My Thoughts On Life, Liberty, and Everything Else

Bob Bennett seems to have difficulty coming to terms with what recently happened in Utah – he lost.  He feels that his “career” was cut short, and that what happened didn’t represent the will of the people.

But who is the only one sad about what happened?  Bob.   Well, a few personal friends of his, too.  That’s about it.

Everyone else you talk to is happy about it.  EVERYONE!

He also felt that being a Senator was a “career”.  It’s not, Bob.  It’s intended to be a PUBLIC SERVICE.  You failed to represent the will of WE THE PEOPLE – the ones that you were supposed to be serving – and WE THE PEOPLE said “enough”.

It’s sad that he feels that his “career” was cut short, but that’s just another measure showing that he lost sight of the office (if he ever had sight of it in the first place).

I heard Bob in a debate talking about writing a book based on all of the times he had to explain the LDS Church to his fellow Senators.  I hope he can find some other topics to write about, because that’s going to be his best option for a new “career”.

And I – for one – am very happy.

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.

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.