blind obedience
blind obedience
The two political parties with power have no reason to change. They have no competition. They have everything pretty much under control - their control, not yours. They gerrymander voters to ensure safe seats. They make it hard for competing political parties to mount a real challenge with restrictive ballot access laws that force challengers to jump high hoops. Their power to tax and spend allows those euphemistically called "member items" to buy votes. Creating commissions, authorities and boards make it possible to employ cronies and dispense political patronage to friends and supporters. Contracting work, issuing and revoking licenses, controlling the work of government agents and departments influences how people react to the controlling powers. All of this costs money. Basically, politicians have the ability to fill the treasury with your money and use your money to buy votes. Of course, people sell their votes for access to the treasury and power to enact self-serving laws. This also costs money. Buying political influence has been a continuing scandal. Of course, buying politicians is becoming increasingly costly. Because benefit must be higher than the cost political winners get to reach deeper into the losers' pockets. The power to decide slips away from some people and gets transferred to those who pay more for politicians. Power corrupts. Political power is not exception. People organize into winning voting blocks to win the struggle for power over other people. Protecting constituencies and voting blocks trumps the fundamental law. Laws are passed to please constituencies and voting blocks, not 'The Common Good'. These laws necessarily favor some people by confiscating the choices and values of other people. Laws steal choices. They make people do things they would not want to do if they were free. The science of creating political coalitions long enough to win an election has been refined and institutionalized to a degree that Democrats and Republicans are in equilibrium.Why should they change when they are winning? Laws steal choices. They make people do things they would not want to do if they were free. Why should constituencies - why should anyone - impose their values on others? The Social Contract is about voluntary agreement, not forced obedience. The Constitution is all about limiting the power of government over an individual’s inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, government has become pervasive, intrusive, demanding, and overpowering. Why should our choices for happiness be decreed by others? We are told, and often believe, that government is accountable to “The People”. Schools are heavily regulated under the law. They are also very expensive and often dysfunctional. Do “We, the People” want the expensive under performing schools we have? If not, them, then how is government accountable to us? If government is not accountable to us, does that not make us accountable to government? If not to us, to whom is it accountable? Schools are broken, but we must pay. It’s The Law! But whose laws must “We, the People” obey? Laws can be chains. Have not the worst social calamities been done in the name of The Law? Shouldn't we resist laws we oppose? Shouldn't we elect legislators who give us choices instead of laws? |