On Leaving the Republican Party. After much thought, I have decided to leave the Republican Party and become an Independent. We desperately need a viable third party in this nation. I have been following the current scandals that are beginning to plague President Obama and his administration. I realized today that I had such a sense of “sadness” for our nation. “Why?” I asked myself. Our system of government is so broken. As a nation, is it still; “We the People?” I’m not so sure anymore. We have a broken Congress trying to investigate a broken Executive branch. That’s like trying to repair a broken vehicle with broken tools. Let’s face it. Politics drives the national machine, not veraciousness. Yes, we have a democratically elected government, but it’s as if we’re electing people and sending them into an impossible situation. Our government is just too big and too broken and it has overstepped its proper role and has not just become ineffective; it has become the problem. It just doesn’t work anymore. It has no real effectiveness and regardless of which party is in power, I see no real difference anymore between the two in regards to “what they do.” They may “say” different things, but that’s where it ends. I do believe that some very good and qualified people have gone to Washington with some very good intentions. But there is never any real “change,” (no matter how much politicians seem to like that word) It’s like asking somebody to hold out their hands to slow down a hurricane. Big business, special interests, lobbyists, and ideological agendas seem to be the ‘way makers” today. Yet the job description for the President seems to me to be quite simple…”Preserve, Protect, & Defend the Constitution”. In other words, your job as President is to see that government is governed, not the people!!! It seems to me that so many of our elected officials have become addicted to power. It seems always to be about getting re-elected instead of serving a constituency. Extremism is as common today as I have ever seen it to be and this extremism is hijacking both the left and the right. Where is the voice of reason? Where is the one who will have the guts to give this nation back to its citizens? Where is the one who will reject political correctness and embrace political courage? Who will it be that has the tenacity to stand up to the voices of extremism and the strong arm of special interests and espouse the grand experiment of freedom and return this gift of liberty to the people? The fabric of our Constitution is woven with the threads of freedom. Again, It’s purpose was not to govern “the people”, but to govern ‘the government”. Oh, how we have strayed from the heart and intent of our founders. America is at her best when she is the freest. However, freedom will never create a utopian society because of the nature of some who see freedom as a license to injure others and who have no regard for the idea of a civilized society. But, restricting freedom is not the answer to this dilemma! I will never understand why we seem to punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. We try to solve the imperfections of a free society by taking freedom from the innocent. How do I know this to be true? Well, our founders penned four federal crimes into our constitution. They now number in the thousands! As a nation, we seem to look to government for the change we desire. It will never happen. If change is to occur, it must come from you and I, the people. We’re looking in the wrong direction. (No matter what side of the “aisle” you tend to line up with politically.) This is what saddens me the most! Not that our government is ineffective, but that we, the citizens have seemed to let it happen. The word “inalienable” has this definition: Unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor: "inalienable human rights". While it concerns me greatly that our government seems to have no problem taking these rights from us, it disturbs me much more that we, the people, seem to be so willing to give them away. As a people, we must be willing to accept the responsibility that freedom demands. This is the only way that this nation will ever see the change that seems to elude us. It is easy to blame the government for our current situation, but what about you and I? Ben Franklin wrote April 17, 1787: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” I believe it’s really quite simple. Live the golden rule! When this idea is rejected by those who seek to harm others, let’s enforce the laws we already have instead of stripping another freedom from the masses. We have become so polarized as a people. There is nothing wrong with having opposing views. That’s one of the things that make this country great. It’s that it seems that we have become beholden to a party instead of loyal to a nation and the grand experiment of freedom given to us by our founders. This is evidenced by so many of the posts I see on FB that are political in nature. I see shallow, not substance. I see political correctness, not political courage. Most posts point to the “other side” as the problem. I see “jabs” & “zingers”, but very little intellectual debate. I see a willingness to speak, but very little willingness to hear. Very few posts are actually factual. Most seem to be blind allegiance, instead of substantive and valid. I think we may have forgotten the tremendous price that has been paid over the past two centuries so that we may be free. If this were not true, we would be willing to extend the same tolerance that we demand of others. (The only thing that should not be tolerated is intolerance itself!) We would be willing to listen to an opposing viewpoint without resorting to character assassination and demonization. And we would treasure the freedom that gives someone the right to disagree with us instead of resorting to insults and name-calling. Most FB posts remind me of the high school debates I used to participate in. Much emotion and passion, but not much validity and substantive discussion. I read on FB from those who are offended whenever President Obama is not given the respect and honor due the office he holds, but those same people refer to his predecessor as “Dubwa” or Satan himself. The same is true on the other side. I have heard conservatives refer to President Obama as the Anti-Christ. The media only propagates the problem. We have the “left” media and the “right” media and neither is willing to admit that they lean one way or the other. Pretense masks the majority of the media. We must awaken as a people and decide to change! We owe it our children and grandchildren. At some point, some generation of Americans is going to have to do this. Will it be us? I hope so!
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:20:36 +0000
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