Roots

This is a pretty big subject we are taking on here, maybe too big for a blog. Even so, we can use blogging to at least bring out some facts, air some points of view, and, above all, discuss the issues.

I started this series of posts because I am tired of hearing Americans calling each other names.

What I hope to accomplish, as always, is to clarify. Knowledge is power. Knowledge and clarity of purpose will defeat those who would manipulate you.

At first, I thought my premise for these posts was simply that our federal government has gotten too big and too intrusive, far beyond what the writers of our constitution intended or envisioned it to be, and, as a result, many important things today are not being taken care of effectively. After only two posts, I realize already that simply pointing out the bigness and resulting unresponsiveness to the needs of the people, is not going to accomplish much. Many people already agree with me that government is too big and too unresponsive.

So, instead, I think it might be more productive for us to try and formulate a consensus of what we would want our federal government to become, and what issues we would like to see addressed, and come up with ways for these problems to be effectively addressed. Along the way, I hope we can also begin to drop the labels.

Where to begin? Since this is going to take awhile, why not begin at the beginning and lay the proper foundation? Starting at the beginning may be especially useful because I am blessed with several readers who are not Americans, who are not necessarily completely familiar with our origins and our government, but whom I hope to still involve in this discussion. In a larger sense, this discussion affects non-Americans very much indeed. So, by starting at the beginning, I can maybe bring some of them along with me if I can keep their interest. I should also mention that if one's goal is truly clarity, it is always a good idea to start at the beginning anyway.

I intend to sprinkle in posts on other subjects to keep the interest of readers who may not be interested so much in the ways and perceived sins of our federal government.

Before we begin at the beginning, though, how many of you can tell what form of government we have in the USA?

1. A monarchy

2. A dictatorship

3. A democracy

4. Something else

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On to the beginning. The real beginning might be Athens, Greece, a long time ago. It might even be farther back in time than that. I don't want to go quite that far back though. How about we start with a simple summary of where the country called the United States of America came from, and work our way up to the point where we got ourselves something called a federal government? Feral government. Whatever.

Europeans began coming to this part of the world a long time ago. The Spanish came in 1492, but even before that the Vikings came. The British began coming in the late 16th century, and the first permanent British settlement, at Jamestown, was in 1607 if memory serves. There was an earlier British settlement, also in Virginia, that failed. The Dutch came only a few years later, 1612 I think, concentrating only in what is now the city of New York and up the Hudson to Albany. Feel free to correct me.

This land when all these various Europeans came was hardly uninhabited, so none of them "discovered" the Americas. They did discover the new lands for the Europeans, though, and soon there were plenty of Europeans camped out in the Americas.

The British settled on what is now the East Coast of the country now called the USA, primarily between present-day Massachusetts and Georgia at first.

The various British colonies were established by companies or men who had royal charters or investors to explore and settle the new lands, with the usual intent being to prosper the land for the benefit of the British crown or the company's investors. In the end, there were 13 of these British colonies.

Again, feel free to make corrections to this overview, since I am doing it from memory and there may be errors.

In a sense, even before our revolution against the British crown, we have always had a sort of federal government. Back then the "federal government" was simply the British government, and our ancestors' fortunes ebbed and flowed pretty much at the whims of the British Parliament.

The actual country called the United States of America didn't come about until after our ancestors fought a successful revolution against the government of Great Britain.

It is important to remember that up until that revolution, the 13 colonies were very much separate entities. Travel between them was allowed and common, but they each had their own legislatures and their values and were not necessarily all that compatible either. In those days of few and poor roads, and travel by horse, it was serious business to travel even from Boston to New York - and travel to the Carolinas or Georgia was a major event. This was long before the railroads, of course.

I bring these points out only to  remind you that the colonies at that time were not exactly united entities with overall common purposes. A Virginian was very much a Virginian. A New Yorker was very much a New Yorker. The life of a backwoods planter in South Carolina was almost as foreign to the life of a Massachusetts lawyer as the man in the moon.

It is especially important for you Europeans and Africans reading this to take note of this individualism of the several colonies, and the states that subsequently evolved from them. It would be a huge mistake for you to think of our states in the same general manner as you think of your counties.

The colonies, later states, were almost more akin to separate countries than merely united geographical subdivisions of one big happy country: no such big happy country existed yet. To a certain extent, you would be wise to think of even the present-day states as being very separate in many ways. You will understand the inner workings of the current USA better if you keep that in your mind.

When the rotating inattentions and oppressions of the British Parliament, and other reasons, finally brought on a revolution, those very different colonies united against their common enemy and each contributed men and materials to a common army (although they often remained colonial militias, as do many present-day U.S. Army units remain state militas, or "guards.")

This unification for a common cause was unnatural for the separate colonies. It was the revolution that gave them their first taste of some sort of larger unity, although even after the revolution they still didn't quite think of themselves as part of a larger country. This feeling of separateness, or independence, and distrust of an outside government would continue through even the first attempt at a national government: quite frankly, the first attempt at a central government failed.

Tomorrow: the USA's first federal government.

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Answer to question about the form of government the USA has:

4. Something else.

The United States of America is a republic. A republic is a state whose power derives from the people rather than from a ruler. This, as opposed to a (true) monarchy or dictatorship where the power is at the top and the people at the bottom are the subjects.

Labels, continued

Glancing at the fuel gauge as I was driving today reminded me again of the labels we Americans have been pasting on each other the last few years. Once again we have Left and Right, don't we?

The Left is "empty" - empty old ideas and empty promises that never quite come to pass. And the Right is "full" - full of hot air and full of hot-shot plans for a better America that also never seem to materialize.

The main thing that occurred to me, though, was how much we need to get away from labels altogether. We need to stop trying to marginalize our fellow Americans, stop demonizing each other. We have very different ideas on how to proceed, but we still have a common goal, I think.

If we are going to use a Left and Right "fuel gauge", let's change the labels on it at least. On the left is "Big Government", say; and on the right is "Personal Freedom", say. And the closer our lives get to "Big Government", the less "Personal Freedom" we have.

It is always a trade-off. Having no government at all doesn't work. Libertarians are dreamers who omit the everyday need for all societies to have an adequate authority, a government. Pure "Personal Freedom" doesn't exist unless you are alone on the planet. Pure "Personal Freedom" hasn't existed in America since the days of the westward expansion, where a man could  go up into the mountains and just lose himself, totally alone with no other human contact. Such a man could do whatever he pleased. And with that pure "Personal Freedom" came life or death consequences. No society, no government, no help if you needed it.

On the other hand, we have come too far toward the other direction in our present time, in my opinion. We have come very close to womb-to-tomb reliance on big government, and have given up much in the way of personal freedoms along the way.

I am not necessarily lamenting the loss of certain of these freedoms: I don't think I miss being able to strap on a gun like they did in the Old West, for example. Sometimes I do long to be able to open a business without having to get the government's permission and pay to be licensed and inspected. Here I started to say that licenses and inspections are all for the better and that there is less Snake Oil in the marketplace than in my great-grandfather's time. But that's not really so.

Much of this growth in government is unavoidable. There are Americans alive today who remember when the population of our country was 150 million people. It is double that size today. Twice as many houses. More than twice as many cars honking at each other. So, by virtue of us being twice as large, we have had to cut down on the personal freedoms - just to get along with one another. More or less.

It has gone too far though. A couple of years ago, I replaced the sidewalk that runs in front of my house. I had to go down to the city and get a permit to do this, of course. Or at least the contractor had to do it. In the process, I found that the federal government was involved in my little project too. See... the new sidewalk had to be flat where both driveways cross it to enter my property. Not being able to make the sidewalk slant at the entrances means my car scrapes on the bottom when I drive up into my driveway now, since I live on a little hill and the driveways are steep. There was no problem before when the sidewalk was slanted starting at the road.

Why did the federal government require that I construct it perfectly flat? The city didn't care. The county didn't care. The state didn't care. Well, the federal government some years back passed a law, a very well-meaning law I might add, called the Americans With Disabilities Act. This created many things, such as requirements for ramps instead of stairs, and a certain number of handicapped parking spots in parking lots, and automatic doors, and wide elevators and special bathroom stalls and on and on and on. It lead to city buses having ramps to lift wheelchairs into the bus through a special door, and many more things. America has always been concerned with trying to make each citizen equal with other citizens as much as possible, so I'm not complaining. But what does this have to do with the sidewalk I put in front of my house?

Well, it had to be flat so that all the wheelchair traffic that passes in front of my house will not lean to the side when they cross my driveways. You may be wondering how many wheelchairs have passed in front of my house in the last 50 years. None. And you don't see any wheelchairs downtown using the little ramps that have replaced curbs on each intersection either. Why should they? - all they have to do is make a telephone call and a special van with a ramp comes and picks them up and takes them where they need to go. But if they DID want to cruise the downtown sidewalks (or any other sidewalk in town) they won't be bothered by curbs. And they won't tilt slightly to one side if they ever decide cross my driveways, either.

Of course, when the Feds pass these laws, they seldom fund them. And I guarantee the Feds did not help pay the extra cost for re-engineering my sidewalk. I guarantee the state, county and city did not help either, although the latter will charge me extra for the special inspection and Federal ADA certification. So who does that leave to pay? Hmmmm.

This is just a personal example I can give you of the ridiculous intrusions the federal government has made into the daily lives of citizens. The U.S. Constitution, in which the states gave the federal government certain powers, says, in my reading, that the federal government is established to do two things: regulate interstate commerce and provide for the national defense. Oh! How far they have stretched the former to include my humble sidewalk!

To be continued. I assure you.

Labels

I was thinking today about politics. I don't like to think about politics. Politics makes my head hurt and my mood get nasty.

I divide politics into two parts: those who swim in the cesspool (politicians) and those who encourage the swimmers.

Having long ago given up on the fantasy that any politician is going to to anything good for me personally (or do anything other than further his own position in the cesspool, for that matter) I no longer am disappointed when they do their stupid little things, or when they slowly become more and more unresponsive to the people who elected them to that giant cess pool.

Occasionally, however, when I read the news for example, politics creeps into my thoughts for a few seconds until I can reach the faucet and turn off the stream of effluent. Such a time was this morning.

It was the same old thing. Each side was calling the other side names and telling each other what losers they were and bragging how their side had a master plan to help the poor American people. You know, the usual toilet flush that happens when two groups of ignorant people open their mouths.

Here are some of the labels they spewed forth. Nothing new.

Liberals

Conservatives

Far Left

Far Right

Progressive

Religious Right

Left Wing Loons

Bleeding Hearts

Democrats

Republicans

Independents

One-Worlders

Isolationists

Now, I have a hard time identifying with either side, since I love my country and care about the people who live in it. It is also hard for me because I am cursed with having a brain.

I have read long ago, and have recently had it confirmed, that the more people claim to have the real "truth", the more they have everything all neatly figured out, the greater the likelyhood is that they are wrong. Wrong in thinking that they have truth, and wrong about knowing how things really are in this world.

Since I was a very young man, just out of my teenaged years of infinite wisdom, I have concluded that I don't really know that much at all about how things are. So, as far as politics are concerned, I soon became an observer rather than an active participant.

Because I sit just to the left of center on the political spectrum, both sides naturally think I am opposite to them. Being in the center, I am so far to the right of the Lefties that I must seem like a speck on the horizon to them. The same is true for the wild-eyed fanatics on the Right. To them, I am so far to the left I am just another loon who doesn't get it.

That seems to be the key here: people who are different than you, Right or Left, just don't get it. You know how things should be. Your values are right and the other side's values are wrong. And most importantly, your thoughts are obviously correct and the other side's values are obviously wrong and deluded. Smug you both are. You have it all figured out. Well, good for you. Now all you have to do is go back to name-calling and marginalizing the views of non-believers, and thinking up new names to call each other. New slogans like

Tax cuts for the rich

Bush lied about Iraq

Liberals hate America

A contract on America

We won: just get over it

Puke puke puke puke puke puke.

In America, meanwhile, on the streets, the poor get poorer and the rich get poorer and the dream is fading terribly from being walked on by both politicians and their enablers.

I want to try and step on some toes and hurt some feelings with my next few posts, if at all possible. Max has returned to the back porch and has put his feet up on the railing and is ready to spew forth some old cowboy American philosophy that has long gone out of fashion. Your personal oxen are about to get gored. He apologizes for the coming carnage in advance.

I am beginning to think it simply is not possible for me to make a short post. I try. Honest to god, I try. Forgive me Elvira.