Jewish Atheist

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”

Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address

To all you tea party folks, demonstrators, placard-bearers, shouters out at town meetings, all of you with the guts to stand up to encroaching big government…you are true Americans, and I love you. Keep fighting the good fight. I would stand shoulder to shoulder with you — that is, if I knew which of you were simply patriots and which of you are also paranoid conspiracy theorists.

Many of you dress up and pretend to be like the Founders of our nation, but in one respect you’re not like them at all: they were supremely rational, intelligent human beings. They were products of the Enlightenment. They knew what their problems were: King George, the most powerful empire in the world, the Hessians, the constant pressure to feed and clothe Washington’s ragged army, the squabbling among the colonies are they tried to create a government while fighting a war…the list went on and on — but it did not include a regiment of ferocious Bigfeet that the British were sending from Canada; it did not include mysterious black aircraft from which the British would bomb them; there were no questions about whether Washington or Adams was a British spy.

So, yes, at least some of you seem to get the point that Libertarians have understood for at least 50 years: the Federal government has far exceeded its Constitutional limits and is now operated by an oligarchy of politicians and the special interests that have bought and paid for them. It has long since ceased to be a country of, by, and for the people.

Jefferson was supposed to have said that we need a revolution every now and then, and, great nation that we are, we’ve shown we can do it (fairly) peacefully — as with minority rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc. Peacefully — but emphatically. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong, but nothing is more American.

As a lover of liberty all my life, I have five things to say to you:

(1) The problems that we can see are formidable enough – horrendous deficits, pointless and expensive foreign wars, a government careening toward bankruptcy because it won’t rein in its spending or its entitlements, two parties differing only in the ways in which they want to expand government and take more of your money. You are wasting entirely too much time, energy, resources, and attention on a florid variety of conspiracy theories based on dubious or nonexistent proof, hearsay, or “truthiness,” i.e., “it seems to be true because it should be.”

I know that you are frustrated and feel powerless, but that is all the more reason to focus your efforts on the real problems, not to dig up the paranoid fantasies of the past (the United Nations as the focal point for world government? LOL!!!)… or to create new ones like that whole birth certificate distraction. Please, stay focused on the real problems.

As for the government’s plans to control your life… well, they are already far advanced and well underway. (See below, under Socialism.) And as for elaborate, unproven, rumor based conspiracies, just remember this: the government is incapable of large-scale conspiracy. It is incapable of keeping a secret.

Remember Watergate? A conspiracy involving only a handful of people couldn’t be kept secret. So just remember, when you get all feverish and start hyperventilating about government conspiracies, just take a deep breath, count to 10 and remember: Government Is Incompetent. That’s why all of their conspiracies are right out in the open. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz…they all conspired to start an illegal, unconstitutional war — and they did it! That’s what real government conspiracy looks like, folks.

(2) Beware the false prophetess. You know who I’m talking about. She is a moron, a self-important ditz, a putz, a twit, a retard, a fatuous know-nothing who spouts blather in the speaking style of a space alien learning English (her idiolect is really weird). There is a reason why she does not allow the media into her speeches. They know that she will reveal herself once again for the blithering, self congratulating imbecile that she is. The speech she gets big bucks to deliver will reflect no thought, no organization, no ideas except that she herself is wonderful. The media will only spoil things by reporting this to the rest of the country.

Her kind has appeared before many times in American politics — as Huey Long, Theodore Bilbo, William Jennings Bryan, George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and other blowhard demagogues. One of the many definitions of a demagogue is that she (I’m using the feminine pronoun intentionally) appeals to people’s basest emotions. This the former Governess does with her black-and-white analysis of the world. The ultimate narcissist, she is a vortex of simplicity and good in a complex, baffling world of evil. She knows who the enemy is.

Demagogues misrepresent the problem: it is not the Democrats. It is the fact that government is so big. A third of its disbursements go for entitlements (government is a huge waster and transferrer of money), and the debt keeps piling up. The Scottish historian Lord Wodehouslee observed that a democracy lasts about 200 years, because once the citizens realize they can use the government to get favors from the public trough, it’s the beginning of the end.

Demagogues play on the citizens’ pains and fears with feelings, not facts. They act snarky towards reason and intellect. Pointy-headed intellectuals. What newspapers does she read? “All of ‘em.” Her foreign policy expertise: “I can see Russia from my backyard” (or something like that).

Demagogues create a cult of personality. In this case, the demagogue has crafted a “slutty flight attendant” persona (not my term, but I agree) onto the traditional, I-personify-the-wisdom-of-the-common-folk persona. In a culture that worships physical beauty, that’s a huge advantage. How could such a pretty girl not know what’s she’s talking about?

From this cult of personality it follows that the LEADER, the Fuehrer, The Palin embodies the will of the people and always knows what’s best. We all agree on that. She basks in the glow of people who know she’s no smarter than they, so she certainly couldn’t put anything over on them.

She does have a point, as do all demagogues, or no one would listen to them. Government is way too big and powerful. It hurts Americans more then it herlps. It’s in a state of denial about impending bankruptcy, and the deficit keeps going up, up, and away. But the answer is not either of the two state-approved parties, and certainly not a self-serving, ditzy demagogue who knows nothing, thinks nothing, talks funny but engagingly, and sympathizes with Americans’ hard times (aside: why didn’t they just GIVE us back the stimulus money — about $3,000 per American?). Those are very poor criteria for a would-be politician — for any job, in fact.

Now you see why she is not the answer. She is entertaining or embarrassing to any loyal American who loves liberty and the Constitution. Anything she might favor (at this point in the fuehrer’s rise, she doesn’t deal with bothersome details of policy) will inevitably be unconstitutional. I am certain that she has not read the Constitution. I’m willing to bet she doen’t know what the Ninth and Tenth Amendments say.

For all these reasons, she is a demagogue and a false prophetess. I believe that at least some of you are smarter than she is. I’m hoping you can hear her bullshit for what it is. For once the word “polarizing” is correctly used. There are those who see through her and shake their heads with disbelief. There are those who lap up every word. And those still trying to decide. These differences in intellect and skepticism represent fundamental rifts in American society.

(3) I REALLY hope you’re not too late. You know, of course, that Congress, which is supposed to represent you, is already bought and paid for, and not by you. It’s been going that way for 100 years. Have you noticed?

The income tax (the Constitution had to be amended to allow it) — at first it would only be a few percent on the wealthiest. You’d hardly even feel it. Now marginal tax rates are WAY beyond that — 39% was the last figure I recall. The IRS snoops in your private financial affairs, pursues you relentlessly, and is the most hated institution in America…so why do Americans allow it to exist? If the government were small enough, fulfilling only its Constitutional functions, we wouldn’t need the income tax.

Social Security was supposed to protect widows and orphans, not wealthy retirees living to 90. Now it’s moved into the red, and it’s scheduled to go broke, with 2-3 active workers per retiree (as opposed to the original 16). Inevitably, they’re going to withhold more of your money, but benefits will go way down.

When the Soviets sent up Sputnik, we panicked and HAD to have the federal government take over education, even though we soon surpassed the Soviets with people who were ALREADY in school when the government fomented panic and took over education! Now the Department of Education wastes $40 billion a year, and American kids are among the worst educated in the industrialized world (but they have great self-esteem).

Medicare was supposed to take care of the elderly, but, as noted, they’re living much too long, there are thousands of new drugs and therapies, and Medicare too will be going broke. Total entitlement liabilities now exceed $50 trillion.

The war on drugs was supposed to…well, I don’t know what it was supposed to do (the rationale changes), but it has caused untold misery, wreaking havoc on minorities and inner cities, costing $40 billion and 5,000-10,000 violent deaths each year.

Tea party folks and fellow lovers of liberty, have you noticed any of this? Or has it become part of the wallpaper, drowned out by the screams for the latest American Idol?

Where have you been?

Did you just now notice that today government, after several exorbitant bailouts (with your money) while running two wars it started (a trillion dollars a year; again, your money), is now trying to play an even bigger role in health care, even though it’s screwed up everything it touches? Did you just get the feeling that the federal government is too arrogant and powerful? Or have YOU been sucking at the government teat in one form or another? Do you like your student loan, farm subsidy or whatever?

You liked what the government was doing, but only NOW it’s gone too far? (NOTE: I am not talking about municipal government, which is necessary to organize life at the local level, so please don’t take me for an anarchist.)

You see, I love your protests for freedom, but where have you been all these years? Were any of you protesting Vietnam or maybe even Social Security? How about the federalization of education? Farm subsidies? Or the drug war? Haven’t you noticed how once a government power grab becomes legitimate (some bureaus have been around since the Depression), people just seem to accept it? Do you think such people deserve to be free?

But congratulations on your newly-discovered sense of liberty. America is supposed to be a free country. Which brings me to…

(4) There is no need for inchoate protests and cries of “socialism.” Hell, we already have many of the planks of the Socialist Party of the 1920s enshrined as policy — federalization of retirement pensions, much of education, health care, professional licensing….Otto von Bismarck would love it. You don’t have to know anything about socialism. Just read…

THE CONSTITUTION

Yes!! Our founding document. It spells out what government is allowed to do. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments give all other powers to the states and people. If you haven’t read it, you’ll be amazed to find that most of what the government does today is unconstitutional. But when you have politicians making the laws and other politicians supposedly checking on them…well, you know what happens: wars, corruption, pork, banking crises, Depressions, and ever bigger government.

The Constitution gives you a true appreciation of what it means to be a free country. Free means that you will have dissent. You will even have excess. A Brit is supposed to have said that America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without stopping at civilization.

Owch! But we do have a civilization. It is founded on liberty. Yes, I know, if you take the Constitution seriously, then the federal government becomes much smaller. Staes would have their own policies (or no policy at all) on drugs, health care, education, and all the rest. It’s a lot more freedom. Too much freedom drives some conservatives nuts. People will be gay and watch porn! But that’s their problem. They’re control freaks. The only question is what’s best for liberty, for America.

(5) Please check out the Libertarian Party. It is already set up to funnel your anger at these arrogant bastards, these usurpers of your liberty…into actual political power, to replace the hacks and stooges with leaders who love the Constitution, who love liberty. I know, Americans love to organize, but there already is a political organization dedicated to liberty. Seek it out and support it. Fuck the government.