Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
...what are those "values and principles of the greatest nation ever created"?
Someone--some candidate--needs to refresh our memories. If that candidate can convince people that he will actually govern consistent with those principles, he'll almost certainly be elected!
Let me start with a couple that would appeal to me...
1) Pass legislation immediately that will require that the federal government not spend any more than it takes in--reinstate PayGo.
2) Pass legislation that will immediately eliminate the ability of lobbyists to influence elections and elected officials. That's a mouthful, but I'm sure some legislation could be crafted.
3) Somehow eliminate the integration of religious values into the process of electing representatives and governing at any level. This country was founded largely on the principle of the separation of church and state, and those governing us should remain true to that cause.
Any others?
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Let's take these one-by-one:
1. Getting some congressperson to submit a bill is not a problem at any time. Getting the bill to clear committee, convincing the Speaker (all revenue bills must originate in the House) that the bill should be scheduled for a vote, and then duplicating the process in the Senate - odds are very thin, especially with a House/Senate leadership that very much wants money for everything under the sun.
2. What is a lobbyist? In fact, it's a private citizen with an agenda - the only difference is that the lobbyist is a paid representative acting on behalf of many like-minded private citizens. Eliminating them automatically puts ALL influence solely in the hands of the Party leadership. That to me is more frightening than legions of lobbyists, because that's how the Communists in Russia & China, the Ba'aath in Iraq the Nazis in Germany, and other such dictatorial entities where self-proclaimed free elections occurred were able to rule without dissent.
3. All morality and ethics are religious-based. Without a defining basis of right-and-wrong enforced by a "higher authority," the State becomes omnipotent in definition and practice of what "leadership" believes best suits their efforts to achieve their goals. Lack of such morality and ethics brought the world the Nazi social-cleansing actions, the killing fields of Laos, and other such state-initiated abominations.
Separation of Church and State means no state-mandated or preferred religion. It does not mean no state recognition that God exists and that we answer eventually to a higher authority how we enact and enforce laws, and how we treat our neighbor. Separation of Church and State does not mean state preference for agnosticism or atheism - as neither of them espouse moral and ethical behavior.