Home of Today's Common Sense

Published – Brownsville Herald 6-18-2006
Schools have closed for the summer and the fall elections cannot be far away!
I have railed in these columns about how few folks voted and exhorted more folks to get involved and I continue to encourage everyone who lives in our United States to join the party of your choice and get involved. Let the party leaders hear your concerns directly; don’t wait for a media outlet to divine what you believe the country should look like.
However, all this time the only thing I have been doing has been to write these columns and pontificate on what everyone else should be doing.
Over the last several months, I finally listened to my own advice and joined a party and got involved. I selected a party that best reflected my values at this point in my life.
“The research I have been doing in the last few years for these columns helped me to see that the two-party system is quickly becoming a single entity of two factions of what appears to be a cross of socialism and fascism. It seems to support a government control of people and resources based on the dispensation or withholding of benefits and enforced by a force peopled by those who personally attack anyone with a perspective different than theirs. The enforcers also don’t seem to be bothered by a lack of facts as they seem to create them as needed.
This is further amplified by a school system, controlled by this system of the dispensation of benefits, which inculcates a socialistic ideology rather than teaching the facts, content and skills to derive solutions to problems independently. “
The forgoing is a description of my perspective as of today and is subject to change on a regular basis when rational assertions based on supportable facts are presented for me to make my own choices. With that in mind I joined the Libertarian Party and was subsequently entrusted with the post of County Chairman and delegate to the State and National Conventions.
My choice of the kind of political activity, I wanted to pursue, was because I do not possess the qualities to be an office holder and being a true pragmatist, I wanted to be able to make the best contribution I could.
I chose to help in the administration of the Party so that it will be a good representation of our candidates’ aspirations and to help recruit good candidates.
In fact, I consider anyone, who is willing to be a candidate for office (and expose him or herself to the problems of running for office, with only the goal of taking a pay cut and working longer hours, then only to be criticized by folks like me) to be true American Heroes, regardless of party.
The problem comes when the trappings of power become overwhelming for the successful officeholder. A disease of political intoxication evolves and our hero becomes a ruler that innately knows what is good for everyone else.
My political goal is to recruit “Citizen Statespersons” to run for office, not geniuses, great thinkers, or exceptional in any particular way, though I believe most who make the decision will be exceptional or will become that way and rise to the constituents’ expectations.
An ideal candidate in my mind is an honest person with traditional family and cultural values and capable of thinking for him or herself. Someone just like those who read this column!
If you believe that there are problems with the way our government is being run then there are few choices as to what to do about it.
The party that you chose because it best represents how you see the future of the United States, needs more and better candidates to run for office. Help locate and encourage your trustworthy neighbors or cousins to run for office and support them in the process. That way there will be candidates that will not be the least of evils.
Most important is to vote and get everyone you know to vote.
Right now the current crop of local rulers are doing nothing to help keep the utility costs in bounds and continue to transfer about $8 million in profits from “OUR” PUB to City coffers as a secret tax. Our city, county, and school taxes keep escalating at an alarming rate and still more is extorted from us in tax rate increases to pay for additional debt. When asked, our rulers respond that it was something out of their control that is at fault.
There are remedial actions that can be taken but our rulers choose to protect their own interests at the cost of the “folks”.
Others have been in office for such a long time they feel that they know what is good for all of us and need not consider any other suggestions.
At the national level laws are routinely not observed when they are inconvenient, especially by our Congressional Representatives and other governmental entities as well. Life-tenured New Jersey Superior Court Judge A. Nepolitano has written an extraordinary book describing only several hundred examples that have made many very unsettled.
Congressional politicians have polarized many segments of our society with the Immigration Reform Debacle and are trying to turn the situation into a pork feeding fest for their political friends. The spending is outrageous.
Even more than that, our congressional representatives are terrified that some of the undocumented persons would be sent back to their country or origin or even just relocated to somewhere else, as it would result in the census counting less persons and a resulting loss of federal largess and the dissolution of the affected congressional districts – vast change in the balance or red – blue power. Even though Hispanics protest in high numbers when inflamed it takes voting in high percentages to get the concern of the callused rulers, so far that it is not the case.
These are the results of an apathy and feeling that you cannot have an effect regardless of how you vote.
Remember that if just a few more democrats in Florida or other states voted Libertarian or Democratic the world would be a vastly different place.
As a last thought, if you live in Cameron County and you want to find out more about how you can influence the future of our community and government contact me at the locations indicated below.