Posted by
Sean Engmann on Friday, July 17, 2009 1:39:02 AM
The American people have had their country and their government hijacked. The hijackers aren't foreign, they come from within. They don't hide, they live and work in plain sight. Our government and our politicians don't deter them, they embrace them far more closely than they would a common American. These people who are destroying our country come from all walks of life, from the right and the left, rich and poor. They all share one common trait: that they put themselves, their philosophies or their group above their country, and they will scrap for whatever they can get. They are ideologues and special interests.
The American people are tired of ideologues and special interests. By and large, most Americans, Republican or Democrat, share a common set of shared values and beliefs. We might differ on a few points of policy, but in general, we agree on the big things. That's why after 9/11 we were all able to rally around the flag. The great history of our country stems from its founding, that we the people had the power, we get to tell the government what to do. To that end, we Americans want leaders who will stand up for us and who will do what's right by the people. We want our wisest individuals evaluating the evidence and acting in a way that's best for the country, regardless of party affiliation. That's the type of leader that George Washington was, and that's who we've expected ever since.
We Americans share a set of values. We the people believe that America is a great place where anyone, through dedication and perspiration can achieve anything. We are the one country in the world where that is possible, and we cherish that. We believe that the playing field should be level, that the same rules should apply for everyone, rich or poor, black or white, natural born citizen or immigrant. We believe that everyone should have the chance to succeed. We believe in responsibility, and that the law should apply equally to everyone. We believe in property and the right to keep what we have and what we earn.
Our core beliefs are very simple, but these beliefs and our rights are being eroded by ideologues and special interests. The tax code is a perfect example, it is excessively complicated to allow certain groups to find loopholes and avoid paying taxes. The multiple rates and deductions are mind boggling, but rather than establishing a flat tax we have arrived at this complicated solution because there are a lot of lawyers and accountants who would be out of a job if we reformed the tax code so that it makes sense. These special interests donate a lot of money to politicians, incidentally. The ideologues are involved too, demanding "progressive" taxation and wanting to use the tax code to redistribute income.
California's a prime example of a state in ruin because of out of control special interests. Take prisons. Our goal as a society is to prevent certain activities such as drug dealing from occuring, so we establish laws for prison time. As we've seen in other countries, imposing harsh penalties will act as a deterrent that will impact supply and ultimately reduce the amount of arrests and people in prison. Legalization would offer the same result. The only wrong way to do things is what we're doing now, taking the middle ground, which has led to overcrowding prisons. So who opposes changing things and doing it right, why the prison guards of course.
Ideologues have managed to split Americans into groups. We have black advocates, latino advocates, gay advocates, etc. All of these advocates do not care about the general good for society, they just seek the best outcomes for their individual groups. As a result, they have divided the United States into several Americas and several communities. These communities have their own identities, and the eventual result will be that members of these groups will identify with their group ahead of America. This is what's happening in Afghanistan right now and it is destroying our national identity. Our leaders, such as Supreme Court justices should not be chosen from interest groups out of concerns for a certain group's "vote," rather, they should be chosen because they are the best qualified to protect our Constitution, and the interests of all people. The problem with ethnic groups as voting blocks is that it's isolating people and dividing the country.
It was the yearning for a great, post-partisan leader that led America to elect Barack Obama president last year. His message of hope and change resonated, as did phrases like, "We are not red states or blue state, we are the United States." Americans truly felt that Obama was a new generation of leader, one who would cast aside the shackles of partisanship and the special interests and do right by the people.
Unfortunately the desire for a great leader trumped a serious evaluation of Obama and we elected an ideologue. Obama's philosophy is completely contrary to the shared values and beliefs of the American people. Obama is pursuing policies to dramatically change America, undermining our natural tendency toward self reliance in favor of the government. He does not believe in equal opportunity, but equal outcomes. At his core, Obama doesn't believe in the greatness of America, he believes he succeeded in spite of America, and he is looking to overhaul the country as a result. He is an ideologue, doing things without regard to logic, or what's best for the people, but based on his vision for re-making America. How else would you explain a policy that states that the way to avoid going bankrupt is to spend more money that you don't have?
America is a great country, but the people need to act now to put a stop to the special interests and ideologues. The solutions are simple, and they make sense. We just need leaders who see the black and white of issues and common sense without being confused by the "gray" created by ideologues and special interests to game the system.