Out of Many One: Republican Unity Project

The Republican Party in Oregon has been fractured. It has been that way as far back as my young memory goes. Just like everything else the fractures have only grown.

 

Some people are specifically aimed at this fracturing, they believe that if the GOP is split they can come in and unite the party under their banner. These people are not aimed at unity, they are aimed at dominion.

 

Broadly speaking the Republican Party is split into two camps, each made up of smaller groups and individuals. The first camp is the activist camp. This group has a lot of energy and passion, they organize well and get people to show up to events. They are good at making people feel like they are doing something but they lack focus and direction outside of vague ideas of ‘being heard’ or ‘fighting for liberty.’

 

The second party is the established camp. This camp lacks the energy of the activists and rarely holds big events, preferring regular meetings. They have experience and know how the system works and how to get things done over a long period of time.

 

Currently these two camps are at odds. On both sides you will have Trump supporters, patriots, liberty loving citizens, and people who love our country and state. But there has been calls from the activist wing to split off from the Republican Party.

 

The justification at the heart of this desire is legitimate criticisms of the GOP. Many feel they are more concerned with trying to win by abandoning Republican principles. That they have embraced the hateful labels foisted upon the party by their political opponents.

 

It is my belief that these two wings of the party need each other and if unified would become the party Oregon desperately needs. In order to do that we need to reach agreements on both sides. The word compromise is seen as a dirty word, but that is because its meaning has been corrupted through misuse.

 

Too often the word compromise is used to mean you need to compromise yourself in order to align with what one side wants to do. Instead the true meaning of compromise is both parties reaching a win-win agreement.

 

The changes that need to be made to the Republican Party can in fact be made by us, we just have to want those changes to be made. We elect our party chairs and we create the party platform.

 

It reflects us, to change it we need to change ourselves. While it is harder than it seems it is possible. The activist wing also needs to understand that sometimes change takes time, but if your cause is right and meaningful it will be worth the delayed gratification.

 

We need to stop listening to the people interested in dividing our party in the name of being more conservative or real than someone else. We also need to stop selecting people to lead us and create our platform who have been doing so for the last decade or more. We need to be willing to take risks, suffer the slings and arrows, and hit back when unjustly maligned.

 

It will be dirty, it will be painful, and it will carry real risks of failure, but we are the party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan, and the party of Trump. We have suffered before and produced something beautiful, and now our country has come knocking again. She needs our help, the question is are we simple mercenaries that demands payment for our service or are we patriots who will instead ask what we can do for our country.

Let us unite, because united we stand, divided we fall.

The Portland Police Should Go on Strike

Men and women of the Portland Police department I know a lot has been asked of you in the last year but I ask for one more act of courage on your part, it is time to go on strike.

 

You are beset on all sides by people who wish you harm. Politicians are willing to throw you under the bus to fuel their political careers and to grab national headlines.

 

International activist groups and lawyers prevent your arrests from resulting in justice rendering your valor and virtue wasted.

 

Gangs of violent anarchists attack you indiscriminately without repercussion.

 

Corporate media, only interested in a headline, provides cover for your enemies, cutting you off from the real public support that you need.

Patriots, back the blue, brothers and sisters who took the oath to protect the constitution with you, and peace loving Americans will stand with you. We are thankful for your service and respect the difficulty of the job you do, but we are now asking that you do one of the most difficult things a person with your type of character could do, stand down.

 

I am not asking you to stand down forever nor am I saying stand down so people can get hurt, I am saying stand down in order to help the communities for which you love and sacrifice for daily. To help restore the rule of law, to ensure that the law is applied equally to everyone, to serve justice and peace.

 

I know that you have families to feed, mortgages and rent to pay, and bills that are due and that a strike is asking a lot of you. I wish I could offer you security and promise that everything will be okay but I cannot make any such assurances and remain honest.

 

What I do know is that you can either make a stand for justice now and go on strike or continue to serve injustice and have to look into the face of the communities that once called you friend as they view you with anger and fear.

 

At the end the choice is yours, the future is uncertain and you stand at a crossroad. History is rarely made in a clap of thunder but through the individual decisions we all make every day. This decision is yours, what kind of future and life do you want? One where you survive simply by getting by or one where you struggle for something better? Will your children be better served by a check paid to you out of their future liberty or by your sacrifice now to secure the light of liberty?

It is Our Turn To Make America Great Again

Currently we are still in the middle of an election. Trump still has a chance to win this whole thing. I believe it is a slim chance but that is the exact same thing we all thought about him last time and several times before. If I have learned one thing it is to never count Trump out until he is out.

 

With that said I have always been someone who likes to have a plan, even if it is just in case. If Trump wins I will continue as I have for the last four years. What I want to be prepared for is in the case that he loses.

 

If Trump loses I want to first recognize the things that he has done. Peace deals in the Middle East, the greatest economy of all time and record employment for all Americans. One of the greatest things Trump has done was energize the Republican base and exposed corruption all throughout our institutions, namely the legacy media and the Democratic career politicians.

 

Trump has shown us that the legacy media is a part of the Democratic establishment and along with large social media, other corporations, universities, and members of the administrative (deep) state, have organized against the average working American family.

 

If Trump loses, the Republican Party has a choice before them. We are standing at two divergent roads. To one side is a light gently downward sloping hill with fresh green grass and a clear path of a long slow decline. The other path is dark, stormy, and full of rocks and steeply uphill that only offers a chance to further fulfill the ideals our Republic was founded on. Where each path leads for each of us is not known for sure, but the choice is ours to make.

 

Trump chose the hard path because he loved this country. He gave up the life of security, wealth and inclusion in order to do what he thought was right and the establishment (both Republicans and Democrats) threw rocks at him daily. Yet he made the way up the hill as we all watched, shocked that anyone would actually chose the difficult path.

 

Now we have seen it can be done and we understand a bit more about what we are up against. We have a choice, do we select the easy path, live our lives in peaceful obscurity and withdraw from the world or do we embrace the challenge fully with the knowledge that we all won’t make it to the top, if any of us make it at all, for a chance at that liberty that we as Americans once held sacred and dear?

 

It is easy to say I choose the hard path and boast about it on Facebook and social media but it is a totally different thing to actually walk the path. Words are important but without actions they amount to a lot of hot air.

 

We hear this all the time, get active, do something but rarely do actually do anything. I know I suffer from this for a variety of reasons. One I don’t know what to do and two I have so much to do already I can’t imagine doing more. I have a family, dogs, a home that requires upkeep, a fulltime job, community activities, and I have to sleep sometime. I understand many of us are in the same position, but how long do you think you’ll have any of those things if you do not do something to take care of them?

Trump showed us that we have a chance if you remain strong and refuse to back down. I am reminded of a meme that went around during the impeachment attempt. It was a black and white photo of Trump pointing at the observer and the caption said ‘in reality they’re not after me, they’re after you, I’m just in the way.’

 

If he loses this election he will no longer be in the way and they will marshal the force of the legacy media, the university and government school system, the administrative (or deep) state, social media and big tech, international corporations, and massive social pressure to make sure that the American way of life, the American experiment in individual self-governance comes to an end.

Enough is Enough: What Are You Going to Do?

The police are being told to stand down so that people the mainstream media call mostly peaceful protesters can riot and loot.

The mostly peaceful people cheer on the minority, actively encouraging, condoning, and providing cover for their actions. The mob has taken away your right to have a say. They boldly claim they are speaking for you, the people, as they set fire to the court house or pull down a statue.

They do not speak for me.

But what do we do? Normally I would say elect new people, go out and vote, get involved in your local party. While those things are still important, this is not a normal time.

The police we have entrusted to keep the peace have been handcuffed and are now being beaten savagely as we look on. We now have a choice, do we stand by and watch as these guardians of peace who have stood between us and the most depraved manifestations of our nature are systematically taken apart or do we pick up the responsibility abandoned by those elected officials entrusted with authority and restore peace and order?

It seems like an easy choice, but it is not as easy as you’d think. You will not be cheered for picking up responsibility, in fact by lifting this cross you will be attacked. You will suffer.

You will be called violent when someone punches you in the face. You will be called an extremist as you call for unity. You will be branded racist for loving your country. You will also be tempted.

Tempted to claim the power being used against you and wield it for good. But good fruit cannot grow from a poison tree. Both the suffering and the temptation seek one thing, to strip away your responsibility, because it is in this responsibility that you find meaning.

It is in this responsibility that you make yourself worthy of the suffering of life.

The streets have never been so crowded yet so empty. People shouting empty phrases into the air, conjuring demons out of brothers and making saints out of lies.

Calling people out does not reach their heart, it only causes them to utter false apologies in a misguided attempt to please a monster that feeds on outrage and misery. The apology, instead of satisfying the monster, only sends it into a frenzy as it justifies the outrage (inherent in any apology is an admission of guilt) and means the fruit of misery is ripe.

Our elected officials drop everything to meet the demands of the rioters but you peacefully gather at the capital in the thousands only to be shooed away with a pat on the head. I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. I post things online, I write my blog, I talk with friends and coworkers and we are all full of ideas of what ‘they’ should do. Then we go back to work, go home, and carry on with our lives.

We say things like, oh it’s Portland, if they would ever come to my town they would never get away with that. Then they come to your town, destroy your statues and loot your businesses. 

You then say, yeah but if they tried that at my house they would never get away with it. Then they show up at your house and burn the American flag on your front porch. You weakly say, well if they break into my house they would never get away with it. 

But it’s too late, they have already gotten away with it. Your house is on fire, the police are not coming, the fire department is not coming, and your neighbors are not coming. You are alone in your burning house and you wonder, why didn’t someone do something? 

All the while you never realized that you were someone, that you could have done something, but each time you were called you hesitated. As your community, your state, and your country burned, you turned on Call of Duty and ignored Duty’s Call. Each hesitation, each ignored call, etched onto your very being until hesitation became habit and inaction became your virtue. 

So what can you do? I’ll admit honestly I have no clear answer for that question because I do not know you. I am not going to lie to you like a politician and say I have all the answers for you and if you support me all your worries will go away. That is a question you are going to have to answer for yourself.

First recognize four things. 

One, work within your circle of influence. This means understanding what you are actually capable of doing. You probably can’t get elected governor, but you can vote. You can always extend your circle of influence and work up to getting elected governor, but chances are for the majority of us, that is outside of our current abilities.

Two, understand there is not going to be one magic solution. Simply changing the school system or the tax code will not fix everything. Lots of things need to be done, do not focus too heavily on any one thing or believe that if only X would happen then everything would be better.

Three we are currently in a culture war not a political disagreement or violent revolution. You cannot win the battle if your army is on the wrong field.

Four, you as an individual are needed right now. Not you as a member of a group (gun owner, male or female, or Trump supporter) but you as the unique individual with your own talents, interests and abilities.

Lastly if you know of any of these events, statue destruction, flooding of a school board meeting to read scripted ‘comments’ trying to cancel someone, or occupations, please bring it to the attention of the rest of the community. Then get up and go use your voice. Don’t get into shouting matches, physical fights or call people names but stand up tall with courage and honor.

PS. I am starting to organize people in my local community here in Oregon to do something I think is pretty cool. Looking to organize mostly young people to become the leaders we need but also looking to build a community. If you are interested, everyone is welcome, reach out to me on Facebook or in the comments of this blog, thanks!

The Truth About Statue Destruction

It’s not about ending racism (a utopian idea that will end up murderous if I ever heard one) it is about far more than that.

It is about an exercise of power. These mobs can do whatever they want and those we’ve entrusted and empowered to maintain law and order will do nothing to stop them.

It is about destroying the fundamental ideals America was founded on. Life, Liberty, property, representative government of the people, and the pursuit of happiness. These mobs have killed people, beaten, bullied, and intimidated people into silence. They have destroyed property and stolen the ability for the people to have a voice in what happens in their community. They have extinguished the pursuit of happiness with every business they burn, every car they destroy and every life they mangle or destroy.

It is about division and chaos. Those directing the mobs want people divided and they know the media WILL cover for them. They will never be held to account by either elected officials, law enforcement, mainstream media, or social media. In fact elected officials, mainstream media and the heads of social media will actively silence, bully, blame, attack and arrest those who speak up.

After all these riots are mostly peaceful anyway, right? They are just ‘protesters’ who tore down that statue. But it is extremists who stand in front of their business with a gun to protect it when the cops have been ordered to allow looting to happen. The extremists are the ones who want to go back to work or church.

Normally I am not for government intervention but I do believe there is a proper role and place for government. This proper role is outlined in the Declaration of Independence “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…”

It is not the duty of our government to solve our problems for us, it is not the duty of government to care for us, and government is not our Mother nor Father nor God. The chief duty of government is to protect the rights of the people.

A mob pulling down whatever statue offends them at the time is not a right that is protected. It is not a protest, it is not free speech.

It is vandalism.

It is the destruction of peace.

It is a rejection of the idea that you or I get to be part of making the decisions within our communities.

The mob simply decides for you.

If this statue, this house, this institution, this person, this group of people are bad in the eyes of the mob, then the mob will come and destroy it and if the elected official is sympathetic to them they simply refuse to apply the law.

It is illegal for elected officials to decide which laws to enforce and which to ignore, it is immoral for elected officials to decide who the laws apply to and whom they do not.

That is not the rule of law. That is a return to aristocracy. A return to legislation without representation. There was no law passed that said the statue of Thomas Jefferson in Portland was to be removed. Did the people in that community want the statue removed? Maybe they did, but that choice was stolen from them.

Even if you agree with the removal of that statue you must disagree with the method in which it was done. The ends do not justify the means, because once they do anything becomes acceptable. As the Roman historian Tacitus once said “Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.”

If you allow the mob to decide for you this time, simply because you agree with their objective or are sympathetic to their cause, they will begin to make decisions for you all the time. You might be able to buy off the mob for a time, after all you have the right sign in your yard and you say all the things they tell you to say.

You hate all the right things and all the right people in order to signal your virtue as a ‘good person.’ But a moment will come when you slip. Maybe you misspeak, a total slip of the tongue. You figure, I’m a good person, people will understand it was an accident.

 

They don’t.

You apologize.

It is only taken as an admission of your guilt.

Next thing you know you have been fired from your job. The mob you once cheered shows up at your front door. They yell at and shove your children as they try to come home after school. The windows of your car are smashed in. Maybe a fire starts, who set it, after all the mob is mostly peaceful as they cheer the flames.

Where are the police you think, the fire department? I’m a good person, why are they doing this to me? Why won’t anyone help me?

It is then you realize those same questions must have gone through the mind of the good police officers who wanted to protect and serve their community with honor. You turn and see the person who set the fire only to recognize a second later that you are looking in a mirror.

These people taking over entire city blocks in Seattle are not there for a summer of love. The mob pulling down statues are not seeking to heal a divided country or help a hurt community. The media is not seeking the truth but providing cover.

They are not all part of some grand conspiracy. They are simply followers of an ideology of division. An ideology bent on pitting one group against another in their unrelenting quest for the only thing they believe that matters in the world.

Power.

Courage in the Face of Coronavirus

 To say this virus and lock downs have created a lot of uncertainty would be an understatement. Daily through media, mainstream and social, we see video after video and article after article of how bad things are, how bad things could get, and how bad it has gotten in other places in the world.

On top of that we have governments releasing PSA’s accusing us of being murderers if we dare to leave our homes. All this generates a large amount of fear. Frankly if you are not afraid on some level I would think you were not human.

Yet in the presence of all this fear and uncertainty it is not how we feel that matters but how we act. Do you give in to your passions and allow the fear to dictate to you how you should behave? Or do you pick up your reason and struggle with those passions in order to live virtuously with courage?

Locked Down

To many of us the thought of being locked in our homes screams as a violation to our fundamental natural rights. No one can force us to stay home in a free country. This understandably could be seen simply as the excuse for petty tyrants to finally come out of the woodwork.

We also worry about once this is over and this line has been crossed, what is to stop something else simply being called an emergency and forcing us to stay home, say on an election day? In the face of these lock downs we must act with courage.

We need to understand that most Americans will not tolerate this for a long period of time. That our elected representatives will always have to run for reelection and that the true power of our Republic rests with the people. We will comply with these stay home orders but must courageously voice our opposition to them and demonstrate our dedication to that opposition once this pandemic winds down.

Reopening

We will reopen at some point and when we do it is understandable that people will be afraid to leave their homes and return to their lives. This is a natural feeling because we have been told that there is an invisible enemy lurking behind every tree, living on every surface that can not only infect and kill you but will infect and kill everyone you ever loved as well.

We need to understand that even for something as serious as the Coronavirus this feeling has been blown out of proportion by media outlets trying to sell ads and get click, by politicians trying to push pet projects through attached to relief bills, and by social media personalities trying to gain fame and attention.

Once we do start to open again we must act with courage, especially those of us who are young and relatively healthy. Go out to eat, go to the beach, and go out to our parks. While we should learn from this virus, we must not fundamentally alter our way of life. Once we do that we have made the choice to live out of fear and not from a place of courage.

Courage Itself

Courage is a virtue, one that in our modern risk adverse world we are rapidly losing. Too often do we allow mobs of people on Twitter to dictate to us what we should think or how we should behave.

But courage is not a virtue without limits. An excess of courage is foolhardiness and a deficiency of courage is cowardice. Yet to the cowardly the courageous seem foolhardy and to the foolhardy the courageous seem cowardly. So how do we judge if our actions are courageous, cowardly or foolhardy?

Our courage must serve our happiness. This is not the modern version of happiness, which is more closely related to pleasure than happiness. Instead happiness here means the positive feeling you get from doing something meaningful and good.

An example of this is as things open up and grocery stores get crowded again, you go grocery shopping for your grandparents and deliver the food to their house. The virtue of courage is a fine line and one that moves constantly. Something that is courageous one day could be foolhardy or cowardly the next day.

Practicing courage every day will etch that habit into your character and allow you to act with courage when called upon to do so in stressful situations. So I urge everyone to act with courage in the face of this terror known as Coronavirus. They do not call America the home of the brave for nothing, now is our chance to earn that title.

Coronavirus MUST be Temporary

We are all dealing with our lives being turned upside down by Coronavirus. Some of us are staying home unable to see our friends and family or engage in our regular activities. Others are still working but have altered our routine to try and prevent the spread of this virus while we carry out our essential duties.

I am extremely proud of the sacrifices we as Americans are making so that we can buy as much time as possible to get a handle on this pandemic. Most of us are staying home, practicing social distancing, wearing masks and washing our hands to the point they become cracked and dry. Not to mention the loss of jobs and financial burden.

We do this so that we do not overwhelm healthcare workers and facilities and give people who are severely impacted by this virus the best chances at survival. Yet how long can we be expected to make these sacrifices?

Cure Worse Than Disease

President Trump was attacked by the media for asking the question, at what point does the cure become worse than the disease? This lead prominent members of the mainstream media to call for a ban on the President’s daily updates under the justification that they were dangerous.

He was also accused of not caring about people dying and it was even suggested that Trump should be brought up on crimes against humanity. None of these accusations answered his question but simply served to deflect it and to score a political hit against the President as he grapples to deal with the chaos of this pandemic.

The hard fact is that death is part of life, be it from Coronavirus, a car crash, a flood, or old age. The idea that we are willing to do anything to save one life is not based in reality. Are we willing to put everything to the torch to save one life? And even if we do how long will that life be saved for? Does that one person’s one year of life outweigh the suffering of another person for a decade? Does it outweigh the suffering of 100 people for a decade? What about 1000 people?

Businesses have been destroyed, they will never come back from this shutdown. People who have given years of their lives to build their dream have had it snatched away from them. They will not be able to just turn their business back on.

The longer we remain shut down the more common this story will become. This crisis does not only threaten our economic future, it threatens to put our liberties on life support.

A Bad Apple a Day Keeps our Liberties Away

Most of us can understand that we must be willing to give up some of our liberties in order to allow the rest of our liberties to flourish. In times of crisis we also accept that short term sacrifice of our liberty may be needed in order to preserve those liberties in the long term and to allow us to pass those liberties on to future generations.

There are some people in positions of power who are more than happy sacrificing your liberties in order to protect you from yourself. These people operate under the delusion that because they are smart that they know how to run your life better than you do and they will grab any instant to prove this point and strengthen their position.

I ask that people do their best to comply with stay at home orders and social distancing not out of a benevolent spirit but out of self-interest and love of liberty. The formula for legislating by fear goes something like this.

Find one person doing something that on the surface appears dangerous or damaging. Call that person out and draw attention to them for what they are doing. Get people afraid and asking for something to be done. Then propose whatever legislation you desire on the grounds that if you oppose it you are a morally bad person who does not care of people are hurt or die.

Legislators of fear seek to punish people for the bad actions of one individual. They justify this punishment under the guise of working to protect you. Only they want to protect you from yourself. Subtext being, you are too stupid to run your own life and need someone smart, like a legislator of fear, to help you along.

For those of you up to date on your history, yes, this is the same reasoning slave holders used to argue why they needed to maintain slavery as a legal and moral institution. Making a small temporary sacrifice of your liberty is painful, frightening and dangerous but in the long term it will be less painful then having to defend those liberties against tyranny from the weak fortress of negative social opinion.

The State as Helicopter Mom

While we all must do our part the calls about the state getting further and further involved in our daily lives are not without merit. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to shut down religious facilities permanently if they did not comply with his stay at home mandate.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti encouraged people to snitch on their fellow citizens if they see them violating his “safer at home” order. Nancy Pelosi held up the Coronavirus relief bill because she wanted to add in money for things that had nothing to do with Coronavirus, such as stricter emission standards for airplanes and funding for PBS.

Those calling Donald Trump the next incarnation of Hitler and saying he will stop at nothing to gain power are now the same people calling him incompetent for not seizing broad powers in this time of crisis. They are essentially saying government can solve all these problems and more if only it had greater power and they were the ones in charge instead of Trump.

While we all are working hard and making tough sacrifices we also must be on guard against making what is understandable during a crisis the norm of everyday life. We must also protect ourselves against a constant state of crisis.

After seeing what can be done in the name of protecting you from a crisis, what is to stop those same people from declaring a crisis every election season? Or what is to stop them from simply declaring something a crisis in perpetuity?

Climate change could be called a crisis so under that heading shouldn’t government officials be able to assume broad powers in order to solve it? Except what is the end of climate change, isn’t the climate always changing? Would the end of the ‘crisis’ of climate change be a climate that does not ever change?

Yes humanity does have an impact on the climate, but to think that we have the power to ultimately control it or to even know what the best climate is supposed to be is a bit hubristic.

We should be willing to make sacrifices to be able to rise to the challenge of a crisis, but only if those sacrifices are made to preserve our liberty and way of life, not to fundamentally alter it.

Corona Time

Corona Virus is the only topic on people’s mind right now. My wife, who just had a baby and is stuck at home, has to ask people who call her to talk about something else because she just cannot stand having the same conversation over and over again.

Luckily for me not much has changed. I am thankful my workplace is still open (for now) and that I am able to work. I can still take my dogs for walks or go play fetch with them and I can still go to the grocery store.

To be honest my life has not changed a whole lot outside of not being able to take my wife to dinner occasionally. As I make my way through this pandemic I have noticed a few things.

Muh Rights

First issue I’d like to address is the people complaining that the government has no authority to make them stay in their home. To some extent I would agree with these people. But in times of crisis we can make the choice to temporarily give up parts of our liberty in order to mitigate some of the damage.

These people will say, “You should never give up any of your liberty!” To which I would say, you already give up parts of your liberty every day in order to make not only your life better but to make the lives of those in your community better. The sacrifice you are making of certain liberties in a time of crisis will go a long way in preventing damage and permanent loss of those liberties in the future.

It is this sacrifice, even a temporary one, that will be rewarded with trust within a society. Trust in a free society is the most important commodity we can possess. The more we trust our fellow citizens the less likely we will demand laws to regulate each other.

Do not squander your individual trust or the trust of your country in a misguided understanding of freedom and liberty.

The Blame Game

This is starting to creep into the conversation and will likely ramp up as this crisis continues. This crisis is not the fault of Donald Trump or the Deep State or Democrats or Republicans. With the rare exception no one really understood the magnitude of Coronavirus. We are in the middle of this crisis and still do not fully understand it.

 

This could not have been prevented with nationalized healthcare. This is obviously clear if you look at how counties like Italy (who have nationalized healthcare) are handling this pandemic. Have things been handled poorly, of course, the people handling them are human after all and hindsight is 20/20.

It is easy to blame someone else for the problems in the world. Doing so safely moves the responsibility for dealing with them (or creating the problem in the first place) off your shoulders and onto someone else.

If there is blame to be placed it should be placed on the government of China. They have lied about this virus since the beginning, suppressed information, and allowed it to spread once they became aware of how bad it could be.

It did not help that the World Health Organization (WHO), or as they have become known now the Chinese Health Organization, bought and spread those lies. We also did not help because we wanted to believe them because we did not want to face the reality of how bad things could get.

For right now we must put those criticisms off as they fall outside the time horizon in which we are dealing with. Right now the bulk of our focus should be around two things. Producing medical supplies to help deal with people who have contracted the virus and finding a way to end the lock down to get everyone back to work.

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

One thing we need to watch out for is opportunistic people who are attempting to exploit fear and uncertainty to do things that under normal circumstances would not be done. I am not talking about the guy who bought all the toilet paper at Costco and is now trying to sell it on ebay for a profit (though if you are that guy, knock it off, what you are doing is still wrong).

I am talking about our representatives pushing through legislative items that have zero to do with solving the problem the legislation is trying to help with. About using the cover of crisis and media malfeasance to funnel money to pet projects or unrelated functions.

We do not need an increase in airplane fuel emission standards as part of our Coronavirus relief bill. We do not need to nationalize industries. Industry simply needs to be asked and they will step up. The number of companies shifting production from consumer goods to medical supplies increases daily.

If you think they could do it faster and better if they had to report to a bureaucrat before they made each choice then you seriously do not understand how business works. These companies are stepping up because they love this country and know it is in their best interest to do so. These business owners who are constantly vilified as greedy capitalist villains are the ones producing the sorely needed masks and gowns and ventilators that the government (over 3 different administrations) did not replenish.

At the end of the day we will get through this. The quarantine will be lifted, the virus will be defeated, and we can all move on. Yes we will have lots of work to do to repair the damage done by essentially halting the world economy, but in times like these patriotic Americans roll up their sleeves, clean up the mess, and press on.

It is tough and will get tougher but we have the strength, the courage and the determination to make it through this. We just have to take it one day at a time, help where we can, and avoid giving into the demons of our fouler nature. Each of us can make a difference in how this crisis turns out, we should try to do our best to mitigate as much suffering as possible.

Blog and Life Update

It has been awhile since I have posted or updated my blog so I thought an update was in order.

I have had a lot going on in my life in the last couple of month and because of that I have neglected my blog more than usual. I was trying to post one post a month and about a year ago I was actually pretty successful at doing so.

The more I worked on the blog the better it got and the better I became as a blogger. Yet I started to get burned out. I mostly focused on writing about political topics, both national and local. At some point the political stuff just became boring.

It was the same old fighting and bickering, within and amongst parties, and I found myself thinking that there was something better I could be doing. I am not saying that politics is unimportant, only that I was less and less interested in it.

I had also started a YouTube channel where we did a weekly show talking about politics and news stories. I really enjoyed this and really loved working with and interacting with some really cool people who I would call friends today.

We gave the YouTube channel a go and did not grow very much. We understood it was a saturated market but we wanted to try. When we realized that the future of the YouTube channel was not bright and that we all did not have time to devote to it that believed we should have we decided to call it quits.

While that was going on my beautiful wife and I decided that we wanted to have a baby. It was not a choice we made lightly but one we reached whole-heartedly with as much clarity as you can have on such a choice.

February 8^th 2020 my daughter was born. Adjusting to a new sleep schedule and life with a third human in the house has been a challenge, but a very rewarding challenge. Needless to say it has left little time to blog between making dinner, working, walking dogs, and giving my wife the much needed break she deserves after a long day doing all that by herself.

And now Corona Virus. Thankfully I am still at work, my workplace has been deemed essential, and am able to earn a paycheck to support my family, for now. I am also thankful that my wife and I are relatively young and in good health. I am still able to get to the grocery store and to head out into the world and acquire essential items (formula for baby, medications for pets, etc).

While I have been on Facebook and social media recently, it is nowhere near the level that I used to be. I am thankful for this as it has allowed me to keep a level head about this pandemic and not to worry too much. Yes I am being cautious, I want to keep those I love safe and healthy, but I also understand that living life as a prisoner in our own homes and of our own fear is no life at all.

These stay at home measures are fine in a time of great crisis but they can never become a regular facet of American life. No, I don’t want people to die, but am I ready to give up my chance to live a life of freedom and liberty in order to buy a notion of security?

Between working, a new baby, and an unprecedented amount of hand washing I have found little time for blogging, or much of anything else. I am happy to report my baby is healthy, has shown a gift for smiling recently, and has already out grown her newborn clothes. As far as the blog goes, I will try to make more of an effort to update the blog on topics that I hope you and I both find interesting.

Hope you are all staying healthy and know that no matter how bad things might seem now, we will get through this and we will bounce back.

Cody Benson

Impeachment 2020

The impeachment seems insincere, pointless, and most of all boring. The evidence for this is largely in the disinterest in the impeachment itself on behalf of the average American. Ultimately nothing will get done other than a production of a few media soundbites, and a few politicians will create more of a name for themselves.

Insincere

The impeachment seems insincere largely due to the fact that several members of the Democratic Party said and ran on the fact that they wanted to impeach Trump. We heard from them Democrats that this is a somber and sober moment and that they took no joy in moving forward with articles of impeachment.

They want to make it seem like this was a decision they came to reluctantly only after long hours of research, investigation, and contemplation. When in reality they already decided they would impeach, they only needed to wait for a reason. When a good reason never provided itself, they decided to manufacture one.

When that did not work they manufactured another, than another. The punishment had been decided, they just needed a crime.

Pointless

The outcome was already known. The Democrats knew it, the Republicans knew it, and even my dogs knew it. The House would impeach and the Senate would not remove President Donald Trump from office.

Unless something extraordinary happens nothing will change that. Was the point to attempt to appease a loud radical minority within the Democratic Party? Was the point to try and smear President Trump ahead of the 2020 election?

If it was to appease the loud radical minority than it was the wrong move to make. If you actually win, they will claim victory, if you lose they will blame you and become louder and stronger than before.

Boring

 

I am someone who enjoys politics. I like listening to political discussions, talk radio, political podcasts, and talking with friends about news and politics. Yet I find this whole impeachment saga incredibly boring.

When it comes on the radio I’ll give it a listen, but after about 5 minutes I will switch over to country music. I am not the only one who feels this way either. Rarely will anything about the impeachment come up on my social media accounts.

The podcasts I listen to will talk about it in passing but will not spend a lot of time going over the details. Even the ratings for the TV coverage of the impeachment are not impressive. It would seem that the American people do not really care about this show.

They have seen it before, they know how it is going to end, and they have more important things to do with their time.

Impeachment is a serious process, but it has been cheapened to political theater. If anything was damaged during this process it is the gravity to which the impeachment process will be viewed going forward.

What happened to consent of the governed?

I am thankful that throughout my life my interaction with the administrative state has been confined to the routine. Obtaining a driver’s license, filing taxes, and filing my marriage license.

Recently I have had a friend get caught up in the administrative state. I won’t go into details but essentially it boils down to an administrator acting as judge and jury for the rules and regulations their administration created and executing those decisions.

These decisions impacted my friend’s personal life on a level to which the government was never meant to interfere. This administrative agency combines the powers of the judiciary, the legislature, and an executive, yet remains un-elected and largely unaccountable to the people.

Consent of the Governed

 

In the American system of government the consent of the governed is obtained through voting for representatives. These representatives are imbued with a part of the power of each individual person through an election.

These representatives, imbued with this power, create laws and administer various functions of the government. If the people believe their representative is doing a bad job, lacks sufficient character, or they generally do not like the person they are free to select a new representative when their term is up.

These representatives must repeatedly return to the people to renew this consent to represent them. This means that representatives are accountable to the people they represent and only have power in so far as it has been granted to them by the consent of the people.

The Loss of Consent

The administrative state does not operate with the consent of the governed. Instead they claim their authority from expertise. This allows administrators to remain insulated from the ‘dirty business’ of politics. This insulation from the consent of the governed was not produced by accident, but rather a key feature of the Progressive system of politics and administration.

 

The Progressives believed that if they could empower experts and remove them from having to deal with running for elections, then those experts would be able to make the right decisions and could use the power of the government to solve the problems of their time.

In order to achieve this, Progressives needed to reject the ideas of the Founders. Chiefly the ideas of the consent of the governed and the separation of powers. By ‘freeing’ experts from politics to focus on administration, they dispensed with the consent of the governed.

Unification of Powers

The Progressives believed that the separation of powers was both inefficient and irresponsible. They thought it was inefficient because it would take a long time to get anything done. They considered it irresponsible because it made it difficult for popular will to be translated into government action.

The solution was to combine the powers of government (legislative, judicial, and executive) into administrations headed up by experts (rational educated progressive people) who could use the power of government filtered through their expertise to solve the problems of a modern world.

We see this today in the various administrative agencies, who can make rules and regulations that have the power of laws, often are able to act as judges for disputes that arise due to those rules and regulations, and can take action to enforce rules and regulations or impose punishments on those who violate them.

At the same time the Progressives did away with the separation of powers, they focused on increasing democratization of politics. This was to amplify the power of public opinion (majority faction) in politics.

The paradox of this Progressive model of politics and administration is that while it increases the volume of public opinion in politics, it removes the power of that opinion from almost any influence it would have on administration.

Meaning the power of the administrative state is separated from the consent of the governed. Yes we get to vote for President and for Congress and for Governors but we do not get to vote for the head of the EPA. The people we vote for do not debate each other and create laws, the EPA simply produces them out of thin air.

We can voice our opinions louder and we have some impact on the administrative state but if the expert in charge of an administrative agency decides to ignore the will of the people, there is very little to almost zero recourse for the people. They do not require our consent to exercise all the powers of government, instead they claim their authority from their expertise.

Human Nature

This near worship of expertise denies something the founders understood clearly. That no matter how much of an expert any individual was, in the end they are still a human being. A human with all the same flaws, faults, interests, emotions, and capacity for good and evil as any other person.

This is why the separation of powers and the consent of the governed are so important. The consent of the governed allows the people to invest their power into another human being. They can take into account the nature of the person and decide if they are the right person to entrust with their representation. 

The separation of powers is important because it helps protect the rights of the individual (the greatest minority) and provides a tempering for the passions of the people as well as a restraint on the power of those who are entrusted with governing.

In order to have a representative government, meaning a government by the consent of the people, you must have a limited government. If the government is larger than the people than it is no longer representative of the people but represents those in government. It is not merely the size of the government that poses a problem but also the manner and structure of that government.

Our government by the consent of the governed is slipping away and instead of working to restore that limited form of government we have been more interested in fighting over who controls an ever increasingly powerful administrative state. Now is the time to make the choice, do we want the liberty to pick up the responsibility to solve the problems of our times ourselves or do we want to entrust our life, liberty and happiness into the hands of administrative experts?