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A power to advance the public happiness involves a discretion which may be misapplied and abused.



James Madison, Federalist 41



Friday, April 8, 2011

A Dense Cadre of Public Pilferers

     Madison, Wisconsin                                                  Associated Press


The political events unfolding in Madison, Wisconsin, and other states of our American union, are really bestial blows against a republican form of government. Certain elected public servants have brazenly abandoned the civic responsibilities entrusted to them by Wisconsin citizens. The whole electorate has an expectation, and rightly so, that public servants perform their duties, not avoid them by running away to a neighboring state. A relatively small number of deviant servants have obstructed due process by boldly evading parliamentary proceedings, neglecting the public trust temporarily placed in their hands. At the same time, another worrisome sect of non-elected public servants, aided by young and impressionable patrons, dressed in Soviet colors, and espousing antiquated anti-capitalist sentiments, captured the Wisconsin capitol building in a most brutish and despoiling manner, blatantly disrespecting the public’s property, as if these mobocrats were actually the true agents of all the wise and virtuous people of Wisconsin.

This is not the Paris Commune of 1848; it is somewhat similar to the Haymarket Riot of 1886, thankfully without the lead and dynamite, but plenty of anarchists to go around. There is more than enough room outside the capitol building, or in the ballot box, to peacefully assemble and assert first amendment rights in a proper manner that ascribes to the best tenets of civic participation and republican principles. Partisans have crowned themselves lords of the realm up there in Madison, Wisconsin, intimidating, disgracing, and exploiting the governing process. Their names should not even be mentioned, because they do nothing of value. The deed defines their creed, and resides in the public forum for all to dissect.


Wisconsin turmoil is not about protecting or advancing democracy and labor rights, as some of the well paid celebrified punditry, streaming through various mediums, choose to frame the debate; it is actually the last embolden strokes of a threatened bureaucratic elite, and the internecine fractures of an entrenched aristocracy, and both of these societal elements are pulling the rest of us in perverse directions. There are too many odious and long-standing practices that have nestled in our governing systems, taking a contrary path to the one that is clearly and legitimately marked by the rule of law, civic virtue, moral responsibility, and national interests. These four human conceptions converge to protect and promote the general welfare of the whole community, with an emphasis placed on the whole community. Right now, we have splintered factions in our midst that think they represent the whole community. What do you expect when there are many American citizens who do not vote and do not participate in this noble governing experiment? There is nothing virtuous or civic, good or just, about any of the licentious political displays, distorting combinations, and subversive natures that have manifested themselves in Madison, Wisconsin, in other state capitols, and inside the District of Columbia, generally.

We should not reward the misguided conduct of a few well placed participating actors; but, in fact, when they do manifest themselves in such a crude form, corralled in a public forum, for all of us to witness, every law-abiding citizen that cherishes common decency, tempered approaches, and a proper decorum should harshly condemn it when it rises above the law, and makes unusual and intrusive approaches on individual liberty. More importantly, the unlawful individuals maneuvering in the shadows deserve more scrutiny, but are harder to see than the public appearances, because the activities are conducted under the cover of darkness.

At the moment, the whole population of Wisconsin is being rudely pushed aside by narrowed political interests, seen and unseen, which serve an elite cast of characters. This is a microcosm of our current political perplexities. An upsetting and unduly influential crew has breached the public peace, engaged in political manipulation and subterfuge, only to advance an insolent, paternalistic, outdated, and financially fatigued social agenda. The despicable denizens of absolute democracy that emerged in Madison disregarded the lawful pursuits of legal elections, abandoned the proper course of normal legislative procedure, and repudiated republican principles.

In Article Four, Section Four, of the U.S. Constitution, you know, that quaint piece of parchment ALL citizens, elected and non-elected, are bound to abide by, “[t]he United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” You may ask yourself what is a republican form of government? This notion will be explored with greater specificity in a future addition to this blog site. But, for the time being, there are many individuals who confuse the concepts of democracy and republic. They are not interchangeable governing systems, although, one may find superficial similarities between the two. When we begin to peel back the layers, specific differences are revealed between them, and the contrast becomes clearer to the enquirer.

A democracy, in the truest sense of the concept, is the absolute rule of a majority, whenever constituted, whether enlightened by reason or enraged by passion. A republican form of government attempts to hold majorities and minorities accountable to the rule of law, which maintains equal justice, to prevent any constituent component of our vast federative union from becoming too powerful and influential. If America was ever turned into an absolute democracy – as it was, momentarily, when marauding protestors in Madison took over the capitol building, acting like a troop of wildcats in heat - a majority could simply write any law, erect any procedure, appropriate any sum, perform any action, simply according to the sheer force of numbers, at any time a majority is conjured up, irrespective of how many assembly seats are occupied. It is slightly similar to a tyranny, not residing in a single person, but in a despotic rowdy mass. A republican form of government inserts several barriers of checks to avert democratic, tyrannical, and anarchical perversities from grinding away the fundamental rights and privileges bequeathed to us by our ancestors.

Spectacles of moral depravity conducted by public servants, and private citizens, are not new, and will not suddenly disappear from the human species, but they are real blemishes, nonetheless, when they occur. Private individuals do enough harm to society. If our public officials harbor these natural dispositions, and their actions are driven by distempered passions, it is a dangerous and unsteady proposition to contend with, and it will only end up tarnishing America’s national character, eventually bringing all of us disgrace, ultimately diminishing the sacred blessings of self-government that enable us to enjoy Liberty and Independence.

Most of our republican governments are snagged in a burdensome budgetary web. Various participants, active and passive, past and present, seen and unseen, have steadily increased its sticky grip, and the tacky fibers are being felt by many of us. Virtually all of our republican governments around the nation, particularly at the state and federal level, are trying to extricate themselves from an intricate fiscal entanglement. This feeble fabric of insolvency was first woven several decades ago. Many of our most notable ancestors, and several of our most dearly beloved contemporaries, have erected a number of burgeoning bureaucratic fiefdoms, supposedly instituted for our own protection and well being, but they are really stifling economic innovation and personal independence. Every government - local, state, and national - extracts a great measure of tribute, in some form or fashion, to support and sustain a consortium of legislative, administrative, and regulatory instruments. It’s a sad bit of commentary to even suggest, though, that most taxpayers, who are not considered wealthy, or elite, are in risk of becoming the vassals of feudal lords.

American taxpayers, wealthy and not so wealthy, by any reasonable standard used to define such an abstract term, have been called upon to provide for a multitude of unnecessary services and functions, most especially on the federal level, that only prop up and protect a retinue of salaried pensioners and their suckling regimes. Not only does this prospect divert valuable resources from citizens and their respective state governments, it adds distracting duties to the federal government. It’s now up to vigilant and law-abiding citizens to run straight forward in to the difficult task of peacefully dismantling the most burdensome feudal structures and wasteful inefficiencies that have placed many tortuous obstacles, and cultivated several debilitating relationships, that stand in the way of our local, state, and national interests. We need to return the light of prosperity to the true proprietors of this republic.

Citizens and public servants have a special relationship. Each of them have solemn obligations to the other, and share the same rights, when they enter into the public contract. We arrived at this point of budgetary duress and tax inequities because of the people’s active and passive support throughout the years. Our federal structure, more specifically, has amassed a public workforce, and assumed too many state and private responsibilities, that are wasting, and diverting, valuable resources from the national purse. The federal government has become one very large state government, and is losing focus on primary objectives. We should not passively sit around anymore as our public officials make extravagant disbursements on a multitude of misguided social adventures. Policies, guided by sincere intentions and zealous ideals, are concocted and conducted by numerous profiting fiefdoms, fervently supported by a dense cadre of public pilferers, squandering taxpayer money, only to perpetuate a nefarious nexus of patronage and nepotism.

It will be very difficult to deconstruct the most ruinous governing fiefdoms, especially those that have been built up and supported throughout the decades. Many have become formidable entities of self-interest, and every day these bureaucratic bastions remind us of their wasteful existence, and the enormous misapplication of public discretion and treasure that denotes their activities. Every bloated block laid over the years eventually rose to a great height that is now struggling under its own weight. The inhabitants on the other side have buttressed the towering walls with a large amount of influence and power. They usually keep quiet in their privileged fortress, at least during tranquil times, and under normal circumstances, hoarding particular expertise and specific information, using it to gain even more budgetary advantages and political leverage.

A mote of long standing legal precedents, and misconstrued congressional authority, encircles these intractable territories. This veneer of legitimacy that our ancestors have neatly constructed has finally succumbed to the erosion of time and circumstance. A new generation is standing on the verge of the realm, looking forward to the challenge that is before them. They have placed the well funded fiefdoms under legal siege, trying to contain the menacing misconstruction of enumerated powers, and slowly reducing the awful ramparts that protect them. The precious and uncertain path of Liberty, on every strenuous step advanced by the human species, has witnessed fabulous rewards and gracious benefits; although, several times along the way, many societal travesties and curious conundrums have accompanied us on this never-ending journey, every time we dutifully surmounted them, and it was never precise, clean, and easy.

A daunting task is right in front of American citizens, as it always is. We only muster a solid resolve when something has smacked us in the face. Do you know the story about closing the barn door after the horse has left the barn? Well, the horse has galloped away, running aimlessly in the pasture, with no rider holding the reins. As for the barn door, it, too, no longer exists. It was unhinged and torn asunder by utopia’s whimsical winds. As a matter of fact, the horse left the barn through the gaping holes in the walls, and the fences are in such disrepair, they did not keep the horse contained. It should also be noted, the horse was afraid the roof would collapse, and did not trust the maintenance crew’s repeated claims to fix it, even though the roof only leaks when it rains.

American citizens are now being forced to take a good hard look at the structure, gazing into the bowels of their governing institutions, and they do not like the fiscal incompetence, neglect, contempt, and excessive misuse of power they see. A great number of non-essential and un-elected public servants, who were supposed to maintain the structure, and who constitute a small minority of the general population, have become a burdensome bureaucratic barrier to real political reform. Many governing officials have become a special caste of scribes, and are a powerful lobbying force that propagates ruinous regulations and sophisticated social formulas. They are a formidable and influential class of taxpayer subsidized plunderers. They possess all the remedies, can accurately predict future outcomes, and will easily deploy political gimmicks, to rid human existence of natural plagues. Wise and attentive citizens are now scrutinizing every budget item and public servant, elected and non-elected, and determining if they have any utility, purpose, and constitutional necessity. No longer will American citizens have their hard earned wages arrogantly depleted by a group of unaccountable servants dispensing taxpayer money to themselves, and the self-interested favorites peddling profuse platforms.