More Federal-Imperial Arrogance

This footage of the "town hall" meeting is illustrative of what ails our country (though I find the heavily made-up cheerleading "newscasters" - including the carefully crafted leg-shots of the blonde in the red dress - to be themselves part of the problem).

Federal politicians have been treated like demi-gods far too long. They are supposed to be public servants, but it has become clear over the last few weeks that the federal-imperial hubris is a bigger problem than anyone could have imagined.

Our founders envisioned citizen-servants representing the people in a republican manner - with dignity, humility, and in accordance with the Constitution. But what we now have is a Leviathan, and out-of-control juggernaut fueled by a combination of confiscatory taxation as well as essentially counterfeit dollars cranked out by a secretive cabal of bankers, accountable to no-one, who have the power to create money out of thin air with no restriction. Congress has the power to pass extra-constitutional laws and regulations to benefit those who donate to their re-election campaigns, but which cripple the ability of ordinary people to make a living.

Congressmen, used to the menial ministrations of bowing yes-men and scraping lackeys, are cordoned off, inaccessible to the vast majority of the people they represent, only trotted out for carefully scripted pageants and photo-ops. However, the paradigm of state-worship may be shifting, as the people are starting to find their voice and have been reminded that Congress is supposed to represent us. We are their masters, not vice versa.

This is a hard concept for this elitist gang of pampered mandarins, who hold the people in contempt, to understand.

Just look at this Congressman demanding "credentials" from a citizen who was invited to a public meeting! What arrogance. When Congressman are constantly being lauded and feted, adulated, and wined and dined (especially by lobbyists) there are no requests to see drivers' licenses. It is only when they are being criticized do they behave this way - for they are not used to criticism. Even the passing of Ted Kennedy, with all the abuse of power that man has been treating himself to for decades, has caused Congress to carry on as if one of the gods of Mt. Olympus has fallen off the mountain. They act as though we have lost a hero of the Republic, when in fact, if non-Senators did the same things as this privileged substance-abuser, they would be living in a cage. And do we need to be reminded that one of the illustrious members of the august Senate is (literally) a clown? It is apparent to everyone (Congress excepted) that Congress is a joke.

The mood of the country is not unlike 1775, when the people began to wake up and realize that rather than being served by their government, they were being used and fleeced, like hosts to the parasite, and treated with abject contempt once the leech has sucked his fill of blood from his victim.

Is it any wonder people are angry?

Our ancestors sent bureaucrats and government hacks back home arrayed in chicken feathers. Tea went into the harbor. The people refused to pay taxes (which were but a fraction of those we accept as reasonable today). And the effigies of the crown's representatives were openly burned in the streets. Colonial governors were arrested as new governments were put into place by the newly-independent states - whose governments - unlike our modern Democrat and Republican controlled versions - were no longer puppets to the general government and party apparatchiks.

And it was inconceivable to the king's representatives that they were seen as the problem, as the enemy.

Hopefully, this general government will start to take the hint rather than arrogantly steamroll over the people yet again. Taxation without representation didn't work out so well then, and it isn't now. The overwhelming voice of the people in opposition to the Wall Street bailouts (some 99% of the people were opposed) went absolutely unheeded by both the Bush and the Obama regimes. Federal officials of all branches (and from both parties) hold the people in utter contempt and ignore their concerns, confident that election day is a long way off and that the people can be lulled back into worshipful awe of the federal government through appeals to patriotism and propagandistic fear-mongering to make the federal government seem indispensable. The anger of the people is being dismissed as some kind of manipulation - because that is what Congressman do: play games of manipulation. They have done it so long that they have become jaded to real outrage.

The bottom line is that the federal apparatus is too big.

When the U.S. in its current form was established in 1789 (between 11 states at that time that had ratified the new constitution), each Congressman represented 30,000 people. There was no income tax. There was no standing army. There was no central bank. Congress's powers were limited to only those specifically enumerated in Article I Section 8 - and no more. Today, each Congressman represents over 700,000 people. The federal budget is in the trillions. The people routinely pay nearly half of their income in taxes of one kind or another (absolutely unthinkable when we were British subjects!). Our empire spans over 130 countries around the globe in over 700 military bases that must be serviced, manned, and paid for. And it is all financed by a central bank shell-game that has devalued the dollar to below five cents of real value since the Federal Reserve's genesis in 1913.

Barring a radical (and speedy) reform of decentralization and a massive dismantling of the federal monster (both the welfare- and warfare-state), we are on an inevitable trajectory of dissolution, just as was the top-heavy Soviet Union (which also considered itself "indivisible"). We are simply on a path of growth that is unsustainable. And on top of all the crushing debt, inflationary monetary policy, expansion of war in Afghanistan, the explosion of federal regulations, the encyclopedic bills passed by Congressmen who do not even read them, the massive tsunami of retirees expecting a Social Security check and medicare - the federal government has now made it a top priority to seize control of the entire health care system for all American residents, legal and illegal. It is sheer madness that surpasses any of that of King George III. The federal government continues to find new ways to burden the states illegally - which explains the recent outbreak of state sovereignty declarations, and even calls for secession.

But, of course, the demi-gods in Congress have their own lucrative pension plan (insulated from the Social Security ponzi scheme of their creation for the "little people"). They have a world-class health insurance plan - unlike the socialized monster they have in store for the "hoi polloi." And unlike everyone else, individuals and businesses, Congress is never required to balance a budget. They can tax, and when the people complain about taxes, they simply print new money and pay with that (even as our dollars lose value). Somehow, even on salaries that are not exceedingly great, "public servants" at the federal level all seem to leave office as millionaires. Hmmm. I wonder how that works. It must be because they are so brilliant at managing money - which is pretty apparent, isn't it? One can certainly see why members of Congress bury their heads in the sand and expect the gravy train to keep rolling forever.

But they can only do it so long.

You cannot indefinitely pay MasterCard with Visa. You cannot continue to have an elevated standard of living with increased polities of Socialism. You cannot have freedom coexist with "central planning." Eventually, the military-industrial complex is spread too thin, and at some point, the money paid to the common soldier risking his life either devalues to scrip or simply runs dry. The people, military and civilian, will get increasingly angry and hostile, even as the states become less and less loyal to Washington.

It may go out with a bang, or with a whimper, but one way or the other, the entire federal-imperial house of cards is going to fall, and the demi-gods, exposed as the worthless idols that they are, will have to join the rest of us picking through the rubble to rebuild what they have destroyed.