Cojones in Politics: The Lack Thereof

I am an unapologetic listener of the Rush Limbaugh show, whom had Mark Davis from Dallas, TX filling in today.  Mark had this to say in his opening monologue:

"Any solution that doesn't make people nevrious or scared, isn't a solution to the problem.  Paul Ryan's (R-Wisconsin) his road map makes many Republicans nervous."

The intriguing item is that I had this post title worked up a few days ago, and it seemed that Mr. Davis was reading my mind today.  There truly is no real political will to do anything in Washington any more.  Why?  Simply put, the rewards to neglect the country and make for real progress are far too great for the individuals in positions of power.  We the People are the keepers of the Republic but systematically we have become a part of the political corruption as well.  Our dereliction of duty to be well informed voters has gotten us into this mess and the Tea Party movements still have not reached enough of a fever pitch to actually undo the damage that has been done to our Constitutionally protected system.

AK Fan and I had a lengthy discussion in a futile attempt to understand the premise behind the lack of political will to make for a real return to our Constitutional Republic.  I have no idea how such a young mind (we're the same age, few months apart) can teach me so much, or perhaps I just ask the right questions to inspire his wit and wisdom.

First, one must define progress for our country.  Progress to most people is more.  More widgets, more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, more trucks, more Play Stations, more napkins, more, more, more.  More of everything in the world as we the people of the world are always increasing.  For the government, more government is progress.  More bureaucracies, more greed, more control, more power.  It's a never ending cycle merely so someone high enough up the command structure can justify their positions.

AK Fan offered this question:

"If someone went to a McDonald's CEO and said, I have a business model that says you would earn more profit, on a higher margin provided you closed X number of restaurants, in X number of areas by selling off the assets, the properties and the shipping / supply channels, would they do it?"

His answer of course was no, they would not.  Every manager, store owner, and employee works to increase sales and market share, not decrease it.   Obviously, this too is exactly how Washington works.

The progress that us Conservative- Libertarians seek in Washington is a policy of less.  While trying to define political progress, I asked the question of "At what time in our history have our political parties been drastically different?"  My point being that along the ever swinging political pendulum, have the Republicans and the Democrats ever been so drastically different that they were effective enough in pushing the country into a perfect model of justice and liberty?  Or, as we learn from 1984, is the primary objective of the political party (or two party system) nothing but power and perpetuation of the party itself; a worldly immortality if you will.  

Within the political parties, we can surly find Congressman and Senators that know exactly how to live within their own means, use common sense in their personal lives, and live as all normal Americans live.  Send them to Washington to do the people's work, and suddenly they change into a self fulfilling prophecy that they simply can't resist the personal gain that exists with the position.  They enter the "Matrix" of DC, and they completely forget that the reward of their job is to truly do "good."

The main problem we see is that our government officials don't define progress and good from the same philosophical spectrum that most of us do.  Good to them becomes a game of justifying the needs of the legislature, the government positions and jobs they create, the programs and handouts they are able to deal, and the subsequent votes that keep them in their comfy positions of nobility.  It truly is the age old adage of "absolute power corrupts absolutely."

So is there any will inside Washington to do the will of the "people?"  Yes, it does exist, but it is in all honesty, something extremely rare.  It is only seen by the likes of Paul Ryan and Ron Paul (and others) who actually use the limiting power of the Constitution to put all of Washington's workings into a context of liberty and personal freedom.  The framers understood that ANY party system was merely an extension of the monarchy system that they were oppressed with.  Instead of having a single person head, the modern day political system uses the party to assume, focus, and retain power and control.  Of course it is hard to understand why someone (almost anyone in DC) of good moral standing claiming to believe in equality for all, would treat other people in such serfdom ways. 

Are there solutions?  Sure.  Term limits are one solution.  Limiting the amount of time to gain personal reward for public service would be a huge factor.  Being able to prevent the insider network from remaining in tact for too long is exactly how we've come to create these problems.  Limiting the number of staff for each Congressional member to one or two would be another.  This would prevent the political hacks from being too recycled and having an impact on the freshman Congressman and junior Senators.  The network of unelected staffers is a major problem as they are more self-serving than a 5 term senator.   

Education of the populate electorate would be another huge step.  Making sure that those pulling the voting lever understand that somewhere along the line, the Government steals from everyone, not just the created classes within which the immoral parties have placed them.  Additionally, a check and balance via the states on the Federal Government would help to quash some of the none-sense that has been occurring in DC.  Tenth Amendment resurrection as well as state legislature election of the Senators would make sure that everyone with an honest interest in the governing of the nation, has a stake and a say. 

America was built on a bottom up foundation.  I know a return to pure local politics and party control is nearly impossible at this point, but there is always hope.  If the people, not the parties, retake the leadership positions of this country, only then will we see real progress.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption to overcome.