This weekend’s contribution to Townhall.com by Yours Truly concerns another one of those automated congressional time bombs. You know, like the “fiscal cliff” but less cliffy and more bomby. Head on over, and then back here, for a few links:
The most interesting presidential election in U.S. history may have been the fourth, wherein Thomas Jefferson won. Sort of. How Jefferson got to be president may be relevant in this election, which is now so close that some wonder what would happen if there were an Electoral College stalemate, 269 votes for Romney and 269 for Obama. (Remember, it’s the electors who count, not the popular vote.)
In 1800, because of a constitutional glitch, Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr got the same number of electors, and the whole issue went to the House, which the Federalists still controlled, and it took a lot of negotiations and in-fighting to put Jefferson in office as the president.
The 12th Amendment settled the VP glitch, and cooked up a solution to the possibility of an Electoral College tie, as well. It’s never been used.
If, this Tuesday, the distribution of the popular vote forces the Electoral College into stalemate, the 12th Amendment would kick in, and the House would vote in a peculiar fashion (one vote per state), to select the President — Romney, considering the complexion of that body. Then the Senate would select the Vice President — Biden, considering the complexion of that body.
A wild finish, but it could get even wilder. In 1972, an elector jumped ship, voting for the Libertarian Party’s John Hospers/Tonie Nathan ticket (making Nathan the first woman to receive an electoral vote). Even against state laws forbidding it, a similar jump for Libertarian Gary Johnson or the Green Party’s Jill Stein — or Ron Paul — might complicate further. Or simplify.
Happy voting.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
One hallmark of a free society is the legal right to make fun of our leaders. Several times per week I engage in ridicule as well as argument against the folks who think they know what they are doing when they attempt to rule us.
We should wear this freedom to ridicule like a badge.
Iranians, alas, can’t say the same.
Mahmoud Shokraye was tried and found guilty for insulting Nameye Amir, a member of parliament. Shokraye drew a mildly funny caricature of Amir, in a colorful post-Nastian style (the kind most major papers now fall back on), and for his trouble got 25 lashes.
Heroically, a number of cartoonists have upped the ante and created even less flattering caricatures, as you can see at the Cartoon Blog. (I sample some of them, here.) Amir got more than he bargained for. I hope it stings — more than 25 lashes’ worth.
There are several lessons to draw from this.
First, “taking offense” is not the basis of any legal action. Or any violent action. In the west, we’re centuries away from duels and other deadly fights of “honor.” The Islamic east is, alas, still embedded in old honor cultures. The faster they can shuffle off that obsession and move to a rule of law, instead, the better.
Second, as Thomas Jefferson put it, governments should fear the people, not the other way around. That’s part of what it means to live in a free society.
Politicians who don’t like it are free to seek a less public job. Really.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Barring drastic action, the Golden State will run out of cash in March.
There is no provision in the Constitution for dealing with a bankrupt state. But then, there’s nothing explicit dealing with federal bankruptcy, either. The founding fathers didn’t expect their republic to permanently accumulate debt. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson wished to foreswear all sovereign debt. He considered the practice parasitic.
Our leaders are supposed to run our governments so to avoid debt crises.
But, because politicians do just the opposite, they run into cash flow crunches. Last year, California’s statesmen borrowed $5.4 billion to cover the lean time before Spring’s tax revenues flowed in. They had figured they would be good through June, but miscalculated. Now they’re scrambling for an extra $3.3 billion.
Time to fudge the books! Pay late. Not answer the phone or respond to dunning notices.
Of course, the real problem is over-spending. California’s politicians spend too much.
Alas, it doesn’t look like they are about to reform.
Gov. Jerry Brown still pushes the huge “investment” of high-speed rail, for the grandest example. The project’s supporters have over-estimated ridership, underestimated costs (the most realistic official accounting now puts the system at $98 billion), and have been forced to restrict the extent of the line, excluding both San Diego and the state capital. Brown’s response? Making up for cost overruns by hijacking funds from the state’s “cap-and-trade” (the nation’s only carbon-footprint-based) tax.
Ah, politicians: Spend, spend, spend, even as the institutions they are responsible for lurch into insolvency.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Every election you hear the same old mantra: Declining civility and nasty campaigning. And it’s getting worse!
Well, if you have some knowledge of history …
You might find a lot of interesting stuff from the video source, Reason TV.
The State of the Union Address has become political, said Justice Alito last week, so he will follow the lead of Justices Scalia and Thomas and not sit in Congress while the Commander in Chief intones his annual duty.
Last January, Alito objected to President Obama’s little stab at the Supreme Court when the prez decried the Citizens United decision. Obama said that the Court had “reversed a century of law” and would “open the floodgates of special interests … to spend without limit in our elections.” Alito mouthed the words “NOT TRUE.”
And Alito was right. The decision certainly did not overturn a century of law. Not even a teensy bit … Well, maybe a teensy-weensy bit, if we count Progressive’s wishes to run everything by bureaucracy and “experts.” (It’s worth remembering that Progressives had a populist wing, supporting initiative and referendum a century ago.) The Citizens United case was about the unfortunately successful censorship of a movie. About a Democrat, Hillary Clinton.
So you can see why politicians — especially, these days, some Democrats — might oppose free speech around election time. The better to control the opposition.
No wonder Alito won’t “be there in January.” He doesn’t want to serve as a “potted plant.”
Congress, of course, takes occasion to seem “potted” in another sense. Amidst congressional applause and shouts, there’s scant room for reason.
Our third president, Thomas Jefferson, merely sent his report to Congress. Obama should, too — and save Alito RSVP duty.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Yesterday I talked about a New York Times piece on the Tea Party reading list. I mentioned several authors, including Bastiat, Mises, Hayek, and even Saul Alinsky. As an astute reader mentioned, I did not bring up W. Cleon Skousen’s The 5000 Year Leap, which Ms. Zernike’s article treats at some length.
I also did not deign to mention a few books merely cited, such as Atlas Shrugged and The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.
Why?
Well, of the books I didn’t mention, I’d only read one. And it wasn’t The 5000 Year Leap. More importantly, the title of the Times piece, what interested me about it, were the classics. The 5000 Year Leap isn’t a classic yet.
But perhaps I should ask you: Have you read it? Does it deserve to be a classic?
The New York Times didn’t exactly entice me into the book’s pages. According to the paper, Skousen thought Jefferson urged teaching Christianity in state public schools. This seems to fly in the face not only of Jefferson’s humanistic “Epicureanism” but also of the disestablishmentarianism of the Baptists for whom Jefferson supportively coined the expression “wall of separation between church and state.” (It’s often forgotten, these days, that, during our nation’s founding period, Baptists were ardent supporters of keeping religion and politics separate.)
But I’ve learned long ago, you can’t always trust the Times.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
You’ve heard the calumny: The current economic debacle is the result of free markets.
This charge — often made with lip-smacking glee — makes no sense.
I’ve discussed some specifics, before. Here are three more points:
1. We haven’t had a free market. We live in a heavily regulated, subsidized, coddled-and-attacked, over-taxed society. If the current debacle proves any system unfeasible, then the one proven wrong is the one we have. It’s the mixed economy that has proven to have worse than mixed results.
2. Many on the left as well as on the right like to pretend that Republican talk of free markets has been effective. Both sides lie. The alleged party of “small-government” and “free markets” pigged out at the government trough, increasing the size and scope of government. To not see growth of regulation and spending and government debt under Republican governance is to not see the corpulent elephant in the room.
3. Blaming free markets is especially galling to actual proponents of free markets for a historical reason, too: Our idea grew up in reaction not to socialism, but to a system of government interference much like what we have today. Adam Smith called it “mercantilism.” Thomas Jefferson called it “Parasite Institutions.”
And it’s the parasite institutions that caused the current mess.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
There have always been prophets of doom. Thomas Malthus predicted that over-population would exhaust our resources by the end of the century. And that was two centuries ago. Mankind steadily progresses, building on our learning, our methods of production and our technology. The doomsayers are quietly left behind.
But in politics it’s different. A little bit of doomsaying makes sense. Expect the worst and try to prevent it. Our Founders wanted to contain political power. They believed unchecked power would destroy the freedom they had fought for and won. This wasn’t pessimism; it was realism. They had seen the destructive nature of power throughout history. George Washington said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.” This is why the Founders took such great pains to limit the power of government.
And they knew we were fighting against the odds. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The natural tendency is for government to gain ground and liberty to yield.” Today, we’ve only reconfirmed the lessons taught by the Founders. Even in America, we’ve seen the federal government take more and more of our freedoms and the fruits of our labor. As those in Congress became career politicians, the size and power of the federal government exploded.
We must fight to protect our freedom against those who monopolize political power. According to Jefferson, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” That’s why he didn’t want eternal politicians.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.