“No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”
Author: Redactor
Election news from the weekend tells us that Ron Paul won the majority of delegates at Maine’s GOP state convention, with a sizable hunk of Republicans saying, yet again, “no” to Mitt Romney.
In France, Nicolas Sarkozy got ousted, as French voters put in a self-declared socialist for the second time since World War II.
Meanwhile, in beleaguered Greece, elections gave no clear majority to any party.
Since the new French president, François Hollande, has pledged to fight back against German “austerity” measures, and since Greece, too, resists those “bailout” procedures, it looks like the collapse of the European Union may be at hand.
On one level, Greek and French voters seem to prefer to live in that special fantasy land where you can grow government and debt indefinitely and expect good times to roll on forever. On another, they are reacting, at least in part, to the idea that austerity is being pushed by foreigners, that they have been forced not by reality to reform, but by . . . Germans!
Americans wouldn’t be happy about having a policy shoved down their throat by France. Or Germany. Or (more likely) Beijing.
It’s not easy accepting less than one is used to.
Which is why, here in America, neither Obama nor Romney talk seriously about measures to balance the budget. Obama lives in la-la land, and Romney thinks that Rep. Ryan’s plan — which allegedly would balance the budget scores of years from now — is a responsible fix for the irresponsible reality of the day.
Only Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are really taking reality seriously. Perhaps that’s why they are still in the race.
Thus it is, in interesting times.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Townhall: Bad to Worst
Variation on a by now well-worn theme: “Bad to Worst” on Townhall.com. Please visit, then come back here to comment, and look for more links:
- “Reading List for the End of an Age” (on what and whom to blame for our continuing financial crisis)
- “Is More Regulation the Answer?” (Common Sense, Steve Chapman, and the eternal question)
- “March to Bankruptcy” (Common Sense … the politics of never-ending bad policy)
- “In Need of Bankruptcy?” (life under “too big to fail”)
- “A Barney Frank Appraisal” (Common Sense … on praising the wrong prophet)
- “Why I Vote, and How” (Common Sense … my personal strategy)
Note: These links are thematically related to this weekend’s Townhall column, not (like usual) source material upon which the column was based. The source material can easily be found by scrolling back through last week’s Common Sense.
Oh, and not covered in the Townhall column was Gary Johnson’s winning the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. Reason? The column was written in advance of Johnson’s Saturday win.
This is stylish, provocative, and … worth thinking about:
There is a reason I usually concentrate my political efforts on initiative measures: by being selective I can avoid making things worse.
Electoral politics, on the other hand, is always fraught with dangers: compromise and betrayal are the norm.
And the voter, when observant, often gets the feeling he’s being “played.” And he (and she) is.
This week I argued that Romney not being elected might be a good thing. I piled on to this notion by supporting Gary Johnson’s Libertarian Party run. Most of my readers who commented disagreed. Vociferously. Their main point? Obama must be stopped.
I note that my readers addressed almost none of the actual reasons I floated for equanimity in the face of a Romney defeat. Instead, they reiterate: Obama must be stopped. I agree, his policies must be stopped; but, in turn, reiterate my point: Romney will do little to reverse course.
Let’s not forget that George W. Bush and the united GOP Congress significantly increased the size and scope of government, and its debt . . . in effect, paving the way for Obama. Too few of us dubbed it “socialism” back then.
Romney seems all too likely to repeat this performance.
We certainly don’t need another president praising free markets and limited government while moving us step-by-step closer to a quasi-socialist serfdom.
I suggest we concentrate on Congress — especially new blood in the old institution — and on Court action, for the most effective resistance to the Democrats’ (and Republicans’) insane lust for spending and debt.
And we need creative initiative action in the states.
By resting hope on a Romney “victory,” I fear conservatives are walking straight into a trap, a familiar trap.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Neil Young, from the song, “Ohio”
“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
“Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?”
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Kent State, Haymarket, RI renounces King
On May 4, 1970, four students were killed and eleven others wounded when National Guardsmen opened fire on a group of students at Kent State University. The students were protesting President Richard Nixon’s April 30 announcement that U.S. forces would move into Cambodia to destroy North Vietnamese bases there.
On May 4, 1886, a riot broke out in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, as a labor protest turned into a riot, leaving more than 100 wounded and 8 police officers dead. In the aftermath, Chicago authorities charged eight men, who were either speakers in or organizers of the protest, with murder. Seven of the eight defendants received death sentences. Four of the defendants were hanged. One man scheduled for execution killed himself the day before. The governor pardoned the remaining three defendants in 1893, after they had served seven years in prison.
On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first North American colony to renounce its allegiance to King George III. Ironically, Rhode Island would be the last state to ratify the U.S. Constitution more than 14 years later on May 29, 1790.
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Pete Seeger, born May 3, 1919
“Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent.”
On May 3, 1469, Italian philosopher and writer Niccolo Machiavelli was born. Machiavelli became one of the fathers of modern political theory, writing “The Prince” in 1532.
On May 3, 1940, David Koch, a billionaire businessman, who ran for Vice-President in 1980 as the Libertarian Party candidate, was born in Wichita, Kansas. Koch continues to fund numerous groups working toward libertarian goals.
On May 3, 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first modern air-naval battle, began. Though Imperial Japan won the battle and went on to occupy all of the Solomon Islands, it was a Pyrrhic victory. Japan lost 70 planes to 66 lost by the U.S., but unlike the U.S., the Japanese could not replace their lost pilots, forcing them to pull back other attack plans in the Pacific.
When former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson sought the Republican nomination for president, he was unequivocally told “NO” — not by voters, who had little chance to consider his candidacy, but by media outlets refusing to give him a place on their debate stages.
Mr. Johnson didn’t garner enough support in public opinion polls, debate organizers said. But his name didn’t even appear in many of those media-designed polls. Catch-2012.
But his campaign continues. He’s in Las Vegas this weekend, seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party. Most observers expect Johnson to become the minor party’s presidential nominee . . . and to wind up on as many as 49 state ballots this fall.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul — who is also still in the race, betting long odds on a brokered Republican convention — polls 17 percent in a hypothetical three-way race with Obama and Romney. Admittedly, Johnson doesn’t have Congressman Paul’s following, but given the commitment of Paul’s supporters to civil liberties, a non-interventionist foreign policy and ending the drug war, they are far more likely to opt for Johnson than Romney . . . or Obama.
Moreover, on the biggest issue facing the country, out-of-control federal spending, Johnson has the best resumé of any candidate. He pledges to submit a balanced budget and to veto any congressional spending that we can’t afford without more borrowing.
Believe him. Johnson issued 750 vetoes in his eight years as New Mexico’s governor — more than the other 49 governors combined.
So, in all likelihood, it’s a choice between Romney or Obama . . . or a guy who would veto Washington.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.