How often at your workplace have you held your tongue out of fear of saying something that could get you fired?
Everyone looks out for their interests. We naturally try to do that which best serves ourselves and our families. It is called human nature and it has served mankind well since the Creation.
The people we send to government are no different. They can’t be different, for they are one of us, and as imperfect as the rest of mankind.
First, we must understand that most of the chosen 535 members of congress had to claw, grasp, climb their way up from obscure beginnings. Does that sound familiar? Didn’t we all have to do the same thing in our professional lives?
They are now in congress and they “made it.” In this heady environment most congressmen come to think they should be senators, and most senators believe they should be president.
What happened to these otherwise good and upstanding people? Like anyone else, they respond in varying degrees to their (corrupt) surroundings. Go along to get along with party leadership and lots of extra power, money . . . are nearly guaranteed.
Few are those who wouldn’t respond in the same manner, and conduct themselves so as to continue their ascent in so-called public service. It is human nature. What we do in our workplaces is little different from the behavior of our politicians. It cannot be any other way.
We can admonish Republicans to stand up for the Constitution all day and night. We can beat up rinos and blame them for the accelerating tyranny. It feels good. I occasionally take part in the sport myself. However, if we are to peacefully restore our previously free republic, we must come to grips as our Framers did with the fact that men respond to passion and self-interest far more often than reason. No matter where, in or out of government, ultimate personal interest trumps the greater good almost every time.
Since passions rule, how can they be turned toward the greater good? How can they be directed toward one of the declared purposes of our government, the general welfare?
The answer devised by our Framers in 1787 was to divide the universe of legitimate governing authority. First and foremost was their VERTICAL division of power between the states and the government they created, as evidenced in a Senate of the States. We must redirect the passion of self-interested senators to serve once again as a diffuse check on the House of Representatives and President. The Framers’ system worked well until the 17th Amendment in 1913. Overnight, the US transformed itself from a unique federal republic and into just another democratic republic.
Until power is once more distributed between the representatives of the people and the states, there is zero chance that republican liberty can be restored.
Pity the Poor Rino; ease his pain. Restore a senate of the states.
Article V.