out of control spending, with unsafe borders, with politics as usual and indeed with politics as local (despite what Tip O'Neil said) maybe we need a new paradigm of what this country really is all about. Not the failed policies and works of the left, not the pie in the sky promises of the pseudo-conservatives, but a real honest look at what are laws are and where they are going. It is said that the Lord's Prayer contains only 69 words and the laws on the prices of milk runs thousands of words over hundreds of pages and there has to be something wrong with that.

It's time for a change, a big change, a change that involves self reliance, responsibility, honesty in dealing with each other, and movement away from special interests and into the very real need of the public interest. (End Rant)

Linked at STACLU and Cafe Oregano and Outside The Beltway and The Political Teen