Post by TomLine on Mar 18, 2018 15:27:31 GMT -5
I'M ABOUT READY TO GIVE UP ON ALL POLITICAL PARTIES!
IT'S SO FRUSTRATING!
by Tom Lineaweaver
IT'S SO FRUSTRATING!
by Tom Lineaweaver
I recently made that statement on Facebook. The first reply was...
You should join either the American Solidarity Party or the Green Rainbow Party, I think either of those would suit you and me very well.
My response:
Sorry, but no. I want a Party to be purely Constitutional. I don't want a Party that takes positions on moral issues, or religious issues if it's not part of the Constitution. But, every Party that I know of does that, including the Constitution Party.
Whether it be the US Constitution, or the Constitutions of the several States, those are the issues I want a Party to be focused on.
Let's take marriage, for example. That is not an issue of the US Constitution or the Pennsylvania Constitution. So based on the US Constitution 10th Amendment that is an issue for the people of Pennsylvania to decide. There shouldn't be any Government interference with marriage in Pennsylvania. I use Pennsylvania because that is what I'm most familiar with. Marriage is simply not a Constitutional issue in Pennsylvania, and that is why I oppose marriage licenses. They are nothing but a tool for Government control, and are unconstitutional.
Before marriage licenses, the certificate you got from the church you were married in was ample proof of the marriage if ever needed.
And there other issues like that.
Many of the problems we have in society would be solved if the Government stayed out of our lives. And I thought that was the position of the Libertarian Party. Apparently I was wrong. We have candidates taking positions on non-Constitutional issues, such as Gay Rights, War on Drugs, etc. These should not be political arguments.
Our Governmental offices are not places for activism. And yet they are being used as such. And because of this, political parties have sunk to a very deep low. Instead of focusing on Constitutional issues, they are making all kinds of promises to get elected, and get power. These promises have no Constitutional foundation whatsoever.
Where are the politicians with wisdom and integrity? They don't seem to exist anymore. Politics is all about society's perceived appetite at the time.
Today, society's appetite seems to be about gun control. Now that is a Constitutional issue. Instead of supporting and defending the Constitution as they take an oath to do, today's politicians are trying to appease that segment of society on both sides of the issue, fearing they will lose their next election if the go to far in one direction. So, political parties take one stand or another, depending on which group they are trying to appease.
In politics today, there are no standards. It's whichever way the wind blows. And that is what political parties are based on today. And as I am finding out, the Libertarian Party is no different.
Whether it be the US Constitution, or the Constitutions of the several States, those are the issues I want a Party to be focused on.
Let's take marriage, for example. That is not an issue of the US Constitution or the Pennsylvania Constitution. So based on the US Constitution 10th Amendment that is an issue for the people of Pennsylvania to decide. There shouldn't be any Government interference with marriage in Pennsylvania. I use Pennsylvania because that is what I'm most familiar with. Marriage is simply not a Constitutional issue in Pennsylvania, and that is why I oppose marriage licenses. They are nothing but a tool for Government control, and are unconstitutional.
Before marriage licenses, the certificate you got from the church you were married in was ample proof of the marriage if ever needed.
And there other issues like that.
Many of the problems we have in society would be solved if the Government stayed out of our lives. And I thought that was the position of the Libertarian Party. Apparently I was wrong. We have candidates taking positions on non-Constitutional issues, such as Gay Rights, War on Drugs, etc. These should not be political arguments.
Our Governmental offices are not places for activism. And yet they are being used as such. And because of this, political parties have sunk to a very deep low. Instead of focusing on Constitutional issues, they are making all kinds of promises to get elected, and get power. These promises have no Constitutional foundation whatsoever.
Where are the politicians with wisdom and integrity? They don't seem to exist anymore. Politics is all about society's perceived appetite at the time.
Today, society's appetite seems to be about gun control. Now that is a Constitutional issue. Instead of supporting and defending the Constitution as they take an oath to do, today's politicians are trying to appease that segment of society on both sides of the issue, fearing they will lose their next election if the go to far in one direction. So, political parties take one stand or another, depending on which group they are trying to appease.
In politics today, there are no standards. It's whichever way the wind blows. And that is what political parties are based on today. And as I am finding out, the Libertarian Party is no different.
Please see President Washington's Farewell Address here... avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp
In this address, President Washington spoke of Government unity...
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
President Washington gave this warning...
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
He warned about political parties...
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
I urge you to read the entire address of our first President under our current Constitution. It is very insightful, and the warnings very accurate.
Today we have cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men and women as described in this address sitting in the seats of Government with only the desire for what they may attain. The effect is exactly as Washington warned about. Their greed for power and money has ruined our public liberty. It has garnered strife and rioting for one cause or another.
To correct all that is wrong with the United States of America, we must heed the warnings of President George Washington. If we do not, we will experience the continuation of the ruination of public liberty.
I had hoped this would be the goal of the Libertarian Party, but, it's becoming plain, it is not. Therefore I believe we must have non-partisan people to be united and make a stand. To run for office and enact Constitutional policies to end all the discord in America.
President Washington believed the power of governance comes from the people. Today we have a governance that comes from big business and foreign entanglements. This must change if we ever hope to salvage our republic. Otherwise, this Country will one day come to an end. And it won't be easy. One day partisan politics will clash with non-partisan politics. Partisan politics is the basis of tyranny, while non-partisan politics is the basis for liberty.
However, in the current political landscape, it would be great if a Party would adapt the principle of non-partisan politics. And I call upon the Libertarian Party to be that Party.
