Several years have past since then and my opinions have changed a bit. I still hate paying taxes and I still think the market is the best place for ideas to win or lose. I’ve learned a great deal, however, about the responsibility one citizen has to help his fellow citizens. I’ve spent time reading the writings of our nation’s founders and I’ve learned a couple of things. One, some of them were more liberal than your conservative friends would like you to believe. Two, sometimes their ideas were just plain wrong. I think many of us like to take an idealized view of these men but we must remind ourselves that they fought about the issues for a reason – they were not right about everything.

The evolution of my thinking on these matters has led me to the point where I am surprised by movements like The Tea Party Patriots. According to their website, they hold three core values – Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets. As I’ve written many times, I believe in all of these things. My problem with this movement is the extreme to which they carry these points and the emphasis on financial concerns. I’ll discuss each of the core values separately.

Fiscal Responsibility

Fiscal Responsibility by government honors and respects the freedom of the individual to spend the money that is the fruit of their own labor. A constitutionally limited government, designed to protect the blessings of liberty, must be fiscally responsible or it must subject its citizenry to high levels of taxation that unjustly restrict the liberty our Constitution was designed to protect. Such runaway deficit spending as we now see in Washington D.C. compels us to take action as the increasing national debt is a grave threat to our national sovereignty and the personal and economic liberty of future generations.

I’ll admit that I agree with much of this one, but the first sentence really gets me. They start with an assumption that is incorrect – two actually. One, that any individual has the freedom to do with her money what she wants. I disagree. The other, that the government should honor and respect that freedom. If such a freedom existed, I’d agree wholeheartedly.

Why do so many of us believe that we have the right to control something simply because we earned it, created it or have some other claim to ownership? This reminds me so much of the two year old who continually screams “Mine!” Do we not have a responsibility to use our wealth in a way that benefits others? Am I really free to do with my possessions as I wish?

I guess the point is that no other person has the right to tell me what I can or cannot do with my property. I agree, but that doesn’t mean I can do what I want. The question, then, is whether a government “of the people and by the people” has the authority to tell me what I can and cannot do. Like any good libertarian, I would argue that the government does not have the right to restrain my freedom except to protect the freedom of another individual or group of individuals. Much of the poverty we see around us is most certainly caused by a callous disregard for the rights and freedoms of other individuals. If _we_ don’t watch out for others, who will?

Constitutionally Limited Government

We, the members of The Tea Party Patriots, are inspired by our founding documents and regard the Constitution of the United States to be the supreme law of the land. We believe that it is possible to know the original intent of the government our founders set forth, and stand in support of that intent. Like the founders, we support states’ rights for those powers not expressly stated in the Constitution. As the government is of the people, by the people and for the people, in all other matters we support the personal liberty of the individual, within the rule of law.

Once again, I have no issue with the substance of anything but the first sentence – which I’ll get to in a moment. Where I would disagree is in the application. I think the Constitution grants more power to the federal government than members of this movement would admit. My assumption is that they interpret this phrase – “those powers not expressly stated” – much more strictly than I would or than was intended. Before you get all “English teacher” on me, I know what expressly means. My argument is not with that word. In my opinion, Section 9 and Section 10 of Article I expressly grant the power to enact quite a bit of legislation – even though the specifics of that legislation is not expressly stated.

Now for a look at the first sentence. Is the Constitution the supreme law of the land? Yes and No. Yes, it is the final authority in matters of law. No, it is not the final authority on all matters. This, in fact, is why it is necessary to amend it from time to time. We must be careful not to hold the Constitution in such high regard that we neglect the importance of natural law and the rights of the individual. The U.S. Constitution is a wonderful document precisely because it helps gaurantee our rights as individuals. It is easy to assume that those rights are granted to us by the Constitution. It may grant us some rights, but other rights were ours before the Constitution was drafted.

Free Markets

A free market is the economic consequence of personal liberty. The founders believed that personal and economic freedom were indivisible, as do we. Our current government’s interference distorts the free market and inhibits the pursuit of individual and economic liberty. Therefore, we support a return to the free market principles on which this nation was founded and oppose government intervention into the operations of private business.

This is a matter of great sadness for me. I believe in the power of the free market. Always have, always will. The operative word, however, is FREE. Our current economic system is very far from free in many regards.

I can hear the Tea Party Patriots yelling now. “That’s right. That is precisely what we want to see changed.” Okay, I hear you and I agree. Our current system may be broken but let’s not assume the answer is the unfettered permission to do as we please. This is a common misconception of freedom and it all seems to be rooted in the first sentence of the first core value – I have a right to do with my possessions as I see fit. This is simply not the case. In many cases the actions I take have a negative impact on the freedom of others. This is why we don’t allow businesses to behave in certain ways.

So What?

I was drawn to this topic today because of the reading I’ve been doing about the health care reform that was signed into law yesterday. If you’d asked me 15 years ago I would have been very much against this proposal. Today, I may not agree with everything proposed by the new legislation but I am happy something is happening. As a society we have turned a blind eye to policies which are not fair to all citizens while they pretend to be conservative and based on free enterprise.

Like I’ve written and said many times – if the government is going to tax us and dictate policy, it is about time they begin to pass legislation that is fair. I know this proposal is far from perfect. I’m confused, for example, why it still involves employers in the equation. I’m sure I’ll have something more to write about that.

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A point the author tries to make – and I think many readers miss – is that there is not some sinister, back-room conspiracy at work in all of this. America is run by what the author calls the “corporatocracy” (a government dominated by corporate influence, banks, and governments). He writes:

corporations, banks, and governments (collectively the corporatocracy)

It is an eye opening read. While I do believe some of the author’s tales seem contrived and hard to believe, I have no reason to doubt the legitimacy of his overall claim. There have been many other books written about this subject and I think many people assume that the U.S. government does not always have the interests of the weak in mind. Very few doubt that any government should look out for its own interests, but it is not necessary to prey on the weak in order to make the strong stronger.

This book also reminded me that most of us operate following a misconception that human progress can be measured in strictly economic terms. We speak of poorer countries as being “underdeveloped” as if they are somehow inferior in every way because they do not produce as much as we. It seems to always be about production – for the sole purpose of more consumption. Perhaps we should look at the world through a different lens.

If you’d like an intriguing, fast-paced read that makes you question your old assumptions, you should pick up this book. If you need a “just the facts” approach, you may want to look for another.

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I think most Americans understand that it is unfair to judge a President based on what he can accomplish in less than 7% of his term – and at the beginning of it – yet we all still seem fascinated by this arbitrary measure of productivity. There are websites where one can see the progress other presidents made and others that will track President Obama’s progress (here and here) and still others with lots of advice for our new President.

Businessweek has advice on how to be productive in the first one-hundred days and the Washington Post warns that Obama should not make the same mistakes Clinton made.

As official Washington turns its attention from the transition to Obama’s plans for the first 100 days, Clinton’s difficult experience in his own first 100 days can again serve as a cautionary tale for Obama.

Clinton sought to move on a number of major policy fronts — an economic stimulus package, an overhaul of the health care system led by Hillary Clinton — that were eventually abandoned, and was buffeted by unforeseen controversies (gays in the military/”don’t ask, don’t tell”) and unpredictable events (the Branch Davidian stand-off in Waco, Texas).

“I think there was a great deal of exuberance by the president in terms of what he’d be able to accomplish immediately, and, no, he couldn’t match it all,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart of Bill Clinton in the spring of 1993.
Obama’s First 100

So, what should Barack Obama do in his first one-hundred days?

Scientific American says

Energy security is the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity of our time. But lack of action has put the U.S. at risk. America needs a bold plan that ignites our collective imagination, sparks innovation, and creates economic and national security. The starting point? A call to action from our new president in the first 100 days of his administration.
Obama’s First 100 Days

and it is clear that many others care about peace and the environment.

I think most people believe that the biggest challenge we face at this point is the economy. Commenters on the WP piece seem to agree that the economy is most pressing (followed by Isreal, and energy). Gerald F. Seib, Executive Washington Editor at the Wall Street Journal says that the top five items on the to-do list are economy, economy, economy, economy, and economy. This guy says the top issue is the economy (followed by Guantanamo, the Middle East, energy, and healthcare) and one of his commenters points out the following:

Barring any event of the magnitude of 9/11 or something approaching it, the bread and butter issue of American politics is, as it’s always been, the price of bread and butter.
link

and others agree

Though presidential historians say it’s an arbitrary Рand in some ways unfair Рmeasurement, they say Obama’s early actions will set the tone for his administration and establish his priorities and leadership style.

“It’s an unreasonable expectation that we put on all our presidents, just because it worked that way in 1933 for FDR. They shouldn’t be held to that” said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked for several presidents.

Obama’s advisers and outside observers say it is clear that fixing the economy and creating jobs will dominate his agenda in the early days, just as it did Roosevelt’s.
Shades of FDR

Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor at the Wall Street Journal, says that even though President Obama faces “a significant number of foreign policy problems” (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East) of which any one could hijack the President’s agenda, the economy is the biggest issue “bar none” and that the stimulus plan he pushes through Congress will “probably be the defining product of his presidency.” In a video preview of the next one-hundred days, he says that Obama will be considered successful if he can recover the economy and tackle just one more of the important issues on his agenda. Another commentator in the same video reminds us, though, that every day spent on the “short term agenda” is a day not spent on healthcare, climate change, or taxes.

President Obama’s campaign website has a list of issues that also puts the economy at the top, though the list is actually in alphabetical order.

The President himself had this to say:

“The first hundred days is going to be important, but it‚Äôs probably going to be more like the first thousand days that makes a difference” he told a Colorado radio station in an interview shortly before Election Day. “Most of the big challenges that we face, whether it’s making college more affordable, or fixing our health care system so it works for everybody, or making sure that we’ve got a serious energy strategy, or winding down the war in Iraq, all those things are probably going to take longer than three months to complete.”
Shades of FDR

Actually, I am not sure I’d agree that the economy should be the point of focus over the next one-hundred days. I must admit that I feel a certain sense of unease at the present state of our economy but I am in a different position than most – I have very little debt and 80% of my income comes from recession resistant sources. I’d like to think that my opinion would be the same even if that were not the case. Our economy has thrived for years on over-consumption and that has led us to this point. In order to solve our environmental problems and improve our stature in the world, we need to cut back on our consumption. I think a sluggish economy is a necessary evil and I am not sure we need to jump in and save it.

That being said, I believe that something must be done to help those who desperately need to survive during these hard economic times. My biggest concern, and the number one reason I voted for President Obama, is social injustice in the world. There are many in our own country who cannot afford to put food on the table and that ought not to be so in a place like this.

So, I guess in a sense it all comes back to economic concerns again.

What do you think?

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There is no need to focus on all the things I didn’t like about our previous president – others have done that well. It’s time to focus on the positive things that can happen now.

I have no illusions that all we be well in America now, nor do I believe President Obama will do things as well as he should. In fact, I fully expect him to make decisions with which I do not agree. Nonetheless, I expect the next four years to bring about significant changes to our way of life in this country.

There are many who wish him harm, pray that he fails, or look to the future with paranoia and fear; but I’d argue that even those who disagree with his policy should hope for the best. Like our President said yesterday and at other times, “there is no such thing as false hope.” We should all hope and pray for our great country and our new leader.

We should also not forget the significance of his election to power as an African American. We can not all be free until we are all free. The fact that these two men can stand on the platform together is a testament to how far we’ve come.

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“Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office.”All in favour?: 129. All opposed?: 21. Meeting adjourned.Bid to give Bush the boot

Wow!Thanks to Fountainhead: Bid to give Bush the boot

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I figured that since I never have anything to do, I would sign up.

Anyway, our first book is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and I have found it fascinating. While the details in the book are not really a surprise to me (I’ve assumed this kind of thing was happening), it does seem a little hard to believe the way the story unfolds.

I will get back to you when I am finished.

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You can be just as pro-life as the day is long and can decide the Constitution requires Roe to be upheld

Absolutely.

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“She appeared to have an innate sense of fairness,” recalled lawyer Sam Baxter, who lost the Microsoft case to Miers. “She was not doctrinaire.”from the Washington Post – As a Lawyer, Miers Focused on Policy

I found one paragraph of the Post article particularly interesting:

Her one foray into the controversial social subjects that can animate the high court was her work as a member of the ABA to get the organization to withdraw its official support for abortion rights. Her colleagues said that stemmed from her belief that the national association of lawyers should not take a stance on abortion and other issues that are matters of personal conscience.

I have nothing here to go on except her colleagues opinion of her intentions. If this is her opinion on the matter, I agree. Certainly, lawyers should not take such a stand. Judges, on the other hand, should support abortion rights for the same reason – it is a matter of personal conscience.

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“It looks like a perfect storm,” said Joseph E. diGenova, a Republican and former independent counsel, who noted that so many investigations can weigh on an administration. “People have no idea what happens when an investigation gets underway. It’s debilitating. It’s not just distracting. It’s debilitating. It’s like getting punched in the stomach.”

“The one that people are most worried about is Abramoff because it seems to have such long tentacles,”

“The Abramoff thing is a lingering nuisance to everybody,” said GOP lobbyist Charles Black. “I don’t know who else might be caught up in it.”

and my favorite:

The current atmosphere is not what Bush envisioned as a candidate in 2000.

Speaking of Abramoff. I think I remember him.

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In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated “covert propaganda” in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

What next?Buying of News by Bush’s Aides Is Ruled Illegal – New York TimesIn a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated “covert propaganda” in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

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