My Declaration of Independence - A "Republican" No Longer

Will Malven
Friday, May 23, 2008

After watching Wednesday's embarrassing, pig-out by Congressional Republicans in voting with the Democrat majority to override the President's veto of a bloated, pork-laden farm bill at a time when farmer's income is at an historical high, I believe it is now time for this disclaimer.

The decision, as proven with Wednesday’s vote, by the Republican Party elite to disentangle themselves and their party from the onerous burden of supporting the policies and beliefs to which Conservatives adhere (small government, low taxes, restraint in spending, strong national defense, and belief in the value of every life), in favor of the Democrat-light policies of the Liberal elitist "Country-Club Republicans" of the early 20th century, leaves little choice for Conservatives but to abandon the Republican Party to its eventual and inevitable death and (hopefully) eventual rebirth.

The Republican Party is no longer my party. It is not the party of Ronald Reagan. It is not the party of a constitutionally constrained government.Gone is the belief in free enterprise without governmental intervention. Gone is the belief in the philosophy, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson, "That government governs best which governs least."

We now have a government of special interests, in which each member of congress (with a few notable exceptions) is for sale to the highest bidder; Democrats are beholden to the groups of "special Americans" (those who are of greater value than the average citizen), and Republicans are beholden to "special business interests."

Apparently being re-elected to office is far more important to members of congress than serving the interests of their nation. The have forgotten that they are nothing more than overly glorified hired-hands.

They have also forgotten that they are federal government employees, not state employees, and that their obligations-while still representing their constituents back home-are to the larger population of the entire nation.

Pork-barrel spending is a clear sign that our Congressmen have become nothing more than an extension of the colloquial interests of their voters and have chosen to forego any sense of the responsibility or obligation they owe to the population as a whole.

Regardless of its anonymous origin, the statement, often mistakenly attributed to Alexander Tytler, describing how democratic governments fall seems to be uncannily accurate and predictive if our congressmen and women don't stop pandering to their local constituencies and get about the business of the nation.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

Of course for those elitist Liberals of both parties, that "dictatorship" is precisely what they are seeking to impose. The remainder of these pork-barrel oinkers are simply too stupid to see the dangers of this approaching governmental disaster.

This pork-barrel spending is the "Panem et Circenses" (Bread and Circuses) of Juvenal's satirical commentary on the Roman Empire. When the leaders of Rome realized that the populous was restive under their incompetent rule, they began to throw loaves of bread to the audiences at the "games" being held in the Coloseum and other arenae throughout the empire.

In America, we too have our own incompetent governing class. All but a few intrepid souls, those who still believe in governing according to our founding documents, have chosen to secure their places in congress by following the Roman model.

Big Agra is now apparently in control of both the Democrat and Republican Parties. As a result, immigration reform and control of our borders has become a secondary or even tertiary concern and fiscal restraint has succumbed to the irresponsible and scientifically unsupportable decision to direct tax-payer dollars into the pursuit of "bio-fuels."

The faux science of Man-made Global Warming (now, as dire predictions are being proven unfounded, re-labeled as Global Climate Change) has become accepted dogma within the Republican Party in which reason used to reign supreme.

Attempting to buy votes by passing legislation favoring special interests like Big Agra, if done on a small scale is called bribery and is punishable by imprisonment of the governing official. When done on a large scale it is called pandering and, though considered less than noble, has now become an acceptable means of governing.

Farm subsidies, like all "corporate welfare," are an anathema to a free and growing economy and are a hold-over from our first destructive venture into using tax-payer funds to set social policy under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Here is the grim report as related by AP.

Congress enacts $290B farm bill over Bush veto

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 22, 6:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Congress enacted a massive farm bill Thursday with new and bigger subsidies for farmers, plus more food stamps for the poor.

-----------------snip-------------------

Bush claimed the legislation was too expensive and too generous with subsidies for farmers who are enjoying record high prices and incomes. He had opposed the legislation from the start, threatening his first veto last July.

A bipartisan group of negotiators on the bill made small cuts to subsidies to appease the White House, but Bush said it wasn't enough.

Still, congressional Republicans overwhelmingly abandoned Bush in voting to override the legislation, overlooking its cost amid public concern about the weak economy and high gasoline and grocery prices. GOP lawmakers are anxious about their own prospects less than six months before Election Day.

I have been a staunch Republican for 37 voting years, but over the past 8 years I have become increasingly disenchanted by the direction of my (former) party.

This kind of gutless pandering for votes, enacting wasteful and unnecessary spending measures is the exemplar for corrupt government. This kind of gutless acquiescence to Democrat spending measures will not secure these Republican eunuchs the aprobation of the Democrat Mainstream media, nor will is secure them any Liberal votes in the fall. Additionally, it will lose them votes from their base constituency, Conservatives.

With each of these grotesque bills, the Republican leadership (or lack thereof) in each house of congress and within the party have assured themselves a loss of historic proportions; probably exceeding that of 1974.

Because of these Republican (so-called) votes, the American people will be forced to endure another decade of "malaise" and Democrats will shove another round of their historically proven failed socialist policies down our collective throats.

Lest you think I am being unfair, I don't blame these weak-kneed Republican legislators alone. We have an uninformed, uneducated, visionless, self-absorbed and selfish voting public who lack any historical perspective and are more interested in who the next "American Idol" will be than they are in how they will be governed over the next four years.

Obama will win, not with substantive ideals (he hasn't any), but with glitz and superficiality. "A change you can believe in" is not a policy, it's not even proper grammar, it's just a slogan.

Oh, I will still vote for John McCain (the unthinkable) because the Democrat Party alternative would be catastrophic for the nation and my fellow citizens. I will vote for those down-ballot candidates in whom I believe, but I will no longer affiliate myself or my name with the Republican brand.

Call me Republican, no more.

I fear, to paraphrase President Ford's inaugural address:

Our long national nightmare has just begun.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

May God Save Our American Republic, Please!!!

What do you think?

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