Archive for April, 2010

Freedom of Choice – making the most of it

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

One of the things that I truly dislike about voting here in Utah is that there is a box at the top of ballot that allows you to say simply “All Democrat” or “All Republican” candidates.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints make a big deal about “Free Agency”, or freedom of choice.  The permission to choose good or to choose evil, given to us  by God.

Yet when voters pick one of those boxes on the ballot, they are giving up their free agency and turning it over to the leadership of the political parties.  In my opinion, that’s a bad thing.

We have the right – and the absolute responsibility – to select the best PERSON for each job.  We need to look at each INDIVIDUAL and identify which ones we feel are best suited to the task at hand.  It may be a Republican, an Independent, a Democrat, a Constitution party member, or even a Libertarian.

When you select that box to give up your fee agency, you are selling yourself short and doing more harm than good.  You are abdicating your INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY and selling out a sacred duty.

Look at each race, each candidate, and determine who you think is best suited to each job.  Who will do the best job, or at least who will do the smallest amount of harm?  Of course, when it gets to that point, well, let’s hope for something better.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Putting it simply…

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

I had a couple of comments asking me to clarify what I meant in my previous entry.  Am I advocating another American Revolution?  Let me try to put it in more simple terms.

First, I’d like to recommend that you read the whole text of the Declaration of Independence.  You can find it at http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

That is an amazing document.  Not only is it the Founding Fathers declaring the independence of this nation – but an enumeration of the REASONS WHY, and an explanation of their rationale.   Let me focus on a few of the points they made…

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

They were pointing out that they did NOT take their actions lightly.  In fact, there was a great deal of debate among them over if they even SHOULD.  But when they took the next line into account, the debate quickly became WHEN they should.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

A long train of abuses…  Many in America see the way that the Federal Government has – over the last many years – ignored WE THE PEOPLE, has infringed on the Second Amendment which explicitly states that it SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED, and has taken upon itself powers and authority that it does not have under the Constitution – and they feel that this (which has happened over many years) is a long train of abuses.

The Founding Fathers then enumerated the many issues that forced them to take the actions which they did.  I will make a few notes about some of these.  There are some parallels with our day…

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Many of the several States are enacting laws that attempt to take back powers that are not enumerated for the Federal Government.  The Federal Government refuses to assent to these.

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

In the present administration in particular – we have seen the appointment of CZARS.  These are not elected positions,  and yet have the power and authority in this administration to create policy.  It can be said that much of what they do does indeed harass our people, and the new taxes and “fees” do indeed eat our our substance.

“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:”

Many of the elected representatives in the Congress – over the strongly vocal objections of their constituents – voted for a new bill mandating that all Americans (which the exceptions of some few to gain the votes of their elected representatives) purchase health insurance (for which we are taxed) or pay fines (enforced by the Government under penalty of imprisonment).  With the strong objections of a majority of Americans, they went ahead and did this.  We did not consent to it.

“For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”

Many feel that the Federal Government has reached far beyond the Constitution in order to control more of our finances, commerce, and lives in general.  They declared this authority for themselves without the backing of the Constitution and without the consent of WE THE PEOPLE.

From what I have observed, this is what many of the “Tea Party” protest folks are saying.  And I agree with it.

Think about this – in all of our history, only twice have the “conservatives” had such demonstrations.   The last time, they were forced to pick up guns and replace their government with one that was designed to be limited – that would only have certain enumerated powers, and the rest belonged to the several States or to WE THE PEOPLE.

Yet, the Founding Fathers made it clear that people are more disposed to suffer than to take up arms to replace their government.  And we see people protesting and WORKING WITHIN THE SYSTEM to bring our elected representatives to a remembrance of the Constitution.  The way I see it, the message is …

“You are on a self-destructive course, that can be legitimately compared with previous oppressive governments.  You are not representing our interests.  You are making a larger government that is taking upon itself powers that it does not have legitimately.  You are going far beyond the mark.  WE THE PEOPLE ARE FED UP.   WE ASK YOU TO TURN AWAY FROM THIS COURSE BEFORE YOU FORCE US TO TAKE THE OTHER RECOURSE WHICH THE FOUNDING FATHERS LEFT TO US. ”

Thomas Jefferson left us some wisdom here …

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” I completely agree – LET US TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

They were smart enough to know that someday it might have to happen again.  I personally hope that our elected representatives will see this, and turn away from the course they are before we are forced to do it.  I do not want to see it happen, yet I love the ideals upon which this nation was founded to see that it could happen, and to say that if it must happen, let it happen in my day that my nieces and nephews may not have to see it in theirs.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Attended The Utah County Democrat Convention – 17-April-2010

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

As an Independent voter, I am willing to support any candidate that will honestly SUPPORT and DEFEND the Constitution of The United States of America – including respecting and honoring the intent of those that wrote it.

There is one Democrat in Utah County that I know of that is willing to do so.  It’s Jim Crismon in house district 57.   I don’t agree with everything that he believes in, but for the most part he has the right ideas.  I attended to hear from him, and see what the others are saying.

As an Independent, I was quite turned off in the initial part of the program by both the gentleman running the show, and by State Senator Pat Jones.  Both of these people made derogatory comments about those in the Tea Party movement.  Pat Jones in particular spoke about working together, while quite clearly looking down on the folks involved in the Tea Parties.  Her tone was one of arrogance – much like the arrogance of one B. H. Obama.

Those two clearly demonstrated that they just don’t get it.

They don’t understand how angry WE THE PEOPLE are at those in power in BOTH of the mainstream parties.

They don’t understand that they are on a course that is self-destructive.

They don’t understand that WE THE PEOPLE want LESS GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE and LESS GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF OUR LIVES AND OUR FINANCES.They don’t see that we are still willing to try to work within the system and deal with this at the ballot box.

They don’t understand that if they don’t turn away from the course they are on, and continue in arrogance to ignore WE THE PEOPLE, that they will force us to turn to the same recourse that was left to the Founding Fathers, and that they also left to us.

That arrogance is part of the problem, and after hearing Pat Jones, I plan to work to help defeat her.

She said that the recent bills in the State to relax the child restraint laws were an effort by the Republican Party to hurt Utah families.  Yet she spoke to a great extent of her LDS faith.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that all of those upon this earth backed a plan to have everyone come here, get bodies, and learn right from wrong – but not be FORCED to do right or do wrong.  They have freedom, and the commensurate INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY that comes with it.

The other plan – presented by Satan himself – was that he would force everyone to do the right things, and keep bad things from happening.  The catch was that he wanted all of the glory.

Since she is here, at that time she backed the plan that would teach people good principles and let them govern themselves.

But now, she wants to empower government to take more control of our daily lives, and force us to do things according to what she feels is right.

Now tell me – which plan does that sound like?

She also took issue with the “statement” bills, such as SB11 which states that provides that a firearm or one of various firearm-related items manufactured in the state for in-state use is not subject to federal firearms laws and regulations.

Again, she does not understand that WE THE PEOPLE are fed up with a federal government that is not responsive to WE THE PEOPLE, and that we are doing all that we can using peaceful means to wake them up to that fact.  They are working within the system.  But if our elected representatives do not begin responding and doing the right thing, we will eventually be forced to resort to the same means used by the Founding Fathers, and which they left to us.

Utah and 5 other states have passed such laws, and some 20+ other states are considering them.  It is because WE THE PEOPLE are truly fed up with an overreaching federal government.  At least some of our elected representatives at the State level are starting to see that some things ARE worth fighting for – the rights of WE THE PEOPLE and the powers that should reside in the States being chief among them.

We need less government at ALL levels.  We need representatives that understand that GOVERNMENT CAN NOT BE and MUST NOT BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE.  Government needs to be small, less burdensome, and let WE THE PEOPLE take care of ourselves.  The principles of INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY as well as FREEDOM are foreign to her and those like her.

Jim Crismon seems to have a better grasp of this.  So does Jim Matheson – I will say that I was mostly impressed with him.  But overall I saw a bunch of people that want to force us to live according the dictates of their “faith” – their faith being imposing their will on us, taking our tax dollars and spending them for us, rather than allowing us to use our monies to support our own families.

No thank you, Pat.  You don’t get it.  I hope that you listen to the message of the Tea Party folks rather than dismissing them all as idiots the way you did.  But at this point, as an Independent, I’ll do all I can at the polls to make sure that you don’t waste any more of my tax dollars trying to force me and my family to do things your way.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »