Must we always demonize our political candidates?

The images of Donald Trump and swastikas and other Nazi images have suddenly become ubiquitous online.  I will admit that Trump is not my favorite candidate and I don’t like much of what he says, but must we demonize him?  Obama was portrayed as the Anti-Christ.  Again, I don’t care for his political and personal views, but must we demonize him?

This whole line of characterization is not about the politicians but about our impotence as a nation to exercise the blessings of liberty with any degree of maturity.  It is no wonder that democracies seldom survive more than 200 years.

I would like to remain the single exception to the demise of self government.  Is anyone ready to be a responsible member of the electorate?

Let’s set aside our pettiness, acrimonious bickering, and national vitriol and get back on track preserving the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.  Let’s be the people we are blessed to be as Americans!

There is no decision to make. Put rounds on target!

Dear Mr. President,

You have used your war making powers without much regard for the laws of our land up to this point.  You are not alone in this course of action.  Your predecessors have done this for half a century.

Realize this:  Now is not the occasion to suddenly decide it is time for a protracted discussion on what to do next with regard to ISIS and other terrorist groups that threaten our American service men and women.

ISIS is closing in on 320 United States Marines.  What you do is send everything within your command to support them.  The end state of this engagement is dead enemy terrorists.  Period.

Discuss the merits of whether these people have engaged in ruthless killings because they don’t have jobs, want to revisit the crusades, or because they thrive on evil (most of us know this is the answer) at your leisure after you send everything that turns beating hearts into bleeding ones and put it on target.

We know where these armed extremists are.  Put rounds on target.

If it looks like it’s going to be a fair fight, then our Commander in Chief needs to be tried for treason.  We engage our enemies with everything we have.  The world may or may not respect us for the many humanitarian missions that we conduct, but our enemies must fear us.

Our enemies must fear us!

Inaction on your part is an invitation to attack when and where they please.  The greatest armed forces in the world have no commander in chief.

It is time to get this part of you presidency right.  Be the commander in chief and destroy the enemies that believe you don’t have the backbone for combat leadership.

Semper Fidelis,

Thomas R. Spence

Major, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Everyone got an "F"

This analogy is making the rounds.  It makes some valid points, but is incomplete.  Read the offering and then my concomitant that follows.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. 

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (Substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. 

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. 

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling.  All resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. 

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or

want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)

 These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

The rest of the story…

But we are called to work for the benefit of others.

God placed mercy and compassion in the human heart.  God commanded us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.  Jesus said, it’s time to do better than that—let’s raise the bar.  It’s time to love our neighbor as much as I have loved you.  The human heart has a divine model.  We are equipped to care for our neighbor if we follow Christ and abide in his word.

We are blessed to bless the world.

Why do many want the government to do this?  That is the real question.

  Why does this generation want the government to do this?

We are called out of the world, set apart for God’s work, and sent back into the world for good works that bring glory to God.

Maybe it is time that God's people stopped waiting on the government and just started doing God's work.

I enjoy free enterprise.  I embrace our wonderful Constitution   It is a masterpiece of self government for the ages.  I do not want to lose it.  I don't want a society without a solid work ethic, but neither is worth much without God's blessing.  God's blessing comes from returning to him.

It is time that Christians stopped blaming the government for everything.  We should be too busy loving one another, speaking the truth in love, and bring the good news of abundant and eternal life in Christ to have time left over to complain.

The Day After

A hurricane and winter storm made things difficult in the northeast.

Some had to wait hours to vote.

Some hardly waited at all.

Some are celebrating victory.

Some are crying.

Some don’t care.

But once again, the United States of America has peacefully elected a president, vice president, and a legislature.  That’s an accomplishment even if your candidate or party didn’t win.

There are no troops or tanks in the streets.  There was no blood shed. 

There was a participatory process that produced a government.

Whether you like the outcome or not, count your blessings that we live in a nation that believes power emanates from the people.

This is a bigger blessing than most realize.

Pray for your leaders.

Pray for those service men and women who offer their lives for our liberty.

Pray for God’s continued blessings on our nation.

Amen.

More on civil government

Recalled to active duty.

On November 7^th, 2012, 4 men need to be recalled to active duty for 60 days of government service.

They are Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.  Each may bring 3 assistants with them.

Why would we do this?

To build an independent task force to prioritize and strategize on how to address this nation’s problems and how to realize the opportunities before us.

Why recall presidents?  Why not experts?  Why not technical experts?

Because these 4 men have all been the chief executive and know that no campaign agenda will survive fully once in office.  These 4 men have no further political ambition.  We have seen former presidents work together to produce excellent results before.  The burden of the office is lifted.  There is no election at stake.  There is a lot of hard earned experience that could be leveraged in the name of statesmanship and patriotism instead of party loyalty.

Why 60 days?

So the plan may be before the president and congress by the time everyone is ready to get to work in 2013.  There will be some familiar faces and some new ones in our government.  We won’t have the scorecard completed until the election is over, but we could have a bi-partisan plan in place by the time they all took office for the term to which they were elected.

Politically and philosophically, this country is split in half—or so nearly so that compromise, tradeoffs, and perhaps even a little synergy and creativity will be needed to get anything of substance done in the New Year.  This is not such a bad thing.  Our representatives will have to talk to and listen to each other to get anything done.

Would it not be easier if they were handed a blueprint for the first steps?

Would it not be more expeditious if 4 men of presidential stature proposed the give-and-take in advance?

Would 4 men who held the oval office not be the best equipped to move beyond politics to solutions?

There have been bipartisan commissions before.  Sometimes their recommendations were followed and sometimes their efforts were squandered.  Sometimes the bipartisan group could not produce anything of substance.

But would 4 former chief executives settle for anything less than something workable—perhaps even something excellent?  Would they not work together to produce the best possible strategy for a nation struggling to maintain both liberty and an economy?  Would they not be the wisest counsel available for addressing our current wars and those conflicts which seem to be looming on the horizon?  Could they not come up with the best approach for job creation and deficit reduction?

I say, let’s recall these 4 men to active duty for 60 days and have them work out the basics before the next terms begin.

Let’s jumpstart the cooperative process in our government before the new government convenes.  Let’s give them no choice but to hit the deck running.

Get to work

Do you remember the days when someone hired you to do a job and you were actually expected to do the job?  I know that there are some old enough to remember.  It wasn’t but a decade or two ago when work, team work, and completed work were still words active in our vocabularies.

On Tuesday, 6 November 2012, those registered voters so inclined to exercise their vote will do so if they have not already availed themselves of an early voting option.  After the continuation of the process in the Electoral College, we will likely have a president for the next 4 years.  It may be the one we have now or a new one, but if the miracle of our republic continues, it will once again come without bloodshed or tanks in the streets.  Congress will surely be full once again with some old and some new faces.

To say that this process comes at a price is to slight the term understatement.  We pay an incredible price in vitriol and acrimony.  The election process widens the chasm between parties and within the electorate.  There are no clean hands here.  Politics is dirty business and we have become exceptional business men in this trade.

But the campaigns will end. 

God willing, they will end.

And when they do, it is time for the citizens of this Grand Experiment to send a clear message to all of our elected officials.

GET TO WORK!

No blaming.

No posturing for the next round of elections.

No excuses.

Regardless of the faith of our representatives, all of them could take heed of the words that Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23-24.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Our representatives need an immediate reminder that they don’t work for themselves or their party or the President or the Speaker of the House.  They need to be reminded that we don’t need any more politicians.  We do have a need for statesmen.  We have a need for men and women who will honor their values and the values of this nation and work together with other representatives from other areas of our nation to preserve the blessings of liberty not only for ourselves but for our posterity.

While the election will soon be over—none too soon for many—the process of self government continues for each of us.  We must inundate inboxes—physical and electronic--- of our officials with letters, messages, and notes that read:  GET TO WORK.

Some cynically say that we get the government that we pay for.  It’s easy to get caught up in that game especially with the nature and finance of modern campaigns.  The problem is that cynicism leads to self-pity and pretty soon we are all victims.

 Victims of what? 

The system?

No, we become victims of our own choices; specifically, the choice to stop being involved.

Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t shaking his head saying, “So you guys want to try self-government, do you?”

We say we do, but we vote and forget, or maybe it’s vote and complain.

But will just telling our elected officials to GET TO WORK be enough?

No, but it is a starting point.  With such divergent views represented, they are also going to have to learn to listen to each other.  This is a tough task as they had to do a lot of talking to get elected.

For most of my adult life, I have preferred the proactive approach.  So why don’t we all go ahead and fill out the body of the letter or email that we will send to each of our officials once we know who they are.  We can add the names later.

Go ahead and start writing.  What to say?  How about:

Congratulations.

Get to work.

Listen and learn.

Learn and listen.

Grow into a statesman.

Don’t shrink into a politician.

Yes, that means working for a greater good.

Yes, that means working for the best interests of this nation not for any special interest.  The nation is the only special interest, and we are very special.

Sometimes you may have to compromise on approaches, but never on values or integrity.

Sometimes you may find that synergy is attainable and it is always better than compromise.

Never forget that you are privileged to serve.  You are not entitled to anything special.

This nation is a Grand Experiment.  We expect nothing less than your best while you are its servant.

Learn to love the name servant.

If you can’t do that, you will become a politician and you just need to go home.

But we have great expectations for you.

We are praying for you.

We are praying that God will guide you and equip you to do wonderful things in the service of our nation.

Now get to work!

As we grow closer to the November election

Obama and Isaac might not care much for Romney,

But the American public wants to vote out all this acrimony.

Debates are coming and some sparks will fly,

But the guys and gals watching just have to ask, “Why?”

Why can’t we govern for the good of all?

Why must someone always take a fall?

Can’t both men advance solely upon their merits,

Without trying so hard to scare us completely of out wits?

There was a day when the candidates who ran,

Were considerably less politician and much more statesman.

If those days are gone, tell me where did they go?

I’ll go and retrieve them as soon as I know.

Perhaps power in its purest form brings out the worst that’s in us.

A change of leader in other lands oft comes with blood and vengeance.

But here our bloodlust is replaced with a deluge of tainted oratory.

In the hopes that voters will believe the latest, greatest story.

But in the end no blood is shed and a leader will emerge.

Perhaps by only a few votes or maybe with a surge,

For one candidate or the other who somehow rallied the greater vote.

But when the music stops there is no final note.

For the campaigns for the next round are already in motion,

But in those intervening years people pray that for our nation—

That those who are elected to govern not become addicted,

To mainlining power for surely they will be convicted.

Not of crimes we find in law books or even regulations,

But of putting self before the welfare of this great and glorious nation.

For it is the Grand Experiment and it has survived beyond expectations,

But if we revived true statesmanship, we would have a genuine celebration.

For we have pointed fingers at each other for too many decades now,

It’s time to set aside all selfishness and to our God we bow.

And be the land of liberty and justice for the whole world to see,

And get back to working together from sea to shining sea.

Now is the time for Congress to reclaim its authority to declare war

Qaddafi surely ranks among the worst leaders of the past fifty years.

Most people believe that Libya would be better off without him.

Almost a quarter century ago I was aboard the U.S.S. Saipan as part of a sizeable naval force that crossed the so called Line of Death that Qaddafi had supposedly drawn in the Gulf of Sidra.   He did nothing.  Had he done anything: we would have responded.   I would have believed it to be a just cause and would have gladly led Marines to welcome this yahoo to the infernal regions

Today, Qaddafi is still an affront to leadership but one which the international community has somehow accepted as a perennial institution in Libya.

The world would be better off without Qaddafi. 

I can’t believe we attacked Libya.  That’s not quite true.  I don’t want to believe that we attacked Libya.

Why?   I thought the guy was a total jerk and the world would be better off without him.

True, but we are worse off for doing this.  In what has gone virtually unnoticed by the American people, the President of the United States engaged United States military forces as if he were throwing a dollar ante into a Friday night poker game.

Where has our Constitution gone?

Where has the compromised constitution—better known as the War Powers Act—gone?

Can the President truly treat the Congress of the United States as an ancient Privy Council, consulting as he deems appropriate?

From Truman to Obama the authority to declare war has been on a pilgrimage from Congress to the President without the courtesy of swinging by the age old friend known as the Constitutional Amendment.

But what about the War Powers Act?

It was doomed in its genesis.  For an ordinary law to restrain a president when the Supreme Law of the Land has been ignored for over half a century is but a political placebo taken so we do not have to take our real medicine.

The authority to declare war resides in the Congress because that body of selfless public servants, self-serving knuckleheads, doctors, lawyers, saints, sinners, and everything in between is most representative of the will of the people. 

Our Founding Fathers knew that war is something not to be taken lightly.  It was not to be avoided at all costs, but it was not to be entered into without the will of the people who trusted their authority to those elected to represent them.

Does Qaddafi need to hit the road?  I can think of as many reasons to say yes as there are spellings of Kaddafi. 

Does the use of our nation’s military forces for war fighting purposes need to be preceded by a declaration of war?   Yes!

If we truly want to preserve the American way of life for ourselves and our posterity, we need Congress to man-up and reclaim the authority to declare war once again.  That means that they must be willing to impeach and convict any president who would defy the Constitution of the United States from this point forward.

It’s time for Congress to step up to this ultimate leadership task.

Conspiracy Theory

It is the 3rd of November 2010 and I don’t know anyone who voted for Obama in 2008.  Seriously, I don’t know a single person who voted for him.  When I think back on it, I don’t know anyone that voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 or 1996 either.  I know some people who voted for him for governor, but not for president.

Put aside your partisan politics for a moment and consider this.  Most people in the United States do not remember who they voted for in the last Presidential Election.  I don't remember and I suspect that you don't either.  So you think I'm nuts do you?  Well that may be true, but I'm certain of my facts.

 I also have it on good authority that fewer than 600 people voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, and even with his mandate in 1996, there were fewer than 538 that voted for him that year.  I'm not getting these figures from some straw poll I conducted in downtown Burns Flat, America--though that is both the cultural and political center of this great republic (OK, that last part is only opinion, but the rest of this article is fact).  Being the only Republican from a family of Democrats, I often am not taken seriously when I tell them that I have never met anyone that voted for Clinton.  Still don't believe me?  So you want answers?  You want the truth?  You can't handle the truth.  In 1992, only 370 people voted for Clinton.  In 1996, only 379 people voted for him, but sure enough that's him in the oval office. 

 Want to know more?  The real election for president didn't occur until December in 1992 and in 1996.  We have narrowed it down to 538 people that could have voted for Clinton in 1996--and you thought we conducted elections by secret ballot.  Actually, the people that elected our current president even signed their names to their ballot and your government knows who they are.    You say that 538 number sounds familiar, but you can't quite place it.  It's got nothing to do with the grassy knoll or the number of times that your Microsoft operated computer shuts down each day due to an illegal operation.  That's right it's the total number of Senators and Representatives in the United States Congress, but they don't elect the president.  In fact, they are not even permitted to vote for the president.   So is this coincidence or conspiracy? 

 Actually, it's neither.  It's Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America that provides for the election of a United States President.  "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."  Yes our president is elected by people we call electors.  When you vote in a presidential election, you are voting for electors.  We call this group of people the Electoral College.  This is a special year in our country's constitutional process.  We get to experience both a census and a presidential election.  By mid September, when your television is inundated with political commercials and commentaries, you'll probably say "enough with the experience."  But with Independence Day still on our minds, this might just be a good time to find a copy of our Constitution and refresh our memories on how we elect a president.

 I'll close with a special warning to my Republican brethren.  The fox is in the henhouse.  Guess who is in charge of counting the votes for the 2000 Presidential Election?  You guessed it--Al Gore.  That Buddhist Temple stuff is small potatoes compared to this.  Speaking of potatoes, wasn't it Dan Quale that was in charge of counting the votes for president in 1992?  I knew we should have followed up after that spelling thing…

This was a piece first published in conjunction with the 2000 election.  I occasionally resurrect it during November.