The common folk:

Thursday – July 14, 2011

The common folk:

When The Declaration of Independence was written it was the common folk who sent the big thinkers to do the job they couldn’t do. Later when the Constitution was passed and our government was a formal governing body it was the common folk who sent legislators to represent them in the halls of their new government.

In those days those that served were also considered the common folk. They went to serve their newly formed country and their new constituents a few weeks out of the year and when they were done they went back home to tend their farms, work on the docks, run their stores or produce the trade that would be sent west or exported abroad.

In those days the government provided for the general welfare and the defense of the nation; they also worked to secure the happiness of the common folk. There were no entitlements no special interests and no wasted funding on silly pet projects. It seemed that the common folk were quite happy with their circumstances and they wanted their liberty, their freedom and their independence. This is what they fought for a few short years earlier.

In those days the common folk participated in the process. If their representative didn’t serve them they were united in finding someone else that would. In those days the representatives served a term or two and no longer. It was that simple. We didn’t have a true party system in those days and those that fought for their idea’s ended up compromising to pass needed legislation, that’s how things worked in those days.

Moving ahead 223 years later we should be asking the question who are the common folk today? The answer might come in many forms. However, one thing would be consistent in the answer and that would be not many in Washington D.C. especially our elected officials.

For instance in my State our U.S. Senator and his brother a U.S. Congressional Representative both democrats from my district has served since I was able to vote. I am now 57 years of age. These two brothers are far from being considered the common folk although their roots were born from the common folk.

Each Memorial Day both brothers march in our small towns typical Big American Parade that goes down our typical tree lined American Main Street. Each year they are lauded with great applause along with the even amount of groans; I have to admit I am one of the groaners, but that’s just me. Unfortunately those two brothers will never have to leave until the common folk votes them out. They will never leave on their own accord.

I believe I represent who the common folk are in my town. I have never voted for the two brothers because I have a certain perspective about things. I know their history and now I know the result of their voting history. Their history, like many others who have served for years and who are responsible for the conditions we have today, must be revealed in an understandable way so that the other common folk who vote will vote them out. The problem is these two brothers give a lot of tax payer money out to fund many of the programs that some of the common folk want. However, the programs and now the process have bankrupted the country.

The two brothers have never looked down the road far enough or even worried about the affects that their liberal spending habits have had on America. The two brothers have consistently espoused the liberal line of equalizing the results. They believe that there is never enough money when it comes to evening out the playing field for all. In short, it is the ability to give the wealth away that makes it possible for them to remain in office. Take that away and the two brothers won’t know what to do in office.

223 years ago elected members of congress weren’t kept around long enough to do the damage that these two brothers’ have done today. Because of the power we give to them today they are able to create the personal fiefdoms that they enjoy today. This is something that Jefferson wanted to avoid when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

In my July 8 FORUM I wrote about how I would approach holding office if I were fortunate enough to have a position like the two brothers have. I consider myself to be the common folk because I am to set in my ways not to be considered anything else.

The culture in Washington today is to rule and not to serve. The culture in Washington today provides all the opportunities so that the rulers can take away our liberties our freedoms and our independence by mere virtue of the power that is vested in the offices they occupy sometimes for life. The problem today is that most common folk don’t realize that their tax dollars are being used to take their liberties, their freedoms and their independence away. This is what the politician knows but their constituency doesn’t realize.

Today we are having a debate about the financial future of the country and the future liberties, freedoms and independence of the common folk. One plan that was introduced by the Republican Minority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell would give the President the authority to raise the debt ceiling a total of three times before the next election. Never before in American history has any president ever had that kind of control over the common folk like this plan would give to him. I was stunned when I heard the basics of this plan. I was stunned that a member of the senate would ever consider giving this type of power to this president.

In July of 1776 we declared independence from a king that ruled over the colonies and that taxed the colonies to pay for the huge debt that the British Empire had incurred. It was the common folk like Sam Adams that raised a revolt that started our journey towards independence 235 years ago.

Getting back to the plan, one school of thought about McConnell’s proposal is that the Republicans are setting the president up to take the fall. I believe they are taking the position of: if you think things are bad now just wait and see how bad things can really get.

My problem with this plan is that this president cannot be trusted with this kind of power; it would in essence make him KING.

I say this because it is his lack of experience in these matters that has ruined our economy. Why let him further ruin it? China a communist nation will have a 9% economic growth rate this year, the economic growth rate today of the United States is at 2% and this president says we should be happy with it. The other problem I have with this plan is the Democrats control 2/3 of the government and if they get this kind of power it won’t matter who controls the remaining 1/3. We cannot play politics we have to face the reality of having no money because we are broke partly because of the two brother’s ideology and their voting habits. We are dependent on China and the other countries that are still buying our bonds. If these countries stop buying the bonds that we sell to raise the revenue that we recklessly spend, where will we be economically? The answer is up a creek with out a paddle.

However, the one common folk that is writing this FORUM today has another plan. If I were in office I would present the most optimal plan of cutting cost across the board by reducing redundancy in government and eliminating the process that allows wasted funding of non essential grants and programs like the ones that go to NPR, ACORN and Media Matters. I would reduce the size of the government itself, agency by agency with a complete financial audit starting with the EPA. I would prosecute the uncommon folk if they were found to have abused the money that the common folk give in the way of the taxes they pay. I would reform entitlements with individual accounts set up for social security recipients that would give them financial options. I would revamp Medicare and Medicaid based on the individual ability to pay. I would reduce the obstacles in the way of regulations and taxes that are stifling business growth and then I would ask for more, maybe some tight regulations on the unions. I would eliminate the process of earmarks and in return give necessary funding to the states based on what the census says about population and other competitiveness measurements. I would conduct a review of all expenditures with an audit in the short term to find out the effectiveness and the results achieved of everything else the government buys and pays for. I would make the representatives in congress work for the funding they are sent to Washington to secure in other words no blank checks because you got one last year. I would provide for the line item veto and go one step further. I would introduce an amendment to the constitution that requires a balanced budget. We came close to getting that done 16 years ago. If we had passed the amendment then we would be in a far better position now. Hind sight really is 20 – 20.

Many politicians have said these things before but at the end of the day many politicians haven’t had the political will to go through with it. They become anything but the common folk when they start tasting the power that they derive from their office. This is not their fault this is what the culture in Washington does.

I would put all of this into a bill and get it passed in the house because the Republicans can, they control the house and that gives them control of 1/3 of the government. It would then go to the senate for passage and the president’s desk to sign if it passes the Senate. All the common folk in America would be witness to the process and witness to the actions by the people who vote against passing the bill. By the way, many of the politicians like the two brothers I mentioned earlier who have put us into this situation probably wouldn’t vote for it any way. If it stalls in the Senate then we will know who is for true reform and who isn’t.

Of course the senate would never pass it and it would never reach the presidents desk for his signature. But it would send a signal. The signal would be that the Republicans are serious because they are using their control of 1/3 of the government they control for the good of the common folk.

The majority of Americans would support this type of plan and they would protest against any one who would refuse this plan. It is the common folk the majority who are now represented in the polls. According to Rasmussen Reports the daily tracking poll of the president today is a negative 15, this is compiled by taking his approval of 23% and his disapproval of 38% and subtracting the difference to give a – 15 rating. The republicans need to stand strong and use this moment to exploit the president’s weakness to their advantage. This is the nasty part of politics but it is a necessary part of the process to win. Many of the common folk want them to do this now. It’s called political will.

We must be reminded of the words that should remind us of few things:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."- John F. Kennedy

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
-Thomas Jefferson, American Declaration of Independence

"To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men."- Abraham Lincoln

These words are as important today as they were when they were spoken for the first time. These words should inspire each and every one of us to bring back the common folk for the common need of serving the common folk and nothing else. The big ideas that gave us liberty, freedom and independence were meant so the common folk could prosper. When government controls the means by which the common folk can prosper it then becomes incumbent upon the common folk to do something about it.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: It is not so uncommon to want what is guaranteed. It’s just that some of us forget what the guarantees are and what the limits of government are as written in the constitution described in the bill of rights and explained in the Declaration of Independence. These documents are not so common in the history of the world but the common folk who created them still remained the common folk even when they served.